DBWI What do you think of Generalissimo MacArthur?

[Gukpard]

Good morning, so, I'm from Brazil thus I don't know much about MacArthur, but since he's highly regarded by some american right wing figures I want to ask more about his dictatorship

I found these bottons online from 1948, he had been ruling the nation for a while by that point. Was him a bad dictator or something akin to Chiang Kai Check?

 

[kasumigenx]

Good morning, so, I'm from Brazil thus I don't know much about MacArthur, but since he's highly regarded by some american right wing figures I want to ask more about his dictatorship

I found these bottons online from 1948, he had been ruling the nation for a while by that point. Was him a bad dictator or something akin to Chiang Kai Check?

I remember, he nuked Beijing...allowing the KMT to regain control.

 

[West]

It was not a very good ten years...

 

[Gukpard]

I remember, he nuked Beijing...allowing the KMT to regain control.

Nukes were weaker in the 1940s, so the explosion didn't totalled the city, it hit mostly the industrial part

but I want to know about his government, do you have any family history from back then ?

 

[muskeg13]

My parents say, "At least he made the trains run on time."

<gleefully awaiting this thread to spontaneously combust

 

[Gukpard]

My parents say, "At least he made the trains run on time."

<gleefully awaiting this thread to spontaneously combust

The USA has the best train routes in the world thanks to him, a trivia is that he built the interstate train lines because he was frustrated with the US train lines and couldn't bear them after using the german ones

 

[Lalli]

MacArthur was really authotarian dictator who killed thousands of Americans on his anti-communist purges. And he too started WW3 (1950 - 1955). Altough Allies were victorious it ruined big part of Europe, Northern China and some parts of Middle East. Yes, it ended communist regime and helped Eastern Europe transfer to democracy. Germany was unified and it was allowed to annex Austria and regain Stettin and Kaliningrad which was re-named as Köiningsberg. Finland too declared war in 1952 and managed conquer pre-Winter War borders back.

Without tha<t war communists might are still in power in Eastern Europe and China.

 

[NoOneFamous]

I think he is a petty little man. He screwed up in the Philippines. He left a mess for General Wainwright who held on as long as he could, he even set up the early stages of USFIP. Nominated for the Medal of Honor by General Marshall, Mac managed to kill it before he became President. After Wainwright was freed, Mac forced him into exile. It was shameful that a national hero like Wainwright died in exile in Australia. That the Aussies gave him a state funeral shows their character. Then there was Brigadier General Fertig. Wainwright promoted him to Brigadier General (even though Mac disallowed it) and fought one of the most successful guerrilla campaigns in history. Mac was a petty little man to strip him of his rank and give him a dishonorable discharge. His "accident" in 1952? My guess is Mac had him killed.

 

[Simon Darkshade]

Say what you will about MacArthur, and you can say a lot, but he did have an influence upon some rather curious directions of naval construction; well, he had an influence on everything, really.

I’ve read some pieces that argue that it would have been better if he hadn’t made the USN cancel the Iowa class battleships in favour of more Alaskas, but the WW2, WW3 and WW4 record of the latter ships was outstanding enough to make it worthwhile. Good heavens, if there is a WW5, which looks increasingly likely with the policies of the Indian Dominate, the last batch could still see service!

The cultural influence of MacArthur can also not be underestimated. I shudder to think of a world where those niche musical styles of the late 40s and early 50s came out trumps over the likes of Lawrence Welk and the other classics.

 

[Clandango]

Closet communist, at least for Asians. He took too much from the old nobility of Japan and gave it to the Japanese, Koreans, and various other iffy fellows. Still, at least some of the land and property ended up in the right hand. The old Imperial palace and gardens in Tokyo was perfect for Disney’s California Adventure. Especially once they partially hollowed out Mount General Electric.

 

[delariva]

I know I'll be in the minority in saying it, but I think we are better off for MacArthur having led our nation. You can cite his faults on domestic policy which we are all painfully aware of, but there is no denying that 1944-1955, were in comparison to what came before and after, the most prosperous years that the United States has had since the 1920s. My grandfather really instilled this admiration in him for me, in all honesty, he was born just before the Red Riots and the MacArthur years in '42, and while he doesn't look fondly on growing up then, he has with time moved towards MacArthurism, and when you look at all these militias and how bad it is in some areas, I can't say I blame him. I can understand why Western Europeans have turned against him so strongly with time, but when you look at all that he accomplished and the vast progress he made, it's hard to say his administration left us worse off.

 

[Salvare7097]

The guy is a very much a controversial figure during his presidency approved a version of the Montana class that could go 35 kn. Those ships were incredibly useful and got the US thinking and lead to Combined battle group which evolved into the centralized battle group. Which is the concept that almost every modern Navy uses. For the Lehman that is a task force that has at a minimum a supercarrier, super dreadnought and a strategic submarine (Boomer) two heavy cruisers, four light cruisers a destroyer division and six attack submarines. A similar fleet composition is still used to this day. Do you see due to the automation in modern day ships the amount of people needed to crew ships is reduced by at least 2/3. We can take the presidents that came after MacArthur that made all this work by the way. he is however the guy that got it rolling. A lot of the United States is today is to thanks to President Nimitz and his successors. He fixed a lot of what MacArthur broke which is ironically what he did during WWII and we came out looking the better for it. What are the major affects of the MacArthur presidency was it caused Americans to treasure their democracy a lot more in and to adopt the so-called fortress isolationism.

 

[Saramello]

Good morning, so, I'm from Brazil thus I don't know much about MacArthur, but since he's highly regarded by some american right wing figures I want to ask more about his dictatorship

I found these bottons online from 1948, he had been ruling the nation for a while by that point. Was him a bad dictator or something akin to Chiang Kai Check?

McArthur was like Teddy Roosevelt, in that he spoke softly and carried a big stick. He differed in that he REALLY liked to use that stick.

He's a hypocrite for criticizing the Soviets for nuking Tehran during the First Iranian Occupation even though he started it. Against the advice of his General Staff he nuked the Chinese-Korean border to win the Korean War. In doing so he practically gave the Soviets a blank Cheque to do the same.

While he never mass-murdered dissidents in the streets like self-proclaimed Fascists, the cavalry charges, beatings, and rubber bullets to disperse the '49 protest was hardly the "gentle nudge" he attested to later.

 

[Salvare7097]

While he never mass-murdered dissidents in the streets like self-proclaimed Fascists, the cavalry charges, beatings, and rubber bullets to disperse the '49 protest was hardly the "gentle nudge" he attested to later.

If the groups that he had use those tactics on can existed nowadays they be classified as domestic terrorists. After all the KKK was very much into murdering those who disagreed with them their attempt on the Supreme Court however is what convince MacArthur that those tactics were necessary. Compare it to the protests in response and how they were dispersed. They were dispersed with police lines and teargas no physical violence with used against the protesters in that case. Not excusing him just putting into perspective.

He's a hypocrite for criticizing the Soviets for nuking Tehran during the First Iranian Occupation even though he started it. Against the advice of his General Staff he nuked the Chinese-Korean border to win the Korean War. In doing so he practically gave the Soviets a blank Cheque to do the same.

There’s a major difference between using a nuke on geography and using it for the “maintenance a good order“.

McArthur was like Teddy Roosevelt, in that he spoke softly and carried a big stick. He differed in that he REALLY liked to use that stick.

He really did expand the Navy like Teddy did. He also kept the Navy building Battleships and change the mission for them sure they were dedicated AAA and NGFS platforms. The reconfigured Iowa’s and Montana’s were very useful in Korea and Vietnam. He also ensured the army kept the CAS mission. he also fixed the economic slump that Truman created and never listened to the panatomic lunatics. I.e. that nukes were the end of all conventional war.

 

[The Gunslinger]

As far as Canada goes, after decades of inching away from Britain his endless wars and militarism definitely drove us back into Britain's arms. I know it's hard to believe now that Ottawa and London were at loggerheads quite often considering how in lock step they are in pretty much everything today. That attempted annexation of Newfoundland really riled everyone up I guess.

 

[Archaembald]

Though TBF to MacArthur, the Newfoundlanders were the one to request the annexation in the first place, much to Canada's and Britain's chagrin. Though the fact that he somehow managed to botched the negotiations so much that both Britain and Canada was insulted and resentful was on him.

 

[Mr. Magi]

Hard to say really. His two and a half terms basically shaped the last half century, and for each horrible decision I can think of (isolating the hell out of our country's former allies for a good 2 decades, actually using multiple nukes in an offensive), I can name a good one (the destruction of the Soviet Union, his revival of the railyard infrastructure). He was a powerhungry vainglorious idiot one minute, exploiting the expanded powers to the state that FDR gave him and effectively gerrymandering his victory during his second and third terms. But then he also would do something clever and insighftul the next, being pretty good at micromanaging and actually building nations due to his xenophilia, he's admired in former French Africa for a reason.

Given that we've directly had one World War under his belt, and that WW4 was kind of caused by his interactions with China, I'm leaning towards terrible. I don't blame him for being killed by a disgruntled Maoist outside of a KFC though; since he had a lot to answer for.

 

[Simon Darkshade]

As expected, a fairly mixed body of opinion.

However, we seem to be dancing around the elephant in the room:

What about the cannibalism scandal?

 

[Sam R.]

a blank Cheque

What about the cannibalism scandal?

Common-wealth shitposters really need to stop posting.

yours,
Sam R.

 

[Simon Darkshade]

I think deprecating the location of people avoids the main issue, as I referred to earlier:

MacArthur’s tendency to intervene in a lot of areas of technical policy did have some rather mixed consequences. One of these was manifested in the cannibalization of many of the stocks of military equipment in the aftermath of WW3, which seemed quite sensible and cost effective at the time. However, it did lead a lot of that surplus being, shall we say, less than useful when the alarum bells started ringing and WW4 was upon us, by popular demand, as if were.

Yes, I did use Harold Stassen’s garbled misnomer of the issue from that interview. Yes, I know it is a bit of a niche issue mainly taught up here in MA. But it is still worth examining. Would President John H. Eden have made the calls he did in the lead up to WW4 if he really had been able to back up his talk with a functioning big stick?