Roger Thompson
Even the most casual students of military history know that General Douglas MacArthur was fired for insubordination during the Korean War, and his reputation was well-established before that war. According to the new book Generals and Admirals, Criminals and Crooks: Dishonorable Leadership in the U.S. Military by Jeffrey J. Matthews: “At the time of MacArthur’s Korean appointment, some observers registered prescient misgivings. New York Times columnist James Reston worried about the risks of a broader war in Asia because of the general’s legendary hubris and penchant for autonomous action. Reston described MacArthur as ‘a sovereign power in his own right, with stubborn confidence in his own judgment’ and as a commander with an ‘old habit of doing things in his own way without too much concern about waiting for orders from Washington.’” (p. 94)
I think most people would agree with that assessment of MacArthur as a field commander, but I am going to go out on a limb and suggest that perhaps he, in fact, appreciated the advice of experts who did not always agree with him. If we are to believe Rear-Admiral Jeffry V. Brock’s autobiography, for example, MacArthur may have been very misinformed about North Korea’s geography and naval capabilities from the get-go. Brock was in charge of the Canadian naval forces in Korea, and he met with the general to discuss the role of navies in dealing with North Korea’s aggression against South Korea and the UN forces stationed there. At the beginning of their meeting, MacArthur wanted Brock to come up with a plan to counter what he himself conceived as the North Korean submarine threat in the Yellow Sea.
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