freebeacon.com By Peter Mansoor
Presidential speechwriter and journalist Jonathan Horn, author of books on George Washington’s latter years in the 18th century and Confederate general Robert E. Lee in the 19th century, explores the 20th century with his latest work on the entwined lives of General of the Army Douglas MacArthur and Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright. It was their destiny to preside over the greatest defeat in U.S. military history in the Philippines as the United States was thrust into World War II following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
For MacArthur, recalled to Australia by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the setback was temporary. He would proceed to form a new command, the Southwest Pacific Area, or SWPA, and fight his way back through New Guinea to find redemption with his celebrated return to the Philippines. For Wainwright, the defeat on Bataan and Corregidor were the end of the road, with the remaining war years spent in prisoner of war camps. Both were awarded the Medal of Honor, the highest decoration the United States can bestow on service members engaged in combat.
Wainwright’s medal was justly deserved, albeit delayed until after the war by a petulant MacArthur, who was angered by Wainwright’s surrender of the entire Philippines after the fall of Corregidor. MacArthur’s medal, awarded to soften the blow of his forced withdrawal to Australia and to counter Japanese propaganda, was certainly not merited, at least in the traditional sense of actions above and beyond the call of duty.
MacArthur was the son of a celebrated American hero; his father Arthur MacArthur had earned his own Medal of Honor leading a Wisconsin regiment up Missionary Ridge during the Battle of Chattanooga in November 1863. The elder MacArthur would go on to lead troops again in battle on Luzon during the Spanish-American War and culminated his career as governor-general of the Philippines. His son Douglas spent those war years at West Point, graduating in 1903 at the top of his class both academically and in cadet rank. Wainwright, descended from a star-crossed military family (his father, a commander in the U.S. Navy, was killed by a Confederate musket ball in 1863, and his brother, a naval ensign, was killed by pirates off the coast of Mexico in 1902), graduated from the U.S. Military Academy three years later, also reaching the rank of first captain…
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