“Dougout” Dug was also a military genius. “Island hopping”, Inchon, And “Never fight a land war in Asia”(which was not paid any attention, and gave us 35,00 deaths in Korea, 55,000 in Viet Nam)
The island hopping campaign was largely planned by the theatre commanders and approved/modified by Mac. He made most of the decisions based on his promise to return to the Phillipines. He campaigned with FDR to go forward with a number of invasions that were strategically and tactically wrong. One was the battle for Peleliu, an insignificant piece of the Palau chain and a campaign which Nimitz and the Marine and Army planners urged everyone not to take on. As a result, most of the First Marine Division was wiped out along with heavy toll in the 7th Marines and units of the 81st Army Division. It tied up resources for many months that would have been better used against other more useful islands and which cost many thousands of deaths. In the end, the island was never used as a bomber staging area. The house-to-house fighting for Manilla and the entire campaign to “retake” the island was also all a part of his “Returning” glory and it too cost thousands of lives needlessly. “His” Inchon invasion was a Navy/Marine plan and he let the planners know that he got the credit if it worked and they got the credit if it failed. If the Japanese had taken him captive on Corrigedor the Pacific Campaign might have been better executed and shorter under a more competent, real leader.