Customer Reviews

MacArthur's War : Korea and the Undoing of an American Hero

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2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

No other modern American military leader engenders such controversy and hotly-expressed differences in opinion than General Douglas MacArthur. Certainly, there can be no argument against the fact that his previous treatment by other authors such as William Manchester ("American Caesar") etc. does a much more comprehensive and objective service than does this book to anyone attempting to understand the man, his eccentricities, and his actions during the tenure of his fifty-year career as a virtual American military institution in the Orient. Yet, it should also be noted that this volume adds considerably to our understanding of MacArthur the man, the general, and the legend in an intriguing, unique, and somewhat different take on Macarthur, his character, vanity, conduct, and a blow-by-blow account of his prosecution of the Korean campaign.

At the outbreak of the Korean conflict MacArthur was preoccupied as the Governor-General of Japan with overseeing the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the defeated nation, and his first efforts to conduct the Korean campaign were through an attempt at long-distance management of the actions & ministrations of his field commanders. Of course, MacArthur couldn't stay out of the action long, & soon began actively interfering with command decisions from afar, and this led to a number of strains, breakdowns in communication, and military setbacks. The miscommunications and lack of clear and achievable military objective resulting from this situation soon turned into a both a political and military debacle, and according to Weintraub it was clear that MacArthur's fingerprints were all over the place in terms of poor planning, strategy, and tactics.

Moreover, given MacArthur's legendary self-absorption and his ego-driven association with Asian political potentates like national China's Chiang, his approach toward the military campaign in Korea often seemed less oriented to the stated and quite limited military goals of the Truman administration than it was an effort to achieve his own set of political objectives based on his own assessment of what the situation required, and these were possibly tied to his own aspirations for the 1952 Republican Presidential nomination, which he had reason to believe he could expect to come his way.

However, it should also be said that no one could lead a military action like MacArthur, and he was quite able, effective, and often brilliant in eventually pushing the Chinese back to the 38th Parallel. The problem was that he just would not yield to the chain of command, and through his campaign of sustained insubordination to President Truman forced his own recall and dismissal. Talk about being your own worst enemy!

In "MacArthur's War" author Weintraub treats us to a massively documented and carefully detailed yet quite readable and entirely entertaining view of the war in Korea. It is a blow-by-blow account of this, the bloodiest, fiercest, and most hotly contested military engagement since the Second World War. Told by way of the participants, and often in their own words, this is an engaging, entertaining, and scrupulously well-told history of a terrible conflict that cost 35,000 American lives and still, after almost fifty years, has over 6,000 American MIAs associated with it. This book should be read by anyone interested in military history, or with anyone who just loves a terrific story well told.

I am a fan of MacArthur. I am interested in his life. I am interested in his faults and his successes. If Inchon was his best, the rest of Korea was probably his worst. The author does a great job of detailing the faults in generalship and character of this man. Weintraub does a fantastic job of intertwining the story of the generals and the politicians with the stories of how the "forgotten war" plays itself out for the American GI. The book was very well researched and documented. I am still a fan of the general. I understand more, however, what perhaps his private ambitions truly were and what motivated him. While Truman was a great president and thought MacArthur's speeches were a bunch of bull----; I think they are inspiring. For further reference on Korea and MacArthur, Geoffrey Peret's "Old Soldiers Never Die" does a fairly good job describing the challenges at the end of the general's life. Without Marshall, Truman clearly wouldn't have faired as well as he did. As a history teacher, I find that George C. Marshall is not given his just due in the history texts of our time. Weintraub tries to credit him and brings him into the picture well. Overall, the author does a fine job to bring this often skipped-over piece of American History to life. I would like to thank him for that and for reminding us that there was a war before vietnam, because a lot of students do not.

It is difficult to write history that appeals both to the academic and to the layman, but Weintraub does it quite well with this book. He deftly weaves vignettes describing MacArthur's eccentricities and megalomania with some rarely heard viewpoints of the early days of the war- the correspondents on the ground, for example. The narrative also contains (barely) enough detail on ground combat operations to keep the reader oriented. It's a small criticism, but I longed for more detailed description and analysis of Mac's ground commanders-- even though that isn't really the purpose of the book. I would recommend T.R. Fehrenbach's "This Kind of War" and Russell Geugler's "Combat Actions in Korea" for those interested in a combat narrative.

While I understand the author's reasoning for leaving out footnotes, I still would have appreciated at least endnotes for specific pieces of evidence.

This is an attractive, well- written book that adds to our understanding of MacArthur. Especially now, with the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the war approaching, it is refreshing to see new and challenging interpretations of the Korean War emerge. Recommended reading.

MacArthur was one of the acclaimed heroes of the American military when I was growing up. Unfortunately, this idol had feet not merely of clay but of soggy mud. Weintraub magnificently documents his protagonist's arrogance, his megalomania, and his disdain for U.S. constitutional processes.

Weintraub deftly points out that in MacArthur's efforts to become a public general, he wasn't even a particularly good general. The photo of MacArthur sitting happily on his command ship while American boys were invading at Inchon captures that mood perfectly. Weintraub has magnificently described the mud and muck of the Korean war, the valor of our soldiers particularly those in Task Force Smith and those who fought their way back from near the Manchurian border when the Chinese came in in force -- something that Mac assured President Truman would never happen.

This is a splendid book which should be read by the public as well as the specialist. It is thoroughly researched, even the odd parts dealing with Mac's threat to use nuclear weapons. And it is disturbing in the way it paints a Congress ready to lionize a military man while denigrating the custodian of the Constitution who acted perfectly properly in relieving an insubordinate subordinate from high command. The country and the Army were both better off for Truman's actions.

Douglas MacArthur will forever be remembered as one of America's outstanding generals. Nonetheless, every great warlord, if he survives long enough, has his twilight, and MACARTHUR'S WAR documents his - that period from June 1950 until April 1952 when his career and reputation became mired in the Korean War, the first of America's post-W.W.II Asian debacles.

Author Stanley Weintraub's volume is a well researched, albeit dry, history of the general's last campaign. Within its pages, we encounter a wealth of players, both major and minor. MacArthur himself, America's aging postwar proconsul of a defeated Japan, sometimes brilliant, too often insubordinate, but always egotistical, self-aggrandizing, and militantly anticommunist. The staff toadies who surrounded him and sustained his narrow view of the universe, at the center of which was always Douglas himself: generals Wright, Willoughby and Whitney. His combat commanders: the hapless Gen. Walker (8th Army) and the self-important flunky Gen. Almond (X Corps). The wretched South Korean dictator, Syngman Rhee. General Peng Dehuai, the capable Chinese commander who infiltrated 200,000 of his troops into North Korea right under MacArthur's very nose. The plucky female war correspondent, Marguerite Higgins, who defied the clubbish, men-only mindset of her peers to go out and bring back the story. The home-front military and ex-military, in particular JCS Chairman Bradley and Defense Secretary Marshall, both so in awe of Douglas as to be rendered virtually ineffectual. Truman, the politically beleaguered Commander-In-Chief, who finally brought MacArthur to heel in a fit of righteous pique. And finally, MacArthur's eventual replacement as Supreme Commander, the humorlessly efficient Gen. Ridgeway.

If your previous exposure to the Korean "police action" has been nothing more than "MASH" reruns, then you'll find this book to be a valuable introduction. It includes a center section of about 30 photos. Woefully, it includes only one map - a single page rendering of the entire Korean peninsula, which, more often than otherwise, doesn't even show the places where the action takes place. (The map is so extraordinarily useless, I wonder why the author bothered at all.)

In the end, MacArthur was a victim of his own Weltanschauung, which became increasingly outmoded and dysfunctional as the Cold War swiftly monopolized the world stage. Had it not been for Korea, MacArthur's place on Mt. Olympus would certainly been assured. Instead, he died in relative obscurity in 1964 in the Waldorf-Astoria.

Weintraub's account of the Korean War and General MacArthur is a huge dissapointment. For 360 pages, Weintraub rants and lashes out at MacArthur and his commentary becomes quite boring for that reason. This is a blow by blow account of the "Forgotten War" as mentioned by the author himself, a veteran, angry, because no one really mentions Korea anymore. Weintraub's prose is very hard to follow. In many paragraphs he wanders off from his focal point an ends up introducing another character who has really nothing to do with MacArthur. Since the book is written in blow by blow fashion, the information is very hard to retain and process. Most of the text is filled with useless, off-topic information because of the amount of characters. There is hardly any mention about MacArthur until page 70. Weintraub repeats himself over and over by bashing the life out of MacArthur's reputation. Although the book tries to give much insight, it looses the reader all too quickly and fails to communicate the reader the larger picture-how MacArthur affect the war in Korea. It most definately tries to answer the big questions, but even then looses the reader through more negative commentary.

The book could have been great if there were more of a balance between MacArthur's good and bad times and had told the story in a simpler, more epic-like account. If Weintraub used a lesser amount of characters this would have solved much of the book's problems and made the book more effective. If he had not given us the useless details on the war this would have solved much of the book's other problems.

I was unable to learn anything about MacArthur himself and found myself objecting to Weintraub unsupported rants. I suggest that you look for other reads on MacArthur-this one wasted my time. However, if there was one good thing to say about the book, it would be that it sheds light on a subject rarely spoken of and a great amount of research went into the preparation of the novel.

First let me say that I have been very pleased with previous works by this author. His A Stillness Heard Round the World: The End of the Great War: November 1918 (Oxford Paperbacks)and Long Days Journey Into War: December 7, 1941 were rather remarkable works and I learned much from them. Secondly, I have been rather fortunate in my life to have been in the right place at the right time (complete luck on my part) and have known through one way or another quite a number of men who knew MacArthur personally, either socially or having worked directly under him. A good friend of mine, who recently passed away was a golf buddy of mine and was indeed one of MacArthur's golf cronies for a number of years.

One thing I have noted after listening to all the endless "war stories" from these various men is that fact that it is sort of split down the middle as to their likes and dislikes about this famous American General; they either liked (almost to the point of worship) him, or they disliked, almost to the point of manic hatred, the man and the general. In reading many, many popular history books on the subject of MacArthur, I have found that authors are the same...they either love or hate him. I find this rather remarkable that so many; all good men when I knew them, or all extremely competent historians and authors, can and do have such a polarized opinion.

Well you only have to read a few pages of Stanley Weintraub's work to realize he is in the camp with the fellows who detest the man, i.e. MacArthur. Weintraub has gone out of his was to trash the General.

I personally am in neither camp for the most part. In examining his career; his full career, completely from hindsight on my part, having never known the man personally, I can see gigantic flaws in the man and understand he made some horrid decisions. On the other hand, it would be difficult to deny that in many ways he was a military genius and in many ways did much good for his country. Again, I am of two minds here and am certainly unwilling to either to personally attack or defend the man.

But this book!

The author does indeed present some interesting facts. This book covers the early part of the Korean War and the part MacArthur played. The reader not only gets a glimpse of the General, but is given a survey course on the beginnings of what many call "The Forgotten War." (I by the way, reject the forgotten war label...goodness knows there is enough literature covering this period of our history).

This book has many strong points and the author has isolated a small segment of MacArthur's history and isolated a small part of a very long war and from a certainly view has done if quite effectively. I did and do have some problems with this work.

First, is his obvious hatred for his subject, the author has left no stone unturned in attempting to dig up dirt. He at times even sinks to the level of yellow journalism in his quest, such as speculating as to whether or not MacArthur had an affair with a female journalist at the time. Give me a break! The author has gone out of his was to "spin" facts and shed the worse possible light on his subject's actions.
(I lost track of the number of times the author told us that MacArthur liked to watch movies after supper. It this is a mortal sin...I fear I will fry myself as I rather like to do the same thing!)

Secondly, most of the failures as to the preparedness, or lack of, of the American military in that part of the world have been laid at MacArthur's feet by the author. This simply is not so. There was plenty of blame to the thrown around here starting with President Truman down through various members of his cabinet and other military leaders. Our military at that time, post war, was in pathetic shape just as it was prewar. We simply were not ready, especially in the Far East. Our focus was on Europe.

Third, I felt the author was rather harsh in his evaluation of the black, segregated troops who were first sent into battle. Yes, some of them did perform rather poorly, as did many of the white troops, but there were deep and profound reasons for this and this is a subject that needed to be handled separately and in greater depth. To be quite frank, knowingly or not, the author sounded almost racist in some of the comments he made. I must be truthful. Had I been a black troop at that time, been treated the same way those guys were; both in the military and "back home," my reaction to being sent to almost certain death would probably have been very much the same.

Fourth, unlike his previous books, the author's writing skills (which were quite good before), seem to be horridly lacking in this work. His disjointed sentences and paragraphs made the reading difficult to follow at best and came across as total gibberish at worse. Many times I had to reread paragraphs to make sure I understood what the author was trying to say. Perhaps that is just me.

Fifth, in any historical work, especially works which address war and battles, maps are a must! I grant you that this is a pet peeve of mine, but the work being reviewed here was completely devoid of any useful maps. I am quite familiar with the geography of Korea, both north and south, and I must tell you that I had I not been, much of what the author had to say would have been near useless. Maps! NO MAPS! I cannot believe the author and publishers for letting this happen!

Bottom line: Would I recommend reading this work? Yes, most certainly. There was much useful information in it...nothing new mind you, but useful never-the-less. Would I recommend this be the only book on either MacArthur or the Korean War you ever read? Not even close. There are literally hundreds of works out there, many of them covering this same subject, which are much, much better.

I am giving this one four stars simply because the subject interested me. In all truthfulness it probably deserves three stars at the most and I can completely understand the several two star reviews.

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks

Nobody will contest Douglas MacArthur's manifold achievements. Serving as a general in three wars, he arguably is famous for his bravery in battles during World War I, his spectacular Leyte landing to reclaim the Philippines in 1944 as well as for his eminently able direction of the occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1950, instituting such reforms as ownership of land for peasants, freedom of the press, and female suffrage. MacArthur is a giant of U.S. military history, even though his role in the Korean War during 1950-1951, when he was once again called to field duty, seriously dented his standing. This book by Stanley Weintraub covers MacArthur's involvement in Korea from June 1950 to April 1951. It is highly worth reading.

When conflict broke out in Korea in 1950, MacArthur assumed command of American, South Korean and U.N. forces to swiftly drive back the North Korean army over the 38th parallel, all the way up to the Yalu, the border river between Korea and China. At the centre of this stunning achievement was MacArthur's amphibious attack behind enemy lines at Inchon - an extremely risky undertaking that is generally acknowledged as a masterpiece of tactical warfare. However, military success ended with U.S. soldiers urinating into the frozen Yalu in November 1950. As tens of thousands of Chinese "volunteers" entered the stage - giving testimony to MacArthur's failure to anticipate Chinese entry into the war - U.N. forces hastily retreated southward, fleeing in disarray. It took a man like General Matthew Ridgway to gradually transform the demoralized Allied troops into a strong fighting body (thus keeping the Americans from leaving Korea altogether) and ultimately winning back some of the territory lost after China's intervention. Yet even after Ridgway had taken over as field commander, MacArthur continued to taunt the Truman administration, going so far as to suggest in a letter to a congressman - which became public - that Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist Chinese forces in Formosa (today's Taiwan) could be brought into the war to fight the Communists. More and more out of touch with reality, MacArthur's peculiar reasoning culminated in his plan to "sowing a defensive field of radioactive waste on the southern bank of the Yalu", eventually resulting in President Truman dismissing him at the beginning of April 1951.

Stanley Weintraub's book is the product of a gifted mind at work. His judgment of MacArthur clearly is critical, blaming the general both for escalating the war and for seriously jeopardizing the war effort by his on-going insubordination towards the Truman administration. This is an outspoken but always fair account - in short: highly worth reading!

MacArthur's War proves to be an fine indictment on General Douglas MacArthur's conduct during the initial year of the Korean War. While many reviewers out there don't like the negative look on this man, its pretty clear that MacArthur totally misread the entire military and political situation during his tenure. MacArthur's Inchon landing must be one of the great masterpieces of military operation but his actions after Inchon proves to be totally incompetent, out of touch and wishful thinking. MacArthur's fall from grace is nicely told in this book and despite of many reviewers prior to this writing who thought that the book was hack job on MacArthur, nothing can deny the fact that the Chinese caught MacArthur with his pants down, drove back his forces, inflicted losses on us and we suffered a major military defeat in North Korea under MacArthur's leadership. The author was correct in pointing out how little time MacArthur spent in Korea and that "Dug-out Doug" mentality didn't help the situation when things got rough along the Yalu. While Douglas MacArthur was one of our greatest soldiers of the 20th century, toward the end of his active career, his talents and instincts began to failed him. This book showed the flashes of his genius as well as follies of his arrogance.

I saw that this book was only weighing in at three stars, and I had to get a word in. The book is very well written and anyone interested in the history of the Korean War or Douglas MacArthur will enjoy it. New insights into the war can be found, culled from information from US and Chinese sources previously unavailable or recently declassified.

If you're of the opinion that MacArthur could no wrong, you may not like the book as it is critical of him. There was plenty of criticism to go around in the early days of the war and this is just one more viewpoint.

If you're a history buff who's interested in learning something about America's "Forgotten War", then this book is for you. It's not overly analytical and is a real page-turner.