Douglas MacArthur
Medal of Honor

George Marshall decided that MacArthur would be awarded the Medal of Honor, a decoration for which he had twice previously been nominated, "to offset any propaganda by the enemy directed at his leaving his command". Eisenhower pointed out that MacArthur had not actually performed any acts of valor as required by law, but Marshall cited the 1927 award of the medal to Charles Lindbergh as a precedent. Special legislation had been passed to authorize Lindbergh's medal, but while similar legislation was introduced authorizing the medal for MacArthur by Congressmen J. Parnell Thomas and James E. Van Zandt, Marshall felt strongly that a serving general should receive the medal from the president and the War Department, expressing that the recognition "would mean more" if the gallantry criteria were not waived by a bill of relief.

Marshall ordered Sutherland to recommend the award and authored the citation himself. Ironically, this also meant that it violated the governing statute, as it could only be considered lawful so long as material requirements were waived by Congress, such as the unmet requirement to perform conspicuous gallantry "above and beyond the call of duty". Marshall admitted the defect to the secretary of war, acknowledging that "there is no specific act of General MacArthur's to justify the award of the Medal of Honor under a literal interpretation of the statutes". Similarly, when the Army's adjutant general reviewed the case in 1945, he determined that "authority for award is questionable under strict interpretation of regulations".

MacArthur had been nominated for the award twice before and understood that it was for leadership and not gallantry. He expressed the sentiment that "this award was intended not so much for me personally as it is a recognition of the indomitable courage of the gallant army which it was my honor to command". At the age of 62 MacArthur was the oldest living active-duty Medal of Honor recipient in history and as a four-star general, he was the highest-ranked military servicemember to ever receive the Medal of Honor. Arthur and Douglas MacArthur thus became the first father and son to be awarded the Medal of Honor. They remained the only pair until 2001, when Theodore Roosevelt was posthumously awarded for his service during the Spanish–American War, Theodore Roosevelt Jr. having received one posthumously for his gallantry during the World War II Normandy invasion. MacArthur's citation, written by Marshall, read:

For conspicuous leadership in preparing the Philippine Islands to resist conquest, for gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action against invading Japanese forces, and for the heroic conduct of defensive and offensive operations on the Bataan Peninsula. He mobilized, trained, and led an army which has received world acclaim for its gallant defense against a tremendous superiority of enemy forces in men and arms. His utter disregard of personal danger under heavy fire and aerial bombardment, his calm judgment in each crisis, inspired his troops, galvanized the spirit of resistance of the Filipino people, and confirmed the faith of the American people in their Armed Forces.

As the symbol of the forces resisting the Japanese, MacArthur received many other accolades. The Native American tribes of the Southwest chose him as a "Chief of Chiefs", which he acknowledged as from "my oldest friends, the companions of my boyhood days on the Western frontier". He was touched when he was named Father of the Year for 1942, and wrote to the National Father's Day Committee that:

By profession I am a soldier and take pride in that fact, but I am prouder, infinitely prouder to be a father. A soldier destroys in order to build; the father only builds, never destroys. The one has the potentialities of death; the other embodies creation and life. And while the hordes of death are mighty, the battalions of life are mightier still. It is my hope that my son when I am gone will remember me, not from battle, but in the home, repeating with him our simple daily prayer, "Our father, Who art in Heaven."
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