• Login
  • Register
  • FAQ
  • Contact Us
  • Home
  • Documents
  • Activities
  • Activity Tools
    • All Tools
    • Analyzing Documents
    • Discussion Topic
    • Compare and Contrast
    • Zoom/Crop
    • White Out / Black Out
    • Spotlight
    • Finding a Sequence
    • Making Connections
    • Mapping History
    • Seeing the Big Picture
    • Weighing the Evidence
    • Interpreting Data
  • Popular Topics
    • See All
    • National History Day
    • The Constitution
    • Labor History
    • Sports: All-American
    • Rights in America
    • American Indians
    • Women's Rights
    • American Revolution
    • The Civil War
    • World War I
    • World War II
    • The Vietnam War
    • 1970s America
    • Congress
    • Amending America
    • Elections
    • What Americans Eat
    • Signatures
    • Nixon and Ford Years
  • Resources
    • Getting Started
    • Document Analysis
    • Activity-Creation Guide
    • Manage Assignments
    • iPad App
    • Presentation Materials
    • Webinars
      • Recorded Webinars
      • Live Webinars
MENU
DocsTeachThe online tool for teaching with documents, from the National Archives National Archives Foundation National Archives

What Kind of Leader Was General Douglas MacArthur?

Weighing the Evidence

Print
Created by the National Archives
Bookmark this Activity in My Activities:
Copy this Activity to My Activities for editing:
What Kind of Leader Was General Douglas MacArthur?

About this Activity

  • Created by:National Archives Education Team
  • Historical Era:Postwar United States (1945 to early 1970s)
  • Thinking Skill:Historical Issues-Analysis & Decision-Making
  • Bloom's Taxonomy:Evaluating
  • Grade Level:High School
Start Activity
Please use a tablet or desktop computer to use this activity.
In this activity, students will analyze video clips, photographs, and written documents related to General Douglas MacArthur to explore the controversy surrounding his career, especially the decision by President Harry S. Truman to remove him from command during the Korean conflict. Students will use the scale to organize evidence and arrive at their own conclusion about MacArthur.
https://www.docsteach.org/activities/student/what-kind-of-leader-was-general-douglas-macarthur

Suggested Teaching Instructions

Use this activity after teaching about the Korean War, to examine the concept of leadership, or to examine the role of the president as commander in chief as stated in the Constitution. Students will identify leadership characteristics, and evaluate MacArthur’s leadership based on primary source evidence. For grades 11-12. Approximate time needed is 90 minutes.

Direct students to familiarize themselves with MacArthur’s personal history and military role. Some helpful resources are:
  • MacArthur, Douglas. Reminiscences. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964
  • Manchester, William. American Caesar: McArthur – 1880-1964, New York: Little Brown and Co., 1978
  • General Douglas MacArthur Search Results in the National Archives Catalog
  • The MacArthur Memorial Website

As a warm-up activity, ask students to think about a person whom they regard as a strong leader. Encourage students to write down four things that make this person a strong leader. Discuss the characteristics with students and create a list of leadership traits.

Review the historical context of the first half of 20th-century American history, including World War I, World War II (Pacific Campaign), and the Korean War. Open the activity, and direct students to read the Introduction. Share with students the following quote from William Manchester’s biography of MacArthur, American Caesar: “He was a great thundering paradox of a man, noble and ignoble, inspiring and outrageous, arrogant and shy, the best of men and the worst of men, the most protean, most ridiculous, and most sublime.” Ask students to define unfamiliar words. Compare the list of leadership traits they created with this description of MacArthur.

Choose one photograph, written document, or video clip from the list of documents. Model careful document analysis for the class.

Divide the class into groups of three to four students, and assign each group three documents to analyze. After they have completed their analysis, ask a representative from each group to share.

Ask each group to consider all of the documents and the list of leadership characteristics. They should come up with two contradicting interpretations about what kind of leader MacArthur was.

For example:
  1. Interpretation 1 – General Douglas MacArthur was an inspiring leader, 
  2. Interpretation 2 – General Douglas MacArthur was an ineffective leader.

Ask each group to write their interpretations at either end of the scale of the activity, then place each document on the scale based upon how it supports those interpretations. (Or students may wish to place documents on the scale first and then come up with interpretations. For both methods, remind students that they may change their minds about the placement of documents as they go along.)

When students finish, they can see how well the documents support the historical interpretations.

Conduct a class discussion by asking:
  • Which documents were placed where? Why?
  • Which documents were given greater weight? Why?
  • What historical conclusions did you draw about MacArthur?

Documents in this activity

  • Brigadier General Douglas MacArthur cleaned up after the Germans left and restored what he could of the original splendor. He is seated in the original chair of the old lord of the chateau. St. Benoit
  • General Douglas MacArthur signs as Supreme Allied Commander during formal surrender ceremonies on the USS MISSOURI in Tokyo Bay. Behind General MacArthur are Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright and
  • General Douglas MacArthur wades ashore during initial landings at Leyte, Philippine Islands
  • House of Representative remarks on President Harry S. Truman's decision to replace General Douglas MacArthur as Supreme Commander, Allied Powers; Commander in Chief, United Nations Command; Commander
  • List of Decorations and Service Medals Awarded to Douglas MacArthur
  • MacArthur Returns to the Philippines
  • Photograph of Douglas MacArthur
  • Presidential Proclamation 3579 of April 5, 1964, by President Lyndon B. Johnson announcing the death of General of the Army Douglas MacArthur
  • Proposed Orders and Statement on Dismissal of General MacArthur
  • Telegram from General Omar Bradley to General Douglas MacArthur
  • The Douglas MacArthur Story

CC0
To the extent possible under law, National Archives Education Team has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to "What Kind of Leader Was General Douglas MacArthur?".

  • Explore Primary Source Documents
  •  
  • Discover Activities You Can Teach With
  •  
  • Create Fun & Engaging Activities
Follow us on X:X
Follow us on Facebook:facebook
Please enter a valid email address

View our webinars:youtube

Get our iPad app:apple
New Documentsshare
New Activitiesshare

The National Archives

DocsTeach is a product of the National Archives education division. Our mission is to engage, educate, and inspire all learners to discover and explore the records of the American people preserved by the National Archives.

The National Archives and Records Administration is the nation's record keeper. We save documents and other materials created in the course of business conducted by the U.S. Federal government that are judged to have continuing value. We hold in trust for the public the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights — but also the records of ordinary citizens — at our locations around the country.
  • All Education Programs
  • Student Visits
  • Distance Learning
  • Professional Development
  • National Archives Museum
  • Presidential Libraries
  • Archives.gov
  • National Archives Foundation




Creative Commons License

Except where otherwise noted, DocsTeach is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Primary source documents included on this site generally come from the holdings of the National Archives and are in the public domain, except as noted. Teaching activities on this site have received the CC0 Public Domain Dedication; authors have waived all copyright and related rights to the extent possible under the law. See our legal and privacy page for full terms and conditions.