01 The Battle of Chosin Lake led to a historical case
At the beginning of the Korean War, MacArthur, then commander of the "United Nations Army", once had a passage that was well known to people on both camps, that is, "fight the Yalu River before Christmas." Of course, MacArthur quickly paid the price for his remarks, and his face was crackled.
In mid-to-late November 1950, the United Nations Eighth Army and the U.S. First Marine Division were divided by the Volunteer Army and surrounded by the Volunteers at Hagaru-ri and Liutan-ri on the shores of Chosin Lake.
(U.S. forces in the Battle of Chosin Lake)
After the end of the war, the "United Nations Army" that participated in the war paid a total of more than 30,000 casualties, and the United Nations army approaching the border between China and North Korea was forced to shrink its front. The volunteers seized the fighters and followed them southward, recapturing cities such as Pyongyang, which had been occupied by U.S. and South Korean troops.
The failure of the US side at Chosin Lake has aroused dissatisfaction and condemnation against MacArthur in the United States, among which MacArthur's words that "hit the Yalu River before Christmas" have been repeatedly quoted.
However, in his private memoirs after the war, MacArthur strenuously denied that he had said such a thing, and he also believed that it was a misunderstanding and framed by the press. So the question is, did MacArthur ever say anything that would make him punch in the face quickly? Is there a public misunderstanding about him?
02 MacArthur wants to cover up
First, let's look at how MacArthur defended himself in his personal memoirs.
"I spent a full five hours inspecting the front-line positions. In conversation with the officers, I brought up General Bradley's wish that China would not intervene in the war and that two divisions would be withdrawn from the country before Christmas. My words were distorted by the press as a prophecy of victory, and this false misinterpretation later became a powerful propaganda weapon to suppress me."
This passage from MacArthur's memoirs is interesting and gives an ambiguous feel. First of all, he cleverly shifted the question of whether he had said "fight until Christmas before Christmas" to "General Bradley's wish", meaning that whatever he said, he was actually specifically relaying the thoughts of others.
Second, when he expressed the "wish" of the American general, he did not deny that he did have a similar view of "withdrawing the American troops of the two divisions to the country before Christmas". The premise for deciding whether he will do so is "if China does not intervene in the war." Here, MacArthur's defense vaguely reveals to us a kind of information, that is, MacArthur himself, and even the US military and political circles at that time, generally underestimated the confidence and strength of China, which had experienced civil war, to send troops to aid the DPRK again. However, what MacArthur did not expect was that his lame defense not only did not let him get rid of the problem of being ridiculed, but "drew darker and darker".
The contents of MacArthur's memoirs feel unreliable, and not only in this place. After the battle of Chosin Lake, China sent troops to aid the DPRK, and laid an ambush circle on Chosin Lake, and the fact that the US army was caught off guard could not be more obvious, and MacArthur actually twisted it to "take the initiative to attack the north and disrupt the deployment arrangements of the Chinese army." My God, people's deployment arrangements are to wait for a fierce battle with you!
It can be seen that MacArthur said that "it is more likely to hit the Yalu River before Christmas".
(MacArthur at the time of the Incheon landings, second from right)
03 MacArthur's light enemy remarks are real hammers
Coincidentally, MacArthur's big words even reached the ears of his opponent at the time, General Peng Dehuai, the commander of the Chinese Volunteer Army. General Peng Dehuai recalled:
"(1950) In mid-November, MacArthur was reconnaissance by plane, and his headquarters broadcast to his subordinates: 'Step up your preparations, hit the Yalu River, and go back for Christmas.'" Our army judged that the enemy was about to attack, and everything was ready..."
(General Peng Dehuai on the Korean battlefield)
A key message is mentioned in General Peng Dehuai's memoirs, that is, MacArthur's big words may not only be mentioned in "informal conversations with officers", but even written into the official orders of the headquarters to subordinates. MacArthur's words "hit the Yalu River before Christmas" seemed to be a hammer.
However, for the sake of safety, we also have to look at the memories of other relevant personnel within the US military to confirm it.
Joseph Goulden, an American scholar who has long been engaged in intelligence analysis, according to his collection of Pentagon War documents and other content analysis shows that MacArthur in the army communiqué at that time clearly proposed to hit the Yalu River before Christmas and then withdraw the army to the country, whether this is to boost morale or MacArthur himself is big, it is a foregone conclusion. The main reason why he dared to write such a blank cheque was that MacArthur always lacked a comprehensive understanding of the Chinese volunteer army.
(A part of the U.S. army that is caught in the circle of volunteers and is trying to seize the commanding heights)
MacArthur had always thought that his opponents were only 30,000 men, and only stopped at the mountains in the northern part of the Korean Peninsula, but what he did not know was that when the Battle of Chosin Lake began, the Chinese army that entered Korea was ten times as large as 30,000. Now, MacArthur is not only conceited, he has also made the last mistake a mature commander should make, that is, to take the enemy lightly.
In conversations between MacArthur and New York Herald Tribune reporter Margaret Higgins after the Chosin Lake war, MacArthur himself regretted his remarks that "end the war before Christmas," believing that it was a mistake to issue such an overly optimistic communiqué in advance. And similar remarks he himself made in informal settings made him the target of public criticism.
Admittedly, judging from MacArthur's landings at Inchon in the early days of the Pacific War and the Korean War, MacArthur himself was a general, with outstanding military talent and imagination, but with such a special talent was accompanied by his big mouth. It is strange that the press, an organization that is extremely sensitive to information, does not pick the fault in his words.
It is worth mentioning that the fact that the defeat of Chosin Lake ruined the unmistakable victory did not seem to have made MacArthur restrain.
Soon, he had a dispute with U.S. President Harry Truman over the bombing of Chinese territory on the yalu River, inviting Chiang Kai-shek from Taiwan to invade Korea, and whether the United States would use nuclear weapons against China. Truman did not want to expand the Korean War, much less to burn it into China. In order to prevent MacArthur from making up his own mind, he began to increase the scrutiny of MacArthur's major military orders.
in Truman
As a head of state, Truman always wanted to give himself plenty of room to maneuver in advance, rather than beating him to death with a stick everywhere, making wishes or promising things, which was very different from MacArthur's style. As a result, MacArthur soon had a conflict with the White House that was almost impossible to reconcile.
As a result, MacArthur was fired and replaced by Ridgway. MacArthur finally paid the price for his reckless behavior.