Douglas MacArthur's whereabouts 1937-41

[Fatboy Coxy]

Hi all

Douglas MacArthur retired from the US Army in 1937, promptly being made a Field Marshal of the Philippines Army. He was recalled to active service in the US Army in July 1941. Did he spend the entire period 1937-41 staying in the Philippines, building up their army, or did he return to the continental United States.

[OpanaPointer]

Marshall asked him to come back to the Philippines and organize the resistance there. (From memory, taken from a bio of the American Shogun.)

In 1935 he became Military Advisor to the Commonwealth Government of the Philippines. He retired from the U.S. Army in 1937 and continued being the chief military advisor to the Philippines.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_MacArthur

[Fatboy Coxy]

Thank you OpanaPointer, I can't find anything to say MacArthur returned to the USA in 1937, indeed he was given a small staff to help him develop the Philippines Army, including Dwight D. Eisenhower. I'm left presuming he continued to live in the Philippines during those years.

Both, The Philippines Islands http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA ... -PI-1.html and
U.S. Army Forces, Far East, http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA ... -PI-2.html
Give very detail as to the developments out there over that time.

Looking at MacArthur on Wikipedia, I see he first met Jean Marie Faircloth, a 37 year old socialite, on board the the SS President Hoover, which was sailing to Manila, and they began a relationship, marring in New York City in 1937, on MacArthur's last return to continental USA for the next 14 years. They had a son, Arthur MacArthur IV, born in 1938, and lived in a penthouse built onto of the Manila Hotel.

[OpanaPointer]

20+ year old memory so I don't recall the book I took that from. I was looking for that one datum point, "who asked him to take the job".

[rcocean]

MacArthur returned to the USA in April 1937 with the Filipino President. FDR refused to see the Filipino President (for whatever reason) and after a shouting match with MacArthur finally allowed him a visit. In August 1937, FDR broke his promise to MacArthur to extend his tour of the Philippine department and ordered him back to the USA. As Chief of Staff Marlan Craig, wrote MacArthur, it was "a dirty bit of politics" ordered by FDR personally.

It had the desired effect. MacArthur retired from the USA army. He would've retired in October 1935, if FDR had not promised him several things, including a probable appointment to High Commissioner. Big Mac was offered several lucrative jobs on Wall Street, but took a monetary loss to go to the philippines.

From the time of his retirement to June 1941, MacArthur was in the Philippines as head of the Filipino Army. Ike left in December 1939. MacArthur wrote to Marshall (or maybe Stimson) in in June 1941, that he planned to leave the Philippines and return to the USA unless he needed in the manila. In late July 1941, he was recalled to duty.

There's no record of FDR or Marshall soliciting MacArthur's opinions on the status of Philippines, or the correct USA defense policy toward the Philippines, from Jan 1938 to July 1941. MacArthur was competely "Out of the loop".

All based on Dr James magnificent 3 volume biography of MacArthur.

[Carl Schwamberger]

All based on Dr James magnificent 3 volume biography of MacArthur.

Not read it. Started to read Manchesters bio, but did not see what I was looking for. Specifically there's been claims and denials Macs family, or close friends, or Mac himself had substantial business ties in PI. Any collaboration for that, or is it myth?

[Fatboy Coxy]

MacArthur returned to the USA in April 1937 with the Filipino President. FDR refused to see the Filipino President (for whatever reason) and after a shouting match with MacArthur finally allowed him a visit. In August 1937, FDR broke his promise to MacArthur to extend his tour of the Philippine department and ordered him back to the USA. As Chief of Staff Marlan Craig, wrote MacArthur, it was "a dirty bit of politics" ordered by FDR personally.

It had the desired effect. MacArthur retired from the USA army. He would've retired in October 1935, if FDR had not promised him several things, including a probable appointment to High Commissioner. Big Mac was offered several lucrative jobs on Wall Street, but took a monetary loss to go to the philippines.

From the time of his retirement to June 1941, MacArthur was in the Philippines as head of the Filipino Army. Ike left in December 1939. MacArthur wrote to Marshall (or maybe Stimson) in in June 1941, that he planned to leave the Philippines and return to the USA unless he needed in the manila. In late July 1941, he was recalled to duty.

There's no record of FDR or Marshall soliciting MacArthur's opinions on the status of Philippines, or the correct USA defense policy toward the Philippines, from Jan 1938 to July 1941. MacArthur was competely "Out of the loop".

All based on Dr James magnificent 3 volume biography of MacArthur.

Thank you rcocean, that's most interesting. I am completely confused by the American strategy re Japan pre war, with everyone out of step, I wonder who was driving who?

FDR was holding Japan accountable re her actions in China, and the more recent occupation of French Indo-China in the two stages,and punishing her with crippling embargos. Hwoever, backing that up, the USN was clearly not ready, and was kind of dragged into moving to Hawaii, to present a more threatening posture, the US Army wasn't capable of pretty much anything, and then MacArthur is talking of not only holding the Philippines, but with the B17 bombers he's going to amass, threaten Japanese forces in China.

And putting aside how the USA is going to support MacArthur, along lines easily interdicted by the Japanese, he was clearly, quite ambitiously, trying to transform the Philippines into an army somewhat like the British Indian Army, in a matter of a few years.

Given what he had to do, and the limited resources he had, I think he did quite well with developing the Philippine Army, is that what the unbiased American historians thinks , and I am aware there is a huge love/hate relationship with him.

[Carl Schwamberger]

Thank you rcocean, that's most interesting. I am completely confused by the American strategy re Japan pre war, with everyone out of step, I wonder who was driving who?

On the US side it was a combination of overconfidence and misunderstanding of Japans leaders motivations or thinking. Up until Autum we really did think the Japanese would succumb to the pressure and at last negotiate somehow. Some time in October or November it was sinking in there really was high risk of war & the Japanese were not going to be easy about it. When the first steps onto the slippery slope were taken in latter 1940 it all seemed so abstract & obscured by the vision of agreements & settlements
.

[reedwh52]

When considering US Far East strategy before June 1940, the most disregarded concerns the Tydings-McDuffie Act of 1934 (PL 73-127) and the earlier Hare-Hawes-Cutting Act of 1933 (Pub. Law 72-311).
1) Tydings-McDuffie established the date of Philippine Independence as July 4, 1946. It also provided for a two-year period after independence to negotiate what, if any, United States military & naval facilities would continue in use by the US.
2) This differed from the Hare-Hawes-Cutting Act which reserved US military & naval facilities for continued US use. This Act was enacted into law by the US, but was rejected by the Philippines primarily because of the base retention issue.

With the potential for losing basing facilities in the Philippines, any base development or force increases were non-starters until too late. This also applied to Congressional interest in financing military improvements in the PI.

[Carl Schwamberger]

& Congress was reducing the War and Navy Department budgets to 1938, so with US continental defense neglected there no chance for extra money to PI indpepemdance or no.

[Delta Tank]

All based on Dr James magnificent 3 volume biography of MacArthur.

Not read it. Started to read Manchesters bio, but did not see what I was looking for. Specifically there's been claims and denials Macs family, or close friends, or Mac himself had substantial business ties in PI. Any collaboration for that, or is it myth?

rcocean,

Could you please give the title to this biography and the author’s full name. I could not find it on Amazon.

Thanks,

Mike

[Takao]

Clayton James...The Years of MacArthur series.

[rcocean]

I'm sort of confused by your statement

"MacArthur is talking of not only holding the Philippines, but with the B17 bombers he's going to amass, threaten Japanese forces in China"

MacArthur wasn't "Driving US policy in the philippines" from Jan 1938 to July 31, 1941. He was retired from the US army and in FDR's doghouse. Nobody in the FDR adminstration or the War Department, during that time consulted MacArthur about what should be done, or what was possible. If they wanted a "Man on ground" opinion, they asked the US Army General in command of the Philippine Department.

After his recall, in early August 1941, Marshall informed MacArthur that the decision had been made to "Hold" the Philippines , and asked him if thought the Philippines could be defended. Late in August, Marshall gave MacArthur permission to start mobilizing the Filipino Army and also told him to prepare the airfields for the 250 or so B-17s that would be based in the country by spring 1942. And marshall requested MacArthur to state what he needed in terms of additional men and equipment.

In summary, in 1941 all the crucial decisions were made in Washington by Marshall, Stimson and FDR. They decided to base B-17s in the Philippines and that these B-17s would not only make the country defensible, it would deter japanese aggression. Pursuant to that plan, Big Mac was recalled to duty. Marshall's question to Big Mac about "Whether the philippines could be defended?" was disingeneous. The Chief of Staff, based on input from the US Army philippine department Commander, and the US Army Air Force chief, had already made that decision. marshall knew that MacArthur would say "yes". And if he'd said "no" big mac would've kicked upstairs to an honorary position.

So who was driving the policy? Marshall, Stilmson, and FDR. Note: Nobody was asking the US Navy for THEIR input.
Did the Navy planners even know about the B-17 bomber plan before it was implemented? I see no evidence of it.

[rcocean]

If you read Smith's official US Army history "The fall of the philippines" its all there. And sightly off topic, I've often read UK or UK commonwealth readers try to understand the Philippine Army in terms of the Indian Army. I think they're very different. the philippines was a self-governing commonwealth after 1935, will full indpendence to come in 1945.

The Filipino Army that Big mac (actually Eisenhower and Jimmy Ord) put together was based on the amount of funding made available by the Filipino Government. It was completely financed by the Filipino government and controlled by them. They had American officers because the had to have them. Had there been enough qualified Filipinos, Big Mac wouldn't have been hired. The US congress and FDR gave the Filipinos ZERO military aid. Ike, Big Mac, and Ord, all made trips to the USA to beg for US army supplies and weapons and got almost zero.

The US supported the creation of a Filipino Army. They also had Filipino scouts (12,000 when war came) as part of the US Army. But they were two separate organizations.

The closest thing to a "indian army" type organization was the "Philippine Division" which consisted of 1 US army infantry regiment , 2 filipino scout infrantry regiments, and a lot of Filipinon scout artillery and cavalry. You had US senior officers and US army adminstrative/support personnel. IRC, the Division was only 12,000 of the 30,000 or so US Army/Filippino Scout personnel on December 1, 1941

[Delta Tank]

Clayton James...The Years of MacArthur series.

Thanks!

Mike