Photo: U.S. Federal Government / Wikipedia • Believed to be in the Public Domain
General Douglas MacArthur, UN Command CiC (seated), observes the naval
shelling of Incheon from USS Mount McKinley, 15 September 1950
In June 1950, Communist forces from North Korea invaded western aligned South Korea, launching the Korean War. WW2 veteran, General Douglas MacArthur was put in charge of the American led coalition of United Nations troops.
MMM
By October they had repelled the North Koreans and eventually drove them back toward the Chinese border. MacArthur met with President Truman, who worried that the communist government of the People’s Republic of China might view the invasion as a hostile act and intervene in the conflict. The general assured him the chances of a Chinese intervention were slim. In the following months a massive force of Chinese troops crossed into North Korea and attacked the American lines, driving the U.S. troops back into South Korea. MacArthur asked for permission to bomb communist China and use Nationalist Chinese forces from Taiwan against the People’s Republic of China. Truman flatly refused these requests, and a public dispute broke out between the two men.
On April 11, 1951, President Truman removed MacArthur from his command for insubordination. In an address to Americans, the president stated...
M
“I believe that we must try to limit the war to Korea for these vital reasons: To make sure that the precious lives of our fighting men are not wasted; to see that the security of our country and the free world is not needlessly jeopardized; and to prevent a third world war."
MMM
MacArthur had been fired, he said...
MMM
“so that there would be no doubt or confusion as to
the real purpose and aim of our policy.”
MMM
MacArthur’s dismissal set off a brief uproar among the American public, but Truman remained committed to keeping the conflict in Korea a “limited war.” Eventually, the American people began to understand that MacArthur’s policies and recommendations might have led to a massively expanded war in Asia.
MMM
“I fired him because he wouldn't respect the authority of the President. I didn't fire him because he was a dumb son of a bitch, although he was, but that's not against the law for generals. If it was, half to three-quarters of them would be in jail.”
President Truman
Photo: U.S. National Archives / Wikipedia
Believed to be in the Public Domain
MacArthur smoking his
customary corncob pipe
Main
Menu
