The Fate of the Generals

MacArthur, Wainwright, and the Epic Battle for the Philippines

Jonathan D. Horn (View Bio)
Hardcover: Scribner, 2025.

Jonathan Horn tells a World War II story of bravery, survival, and sacrifice—the vow Douglas MacArthur made to return to the Philippines and the oath his fellow general Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright made to stay with his men there whatever the cost.

For the doomed stand American forces made in the Philippines at the start of World War II, two generals received their country’s highest military award, the Medal of Honor. One was the charismatic and controversial Douglas MacArthur, whose orders forced him to leave his soldiers on the islands to starvation and surrender but whose vow to return echoed around the globe. The other was the gritty Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright, who became a hero to the troops whose fate he insisted on sharing even when it meant becoming the highest-ranking American prisoner of the Japanese.

In The Fate of the Generals, bestselling author Horn brings together the story of two men who received the same medal but found honor on very different paths. MacArthur’s journey would require a daring escape with his wife and young child to Australia and then years of fighting over the thousands of miles needed to make it back to the Philippines, where he would fulfill his famous vow only to see the city he called home burn. Wainwright’s journey would take him from the Philippines to Taiwan and Manchuria as his captors tortured him in prisons and left him to wonder whether his countrymen would ever understand the choice he had made to surrender for the sake of his men.

A story of war made personal based on meticulous research into diaries and letters including boxes of previously unexplored papers, The Fate of the Generals is a vivid account that raises timely questions about how we define honor and how we choose our heroes, and is destined to become a classic of World War II history.

"The Fate of the Generals was written not so much to contrast the two generals’ commandabilities—their overlapping tenures in the Philippines were brief—but to commemorate an unsung American hero who has never properly received his due. Jonathan Horn is too good a historian, however, to obsess over MacArthur’s bothersome character flaws, vanities, and egotism. And so, he leaves us with a paradox of human nature: that the supremely talented but flawed human being whom we may not admire, we may well need—and treat better than we do his moral superior." — Victor Davis Hanson, The Claremont Review of Books

"One of the very best World War II books in many years! In The Fate of the Generals, Jonathan Horn weaves together brilliantly the story of two senior generals faced with excruciatingly difficult decisions that no American commander should ever have to make. Distinguished by spellbinding prose and exceptional research, The Fate of the Generals restores Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright to his proper place in history beside Douglas MacArthur. A great read!" — Gen. David Petraeus, US Army (Ret.)

"A dual biography of two American generals who took part in that epic 1941-45 campaign. One was a heroic leader awarded the Medal of Honor in 1945. The other was General Douglas MacArthur. Having discovered much new material, journalist and former White House speechwriter Horn, author of The Man Who Would Not Be Washington: Robert E. Lee’s Civil War and His Decision That Changed American History, works hard to emphasize the lesser-known Jonathan Wainwright (1883-1953). Son of an army officer, Wainwright, like MacArthur, was first a captain of West Point’s Corps of Cadets and progressed steadily to become senior field commander of Philippine Forces under MacArthur. Never intending to defend the Philippines, American military leaders formulated a defensive plan in which our forces would retreat to the jungles of the Bataan peninsula, where they would hold out until rescued. MacArthur considered himself a warrior—and warriors don’t defend; they attack. When the Japanese invaded in December 1941, he ignored the plan and proclaimed that his forces would repel the enemy wherever they landed. When, within weeks, this failed everywhere, he changed his mind, but it was too late to ship enough supplies to Bataan. As a result, the half-starved soldiers who vastly outnumbered the Japanese were doomed. MacArthur left for Australia in March 1942, leaving Wainwright to fight on and then surrender in June. Horn delivers a gripping if painful account of Wainwright’s short command and long, miserable imprisonment. In an extraordinarily mean-spirited act, MacArthur vetoed the decision to award him a Medal of Honor in 1942. Once freed, Wainwright was surprised that America did not blame him for the surrender, treated him as a hero, and awarded him a belated Medal of Honor. Always a loyal subordinate, he never criticized MacArthur and even delivered the nominating speech in his abortive 1948 run for president. An admirable, often successful attempt to bring Wainwright out of MacArthur’s shadow." — Kirkus Reviews

"Horn’s research, much of it conducted in archives, is exceptional and his writing fluid and engaging. He has crafted a very personal account of two of America’s most celebrated heroes, one (MacArthur) who remains in the public imagination and another (Wainwright) who has been largely lost to time. This is a highly recommended account of their service to the nation, one that can be enjoyed by historians and lay readers alike." — Peter Mansoor, Washington Free Beacon (Read the full review)

"Gen. Douglas MacArthur was a conniving glory hound who sold out his second-in-command, Gen. Jonathan Wainwright, according to this incisive chronicle. Historian Horn recaps the 1941 Japanese invasion of the Philippines, when MacArthur was hailed as a hero after his men on the Bataan peninsula held out for several months despite facing starvation. But Horn argues that MacArthur bungled the campaign, stayed relatively safe and well-fed, and was derelict in abandoning his men for Australia. The real hero, Horn contends, was Wainwright, who skillfully led the troops at the front and shared their hardships. From Australia, Horn notes, MacArthur ordered Wainwright not to surrender despite the hopelessness of resistance, then smeared Wainwright as 'unbalanced' when he surrendered and went into captivity with his soldiers, where he endured brutal treatment by the Japanese. Horn also describes how MacArthur tried to quash efforts to award Wainwright the Congressional Medal of Honor. Horn’s profile is a colorful addition to the library of disparaging MacArthur portraits, depicting the general as a self-obsessed prima donna and Wainwright as his opposite: a stoic, self-deprecating cavalryman, devoted to the well-being of his men, who agonized over the moral dilemma of choosing between pointless carnage and shameful surrender. The result is a perceptive take on the psychology of military leadership." — Publishers Weekly

"Wainwright, like MacArthur, was a 19th-century soldier confronting the new warfare of the 20th century. But, as Jonathan Horn tells us in The Fate of the Generals: MacArthur, Wainwright, and the Epic Battle for the Philippines, that is where his similarities with MacArthur ended.... Recounting battle scenes with riveting prose, Mr. Horn minces no words in his descriptions of the horrors of Bataan.... What makes this study worthwhile is the author’s juxtaposition of what we have long known about MacArthur with the lesser-known actions and agonies endured by Wainwright. The Fate of the Generals lifts Jonathan Wainwright out of the shadow of Douglas MacArthur and ‘back into the light.’" — Walter R. Borneman, The Wall Street Journal (Read the full review)