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Truman Firing of MacArthur Hurt Approval Rating but Saved War With Red China

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At that point in history, we might have been ready to obliterate China, but such a power vacuum would have either sucked Russia down or us into Asia as caretakers, or a little of both.
Yeah, maybe both Patton and MacArthur were right, but it's anyone's guess if the world would have been better off in either case.
If we get into a war with China in the next 20 years, then historians will view Truman as a myopic idiot, otherwise, the loss of life so far was limited to far below what it might have been under general hostilities.

akcita of VA 3:06PM April 11, 2012

macarthur was right about the lay of the land, from a "Risk" game perspective. the problem is\was how to attain unconditional surrender from the red chinese. too many of them then. too many now. we'd still be fighting that war, today, 60 yrs later.
we may still "win" against the chinese inspite of their population, without nukes. they are playing on our field of high finance and technological advancement. they look good right now, but if we stop hating ourselves and stop selling USA out, china will be converted to our worldview peacefully. then it will be just the old time fight over economic interests like natural resources.

mike flynn of NY 2:11PM April 11, 2012

In September, 1950, Truman could have threatened Kim Il Sung with a nuclear attack. If Kim thought he was bluffing, he could have nuked him and saved 58,000 lives of American boys. Later, MacArthur wanted to destroy the Chinese Communists, and he could have accomplished that, with the help of Gen. Curtis Lemay. Truman fired him. Today, North Korea has nuclear weapons and the capability to fire them at us. China is a formidable world power. Are you going to tell me that Truman was right? That Truman was a great President? That Truman was not a disgrace and a discredit?

Don Pirie Cass of AZ 11:08AM March 31, 2012

History has proven Korea was right war, in right place at right time. History has proven Stalin was preparing to invade all of Europe, and Truman's action made him cautious
Old men talk, young men die while politicians play war from a published poem still holds

rlandschoot of NY 5:58PM June 22, 2010

I am so glad Truman got ride of macarthur. not that i dont like macarthur he did a lot for your nashion. but how Truman could mack that call and put up with the mad populaion of the us gives me a lot of respect for this man. and the fact that later Omar Bradley (General of the Army) told Truman that this was the wrong war, wrong place, wrong time, and wrong enemy. Truman did the right thing and when people would later find that out every body went "o Truman is right ones a gain." if we would of done that war we would of had no troops in west Europ cus it would of taken all of our resorses to win the Korea and russa would of gone in and taken over europ.

jon carlson of MN 8:07PM January 21, 2010

Stephen of OH: "Any General could have done Inchon?" No, everyone was against the idea. Only MacArthur was for it and it was the complete victory he envisioned. The war could have been over right there, but Truman and his administration, and the UN decided to carry the war into North Korea and that is what brought the Chinese in.
Philippines: "our planes were mostly shot up on the ground, and his considerable army was defeated in a few months." The destruction of the planes was a tactical error of those in charge of air defense at Clark Field. Read Bartsch's "December 8th: MacArthur's Pearl Harbor." His SMALL army in the PI was a paper army in which Washington and the PI put no money into building until after July 1941 which was too late.
"For him to not just question but fight the elected government of the US, while he took an oath to take orders, was practically treason" MacArthur followed all orders except the one saying he was not allowed to speak his mind; gag order of December 6, 1950. That is why he was not court martialed when he came back, because they knew he would have roasted all of them. Even George Marshall in the Senate testimony said he was not fired because of insubordination.
"Others wanted to concentrate on a less costly route to the east, creating bases to bomb Japan with" MacArthur lost less men in the entire two year New Guinea campaign than US lost in the Battle of the Bulge.
Muser: "that China wanted to perpetuate and support North Korea back then. Here we are in the 21st century, China is trying to modernize every way it can, and North Korea is at once a backwater of poverty and also one of the world's biggest pains in the butt. I'll bet in many ways the Chinese now care little about whether Truman was right or MacArthur was right---but regret their own decisions regarding NK."
North Korea is a backwater, but its military is NOT. China is trying to modernize, yes but it's military more than anything and they threaten Taiwan every day. China lost more than a half million men in Korea. Think they've forgotten that?
Pablo of TN: "MacArthur's legacy is the failed mess he created in Korea that still remains a problem" That HE created?! 40 years of Japanese Occupation, Kim Il Sung, and Syngman Rhee created that mess in Korea not MacArthur. He also stated very clearly if they didn't fix it then it would haunt us 50 years later. Prescient
MacArthur constantly called for the unification of command and thought divided command was a disaster. The war in the Pacific was expected to go on until 1948. It ended three years early.
It is you sir that is the REVISIONIST

James of VA of VA 4:15PM January 13, 2010

In the paragraph that begins, "Several days," is the following sentence correct?
"Vice President Alben Barkley and Supreme Court Chief Justice Fred Vinson advocated Marshall's firing."
Did the author mean Marshall or MacArthur? My reading is the latter person.

John M Shaw of OR 6:13PM May 07, 2009

MacArthur was not the great general he and his Republicans supporters want us to believe.
While his Inchon invasion in Korea did surprise the Reds and push them back this was not brain surgery, many generals could have done this.
But MacArthur was clearly aware that the Japanese probably would suddenly attack the Phillipines and he was asleep at the wheel, our planes were mostly shot up on the ground, and his considerable army was defeated in a few months.
It was his EGO that therefore led him to go back to the Phillipines, as if HE was going to save them! Others wanted to concentrate on a less costly route to the east, creating bases to bomb Japan with, which was much more critical to winning [and our submarines].
MacArthur was in a sense a role model for the right wing nuts who wanted to take over the US. For him to not just question but fight the elected government of the US, while he took an oath to take orders, was practically treason! But he was made into a hero by conservatives like the nasty Joe McCarthy.
You have to wonder if all of the odd things about the JFK assassination, and the military-industrial complex connections [which Eisenhower feared], were related to the extremist allies of MacArthur. Including Nixon, who just happened [!?!], to be in Dallas the day before!

Stephen of OH 3:03AM April 12, 2009

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Seymour Galancia of IN 10:46PM April 11, 2009

that China wanted to perpetuate and support North Korea back then. Here we are in the 21st century, China is trying to modernize every way it can, and North Korea is at once a backwater of poverty and also one of the world's biggest pains in the butt.
I'll bet in many ways the Chinese now care little about whether Truman was right or MacArthur was right---but regret their own decisions regarding NK.

Muser of NM 12:44PM April 11, 2009