MacArthur's Kept Woman Was a Young Filipino-American

Volume 2, Issue No. 62

OPINION/COMMENTARY

/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /

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 Our latest as of Monday, May 10, 2021 

~ Field Marshal, General of the Army, American Caesar, American Shogun - all these real-life depictions are appended to a worthy warrior venerated in at least three countries for his courage, brilliance, and military acumen. That's General Douglas MacArthur, the man who vowed "I shall return" in the thick of battle in the Second World War, and redeemed it in times of brutal death and widespread desperation. Early on in his military career in the Philippines, he succumbed to the youthful charm of a Filipino-American woman 30 years his junior, the offspring of a Filipino housewife and an American father of Scottish descent and a rising star in Manila's vaudeville.

 

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THE PHILIPPINES' ONLY FIELD MARSHAL

Gen. MacArthur's Doomed Love Affair with a Filipina

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

“What? A great man? I only ever see the ape of his own ideal.”― Friedrich Nietzsche 

TORONTO - After reading through the historical account of General Douglas MacArthur in a 2016 book by Prof. Arthur Herman and listening to his recent lecture about him, it made me a little dazzled by his latest claim that the revered hero of two world wars had not engaged in a little hanky-panky during his stint in the Philippines.

The February 2020 discourse, perhaps an update, amounted to a public denial, in my view, of his own written account and the unearthing of archival records that proved the contrary - that he was in fact enamored with a Filipino-American lass thirty-or-so years his junior, and locked in a passionate embrace that had lasted a few years while he was America's overlord in the islands.

MacArthur was the dominant figure in the Pacific theatre. He enjoyed a god-like status in territories he conquered and liberated, chiefly in the Philippines, Japan, Korea, and the chain of islands straddling the South Pacific that had borne the brunt of the US war effort against Japan.

As a matter of fact, he was the one and only Field Marshal the fledgling Philippine Army had, the "American Caesar" in the eyes of historian William Manchester, the "American Shogun" in Robert Harvey's telling, and the Makassa Gensui in Herman's book.

No other American had made such a momentous impact in those countries than this five-star general of the armies. A hero of two generations, MacArthur was idolized for his war and peacetime exploits and worshipped in Japan, Korea, and the Philippines - the country he and his father before him, General Arthur MacArthur, loved.

His 1942 speech affirming a vow "I shall return" had been a rallying symbol of hope and optimism for Filipinos in the throes of despair. And when he redeemed that promise more than two years later, the Philippines exploded with relief for a bright new future.

I stumbled upon Herman's lecture while surfing the internet soon after I finished reading his 944-page epic "Douglas MacArthur American Warrior". I didn't know it had been released in 2016. 

I bought a hardcover in February and not until March did I find time to digest its contents preparatory to an article I had planned to write to coincide with the April 9 celebration of Bataan Day, also "Araw ng Kagitingan" or Day of Valor. (More info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bataan_Day).

Listening to Herman's talk posted on YouTube was like being physically present at the site at Hillsdale College in Michigan one February day last year. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BC6651oXXQc). He stood there at the podium, enthralling an audience of students and academics with snippets of MacArthur's life he had gathered from his research at the MacArthur Memorial in Norfolk, Virginia.

More than 20 minutes into his nearly one-hour long presentation, Herman states, and I quote him verbatim: 

"I heard one story. I was told this when I was working in the MacArthur archives in Norfolk, Virginia that he chose the place for the landing at Leyte in liberation of the Philippines at Tacloban because his mistress had a house there. And this was in fact why he chose the landing. (More info at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacArthur_Landing_Memorial_National_Park). 

"MacArthur didn't have a mistress," he emphasizes. "There never was a mistress. It's completely made-up story. And yet people make this kind of stories up all the time".

I thought this new assertion directly contradicts what he had written in his book where he devoted 30 paragraphs to what he described as "a beautiful young girl named Isabella (sic) Rosario Cooper" who lived in an apartment building (a 20-minute walk from the White House) whose rent "was paid for by Douglas MacArthur, a man thirty-four years her senior who had brought her with him when he had left the Philippines for Washington".

"Small, soft-spoken, beautiful, Dimples (Cooper's screen name) was charming yet self-effacing - and darkly exotic x x x Isabel was not even eighteen. But when he was recalled to Washington in the fall of 1930, he was determined that she join him when he got settled," Herman wrote.

Herman's full portrayal of her was not exactly flattering. Said he: "It's not entirely clear what Isabel saw in him (MacArthur) beyond a handsome and powerful sugar daddy and protector". The love affair apparently ended in 1933. 

Cooper was the same Isabel Rosario Cooper profiled by Vernadette Vicuna Gonzales, professor of American Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, in her newly-released book titled "Empire's Mistress, Starring Isabel Rosario Cooper". I prepaid a copy in mid-February, hoping to extract some insights, but got it only in early April past the Bataan Day fete.

Previously, Filipino historian Isidra Reyes wrote a lengthy article in August 2019 on the ANCx website. (https://news.abs-cbn.com/ancx/culture/spotlight/08/11/19/the-colorful-life-and-tragic-end-of-the-pinay-showgirl-who-stole-macarthurs-heart). That article had been tipped off to me by a friend, enough to draw my interest and postponed a planned writeup.

Reyes described Cooper as "one of the most fascinating and mysterious femmes fatale (sic) in Philippine history, the Jezebel who seduced General Douglas MacArthur, one of the most powerful men of his time" who fell for her and kept her as his concubine.

It is, however, the well-researched and documented Gonzales book that provides a deeper understanding of who Cooper was and how her life intersected into a romantic link with MacArthur's.

She sees Cooper "not as a tragic heroine (who died penniless at age 46 in Hollywood, California in June 1960), but as someone caught within the violent histories of U.S. imperialism".

It's noteworthy what Gonzales says: "If mentioned at all, their relationship (MacArthur's and Cooper's) exists only as a salacious footnote in MacArthur's biography - a failed love affair between a venerated war hero and a young woman of Filipino and American heritage".

Indeed I feel Herman was trying to demean Cooper. He seemed reluctant to recognize her and possibly avoid any mention of her if he could stay clear of it. The result was what Gonzales stated - that the romance was a passing notation in the bigger picture that Herman drew of MacArthur.

Cooper was the offspring of an 18-year-old Filipina from Nagcarlan, Laguna, Protacia Rubin, and husband Isaac J. Cooper, an American fireman of Scottish descent. (Copyright 2021. All Rights Reserved).