The Fate of the Generals: MacArthur, Wainwright, and the Epic Battle for the Philippines

by Jonathan Horn

“Why, Jim,” this version has MacArthur saying, using his old nickname for Wainwright, “you can have command of a corps with me any time you want it!” Notably, this was essentially the account that MacArthur himself endorsed. He had not wanted to leave Wainwright in charge of the full Philippines and, as others knew, still blamed him for what had happened. That is not to say MacArthur made his offer disingenuously. In the ruins of Manila, his soldiers had recently discovered communications between Wainwright and the generals in the Visayas and Mindanao during those fateful days in May 1942 when he had believed the Japanese would murder all the men and women on Corregidor if American forces elsewhere in the archipelago did not surrender. The documents did not contain any information that MacArthur could not have known before, but perhaps reading them made him slightly more sympathetic to the dilemma Wainwright had faced.