Should America’s military plan for a retreat from the Pacific?

[rangerrebew]

Should America’s military plan for a retreat from the Pacific?
By Michael Peck
 Aug 20, 2025, 06:30 PM
 
When America goes to war, it likes to be on the offensive. “Nobody ever defended anything successfully,” Gen. George S. Patton famously said. “There is only attack and attack and attack some more.”

But for six months after Pearl Harbor, the U.S. military retreated and retreated some more. The U.S. garrison in the Philippines, under Gen. Douglas MacArthur, steadily retreated before the Japanese onslaught that culminated in the surrender at Bataan in May 1942. Isolated outposts at Wake Island and Guam fell, while the decimated and outnumbered U.S. fleet carefully stuck to hit-and-run as America mobilized for total war.


Today, a U.S. Army officer has a warning: In the face of growing Chinese military power, America needs to relearn how to conduct a fighting retreat in the Pacific.

“Fading advantages in firepower, distributed forces, and the growing operational reach of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) require an expansion of operational thought,” wrote Maj. Patrick Smith in a recent essay for Military Review, an Army professional publication. “The joint force must consider methods of retrograde to shape advantages in time, space, and force.”

https://www.defensenews.com/global/asia-pacific/2025/08/20/should-america-plan-for-a-retreat-from-the-pacific/

[Smokin Joe]

Somewhat false premise. America's military did not continuously retreat.
The Battle of the Coral Sea, Wake, and eventually Midway were holding actions and effectively brought an end to Japanese expansion (while buying time for the US to rearm and go on the offensive).

Guadalcanal and the island hopping campaign followed, with the end result being that B-29s could bomb the Japanese homeland with impunity.