re: Who knew MacArthur was recalled from retirement to serve in WWII?

When MacArthur was good, he was very good. When he was bad, he was awful. He had a 24 hour head start, and still let his air force get destroyed on the ground, and he failed to make adequate logistical preparations for the Bataan defense. To his credit, he intended to stay in the Phillipines and die with his troops. Instead he was ordered out, but not before one last blunder in giving his entire command to Wainright instead of splitting them into northern and southern components. The barely engaged southern force could have fought on as an independent command after the Bataan surrender.

He expected a courtmartial. Instead he was awarded the Medal of Honor and given command of the Southwest Pacific where he stabilized Australia and crafted the brilliant island hopping campaign.

Version 2.0 in Korea. Masterful Inchon landing turns the tide, then ignores the urgent warnings of his own intelligence staff and nearly gets overrun by the Chinese. Ultimately fired by Truman for insubordination.