MacArthur was never caught flat footed.
If you are referring to his air force being attacked in the Philippines, read the whole story and you realize that he was going to extraordinary lengths to keep his planes in the air.
Absolutely astounding that the Japanese came in at the exact moment when he was forced to bring them down for refueling.
He wanted the Chinese to attack and wanted to use nuclear weapons to wipe them and Chairman Mao out. If we had done so there would be not Chinese Commies now.
I hope you are not referring to his being abandoned in the Philippines.
MacArthur’s landing at Inchon may have been the greatest success ever, especially since every other general opposed it.
He wasn’t prepared for the Japs on Luzon.
He wasn’t prepared for the Korean invasion in 1950.
He wasn’t prepared for the Chinese infiltration and attack in 1950.
Caught flatfooted 3 times.
He did catch the commies flatfooted at Inchon.
I’ve always felt if Truman had let MacArthur loose in Korea, there would never have been a Vietnam.But then the little Hat Merchant knew more about winning wars than MacArthur.....or so he thought! How many American lives have been lost because of Truman’s false pride?
But when he prevailed over Nimitz and got FDR to agree to retake the Philippines rather than bypassing them as the navy wanted, he threw away tens of thousands of American lives.
Just so he could walk up that goddamned beach and preen about his "return" in front of the newsreel cameras.
Full disclosure - my uncle left an arm on Luzon, February 1945.
In Korea, MacArthur was mostly responsible for the utter CATASTROPHE that befell the 8th Army, particularly the near destruction of the 2nd Infantry Division at Kunu-Ri, and the annihillation of Task Force McLean/Faith east of the Chosen Resovoir, as well as the 80 mile withdrawal of X Corp. He utterly ignored the solid intelligence of the build-up of NINE CCF Armies consisting of 300,000 men, who had crossed the Yalu River, routed the ROK 6th and 8th Divisions, cut the US 8th Cavalry Regiment to pieces at Unsan, roughed up the 5th Cav, forced the 24th Division to break off an attack, and mauled the Brit Commonwealth Brigade.
This was largely due to his ego, and a single minded myopic focus on advancing to the Yalu at the expense of prudent military caution. He was a great commander, but some of his personality quirks resulted in near disaster on many occasions.