General McArthur and "Medhabi
By
Ahmed Sharif, New Eskaton Road, Dhaka
10 June 2004, 18:00 PM
On May 30 afternoon, I was watching the TV quiz programme "Medhabi" on NTV. One of the questions set was"Who was the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces during the Second World War?" The answer for this question was shown to be "General McArthur". As far as I know General Dwight D. Eisenhower was the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Western Europe from December 1943 until the end of the war in Europe in May 1945. On the other hand, General Douglas McArthur was the Commander-in-Chief, Allied Forces in the South-West Pacific from March 1942 until the end of the war in the Pacific in September 1945. General McArthur was not even the commander-in-chief of the Pacific Front of the war against Japan, let alone being supreme commander of all Allied Forces. In the Pacific Front, McArthur shared responsibility with Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, who was the Commander-in-Chief of the US Pacific Fleet, having control over all Allied forces in the Central Pacific area; and Vice-Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten, who was the Supreme Allied Commander, Southeast Asia, having control over the India-Burma Front. Neither McArthur nor Eisenhower had full authority over all Allied Forces. However, Eisenhower was in command of a force that defeated Hitler's forces in Western Europe and he was not sharing authority on the European battlefield with anyone. On the other hand, McArthur was in partial command of the Pacific Theatre of War. From this point of view, we can consider Eisenhower as being the Supreme Commander of a Major Theatre of War. At least, in Europe and in the US, Eisenhower is considered as the Supreme Allied Commander. General McArthur was, interestingly, the supreme commander during the initial stages of the Korean War, (Commander-in-Chief of the Unified Command, United Nations Command, 1950-51). On "Medhabi" that day, one of the participants did name Eisenhower as the answer to this question. He was not given any points for that. I wonder whether the organisers of "Medhabi" really did their homework on that particular question. The programme is no doubt appreciable, but a little bit more effort could have made it almost perfect.
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