A fine example of Gen. McArthur’s arrogance. He didn’t listen to his Intell people.
My father-in-law, a veteran of Pearl Harbor, Tinian, Saipan, Eniwetok and Iwo Jima, hated McArthur with a passion. Said that McArthur needlessly sacrificed too many American lives with his “take all islands” strategy instead of island-avoidance when the Japanese were trapped there and posed no threat to our forces.
After reading the battle reports and casualties suffered in some of these operations, I agreed with him 100%.
My late father-in-law rose in the Army ranks and became one of the most important leaders in our counter-intelligence operations against the Soviet Bloc during the Cold War.
He knew the value of good intelligence and not underestimating the enemy. McArthur wouldn’t have listened to him because of his inflated ego and media built-up image.
There's a bit of irony there, given that Nimitz was in charge of those campaigns, whereas MacArthur was charged with operations in the South Pacific, which cost far fewer casualties. Liberal historians have always hated MacArthur with a passion, because he dared stand up to Truman.
It was Truman who made the Korean War much higher casualty than it could have been. By allowing US aircraft to attack both sides of the Yalu River, he might have been able to starve Chinese forces on the Korean peninsula of supplies, leading to their wholesale defeat and capture. Instead, he directed pilots to attack only units on the Korean side of the border, meaning anti-aircraft units on the Chinese side were free to fire at American warplanes trying to to interdict Chinese supply convoys. Just how could American fighters and bombers stop supply convoys in an era of unguided bombs and gun systems while the enemy got free shots at them? The answer is they never did, which is why the PVA went on to the 38th parallel and could not be dislodged.
Truman was an overrated incompetent who got encomiums for nothing. He lost China. He lost North Korea. But he won a place in the history books for being this great leader. Just goes to show you can't trust the opinions of historians.