Douglas MacArthur by Arthur Herman

Author:Arthur Herman [Herman, Arthur]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2016-06-13T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 19

GREEN HELL

There is hardly any celebrated enterprise in War which was not achieved by endless exertion, pains, and privations; and as here the weakness of the physical and moral man is ever disposed to yield, only an immense force of will, which manifests itself in perseverance admired by present and future generations, can conduct us to our goal.

—CARL VON CLAUSEWITZ, ON WAR

The new commander of the Air Forces of the Far East was General George Kenney. A short, strutting gamecock of a man who bore a striking resemblance to the actor Humphrey Bogart, with an air of contained insolence to match, he had been born in 1889 in Nova Scotia, and had been a fighter pilot in World War One. He had gone on to serve as U.S. air attaché in France in 1940 when the Germans unleashed their devastating blitzkrieg tactics of fast-moving tank columns backed by interdiction bombing from the air. The experience taught him valuable lessons about the use, and misuse, of airpower that he brought back with him to the States. When he was told he was going to relieve General George Brett as MacArthur’s air chief, Kenney was determined to bring those lessons with him when he arrived in Brisbane at the end of July 1942.

George Kenney made an unlikely addition to MacArthur’s inner circle. Yet they soon established a close cooperative relationship; indeed, Kenney would become closer to MacArthur than any other individual except Jean. It was far more than an attraction of opposites. Each man instinctively understood that he needed the other in order to achieve his goals; the bond of trust that resulted would sustain them both for the remainder of the war.

Bonds of trust were hard to find when Kenney made his first visit to SWPA headquarters, and his diary entries paint a fascinating picture of MacArthur and his court that late summer of 1942. His first meeting was with Sutherland, who immediately blasted Kenney’s predecessor as responsible for “the terrible state the air [force] is in,” and also blamed Brett’s predecessor General Brereton for the December 8 debacle at Clark Field.

Kenney called on MacArthur the next day just before noon, and for more than an hour heard a heated lecture on what a mess the air force and AAF/SWPA was in. “I have no use for anyone in the organization,” MacArthur said flatly, from Brett on down (Brett had shown Kenney into MacArthur’s office but refused to stay around). Brett in particular had been “disloyal,” and MacArthur used terms like “scatterbrain” to describe most of his subordinates.

Kenney finally stepped in. “I’m here to take over the air show,” he said, “and I intend to run it. If it’s a matter of loyalty, if for any reason I can’t work with you or be loyal to you, I’ll tell you myself and will do everything in my power to get relieved.”

MacArthur was taken aback. Then he grinned, put his hand on Kenney’s shoulder, and said, “I think we’re going to get along all right.

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