When comparing two of the greatest and most capable leaders the world has ever known, one must take great pains to make the information as accurate as possible so as to not discredit or defame either one. Such is the case with Dwight Eisenhower and Douglas MacArthur, most noted for their leadership in the defeat of the enemy in their respective theaters during World War II.

Both the differences and the similarities between Eisenhower and MacArthur begin at the dawn of their lives. Douglas MacArthur came from an established and distinguished family. His father was Arthur MacArthur, a highly decorated soldier who won the Congressional Medal of Honor for leading a Union assault on Missionary Ridge in Tennessee during the Civil War. Arthur would also spend time as the military governor of the Philippines in the early 1900s. Douglas spent his entire life in the Army, beginning in...