Shortly after the Pearl Harbor attack, a joint American and Filipino army desperately defended the Philippines against a Japanese invasion while fighting on both the Bataan Peninsula and Corregidor Island. Despite dim prospects for outside help, the garrison seriously delayed the Japanese timetable for conquest in the Pacific.

The South Koreans, including recently elected President Moon Jae-in, have never forgotten General Almond’s decision to rescue refugees from the Communists during the Hungnam evacuation.

H.W. Brands has written an excellent synthesis of the Truman-MacArthur controversy