Visit the booktv. Org to watch any other programs you see here online. Type the author or book not in the search bar on the upper left side of the page and click search big you can also share anything you see on booktv. Org easily by clicking share on the upper left side of the page and selecting the format. Booktv streams live on line 48 hours every weekend with the top nonfiction books and authors. Booktv. Org. Historian mark perry recounts the military career of general Douglas Macarthur. He reports that macarthur, appointed commander of u. S. Army forces in the far east by president Franklin Roosevelt, was equally reviled and respected. This is about 50 minutes. Thank you, doug. And to offer been there. Thanks to the National Archives for inviting me in holding this event. Im going to talk about Douglas Macarthur who served twice as army chief of staff, received the japanese surrender in tokyo bay, was one of the most decorated soldiers of world war i, he won the medal of honor, was called a brilliant by Winston Churchill and is arguably the most disliked and even reviled figure in American Military history. Theres the rub. Theres the challenge for a biographer. How do you square the circle . How do you understand a man who was at one moment so disliked, and believe me, in talks ive given on macarthur, ive been attacked on his record, how do you square the idea that this bombastic and egotistical, prejudiced, narrowminded man was also, i think, one of the most brilliant military leaders in our history . How do you do it . It comes down to two words to explain it. Harry truman. The president of the United States who relieved him, dismissed him, fired him, however you want to put it, the brought them back to the United States. He was a great hero, standing ovation in the u. S. Congress, and then as macarthur himself put it, faded away like every old soldier. In a recent, very unofficial opinion poll, macarthur was listed as our worst military leader, ahead of, get this, benedict arnold, the trader. So when i begi began this book d to try to figure out how to present these contradictions in a very complex character. And i decided to do it by doing what historians dont normally do. Instead of casting the main shadow forward as to how we understand him now, i cast his shadow back. And if you cast macarthurs shadow back, if you see them as he most recently was going as a humiliated commander relieved by the president , then you begin to look for all of the complaints about macarthur that truman found in his previous history. And even look at any historical figure long enough, and if you look for the bad things in his character and his career, you will find them. What if, i asked myself in writing this book, what if were to looking at macarthur without the shadow of korea . What it would look at macarthur as having ended his career on board the uss missouri taking the japanese surrender . What if korea had not happened . How would we view him . And in shaping his outlook on macarthur, i compared them with another president , not harry truman, and contrasted them with another president , not harry truman but Franklin Roosevelt. Roosevelt and macarthur were old political enemies. Roosevelt loved the navy. Macarthur hated the navy. Roosevelt was a progressive politician. Macarthur was most comfortable in the hoover administration. Roosevelt shaped the policy approach governing america that took into account those who have the least and needed the most help. Macarthur believed everyone could lift themselves up by their bootstraps. There were no two different men in American History that serve at the same time, and yet oddly and strangely, while they were political enemies they became weary, but good friends. Roosevelt decided when he became president despite macarthurs reputation, to keep macarthur on as army chief of staff. In my previous talks, a man stopped me and said, you know, i dont like macarthur but i really like your title. So i thought that i would explain then where i got the title the most dangerous man in america as a way to explain the rooseveltmacarthur relationship. Remember the 19th or two in the midst of a terrible depression, a group of world war i veterans organized this is national and came to washington to lobby for the early payment of the world war i bonus. This was the bonus army. They camped out and they lobbied the congress very peaceful. They set up a camp, brought their families. These were the families that were the poorest of the poor. We have to remember the Great Depression, unemployment was at 23 . Macarthur, hoover was president. Hoover was the army chief of staff and ever several months of this campout, hoover decided that the best thing to do would be to disperse as quietly but as effectively as possible the bonus army. There have been some incidents with the bonus army and the washington police, so the sector of war call the macarthur and said why dont you get some troops together and escort this bonus army out of town . It was a catastrophe. Macarthur returned to his quarters, put on a full dress uniform, went with his aide, Dwight Eisenhower, had clashes with the bonus army and dispersed them violently. One child died in the melee, was a succeeded and macarthur was roundly criticized for his actions, or as Dwight Eisenhower and said, i told the son of a not to go down there. And when roosevelt was nominated as president returned to new york, headlines at the end of july blared the news of what macarthur had done. Now, roosevelt as nominee of the Democratic Party have put together a group of people at the time recalled the brains trust, but they became the brain trust. One of the leading people of this was an economist by the name of doug well. If you want to study a great unknown american, read about the life of well, the columbia economist when roosevelt was still running for the presidency he went to a close associate and said we are 23 unemployment, no one knows what to do, i need to talk to somebody who will tell me why we in the Great Depression. He said, ive got just the answer in his name is tugwell. Introduced him, an economist at columbia. A day after the bonus march, roosevelt was sitting with tugwell in the Governors Mansion in albany. Roosevelt would like to tugwell, just as a footnote. Roosevelt said can become were in the Great Depression. He said sure. Im not even sure now whether we are in the Great Depression, but tugwell new and roosevelt said whats the reason . He said, the farmers are growing the wheat our standing in the bread line. Rosso thought from it and said thats too. Why is that . Tugwell said were overproducing. The price of wheat is too low. Thats why we are in the Great Depression but roosevelt said thats great. What do we do . Tugwell said, price supports. Which is where we get price supports. And roosevelt tugwell is a genius. Roosevelt brought them into the administration. On the day after th the bonus mh it was sitting in the Governors Mansion in albany with tugwell when the phone rang, governor roosevelt, huey long is on the line and wants to talk. The louisiana demagogue who have helped roosevelt get nominated. Roosevelt rolled his eyes and said, all right, ill take the colbert you look at tugwell and said stay here. Depicted the phone and he said yes . How are you doing . And huey long said what you mean what am i doing . What the hell you doing . Youre the nominee of the Democratic Party, sitting up there in new york with all the fat cats. You should be out campaigning. Roosevelt said no, no. , everything will be okay. Not time to stand up for his campaign get a weapon of time to do this. We wanted money. Money . Ousley how to raise money. If you do down here in louisiana is the thing around with the fat cats things would be okay. Roosevelt mediated, the conversation went on for a while. Finally, roosevelt hung up. Tugwell looked at him and said, huey long, the most dangerous man in america. And roosevelt said no, huey long isnt the most dangerous man in america. The most dangerous man in america is Douglas Macarthur. And tugwell thought about this, a couple days later, came back to Roosevelt Roosevelt and said did i hear you right . Did you see Douglas Macarthur is the most dangerous man in america . Roosevelt said thats right. Tugwell said, why do you think that . He said listen, were in the middle of the Great Depression. Weve got bread lines, people are new to writing, the label labor troubles in ohio. No one knows how to get out of it. In times of depression comes trouble. The American People always look for the man on the white horse. Maybe cant bring us economic growth, but he can bring us a little stability. And Douglas Macarthur is that man. And tugwell said, what are we going to do . He said were going to tame those men and were going to make them useful to us. And this book, a little cheeky, is about how roosevelt aimed macarthur in his administration by keeping them on not only as army chief of staff but by giving them responsibilities for running his primary domestic political programs, including the conversation core, and then how in world war ii macarthur used roosevelt to meet his personal goal, which was to return to the philippines Unemployment Rate the philippines where his family had a long history, and which was in effect macarthurs second home. So the most dangerous man in america, i see cheeky, the most dangerous man in america explains Douglas Macarthur, and it doesnt because he wasnt the most dangerous man in america, but he was, as i claim, our greatest strategist. I will have one thing q a is always far more better than hearing me talk to we will get to your questions. I make the claim that macarthur was a brilliant strategist on the basis of his conduct in world war ii, which was amazing. We have to remember where america was within the japanese attacked us on december 7 to we were the 19th Largest Military in the world, just ahead of portugal. The year before the outbreak of world war ii the u. S. Congress had approved beginning the draft by one vote. When macarthur was assigned to the philippines to help build their army, his request for rifles to arm that army was denied. Because members of congress and the interior department believed that army the filipinos would simply provoked the japanese. Who would remain peaceful if we didnt poke them. Thats where we were here and macarthur was surprised. America was surprised on december 7 and we were not prepared for war. If you studied closely the history of world war ii you had to come to the conclusion as i have, it took the United States one year to 18 months to really get inside the battle tempo of our enemies between the germans and the japanese. It took macarthur a full year to get back in the beginning the Third Largest island in the world and he did with to National Guard units. The 32nd division and the 40th National Guard division at a texas. The only two he had for the first year of the war because there wasnt anybody else. He had 57 bombers in the philippines at clark field and the japanese had thousands. For the first year of world war ii, the United States was flat on its back fighting with the british in europe, except we were fighting, fighting a vote against the japanese in world war ii. And yet inside of three years, macarthur conquered the guinea, the admiralty islands, placed above all the japanese fortress under cities, returned to the philippines, landed at luzon and finally accepted a surrender in 1945. Controversial, bombastic, narrowminded. I still claim, with the possible exception of ulysses s. Grant, Douglas Macarthur is our greatest soldier. And this is a book about his legacy. Im happy to accept your questions and try to answer them. [applause] the claim has been made that it was not necessary to invade the philippines to get back to japan and macarthur, the claim has been made that was just to satisfy macarthurs ego. Could you address that . Assuming im right. Youre right, partly. It was also to get Franklin Roosevelt reelected in 1944. But, but, but the navy had always argued that the correct way to defeat the japanese was through a naval the offensive through the Central Pacific and not the South Pacific which was macarthurs area of responsibility. And that the pacific was the navys war and that macarthurs campaigns were an afterthought. And that the way to japan was through not the philippines which would be a bloody campaign, but where the Army Air Corps couldnt mount bombers on japan. In 1944, this debate was underway and roosevelt had a meeting with his admiral, which avenue the United States would go in. And Admiral Halsey who was not at the conference, one month later reported that it was wide open. That decent fighters over to be blocked quickly and more quickly than the navy could go. This is what made the difference. If you studied nemitz, halsey and navy admirals, youll find that in 1944 that actually agreed with the macarthurs proposal that we attacked through the philippines. Much to the chagrin and outright anger of the then chief of Naval Operations who hated macarthur. And didnt want to go and who ranked americas enemies germany and the u. S. Army. And so i think roosevelt during his 1944 campaign would always find macarthurs fight in the philippines. Macarthur was a known republic. Whitehaven criticizing and not letting was macarthur . There he is, a good republican fighting the fight in the philippines. He slaughtered thomas dewey in the election. Macarthur allowed that to happen, allowed him to be used. This is a political book about u. S. Military. This is about the lyrical battles of macarthur and roosevelt. Its not the most important thing that happened in world war ii. Organizing and shaping the american response and identifying the commanders and getting used industry going is really the story of world war ii. Thats the real story of world war ii and thats what i think. Its a good question, thank you. You mentioned he didnt get along with king but most of that i think about macarthur i think of them as being a very effective use of naval forces, especially comes to inchon. Given that he was so effective with the navy, was there anything other than team that made him at odds with the navy . He seems to have braced the use of the navy whenever he could. He did, youre right but it took him a while. When he was army chief of staff in the 1930s he always had to contend with the navy over the budget. And the navys plan for that was a very contentious fight because there wasnt much of a pie to be cut up. So the navy and the army spent a lot of time just kind of sitting spitting at each other over the budget. And in world war ii the navy basically said, the whole point of the Pacific Campaign is that the navy is going to win the pacific to the army gets europe and were going to send our carriers into the Central Pacific and user u. S. Marine corps. This was real animus, and macarthur carried us into world war ii and they suggested a move is warships from the things from the philippines. So macarthur had this animus. And then king appointed kincaid to lead macarthurs navy, 1943 i believe. And kincaid was a very effective officer with macarthur. One of the incidents i recount in the book, he brings them onto his command ship during a battle and have looks at in as the ship opened fire on a japanese held island and he said, from that moment on, macarthur was more royal than the king. He shook his head. He couldnt believe the firepower that the navy brought to the pacific. And he became an advocate for the navy and by the end of the work he became an advocate for the end of interservice rivalry and interservice budget fights and said that the navy, Army Competition is an obstacle to a quick victory. So macarthur at least recognize the problems between the service rivalries. Im wondering if in your research you have read now future, now exsenator webbs historical novel the interested general . More about japan, but aint it it had the premise that macarthur chose to impress one woman he loved when he first come with either west point and was there, you know, theres a scene where he meets her and says i brought this all two years to doorstep, or something. Was that troop . No. But theres no historical evidence your it makes a good novel. Its not good history. I agree with that, okay. Palsy who advocated the invasion of lazy im sorry, macarthur did have mistresses prior to his marriage who were an investment to them, including a Young Filipina woman he kept in town and gave when his army chief of staff, and the reporters, a reporter found out about her and was about to publish the facts of this liaison. And macarthur sent eisenhower to find her and secretive her away. And macarthur kind of a blocked on his personal, gave her 35,000, hush money for her to be quiet about the affair. He wasnt married yet. The admiral said he should just let it come. Everyone is having an affair in washington. But macarthur, they speculated what his mother, what macarthurs mother, pinky, thought about it. Thats why so macarthur is not without his personal blemishes but theres a suggesti