Text | Shi Hai Documentary
Edited by | Shi Hai Documentary
On April 10, 1951, U.S. President Harry S. Truman signed a document, which was addressed to MacArthur, the commander-in-chief of the "United Nations Army" at the time, telling him that he had been removed from his post. What made Truman not hesitate to take this "five-star general" directly to the end?
MacArthur
It all started with the Korean War, which you may not know was when the United States tried to use the atomic bomb, and MacArthur was a staunch supporter at the time.
On June 25, 1950, the Korean War broke out, North Korea directly beat the South Korean army without the ability to fight back, to know that the South Korean army at that time was the same American weaponry, but also received American training, but it was such an army, which they have always looked down on the Korean People's Army pressed to the ground and rubbed, which made the United States a little unacceptable.
MacArthur flew to South Korea for the first time, and seeing the defeated soldiers in South Korea, MacArthur did nothing and went directly to Japan, and as soon as he arrived in Japan, he said that he would propose to the president to send two US military divisions.
In fact, before this, the United States had already sent the US Air Force stationed in Japan to cross the 38th Line to help the South Korean army, but what they did not expect was that the South Korean army could not help fighting, which made the United States realize that if it did not move, South Korea would be destroyed sooner or later.
After that, the US military sent troops to form a "United Nations Army" to directly defeat North Korea, and at the same time, it also caused trouble on our northeastern border and sent planes to bomb it; in the face of the unreasonable provocation of the US military, Chairman Mao made the decision to "resist the United States and aid Korea and defend the country" and decided to send volunteers to fight in korea.
From the moment the U.S. military was dispatched, MacArthur showed his arrogance and arrogance, and even made wild remarks on many occasions, saying that he would end the battle before Christmas and take such an American guy home for Christmas.
As a result, his words became a joke, his so-called "Christmas Offensive" was beaten to pieces in front of the volunteers, and in just over a month, the "United Nations Army" was killed, wounded, and captured by more than 36,000 people, including 24,000 American troops, and the "United Nations Army" was directly driven by the volunteers to the vicinity of the 38th Line.
The defeat on the battlefield made this arrogant "five-star general" lose face and think of the atomic bomb as a great weapon, so the question is, how did Chairman Mao and Truman react to MacArthur's desire to use the atomic bomb? What does the United States do?
In fact, the United States has long had this consideration, when the DPRK was defeated and retreated, the United States was considering whether China would send troops to support, so it also deployed B-29 bombers at the US military base on Guam, Japan, in order to deter us, but we did not eat this set, or sent a large army into the DPRK to fight.
The defeat in the Korean battlefield caused an uproar in the United States, and the use of atomic bombs for a time was incessant, and Truman began to think about this problem.
Truman
When asked about North Korea on November 30, 1950, Truman said he would take any necessary measures to deal with the North Korean issue. As soon as this remark came out, it caused an uproar in the whole audience, any measures? Does that include the atomic bomb? All the media outlets covered it all at once.
MacArthur was thrilled to hear the news, as he was a staunch atomic bomb user and even submitted a nuclear strike plan to Congress. Although the U.S. military has made this public, the U.S. Army archives declassified after the war prove it.
In 1950, MacArthur submitted a list of "retarded targets" that would involve the use of atomic bombs, which, according to his estimation, would require 26 atomic bombs, 4 bombs of "enemy offensive forces," 4 attacks on "important staging areas of enemy air forces," and the rest of the radial belts along the Yalu River between China and North Korea.
I have to say that MacArthur is really crazy, is he not afraid of causing a new round of world war and nuclear war? You must know that at that time, it was not only the United States that had atomic bombs, but also the Soviet Union. In response to the arrogant remarks of the United States, the Soviet Union lodged a strong protest, and even proposed that "bombs can also be used as bombs in return."
Soviet atomic bomb
The U.S. idea, while a little unrealistic, did so anyway.
In December, at Truman's behest, the U.S. military secretly transported a dismantled atomic bomb to the Far East and placed it on an aircraft carrier accompanied by a number of atomic bomb experts.
For the madness of the United States, the first thing that can not sit still is his allies, of which the United Kingdom reacted most fiercely, and more than 100 British Labor Party MPs jointly sent a letter to British Prime Minister Attlee, asking him to personally go to the United States to talk to Truman and must stop the Idea of the United States using the atomic bomb.
The main reason why britain reacted so violently was that the U.S. military had already deployed B-29 bombers in Britain at that time, and if the United States used atomic bombs, it would mean that Britain could be bombed by the Soviet Union at any time.
British Prime Minister Attlee
Not only Britain, France, Italy and other European countries have also called Truman to let him give up, you the United States is strong, far from the Soviet Union, but our countries are not so lucky, once the fight starts, the first unlucky are these European countries.
Under pressure, Truman made a statement that "no atomic bombs would be used" and personally intervened to stop MacArthur's crazy moves, but MacArthur did not care about these, his eyes only had war, only victory, and even took Truman seriously.
On March 24, 1951, MacArthur issued a statement before Truman, which meant not to exaggerate China's military strength, China's industrial base is very weak, and it is impossible to provide the materials needed for modern warfare, etc., in a word, to expand the war to China itself.
For Truman, MacArthur's behavior is provocative, Truman's idea is to control the war in a local area on the line, really want to burn the war to China's mainland, then it will inevitably cause the whole people of China to resist, the Soviet Union may join the battlefield, then it will not be a matter of one or two countries, maybe a new round of world war will break out, this World War II has not been stable for two years and then another three wars or even nuclear war, the United States can not bear this responsibility, do not point the spearhead at itself.
Truman and MacArthur had a fundamental disagreement over the Treatment of the Korean War, and since that was the case, Truman could no longer let MacArthur do whatever he wanted.
MacArthur and Truman
On the afternoon of April 10, 1951, Truman signed two documents, one addressed to MacArthur, informing him that he had been withdrawn, and one to the news media to inform the world of the matter.
The original plan was to notify MacArthur before the announcement was made, so that he could automatically resign after seeing the document, so that everyone would look good, and it was also considered to save face for MacArthur, but who knew that there was a little problem in the middle, a sudden hail made the plane delayed, and the White House went to hold a press conference to tell the news, that is to say, MacArthur learned in the news media that he had been dismissed, which made MacArthur a little uncomfortable.
Years later, MacArthur was still indignant about the incident: Never before had a servant been so ruthlessly dismissed.
A few days later, MacArthur delivered a speech in the U.S. Congress entitled "Veterans Don't Die", and the dismissed MacArthur was "popular" because of this, which also made Truman a little embarrassed, but he did not regret removing MacArthur at all, because he was too dangerous, and if he was still in that position, God knows what would happen.
MacArthur speaks to Congress
Chairman Mao was a little scornful of the idea that the US military wanted to use the atomic bomb, and his attitude toward this was one -- "paper tigers."
On August 6, 1946, the first anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Chairman Mao was interviewed by the American journalist Strong, who asked Chairman Mao a question: What if the United States bombed the Soviet Union from bases in Iceland, Okinawa, and China? Chairman Mao confidently uttered the inspiring "Paper Tiger" declaration, which in his view was the "paper tiger" used by the United States to scare people.
Later, Strong wrote a book entitled "Chinese Conquer China," which included this interview, which also spread Chairman Mao's famous thesis that "all reactionaries are paper tigers" to the world.
This is Chairman Mao's consistent view of the atomic bomb, and Chairman Mao simply did not care about the nuclear threat of the United States, and he never believed that one or two weapons could determine the outcome of the war, even if this weapon was a powerful atomic bomb, and even pointed out the weakness of MacArthur and Truman many times.
Chairman Mao has always despised the opponent strategically, attached importance to the opponent tactically, and has a clear understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of the US military, and the advantages of the US military are more steel, which is an indisputable fact, at that time, the steel output of the United States was 144 times that of China, which was a huge gap, and more steel meant that more weapons could be built.
But there is no weakness, the first is the problem of morale, after all, this is a war of aggression, the second is the problem of supplies, the transport line is too long, the United States and South Korea are separated by the Pacific Ocean, the third is that the front line is too long, the United States has established military bases around the world, and the enemy everywhere has led to insufficient military resources.
Chairman Mao even pointed out the weakness of the United States in one word: you hit you, I hit mine, you hit the atomic bomb, I hit the grenade, seize your weakness, fight with you, and finally defeat you.
Although Chairman Mao expected that the United States would not use the atomic bomb, it is not easy to say, after all, it is always unreliable to bet our fate on whether the local government will be hot-headed, and we have also made corresponding countermeasures, such as digging tunnels in the mountains and forests in order to solve the shock wave caused by the atomic bomb explosion, digging tunnels in the mountains and forests, digging holes in straight lines into "holes in holes", and preparing sufficient materials.
History has once again proved that Chairman Mao was right, and the United States really did not dare to use the atomic bomb against China.
On the Korean battlefield, the United States used all weapons except the atomic bomb, even if MacArthur was replaced by Ridgway, to no avail, and was still pressed to the ground by our volunteers.
The frequent defeats in the North Korean battlefield have also made the United States chickens and dogs jump. In 1952, the year of the U.S. election, Eisenhower accused the Truman administration of incompetence for its defeat on the Korean battlefield, and even gave speeches everywhere, causing strong anti-war sentiment among the people.
Eisenhower
On July 27, 1953, the two sides signed an armistice at Panmunjom, ending the three-year and one-month Korean War, and the nuclear cloud hanging over North Korea disappeared.
Later, after the Korean War, Chairman Mao was determined to develop an atomic bomb, because we no longer wanted to experience such a nuclear threat, and Chairman Mao once said: We must not only have more aircraft cannons, but also have atomic bombs, and if we want to be free from bullying, we cannot do without this thing. Yes, we can not use but can not do without, if China had an atomic bomb during the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, would the United States still dare to be so arrogant? Dare to speak out about the nuclear threat?
China's first atomic bomb exploded
At 15:00 on October 16, 1964, China's first atomic bomb was successfully tested at Lop Nur, which marked that china had entered the door of the nuclear weapons club, and the Chinese people no longer had to worry about the nuclear threat, and Chinese stood up from then on.