I get the feeling the books on MacArthur are gentle on his decisions. The Dutch during WW2 were in the Pacific area as well. They seemed better prepared to fight the Japanese then the Americans. The air combat records show this and that the Dutch fought with Distinction Reading about their Air Combat leads me to believe that the Americans ignored provacations by the Japanese. We were caught on the Ground in the Phillipines. There was no LOGICAL rotation of aircraft or preparation for an attack. The one time we were in the air against the Japanese wiped us out on one large air battle. That is just BAD planning for a Professional Soldier. Your opinion to Sandy seems to defend Mac's lack of Readiness. IMO... he did the same thing in Korea... YEah, he did some things right BUT he does not have the combat instincts that were comparable to a Patton or Rommel. Again we were caught in Korea.....BLINDLY unprepared.... and held to a draw. Diego earlier discloses that we got our BUTTs kicked in the Air War as well. All the early books on Korea are crap. I am confused as to what really when on. IMO MacArthur made the same structural mistakes he did in WW2 that put us behind the 8-Ball.... Regarding my Vietnam comment .. we made the same structural logic that got us caught in that war as well. This is what I am getting out of the new Information on WW2 and Korea. I side with those that write about what happened that fits the RESULTS. Thereby adding up what the original Intentions were. What you REALLY intended is your RESULTS DF ----- Original Message ----- From: "Marc James Small" <msmall@infi.net> To: <KOREAN-WAR-L@raven.cc.ku.edu> Sent: Friday, December 20, 2002 1:41 PM Subject: Re: MacArthur [Was: Slow period for list] At 11:38 AM 12/20/02 -0500, Love Shack wrote:IMHO it sounds like MAC Ghost is with us AGAIN... Sandy : be all to filled with Bluster. It was strange how the Dutch managed to battle the Japanese and the USARMY AF Yeah they finally got wiped out but they made a good accounting of what they had for resources. MAC and the Phillipines have far more aricraft and resources to defend with. Yet history FORGIVES MacArthur.. IMO this attitude also prevailed in Vietnam.. You added up a lot about how we got hit, suposedly by surprise, by the Chinese Making the Korean war a real "pit" of a fight. Something that could have been avoided or stopped quickly with some common sense. Then you can take the MacArthur story, going back further to Anacostia where he wiped out the WW1 Protesters.Uh, could you put the above into an intelligible form? When you do, I shall respond! Marc msmall@infi.net FAX: +276/343-7315 Cha robh bàs fir gun ghràs fir!