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MacArthur's Undercover War: Spies, Saboteurs, Guerrillas, and Secret Missions

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"MacArthur's Undercover War" has all the makings of a great modern World War II book: seldom heard-of commando raids in the Pacific, daring esponiage, and a larger-than-life character in the famous and controversial Douglas MacArthur. Yet a few obvious errors and a lack of solid citations has left me to question a great deal of material in this book (as another reviewer warned.)

First off, for readers eager to dive into the MacArthur controversy, this book will be a disappointment. Breuer has nothing but praise for MacArthur although he does acknowledge the commander's prima donna demeanor. Indeed, you will not see in this book a citation of the "Dugout Doug" poem that was undoubtedly uttered by so many GIs on Corregidor and Bataan in 1942.

One error (or maybe a slip of the author's organization) in the book nearly caused my to shelve it without completing the work. While discussing the early battles between Japanese-American forces, the author places the battle of Midway after the struggle on Guadalcanal! In reality, the great turning point at Midway occured in the summer of 1942, while the Guadalcanal battle wrapped up a year later in 1943. I was quite stunned upon reading Breuer's account of Midway, and I looked over the pages again to make certain that I did not skip any dates that the author inserted in the text. There was none. In the chapter titled "The Great Manila Bay Silver Heist," the last year mentioned before Breuer explains Midway is 1943. Then Breuer continues onward to mention how the battle of Midway opened on June 7 without mentioning the year, seemingly implying to any reader that he is still discussing 1943.

In another error I noticed, Breuer describes the B-29 "Flying Fortress." This again is misleading, since the B-17 was the official "Flying Fortress," while the mammoth B-29 was the "Super Fortress." Such errors would certainly force any knowledgeable reader to question an author's credibility.

The good news is that "MacArthur's Undercover War" is an entertaining book; a great book for anyone looking for a "shoot 'em up" tale that may or may not be fiction. For educational purposes, however, readers should look elsewhere.

This book has so many factual inaccuracies it is hard to know where to start. Maybe in the Introduction, where the author states that one of his heroes, John Bulkeley, was "American history's most highly decorated warrior." Gee, how about Audie Murphy who was the most decorated soldier in World War II or Marine Major Smedley Butler who was the only man ever to win two Medals of Honor (Bulkeley only won one). Also, author Breuer uses the term "Congressional Medal of Honor" -- a medal that does not exist -- it is simply the "Medal of Honor." An historian should know that.

Author Breuer appears to be in awe of General MacArthur -- a man who apparently never made mistakes (such as not moving food supplies to Bataan in time for his army to be able to effectively resist the Japanese). Also high in the author's estimation is Charles Willoughby, a truly bizarre and Byzantine character born Karl Weidenback in Germany, and upon whom the author seems to rely for many of his "facts" and stories. Unfortunately Willoughby was not shrewd, incisive and skilled as the author characterizes him, but demanding, arrogant, inept, paranoid, inflexible and lacking in judgment. Willoughby's reports and narratives of events during the war have been proven to be unreliable, highly slanted to put MacArthur in the best possible light, and to place himself in an omniscient, heroic role. The truth is much different.

As an example of the author's endemic errors, consider his treatment of Wendell Fertig, apparently based almost solely on Willoughby's writings which are those of a man who hated Fertig with a passion as a dangerous historical figure to the glorification of MacArthur and himself. The author describes Fertig as a "civilian engineer who was considered to be as brilliant as he was eccentric" (page 48), completely missing that Fertig was a Lt. Colonel in the Army Corps of Engineers who had been called to duty from the Reserves when the Japanese invaded the Philippines. Nor was he "eccentric" in any respect except to refuse to surrender in May, 1942, after having escaped from Corrigidor to Mindanao. Fertig built the MOST SUCCESSFUL GUERRILLA MOVEMENT IN AMERICAN HISTORY on Mindanao -- for over a year totally unsupported by the great men Willoughby and MacArthur, and by his presence and success threatened MacArthur's position as savior of the Philippine people.

In taking over command of the guerrilla bands on Mindanao in September, 1942, Fertig was addressed as "General" by a mestizo leader Luis Morgan and Morgan's lieutenant Bill Tait, and the people on Mindanao rallied to Fertig in that capacity. Morgan said later, knowing that Fertig was just a Lt Colonel, "I made him a Brigadier General", and once made, that rank could not be taken back. Morgan himself took on the rank of Colonel shortly thereafter. In October, 1942, Fertig issued his first general orders "By order of the commanding general, Wendell W. Fertig, Brigadier General, USA, Commanding."

Willoughby/MacArthur did not communicate with Fertig until March, 1943, and then only to to chastize him, changing his branch from the Corps of Engineers to the Infantry and to say, "No officer of rank of general will be designated..." Obviously Willoughby/MacArthur did not understand the Asian concept of "face" and were only interested in bringing what Willoughby perceived as a rouge officer into line.

The author's narrative of MacArthur's sending of silver oak leaves to Fertig later in 1943 is sheer fictional fantasy along with the supposed conversation between Chick Parsons and Fertig. Parsons actually told Fertig that Willoughby had blown up over the brigadier general rank, and he was there to see if Fertig was competent to command. Supposedly Willoughby had said that Fertig couldn't command men he didn't see. Of course, that was all garbage, since no general commands only men he can see. At any rate, Fertig ultimately commanded over 35,000 men on Mindanao, not counting civilian supply and supports, a number of small ships and some aircraft, in effect a full army corps that should have been commanded by a Lieutenant General plus performing the duties of a military governor. However, Fertig was so dangerous as a potential competitor to MacArthur for the Filipinos' affections, he was never promoted at any time or even upon retirement. He retired after the war at the same rank as in December, 1941 in the US Army Reserves -- Lt. Colonel. All this would have made a wonderful story, but the author either didn't know it or knew that it detracted from the luster of MacArthur/Willoughby.

From this one example and others I could recount (such as Willoughby's consistent under-estimating of Japanese troop strengths) one can easily see that the author's narrative cannot be taken as history and is therefore of little value. Some of his stories based on personal conservations and memoirs are fascinating, but are not to be taken literally until backed up with adequate sources and thorough scholarship. Unfortunately such sources and thorough scholarship are missing in this book.

Put this work on the shelf with fiction until the author performs the necessary research to validate his stories and tones down the uncritical hero worship so evident on page after page.

This book provides a good familiarization with a part of history that is often over-looked. There are other books that provide a more in-depth study of a single element of the Pacific war like the coastwatchers,or the Phillipino guerrillas,or the American Nisei but this book covers the various groups working to defeat the Japanese in a single interesting volume.

This book's title is a bit of a misnomer. None of the events here are really *MacArthur's* undercover war. Instead, the book is full of stories of undercover missions in the region that happened to be MacArthur's theater of operations. There's no evidence that MacArthur had any particular approach to undercover operations or, in all but one case, even knew about the activities discussed in this book.

The book consists of a bunch of war stories, mostly gleaned by interviewing old veterans of the conflict. The stories are generally interesting, so if you like war stories, you'll be content. But the author makes no attempt to tie them together into an overall narrative, or to bring out any particular themes.

The book reads like a bunch of interviews strung one after the other. I'm not surprised that people find factual errors, as the book does not seem to have been closely edited or fact-checked.

Breuer also writes in a naively heroic, dated style that may strike some people as odd. White-skinned people are foregrounded, and they carry almost all of the action; dark-skinned people are "natives" who "help" the white-skinned heroes but are mostly not autonomous actors. (There are some non-white US citizens, such as second-generation Japanese-Americans, who are grouped with the heroes, however.) "Natives" of places like New Guinea or Borneo don't speak languages, they speak "dialects." Breuer's use of language like this isn't meant to be offensive, as he's entirely naive - - but we don't talk like this any more, and younger readers will probably notice the style. All you students out there, don't write like this!

The book is also naively anti-Japanese. Filipinos who side with the US are heroes, as are Indonesians who side with the Dutch and Australians; those who side with the Japanese are "traitors." Traitors to what or whom? To Indonesia? There are reasons why some Indonesians and Filipinos might have thought that Japan would treat them better than their previous colonial masters. They would have been wrong, I think, but even so I think that most of us have learned enough empathy to understand these mistaken choices a bit better.

A stronger editor would have helped Breuer avoid these issues of language and style in order to focus on the spy stories. More effort would have have produced a better book.

That said, the spy stories are good, so if that's what you want, that's what you'll get.

One last comment summarizes my reaction to the book The cover has the same picture of MacArthur twice, facing in opposite directions. What's the problem, couldn't the publisher find two different pictures of MacArthur? Let's work a little harder, people.

This book was a fun little read...Okay, it passed the time. It could be a little confusing if read in parts, as one's memory may not hold onto names so well and things skip around a little bit. I can't say how factual it was, but I certainly wouldn't ever use it as basis for a scholarly work. The little interjected tokens of personal stories are cute, if not citable. All it all, worth it if you're looking for something to read. A great post-graduation book (those lazy pre-job days go a long way to reminding former students that there is such a thing as recreational reading)