Douglas MacArthur was born in Norfolk, Virginia, on Aug. 31, 1880. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and served as a military aide to General Leonard Wood and General Arthur MacArthur II
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In November 1941, he was placed in command of the Allied forces in the Philippines and immediately began organizing resistance forces and training troops for guerrilla warfare. After the US invasion of the Philippines, MacArthur and his troops were defeated by the Japanese at Bataan and Corregidor , where more than half of his men were killed or wounded. After eight months as a prisoner of war, MacArthur led an escape effort that culminated in a dramatic failed assault on Corregidor.
In October 1944, he accepted an offer from President Franklin D Roosevelt to become Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in the Pacific Theater.