General Douglas MacArthur arrived in Australia in March, 1942 after a harrowing escape from the Philippines where his command had been handily defeated by a much smaller invading Japanese force. Placed in charge of the newly created Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA), MacArthur was desperate to retain his new post so that he might reconquer the Philippines and in so doing, reclaim his honor. Thus began the daily issuance of communiques from his headquarters which related a grueling campaign of more than a thousand days of World War II in which Allied forces fought a relentless enemy from the northern shores of Australia back to the heart of Manila.

Never before available in print, this volume of communiques brings to life the regular updates issued to an anxious public hungry for news of progress in the great advance across the Southwest Pacific. Not only a record of the campaign, these daily pronouncements also represent a master class of public relations management as MacArthur attempted to write the first draft of history in which he was the great hero deserving of enduring fame regardless of the truth prevailing on the battlefield.