What country was General MacArthur forced to evacuate

MACARTHUR DESERTS "THE Battling BASTARDS OF BATAAN" AND ESCAPES TO Australia

"Nosotros're the battling bastards of Bataan:
No mama, no papa, no Uncle Sam,
No aunts, no uncles, no nephews, no nieces,
No rifles, no planes, or artillery pieces,
And nobody gives a damn."
This doggerel verse reflects the strong sense of betrayal felt by MacArthur's troops on Bataan.

MacArthur is shocked to acquire that the Philippines had been abandoned by the United States to its fate

On 4 February 1942, the submarine Trout arrived at Corregidor to transfer Philippine Treasury gold to a safe place and evacuate Lieutenant Colonel Warren J. Clear, an intelligence officer. Before departing, Clear revealed to MacArthur that the Arcadia Conferences, held in Washington between 22 December 1941 and 14 January 1942, and involving the chiefs of staff of the U.s.a. and Britain, had produced agreement between the United States and Uk "that but the minimum of strength necessary for the safeguarding of vital interests in other theaters should be diverted from the operations against Federal republic of germany". In a study that the US Ground forces planners had produced on 3 January 1942, they demonstrated that MacArthur'southward programme for reinforcement of the Philippines from Australia was impractical while the Japanese ruled the seas in the western Pacific. The Ground forces planners described MacArthur'southward plan every bit "an entirely unjustifiable diversion of forces from the chief theater - the Atlantic".

After his escape to Australia, Macarthur is pictured with his chief of staff Major Full general Richard Sutherland.

MacArthur was deeply shocked to larn that he and his command had effectively been abased to the Japanese past President Roosevelt. President Quezon was enraged by the news, and sent a cable to Roosevelt requesting immediate independence for the Philippines and so that his government could negotiate a country of neutrality with the Japanese. Despite his bombastic printing releases that had proclaimed his intention to defend the Philippines to the concluding human, MacArthur gave substantial back up to Quezon's request. Roosevelt was appalled by the proposal and rejected firsthand independence. With the intention of shaming the Philippine president, Roosevelt indicated willingness to let Quezon to give up the Filipino troops if they had no stomach to continue fighting and go out the Americans to fight the Japanese alone. As expected, Quezon was shamed past the offering and declared his willingness to fight beside the American troops to the cease. Run into: Richard Connaughton, "MacArthur and Defeat in the Philippines", (2001) at pages 260-265.

MacArthur was rebuked for supporting Quezon in a separate cable. He was ordered by General Marshall "to continue rapidly to the organisation of your forces and defences so as to brand your resistance as effective as circumstances will let and as prolonged equally humanly possible." In his angry response to Washington on xi February 1942, MacArthur insisted that he intended "fighting my present battle position in Bataan to destruction.." (Accent added by writer). Run across Connaughton, at p. 265.

MacArthur manipulates public opinion to facilitate his escape from the Philippines

Despite his poor military judgment and other failings as a commander, MacArthur had a talent for self-promotion and cultivation of the media. He established a public relations office on his island stronghold of Corregidor in Manila Bay. During the siege of the Bataan Peninsula, while his desperate troops were starving, fighting, and dying in order to obey his order to concord their defensive lines to the terminate, MacArthur passed his fourth dimension on Corregidor promoting an image of himself in American minds as the "Hero of the Pacific". He bombarded the American media with extravagant and self-adulatory press releases that hailed his military machine genius and determination to fight to the last man in his control. These printing releases generally ignored the heroic resistance of the American and Philippine troops and attributed total credit for delaying the Japanese capture of Bataan to MacArthur'south brilliance equally a commander. His former Main of Staff in the Philippines and Australia, Major General Richard K. Sutherland conceded that MacArthur personally wrote or approved all of his self-adulatory press releases.

In his history of MacArthur in the Philippines, Richard Connaughton wrote:

"In the first three months of the war, MacArthur or his staff wrote 142 communiques; 109 of which mentioned one homo, MacArthur. They carried dauntless, heady, heartwarming, gripping though often imaginary accounts as to how MacArthur's guile, leadership, and military genius had continually frustrated the evil intentions of Nippon'south armed forces. His picture appeared on the cover of Time at the end of 1941 and, early in the new year's day, the effect of these press releases upon the American public served to whip them up into a frenzy of fawning adulation of MacArthur, American hero."

at folio 225.

MacArthur's accounts of his brilliant defence of the Philippines were splashed across newspapers in the United States where the war news had been uniformly grim since Pearl Harbor. MacArthur had chop-chop transferred to a banking concern in the United States the "reward" of $500,000 given to him by President Quezon in early on Jan 1942, and every bit he had no close relatives in the United States, it is not unreasonable to suspect that MacArthur did not intend to end his armed services career sharing the hardships of a Japanese prison camp with his troops. MacArthur'southward self-glorification was aided by his powerful friends in the American media and politics who hailed him every bit the "Hero of the Pacific", and helped to promote a myth that he was a armed forces genius who could not exist allowed to fall into Japanese easily when Bataan and Corregidor inevitably fell.

President Roosevelt and senior army officers in Washington had go enlightened of the emptiness of MacArthur's boast that his troops would stop the Japanese on the beaches of the Philippines. They knew that MacArthur had compromised the defence of the Philippines by allowing his constructive air power to be eliminated on the ground despite 9 hours accelerate alarm of such a risk. They also knew that MacArthur had inflicted unnecessary suffering on his troops by failing to prepare Bataan for a lengthy defence.

The phrase "to destruction" in MacArthur's cable to Washington of 11 February 1942 sent a clear message that he intended to sacrifice himself and his family in defence of the Philippines, and the words caused warning in Washington. Roosevelt was very conscious that MacArthur'due south improvident and self-serving press releases from Corregidor had made him a hero in the eyes of many Americans. The Democrats were facing tough mid-term Congressional elections in Nov, and Roosevelt was aware that MacArthur had powerful political back up from the Republican side of politics. General Marshall urged Roosevelt to let his former West Betoken classmate to be evacuated from the Philippines to take up a new command earlier the Japanese overran the defenders. Full general Dwight D. Eisenhower (later to go 34th President of the United States) had served equally main of staff under MacArthur in the Philippines in 1939. Eisenhower was enlightened of MacArthur's talent for self-agrandisement, and he had serious reservations about MacArthur's military competence. He urged Roosevelt not to bow to public pressure by saving MacArthur from sharing capture with his troops.

President Roosevelt also had strong doubts about MacArthur's military competence, but he was faced with enormous pressure in the United states of america to relieve the "Hero of the Pacific" from the Japanese and give him a new command. Although reluctant to do so, Roosevelt bowed to public opinion and political pressure. He decided to offer MacArthur a new command in the Pacific region. When the senior admirals of the United States Navy informed Roosevelt that they would not serve nether MacArthur, Roosevelt decided to offer MacArthur an date every bit Supreme Commander, South-Due west Pacific Area (SWPA) with his headquarters in Australia. MacArthur would non be told that Roosevelt and Churchill had agreed at the Arcadia Conference in tardily December 1942 that the South-West Pacific, including Australia, would exist relegated to the status of a secondary theatre of war while the Allies concentrated on defeating Frg.

US Army Principal of Staff, Full general George C. Marshall, contacted MacArthur in early on February 1942 to mention the President'southward offer of a new command in Commonwealth of australia and to suggest that MacArthur consider leaving the Philippines with his family unit and his most senior staff officer earlier the Japanese overran the defenders of Bataan.

MacArthur discussed General Marshall's proposal with his senior staff officers, and they agreed with him that the American position in the Philippines was hopeless and that they and MacArthur could best serve their state by leaving their troops to fight on to the finish while they escaped to Australia. MacArthur advised General Marshall that he was prepared to leave the Philippines. On 22 February 1942, President Roosevelt reluctantly ordered MacArthur to leave the Philippines and have up the new command in Australia.

MacArthur prepares to abandon his troops to the Japanese

MacArthur realised that his divergence for Commonwealth of australia could be misunderstood by his abandoned troops, and he requested time to gear up the groundwork for his departure from the battlefield with his senior staff officers. Before leaving them, MacArthur gave his desperate troops imitation hope of reinforcements. MacArthur assured them that many thousands of fresh troops were on their manner, with strong air back up, to relieve the beleaguered American and Philippine forces on Bataan. He ordered them to fight on until these reinforcements arrived. The promise of a relieving force from the Us was a cruel lie, and MacArthur knew it to be and then. The social club to ill and starving troops to fight on in a hopeless cause doomed them to greater suffering than they might otherwise have experienced.

On 11 March 1942, MacArthur departed for Commonwealth of australia under cover of nighttime with his wife, his son, his son'south nanny, and a large contingent of his closest and most trusted staff officers. Although ordered by General Marshall to take only one senior staff officeholder with him to Australia, MacArthur disobeyed the order and left the Philippines with fourteen staff officers, including his Chief of Staff, Major General Richard Sutherland. These staff officers were notorious for their sycophancy and lack of gainsay feel, and became known in Australia as the "Bataan Gang".

MacArthur left backside his starving troops, female person army nurses, and many civilians to face the fury of a Japanese Army frustrated and angered by the stubborn resistance of the American and Filipino troops. With MacArthur'south departure, Major General Jonathan Chiliad. Wainwright causeless command of American Ground forces Forces in the Philippines with the temporary rank of Lieutenant General and the certain cognition that he and his command were doomed to decease or capture.

From the prophylactic of Australia, MacArthur orders his troops to fight to the end

From the safety of Australia, MacArthur sent the following draconian message to General Wainwright:

"I am utterly opposed under any circumstances or conditions to the ultimate capitulation of this control (i.e. the Philippines). If nutrient fails, you will gear up and execute an set on upon the enemy".

Speaking of MacArthur'due south order to his sick and starving troops to fight to the end, and his infamous lie that reinforcements were on the way from the The states, one of the abandoned Americans on Bataan, Brigadier General William Eastward. Brougher, probably expressed the views of most of them when he described the order and prevarication as:

"A foul trick of deception played on a big group of Americans by a commander-in-chief and his small staff who are now eating steak and eggs in Australia".

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Source: https://www.pacificwar.org.au/Philippines/Macescapes.html

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