The moonshine in MacArthur’s press communiqués was gratuitous and unnecessary, because his military achievements, in 1943 and 1944, were quite real. His advance up the coast of New Guinea, his landings in New Britain, his bold surprise amphibious landing on Los Negros-Manus, his long jump up the northern New Guinea coast to Hollandia—all those moves were deftly planned and executed. Kenney’s bombers did wipe out the better part of an important convoy; they did improvise a new and lethal tactic to sink ships at sea, a feat that had eluded them in the past. MacArthur’s forces had ample cause to
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