Q: What did King thing of MacArthur?
LOVE: Admiral King thought MacArthur was an extraordinarily able
General, he'd proved that in the First World War. He'd been a fine Chief of
Staff. He proved that also in the Second World War. MacArthur had traits that
King did not admire: public vanity, overweening arrogance, a flamboyance that
King did not understand the political applications and importance of this.
King was tone-deaf to domestic politics, he was tone-deaf to ceremony.
MacArthur understood how important this was. It was one of MacArthur's great
skills that King basically disparaged. They had serious policy disagreements,
serious disagreements about strategy. King was angered by MacArthur's apparent
condemnation of the Navy, particularly after the fall of the Philippines.
MacArthur's disputes with Admiral Hart were poisonous, and King was, if
anything, a rugged Navy partisan.
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