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| MacArthur wades ashore at Leyte |
During World War II, Gen. Douglas MacArthur regularly
exposed himself to sniper fire, machine gun attacks and enemy bombs, scorning bomb
shelters and offering a distinctive target.
That calm bravado — no doubt related to his vanity and heightened
sense of drama— prompted at least one psychiatrist to render a snap diagnosis
of “suicidal.”
At Brunei Bay in the Philippines, MacArthur was leading his
nervous officers along a beach road battlefield when they came across the
freshly slain bodies of two Japanese soldiers.
“An Army photographer appeared, hoping to take a picture of
the General and the bodies,” wrote biographer William Manchester. “MacArthur
refused, and the cameraman squared away to snap the two corpses. Just at the
bulb flashed, the photographer fell with a sniper’s bullet in his shoulder.
“Sir Leslie Morhead, the corps commander, hurried up and
said they had reached the front line. MacArthur protested: ‘But I see some
Australian soldiers fully a hundred yards ahead.’ Sir Leslie said: ‘General,
that is only a forward patrol, and even now it is under heavy fire. You cannot
go beyond this point without extreme hazard. The enemy is right in front of
it.’ MacArthur said, ‘Let’s go forward.’ Sir Leslie stepped aside and told one
of the American aides, ‘This is the first time I’ve ever heard of a
commander-in-chief acting as the point.’
“The General started to pace toward the Japanese, but (Gen.
George C.) Kenney decided to intervene. They had found the enemy’s outpost
position, he told MacArthur, and ‘if he wanted my vote, it was for allowing the
infantry to do the job they came ashore for.’ Besides, he continued, the
captain of the Boise had invited them
to dinner, and it would be ‘extremely discourteous to keep dinner waiting when,
after all, we were just guests.’ Capping his argument, he reminded the General
that the cruiser’s skipper had promised them chocolate ice cream that evening.
“’All right, George,’ MacArthur said, smiling and turning
back toward the ship. ‘I wouldn’t have you miss that ice cream for anything.’
“His craving for danger was unappeased, however; the next
day they landed on the other side of Brunei Bay. Hearing gunfire coming from
the direction of a nearby airfield, they ‘headed,’ in Kenney’s words, ‘for more
trouble.’
“Reaching the edge of the landing strip, the General said, ‘Let’s
go on,’ but then an Australian colonel stepped out of the bush and barred the
way, brusquely telling the commander in chief that he and his entourage were an
unwelcome distraction.
“Kenney writes: ‘He was not a bit awed at MacArthur’s five
stars and, much to my gratification, refused to let us go forward another inch.”
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