"Nimitz vs MacArthur" Topic

My father was in the Pacific and he intensely disliked MacArthur. He told me that it was the same throughout his ship and for a variety of reasons.

MacArthur starts out in a very deep hole, ratings-wise, due to his terrible mishandling of the Philippine defense. Sure, he could not have won, but he could have done a whole lot better, too. So, starting deep in the red, he pulls himself back into the respectable range by a skillful campaign of island-hopping back to the Philippines. But Nimitz has a pretty much steady string of successes and major victories against the bulk of the Japanese navy with only a few minor reverses. He wins this contests hands-down.

+1 skippy0001. Both my Father AND Gfather we're in the same theater of operations as your dad…

Neither of them had any positive things to say about MacArthur.

"Stick with Mac and you'll never get back!"

Scott has it right – and I think the comments of vets also say a lot!

Thank you. Some of the reasons were also due to his rep before the war. He did some good but his faults stuck with him.

MacArthur did have some good points. He was personally fearless. In WWI he led assaults with no helmet and armed with nothing but a riding crop. In WWII he gave his front line commanders fits by getting so close to the fighting.

FDR

He knew what the impact would have been if we bypassed the Philippines.