MacArthur 'Retired' 1942

In early 1942,MacArthur supposedly threatened to retire once more, cross over to Bataan, and enlist as a 'common soldier' rather than leave the Phillipines. (Personally, I wish FDR could have replied: "Speaking on behalf of all our fellow citizens, Douglas, Eleanor and I wish you 'Good luck and God speed'!").

But, if Roosevelt had felt he could weather the political storm, and had ordered MacArthur back to the US from Australia to retire or to command a recruiting district near Milwaukee, what would have been the consequences?

Who would have been sent to Australia as the commander of US forces in the SW Pacific?

Stilwell?
Eichelberger?
Mark Clark?

Would the Central Pacific (under Nimitz) have become the dominant theater?

Would US forces have returned to the Phillipines in 1944? Or would the Central Pacific strategy have allowed more concentration of force, possibly allowing a less costly invasion of Iwo JIma in the fall of 1944 and of Okinawa in early 1945?

Would MacArthur have been a natural candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 1944?

Who would have been the Commander of US Forces in post war Japan?

Who would have commanded US Forces when North Korea invaded South Korea? Would that commander avoided the disastrous push to the Yalu in the fall of 1950?

Lot's of 'branches and sequels', right?
 

Commissar

Banned
Only good can come from this. Without MacArthur, South West Pacific is entirely Australia's show and there is no push for the Phillipines which means in turn that Nimitz gets the Central Pacific to himself.

Could see Iwo Jima invaded a year earlier when it was lightly defended by 3,000 men, followed Okinawa and Ie Shima, with Tsushima possibly being next to completely choke off Japan.
 
Only good can come from this. Without MacArthur, South West Pacific is entirely Australia's show and there is no push for the Phillipines which means in turn that Nimitz gets the Central Pacific to himself.

Could see Iwo Jima invaded a year earlier when it was lightly defended by 3,000 men, followed Okinawa and Ie Shima, with Tsushima possibly being next to completely choke off Japan.

Talking about War Plan Orange, then? Well, the Philippines were pretty tempting in there, they never quite got past the idea of recapturing at least Luzon or Leyte (or both) at some point. They've got good harbors...
 

Commissar

Banned
Talking about War Plan Orange, then? Well, the Philippines were pretty tempting in there, they never quite got past the idea of recapturing at least Luzon or Leyte (or both) at some point. They've got good harbors...

But Iwo and Okinawa are closer to Japan and will choke Japan off from supplies.
 
Talking about War Plan Orange, then?


Not exactly. It's a matter of emphasis.

Orange in all it's iterations was focused on the Philippines. The US would advance across the central Pacific to protect, reinforce, and/or liberate the Philippines first and the defeat Japan would be a result of that advance.

The Central Pacific campaign, which could be a plausible result this "MacArthur Retired" proposal, is focused on defeating Japan first with the protection, reinforcement, and/or liberation of the Philippines being a result that defeat.

It's somewhat akin to the "On to Richmond" or "Army of North Virginia" dichotomy in the Civil War. Too many people fixated on taking Richmond rather than destroying the ANV while the war winning strategy was the exact opposite with the Union threatening Richmond in order to fix the ANV where and when it could then be destroyed.

As Commissar correctly points out, the object of the Central Pacific campaign is to blockade a Japan nearly wholly dependent on maritime traffic and, with the threat of that blockade, force Japan's armed forces to fight when and where the US chooses so they could be destroyed.

In the case of War Plan Orange and in a strategic sense, the US would be advancing towards fixed geographical goal which Japan could then "flank" where and when it chose. A Central Pacific campaign neatly flips that strategic situation on it's head. Japan is now saddled with several fixed geographical goals, namely defending territories it has seized and the supply lines to those territories, that the US can now "flank" where and when it chooses.

As I wrote earlier, it's a matter of emphasis, but an important matter of emphasis.
 
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