While he was at sea, influences were brought to bear which changed this plan.
It is my firm conviction that if Lawton had been put in command, the war would have ended promptly.

He was a wonderful man in the field.

He possessed the faculty of instilling his own tremendous energy into his officers and men, whose privations and dangers he shared, thereby arousing an unfaltering loyalty which stood him in good stead in time of need.

If there was fighting to be done, he promptly and thoroughly whipped everything in sight.

He punished looting and disorder with a heavy hand, treated prisoners and noncombatants with the utmost kindness, and won the good-will of all Filipinos with whom he came in contact.
General MacArthur was always declaring that the Filipinos were a unit against us and that he could never get information from them.