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At 3 p.m. on April 10, 1951, then-U.S. President Harry S. Truman formally signed MacArthur's dismissal order, ordering Secretary of war Frank Pace, who was inspecting the front line, to hand over the dismissal order to MacArthur at 10:00 a.m. Tokyo time on April 12 (10:00 p.m. Washington time on April 11).
After signing the dismissal order, Truman breathed a long sigh of relief, and he finally no longer had to endure the embarrassment that five-star General MacArthur had given Washington again and again.
MacArthur, as the supreme commander of the Allied forces in Japan and a five-star general of the Army, repeatedly publicly expressed dissatisfaction with Truman, the commander of the three us armed forces, and even deliberately did not carry out government orders outside the battlefield, and publicly issued declarations that were inconsistent with the United States' policies toward foreign countries.
In the battlefield, it was even more defeated, and throughout the Korean War, MacArthur, in addition to the prominent inching of the Inchon landing, can be said to be lackluster in overall military use, arrogant and arrogant in the early stage, once clamoring to end the war before Christmas and let "the children go home for Christmas." ”
MacArthur, after being brutally beaten by the Volunteer Army's Second Campaign, fell to the other extreme, and MacArthur believed that his defeat was caused by the refusal of the Truman administration to bomb The Chinese mainland, and he insisted on expanding the war, bombing military bases in northeast China, and even using atomic bombs.
After the death of Lieutenant General Walker, commander of the Eighth Army, Ridgway took over the Eighth Army and fought back and forth with the Volunteers in the Third and Fourth Battles, saving the United Nations army from a rout.
At this time, MacArthur wanted to compete with Ridgway, and on the one hand, he openly attacked Truman's war policy, and on the other hand, he belittled Ridgway's achievements, calling the tactics of Ridgway's volunteer army's offensive retreat "accordion-style tactics."
He even confessed in an interview that he despised Ridgway as his "worst commander." Then, while asking for credit for himself, he trumpeted that the return of the UN army to the 38th Line was "a huge victory"...
Caption: Ridgway
On January 28, 1951, just a day before Ridgway was preparing to launch a counterattack, MacArthur suddenly flew into Suwon and said to reporters: "It was here that I started the holy war seven months ago. The goal we are now striving for is not just the Korean Peninsula, but a free Asia. ”
British journalists immediately published MacArthur's wild remarks in a London newspaper.
This made the British government at that time very uneasy, and the British war with the United States was mainly two ideas, one was that the Chinese soldiers in their minds were weak in combat and easily defeated; the other was that the United States only launched a small local war, and Britain could rub both fame and profit.
But MacArthur's words and the strong combat strength of the volunteer army made the British keenly realize that MacArthur did not only want to fight a local war, but wanted to fight a full-scale war against China and even the Soviet Union, which was not a british demand for war.
Caption: MacArthur and Ridgway in 1951
But for MacArthur, the "hand-to-hand" war he had boasted a few months earlier had turned into a rout in his own hands, and such a "general who never made a mistake" was toyed with by the volunteers! What's more, the army that was defeated in his hands was in the hands of Ridgway, but it was able to fight on an equal footing with the volunteer army, which further showed his incompetence and failure.
So MacArthur arrived "just in time" in Suwon before Ridgway went to war, and "just in time" he issued an order for an all-out attack in front of the reporter's eyes.
Richie wrote in his memoirs: His vanity left me speechless, and the MacArthur in my heart was beyond recognition!
On March 7, 1951, MacArthur held a press conference and publicly said that he was under severe, even abnormal, restrictions from Washington!
Photo note: Truman (right) and MacArthur (left) on October 14, 1950
After MacArthur openly undermined U.S. policy of peace talks with China on March 20, Truman could no longer stand MacArthur's arrogance, and Truman's daughter recalled that when Truman saw MacArthur's statement, he was furious!
Truman said: MacArthur's statement prevented us from transmitting any information to Chinese, he blocked the ceasefire and peace talks that began immediately, and I really wanted to kick him into the Yellow Sea!
Truman also criticized MacArthur in more vehement rhetoric in private: "I want to be the emperor of the Far East!" He forgot that he was just a general, and he had to be under the command of the President of the United States. ”
The next day Truman held a high-level meeting to discuss the lifting of MacArthur's order!
The New York Times on April 11, 1951, had a front-page headline that reported Truman's removal of MacArthur, with three lines headlined "Truman dismisses MacArthur from all positions; finding him unable to support U.S. and United Nations policies; Ridgway takes over as Far East Command.",
At 3 p.m. on April 10, 1951, Truman formally signed MacArthur's dismissal order, asking Secretary of war Frank Pace, who was inspecting the front line, to hand over the dismissal order to MacArthur.
When Ridgway came to Tokyo on April 12 to take over the command, MacArthur did not even know why he told Ridgway that a prominent medical figure had told him that the president had malignant hypertension, a disease characterized by brain confusion and confusion, and that the medical scientist told himself that the president would not live for six months...
When Ridgway left an hour later, the man who felt confused was not Truman but MacArthur!
After hearing the news of MacArthur's dismissal, the media around the world responded to the matter.
Photo note: Japanese media reported that MacArthur was removed from his post
The socialist state camps were much the same, arguing that MacArthur had been removed from office because of defeat and admiring the victory of China and North Korea.
The Soviet newspaper "Literature" commented on this time: "Although the United States has replaced the defeated generals, Washington is not going to abandon their risky military policy!" ”
Both the Chinese and North Korean media announced MacArthur's dismissal: "In the war of aggression against Korea, macArthur, commander-in-chief of the US Far East Army, stepped down, which is a victory for the Chinese and DPRK people in their struggle against US aggression." ”
Photo note: People's Daily report on MacArthur's ouster
A media outlet in Budapest, Czech Republic, should be happy about the dismissal of MacArthur, an "executioner with blood on his hands, a murderous, bloodthirsty fascist."
On the contrary, the attitude of the government and the media in Western countries is very interesting.
For example, when British Foreign Secretary Herbert Morris announced the news of MacArthur's removal from the House of Commons, the entire House of Commons erupted in cheers.
The London News Chronicle, a Media Outlet in London, England, published a pun on an editorial saying: Truman finally grabbed the bull's horn and launched it into the porcelain (china) shop!
Photo note: British soldiers captured by volunteers in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea
It seems that MacArthur's arrogance and attempt to launch an all-out war made the British also very worried, after all, britain, which had experienced two major wars, had little capital left.
France's Frankfurter Zeitung said in a very exaggerated tone that when a celebrity like MacArthur fell, "the whole world stopped breathing." ”
But in the United States, public opinion is diametrically opposed to the orders of the U.S. government.
Because of the long-term public opinion since World War II, MacArthur in the minds of the Americans was a hero who participated in the First World War, leading the American army and the Allies to defeat the wise commander of Japan, and launching the Inchon landing to save the great commander of the US army and South Korea in one fell swoop!
Photo note: On April 19, 1951, general Douglas MacArthur, who had been removed from his post, addressed a joint session of Congress
Now the president has removed such a talented general? Ordinary Americans did not understand, and the Republican Party immediately took the opportunity to begin the attack on Truman.
Time magazine quickly published an article arguing that MacArthur was "a great man who led a large following", that Truman was no more than a "standard professional villain", and that now "it is absolutely unheard of for a person who is extremely undesirable to fire a very popular person." ”
The New York Daily News said that MacArthur's dismissal was like: "The general's armor spread out the arrows fired by the enemy, and the sharp blade from his back was inserted into his back..."
Caption: MacArthur was cheered in New York
When the dismissed MacArthur arrived in New York, 7 million Americans were said to have taken to the streets to welcome MacArthur, more than when Eisenhower returned from a victory in World War II.
There are media reports: the people are extremely dissatisfied because the president fired a general, which may be the craziest ever.
The Los Angeles City Council even adjourned the meeting to express its "grief over MacArthur's political murder."
Rallies against Truman erupted in the states, leaflets were distributed, and boos erupted against Truman as he attended the event...
On October 14, 1950, on Wake Island in the central Pacific, President Truman pinned the Distinguished Service Medal on General Douglas MacArthur's shirt to reward MacArthur's Incheon landing program, watched by John J. Muccio, the U.S. ambassador to South Korea. It was during this meeting that MacArthur assured Truman that the war was coming to an end and that the possibility of Chinese intervention was "very small."
The New York City government also specifically found planes to spell out the words "Good job, welcome home" in the air with smoke
Another senator said directly: Our country is in a small circle of secret accusations by the Soviet Union, and the only thing we have to do is to impeach Truman.
But an arrogant man like MacArthur was not a political opponent at all.
Caption: MacArthur's report on his return to New York
Truman collected MacArthur's black materials while preparing for the long MacArthur hearing, and with the members of the Board of Staff, Marshall, Acheson and other heavyweight members attending the hearing, MacArthur's glorious image of being shaped by public opinion was long gone, and the speech of Bradley, the chairman of the United States Board of Staff, directly gave MacArthur a fatal blow.
Bradley said: If we carry out MacArthur's plan to expand the war, then it will make the United States at the wrong time, in the wrong place, and the wrong enemy waging a wrong war!
Text/Take history as a mirror
Graph/Network
References/
The Coldest Winter: The Korean War through the Eyes of Americans
The Korean War: The Untold Truth