MacArthur, Stilwell, and Special Operations in the War against Japan

To begin a study of American theater-level organization and conduct of special operations in the war with Japan, one can consider two images.First, picture native stevedores at a port in the occupied Philippines unloading, under cover of darkness, crates of cigarettes, matches, chewing gum, candy bars, sewing kits, and pencils from a huge cargo submarine, each item bearing the inscription "I shall return" over a facsimile of the signature of General Douglas MacArthur.Then imagine Lieutenant General Joseph W. Stilwell at lunch with members of his personal staff in the dining room of the Imperial Hotel in New Delhi, India when, at an adjacent table, an officer of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) stands up and opens his bush jacket.Five pigeons, freed from confinement, rush into the air and disappear through an open window in the ceiling.The general leaps from his chair, but, after a momentary glare at the perpetrator, resumes his seat and his meal without further ado.[1] The two vignettes say much about MacArthur, Stilwell, and their respective approaches to special operations in the Southwest Pacific and China-Burma-India theaters.MacArthur appears in his role, both bestowed and selfmanufactured, as symbol of resistance, spiritual leader, and redeemer of the Philippine nation in its hour of need.Stilwell comes across as the hard-boiled pragmatist who could tolerate a band of free-spirited eccentrics as long as they produced results.In the context of an Army which had given little prewar thought to what we today call special operations, each commander had to make his own way in a largely unfamiliar field with little if any guidance from doctrine on the place of special operations in theater organization and strategy.Considering the contributions which special operations made in the two theaters, they did quite well

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