MacArthur Commands Pacific: Supreme Allied Commander Appointed
He'd promised fifteen thousand Filipino and American soldiers he'd fight to the last man on Corregidor — then Roosevelt ordered him to abandon them. MacArthur slipped away on a PT boat through Japanese naval blockades, leaving behind men who'd hold out another month before the largest surrender in American military history. His wife Jean and four-year-old Arthur came with him. The troops he left? They'd endure the Bataan Death March. But MacArthur landed in Australia, told reporters "I shall return," and turned his desertion into the war's most famous vow. Roosevelt needed a hero more than he needed one general dying with his men.
March 17, 1942
84 years ago
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