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

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April 9, 2009 RSS Feed Print
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President Harry Truman tells radio and television audiences that he has fired Gen. Douglas MacArthur as he broadcasts from the White House in Washington.

President Harry Truman tells radio and television audiences that he has fired Gen. Douglas MacArthur as he broadcasts from the White House in Washington.

Few shared the president's certitude. Public reaction was swift and furious. "The reaction was stupendous, the outcry from the American people shattering," McCullough later wrote. Angry Republicans discussed impeaching the president. One Gallup poll showed 69 percent of Americans supported the general. Truman's own approval rating would reach 23 percent that month, and did not rise above the low thirties while he was in office. Of course, time grants perspective, and he is generally ranked as one of the near-great presidents, in part because of his strong assertion of civilian control over the rogue general.

Robert Schlesinger, deputy editor for opinion at U.S. News, is author of White House Ghosts: Presidents and Their Speechwriters.

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Harry S Truman

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MacArthur was right. He wanted to have a clear victory in Korea, to defeat the North Koreans and bring North Korea into South Korea, to create a single Korea. The Chinese interfered with the UN (American) victory because they were certain the chicken Americans would not use nuclear weapons against them.

Guess what. MacArthur would have used nuclear weapons if he had to in order to defeat the Chinese. He could have, and certainly would have destroyed the Chinese Communist regime. A different Chinese government would have been created, one that would be disposed to be friendly to the US. Maybe under Chiang Kai-Shek, maybe not.

But instead, Truman fired MacArthur, appeasing the chicken wing of the Democrat Party. Result: North Korea today has nuclear weapons and threatens to use them to destroy America. The Chinese are gearing up for a showdown with America, and are waging full-scale cyber war against us even now.

So who was right? MacArthur or Truman? My opinion: MacArthur was a national hero, one of the very greatest Americans in American history. Truman was a traitor, and should have been put on trial for his life. The danger that confronts America today was generated by the firing of Gen. MacArthur.

Don Pirie Cass of AZ 11:32AM February 20, 2013

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

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