What Were The Reasons For The Problems Between Eisenhower and Macarthur?

Question

I know that Dwight Eisenhower and Douglas Macarthur had a very troubled relationship. I have been unable to find out the nature and source of their problems.

My husband said that he has heard of two things which contributed to their feud. The first was that Mac felt that Ike got too much attention for the victory in Europe. Mac apparently felt cheated of attention, as he felt he fought a much harder war because of the nature of the fighting in the Pacific (i.e. small pieces of land, more hand-to-hand combat, difficulty of finding staging areas for launching assaults, etc...) The second was that Mac had an innate distrust of politicians, and he felt Ike was betraying his military roots by eyeing the White House. Mac felt that military men should be just that, military men, and leave the politics to politicians, rather than switching over half way through a career.

Are these true? Can you please shed some light on the nature of their quarrel with one another?

Thank you.

And before you ask, no, it is not for homework. I am long past that. I am very interested in WWII, and I know they had problems, but I am unable to find any book that discusses it, and I don't find either of them interesting enough for me to want to read their biography. Besides, biographers often skip things like that type of feud, simply because it makes their subject look immature and foolish.

Answer 1

Eisenhower disliked MacArthur for his vanity, his penchant for theatrics, and for what Eisenhower perceived as "irrational" behavior. "Probably no one has had tougher fights with a senior than I had with MacArthur," Eisenhower once said.

While Eisenhower served as Chief of Staff after World War II, MacArthur undermined his efforts to slow down mobilization and later to unify the armed services.

Answer 2

Mac was a politician himself and had presidential aspirations. He had an enormous following at the close of WWII and was positioning himself for a run for the Presidency when Truman had to can him for open insubordination over the war in Korea (Mac wanted to declare war and use nuclear weapons). After that happened, Mac had no political future in America.

As far as jealousy, aren't many (or most well known) generals full of themselves: Monty vs Ike; Patton vs Monty etc. (Maybe it just comes with the territory). Mac certainly had the newsreels working for him in the Pacific.

Hope this helps a little
.

Answer 3

Mac took over at the beginning of the Korean war, conflict, he wanted to "go all the way" to China and did, with the Air Force. He ordered bombing across the Yalu river without consulting with the pres and Ike lost it over that.
Mac insisted he get over it and and fight the Korean war the way a war should be fought, Mac figured he knew the Chinese. He spent his entire life in the East and did know them.
Mac knew if we went in and bombed the crap out of them and brought them down to their knees they wouldn't think twice of invading the Korean North.

Mac was brought back in shame for what he did, it wasn't to long the Chinese did what Mac said they would do, he smugly told the Pres "I told you so" He spent the rest of his life in retirement in Fort Ord OK.

The Chinese invaded the North and drove the fifth Marines all the way back to the sea and almost completely took over before help arrived and pushed them back to the 38th parallel.

Answer 4

One thing Ike severely disliked about Mac was Dougs taking credit for everything in his theater of operations.

All dispatches from Macs headquarters only mentioned one name - Douglas MacArthur. He was very vain, and did not give credit where credit was due.

Ike gave credit to his underlings for the success of D-Day, and was ready to take full blame if it failed. A good sign of a leader.

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Another note: Ike served under MacArthur in the early 30s. A lot of the tension between them dates to that time.

Knight, good link.

Answer 5

Both men were great military...people, But MacArthur had a god-self-image, which President Harry Truman cured him of by firing his pompous *** during the Korean 'police action'.
('Dug-out Doug's retirement farewell line: Old soldiers never die - they just fade-away' reminds me of Nixon's ludicrous gesture of triumph when boarding Air Force One for the last time after his disgrace and ouster from the presidency.)

Answer 6

The following article might be able to help. It's from TheHistoryNet's online archive for MHQ magazine.