MacArthur was a truly great general. Like the other flamboyantly egotistical general, George Patton, he understood that a good general maximizes the enemy’s losses, minimizes his own losses, wins the war decisively, and gets his soldiers home.
Many conservatives respect Harry Truman. I do not. He helped create the modern political war by preventing MacArthur and others from doing what they were trained to do: win and go home.
Goldwater was a Truman admirer; Nixon, a Wilson admirer; Reagan, a Coolidge admirer; Obama, an Obama admirer.
Wonder if a President Dewey would have let MacArthur win. Probably not