We sure don't make presidents like we used toTruman during an interview in the 60's:
"I fired him because he wouldn’t respect the authority of the President. I didn’t fire him because he was a dumb son of a bitch, although he was, but that’s not against the laws for generals. If it was, half to three-quarters of them would be in jail."
I mean, the defense of the Phillipines in 1941 and the defense of South Korea in the winter of 1950-51 were essentially that. They weren't nearly as important as Stalingrad on a strategic level, but they were just as difficult on a tactical level. And MacArthur managed to bungle them both brilliantly.In the end, I think the only way to truly know the ability of a general is to see how they perform when "all the chips are down" and the fate of their nation is at stake. Zhukov's defensive and later offensive battles in 1941-43 and Manstein who was a key commander in the invasion of Soviet Union and then salvaged the German front after Stalingrad (1942-43) each showed their excellence in these situations. Fortunately, the US has never faced an "all the chips are down" situation in modern times.
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