# Gen. Douglas MacArthurs gold hoard - did it ever exist? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 8, 2007, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gen-douglas-macarthurs-gold-hoard-did-it-ever-exist/407277 "2007-06-08T16:27:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Fir\_na\_tine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fir\_na\_tine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fir_na_tine)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gen-douglas-macarthurs-gold-hoard-did-it-ever-exist/407277/1 "2007-06-08T16:27:45Z")
Recently I was rereading some trashy paperback about WW2 and it mentioned the oft told story about the submarine that took General Macarthur out of the Philippines being loaded with gold. The tale goes that there were crates and crates of the stuff and the crew was essentially told to keep silent on pain of death. I’ve seen the story mentioned in several actual WW2 histories. Sometimes it’s cast as “might-be-true”, sometimes as just another urban legend. To the best of my knowledge he never exhibited signs of great wealth after the war. Has anyone ever pinned down “the straight dope” on this?? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gen-douglas-macarthurs-gold-hoard-did-it-ever-exist/407277/2 "2007-06-08T16:43:29Z")
[Here you go](http://www.csp.navy.mil/centennial/troutgld.htm) Short story, the gold did not belong to MacArthur, it belonged to the government of the Philippines. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2007, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gen-douglas-macarthurs-gold-hoard-did-it-ever-exist/407277/3 "2007-06-09T00:08:48Z")
[QUOTE=Fir na tine] the crew was essentially told to keep silent on pain of death. [/QUOTE] That sounds unlikely. They were on a submarine; who could they have talked to? And in my experience, telling someone to keep silent about something is guaranteed to start lots of talk & rumors. ---
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2007, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gen-douglas-macarthurs-gold-hoard-did-it-ever-exist/407277/4 "2007-06-10T14:03:24Z")
[QUOTE=t-bonham@scc.net] That sounds unlikely. They were on a submarine; who could they have talked to? And in my experience, telling someone to keep silent about something is guaranteed to start lots of talk & rumors. [/QUOTE] Indeed. So long as the gold went somewhere safe (e.g. Fort Knox) rather than being left on a beach somewhere, who cares? In fact, you’d want people to know that the loot is with you, available to your friends but not your enemies. Similarly when the Norwegian royals fled to the UK with the contents of the treasury, it wasn’t kept a big super secret. Before and during the move, certainly, but not afterwards. ---
**Author:** ![Fir\_na\_tine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fir\_na\_tine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fir_na_tine)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2007, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gen-douglas-macarthurs-gold-hoard-did-it-ever-exist/407277/5 "2007-06-11T13:06:16Z")
I think that the link _ **Rick** _ posted answered the question quite nicely. Thanks! I’m sure 20 years from now someone will be reading that MacArthurs gold hoard was used to finance the implosion of the Twin Towers on 9/11. ---
**Author:** ![spifflog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@spifflog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spifflog)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2007, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gen-douglas-macarthurs-gold-hoard-did-it-ever-exist/407277/6 "2007-06-11T16:28:39Z")
[QUOTE=Fir na tine] I think that the link _ **Rick** _ posted answered the question quite nicely. Thanks! I’m sure 20 years from now someone will be reading that MacArthurs gold hoard was used to finance the implosion of the Twin Towers on 9/11. [/QUOTE] That’s stupid! Everyone knows that the twin towers were blowed up by the government to make sure the USofA went to war against them Arabs!