Judging MacArthur's failures and later achievements

One assessment judges MacArthur capable at regimental command but outclassed by the demands of the Second World War. The criticism centers on an ego and publicity campaign whose consequences other people had to bear, and on resistance to the chain of command. Another participant concentrates his harshest judgment on the late 1930s and the opening of the Pacific War, while finding fewer major errors after early 1942. He acknowledges reports of successful work in postwar Japan but says he has not studied that period. His condemnation of the earlier failures is severe enough that he would have preferred execution to the Medal of Honor, although he admits later achievements would have made that judgment wrong. The competing assessments distinguish responsibility for the opening of the Pacific War from a uniform verdict on MacArthur's entire career.