In private, however, the situation appeared otherwise. During MacArthur’s retirement, army and navy strategists faced with the reality that Congress had not given them enough resources to prevail in a one-front war coalesced around a plan called Rainbow Five for the dreaded but increasingly likely prospect of a two-front war. Under the plan, American forces would assume the defensive against Japan while focusing first on the more feared German adversary. As one of the colors in the “rainbow,” War Plan Orange still set the strategy against Japan but with a change: The reinforcements supposed to
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