And he always: [1] Referred to himself in the third person,
[2] Never gave public recognition to any to of his subordinates resulting in a MacArthur success.
[3] Never took personal responsibility for any failures, blaming instead, the now named subordinates.
[4] Surrounded himself with toadying ‘Yes’ men on his staff [see, especially his G-2, and Ned Almond].
He also lobbied to deny Wainright the CMH, and wanted to have him court-martialed for surrendering against his [MacArthur’s] orders.
Exactly correct on all points. He, like McClellan were the perfumed princes of their times. Both were politically connected and both treated their subordinates and superiors in the same arrogant manner. Neither met a PR man they didn’t like.
Dugout Doug carefully built his mythology just like the Kennedy’s built their Camelot myth.
Some of MacArthur’s subordinates, such as Krueger and Kenney, were extremely competent commanders of their own right. But you have to be a history buff to know about them. “Lightning Joe” Collins was almost relegated to the same fate, but he avoided it by being transferred to the ETO where he became of our best Corps commanders.
Subordinates have written of his condensing the struggle down to him against the Jap. Media reports may use third person but when MacArthur would be walking back and forth in the room talking, it was he against the Jap.
[2] Never gave public recognition to any to of his subordinates resulting in a MacArthur success.
Who aside from historians and history enthusiasts can name subordinates of Patton, Montgomery, Bradley, etc?
[3] Never took personal responsibility for any failures, blaming instead, the now named subordinates.
Did Montgomery ever take responsibility for Market Garden? Did Patton ever take responsibility for Task Force Baum? Did Bradley ever take responsibility for the Battle of the Bulge? Perhaps they did. If so, I must have missed it in their memoirs.
This is one of the more bothersome things about MacArthur. I don't understand why he went through such efforts to block Wainwright's CMH. Ironically, if you read MacArthur's own CMH citation it looks like the only thing wrong with it is the name it is attributed to. It should read Wainwright instead of MacArthur. I actually wrote an entire paper on just that odd bit for one of my masters degree classes.