(2 of 5)
While Americans in the Philippines, annoyed by MacArthur's refusal to enter greatly into their social life, laughed at him and styled him Napoleon of Luzon, MacArthur sweated to forge a fighting force. Back to Washington went a stream of able reports, stressing the necessity for supplies for his Philippine Army. In his air-conditioned, penthouse apartment he gave fervid interviews to visiting newsmen, telling them how tough was his Philippine Army. He would stride back & forth across his room, purpling the air with oratory, punctuated by invocations of God and the flag, pounding his fist in his palm, swinging his arms in great sweeping gestures. Blond, burly John Gunther, master of the technique of sit-'em -in -the -chair -and -pace -'em -to-death interviewing, met Field Marshal Mac-Arthur, wound up limp in his seat while MacArthur paced roaring on. Always his thesis was the same: the Philippines could be defended, and by God, they would be defended.
Nights he paced his apartment atop the Manila Hotel so vigorously that people in the rooms below complained. He entertained few friends. He worried about friction with the U.S. Army in the Philip pines, some of whose officers considered him a has-been ("Hell, MacArthur doesn't mean any more in this Army than a buck private"), and about budget trouble with volatile little Mr. Quezon, who blew hot & cold about defense.
Not till 1940 did the turn come. Then Japan occupied northern Indo-China, threatened the U.S. with the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy. The Philippines were defended then by some 3,000 U.S. soldiers, a handful of mobile 155-mm. howitzers, some old 755, about 100 first-line planes and some old craft which, said the pilots banteringly, could make 100 miles an hour if they dove straight down. If war broke out, all MacArthur's Philippine Army was to be transferred to the American Commander in Chief of the Philippine Department.
Last year the U.S. Army buckled to the task of re-equipping its Philippine Department. In the summer of 1941 it decided to recall MacArthur to the U.S. flag. On July 26, 1941 MacArthur was named Lieutenant General in command of the United States Army Forces in the Far East (the Army shortens the title to USAFFE, but MacArthur prefers to call it the Army of the Far East, the A.F.E.). Last week President Roosevelt capped the return of MacArthur to action by making him, again, a full four-star General.
MacArthur's Command. To his new command, MacArthur brought a dowry of Filipino loyalty. Relations between Filipinos and the U.S. Army in the Philippines had hitherto been only cordial. But Mac-Arthur, who had created the Philippine Army, trusted it and could command it as he wished. "I know a fighting army when I see one," he had said, "and these men are a fighting army."