Comments by "" (@RedXlV) on "The Battle of Samar - Odds? What are those?" video.

@WALTERBROADDUS Many powerful politicians back in DC loved Halsey, and thus he was shielded from any consequences. In particular, Rep. Carl Vinson (chairman of the Armed Services Committee) was a huge fan of Halsey and apparently hated Spruance, and made sure that Halsey would get the fourth and final 5-star slot by repeatedly blocking nominations of Spruance for the promotion. And continued to block Spruance from getting the promotion even after Halsey's retirement in 1947.
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At one point after the war, Kurita basically admitted that he was going to retreat at any point he had plausible excuse to do so, because he knew the war was already lost. Now who knows whether that's actually true (he gave different explanations at different times), but he was telling the truth I don't see anything wrong with deciding not to waste lives in a battle that doesn't actually matter. Had he pressed on, Kurita would've caused mass casualties by destroying the transports Taffy 3 was protecting. But it wouldn't actually have changed the outcome of the war. It wasn't from the Philippines that the B-29s were being launched, after all. And destroying the landing force wouldn't have even stopped the retaking of the Philippines, only slowed it down. Center Force would've still had to withdraw back to Japan after the battle, and another landing force would've been sent in.
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@rudolfschrenk9411 The thing is, this wasn't Halsey's only blunder that cost ships and American lives. There was also him refusing to divert course and sailing his fleet straight into a typhoon. Twice. Halsey shouldn't just have been removed from his command, he should've been court-martialed for dereliction of duty. But since he'd been built up in the press as a hero, that would've been bad for morale, so he got a pass. And even ended up getting a promotion to Fleet Admiral over the much more deserving Raymond Spruance. But at least Halsey wasn't a coward, unlike MacArthur.
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Halsey's decision to send everything after the carriers, without detaching any of his battleships and while ignoring the reports of Center Force's return, is because Spruance had taken down four carriers at Midway, and Halsey wanted to match that record.
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