At noon on April 11, 1951, MacArthur, who was entertaining guests to dinner at a party at the Tokyo mansion, suddenly saw his lieutenant running in from outside crying. Then MacArthur heard a message that was almost a thunderbolt on a sunny day: "General, you have been dismissed by the president!" ”
General MacArthur: I deeply regret that I have had to do my part as President and Commander-in-Chief of the United States Armed Forces to remove you from your posts as Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces, Commander-in-Chief of the United Nations Forces, Commander-in-Chief of the Far East and Commander-in-Chief of the United States Army in the Far East.
A five-star general who personally ended the Pacific War, the commander-in-chief of the "United Nations Army" in the Far East, was dismissed from his post on the spot? I think this is unbelievable to anyone. MacArthur was certainly no exception. He paused for a moment, but quickly returned to his senses, and then calmly and gently said to his wife next to him, "Joanie, I think we can finally go home." ”
When the news of MacArthur's ouster reached the United States, the American people were of course shocked, how could the heroes of the Past America end up in this fate now? On April 18, 1951, when MacArthur returned to Washington, he was greeted with a heroic welcome in Washington. The next day, he delivered his famous "Veterans Don't Die" speech:
I am coming to the end of fifty-two years of military service. When I joined the army, it was before the beginning of this century, and it was the fulfillment of my childhood hopes and dreams. The world has changed many times since I took the oath on the coaching ground at West Point, and hopes and dreams have long since vanished, but I still remember one of the most popular barracks ballads of that day, the song that proudly declared "Veterans will never die, only slowly wither away".
It has to be said that MacArthur's debate was first-rate, and the "Veterans Don't Die" speech deeply touched Americans. On that day, MacArthur's speech was interrupted by at least fifty rounds of applause. People flocked to MacArthur and protested Against Truman's sanctions against MacArthur. Demonstrations in many cities erupted in support of MacArthur and against Truman, and even four state legislatures passed resolutions demanding that Truman take back his life... In this case, Truman's approval rating fell to 26 percent at one point, which forced him to abandon his re-election campaign for president. (The U.S. president's re-election mechanism could ignore the two-term limit in times of war, when the Korean War was still in a stalemate period.) ）
The removal of a general threatens the authority of the president. From this, we can see how strong MacArthur's personal strength, influence, and eloquence were, and how challenging the decision to remove MacArthur was.
So what made Truman determined to remove MacArthur?
It was MacArthur himself.
MacArthur's arrogance and conceit caused the Korean War to move again and again toward a situation that the United States did not want to see. There is a saying that "there will be rain in the sky, and there will be disaster in the madness of man", how did MacArthur let himself fall down step by step in the position of "King of the Far East"?
MacArthur
MacArthur was extremely talented in the military field, and it could even be said that he was a military genius. At West Point that year, MacArthur achieved the best result since the school's founding — 98.43 points. Later, Marshall, who was also a five-star general, was a very poor student at West Point at that time, and was often bullied by his classmates to clean the toilet.
In World War I, MacArthur was already a brigadier general in 1918, and after the end of World War II, he was promoted to five-star general, and he was the only "brigadier general" in the United States to participate in two world wars. Although he was the only five-star american general in World War II, MacArthur seemed to be unconvinced. For example, when he often saw Marshall (also a five-star general), he deliberately wore a Congressional Medal of Honor that Marshall did not have, and then according to the rules, Marshall saluted him first, and then he returned the salute. As for Eisenhower, MacArthur did not seem to be very cold, he once said that the Normandy landing was purely dependent on more people, and his own Inchon landing was the real technology to win more with less.
After Japan's surrender, MacArthur took control of Japan. At that time, the status of the Japanese emperor in Japan was very high, known as an inaccessible god, so Japanese officials repeatedly warned MacArthur not to have physical contact with the emperor. However, in MacArthur's eyes, the Japanese emperor was a defeated general, Emperor Hirohito saw MacArthur for the first time, MacArthur immediately reached forward to shake hands with the emperor, Hirohito was stunned, no one dared to shake hands with him before, so he stiffly shook hands with MacArthur. Before the handshake was over, MacArthur forced Hirohito to issue a "on earth" declaration within a few days, openly acknowledging that the emperor was not a god at all, but a mortal.
In short, no matter who you are, in MacArthur's eyes, all of them are mortal with naked eyes, and he is the real "king". However, MacArthur, who had been mad for most of his life, could not imagine that the last thing that made him "fall" was the Chinese Volunteer Army, which was not worth mentioning in his eyes. This time, MacArthur's arrogance did not win him applause and dignity, but in exchange for one defeat after another, so that MacArthur was even a little impatient in the end, disobeying the command of the President of the United States, trying to expand the scale of the war without authorization, and finally Causing Truman to have to remove him.
After the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950, the United States announced its formal involvement in the Korean War. By the end of September, the U.S. military had largely recovered the lands that had fallen to South Korea, restoring the Korean Peninsula to its pre-war pattern.
At that time, Truman knew very well that North Korea's fight against South Korea was ultimately a national civil war, and if the United States rushed to attack North Korea with the "United Nations Army" across the 38th Line, it would mean invasion. With the support of the Soviet Union and China behind North Korea, the invasion of North Korea is very likely to trigger the entry of China and the Soviet Union into the war, and the scale of the war will expand, which may lead to World War III. The Soviet Union had the ability to burn the flames of war to the United States, and the United States did not want to easily provoke this behemoth.
However, MacArthur was overwhelmed by victory and was bent on unifying the entire Korean Peninsula. (You know, by September 15, 1950, 90 percent of South Korea had fallen, and after the U.S. landing at Inchon, only half a month later, on October 1, the front was pushed to the 38th line, and South Korea was almost completely "recovered.") ）
MacArthur believed that the Korean People's Army was vulnerable, and as long as it was fast enough, the Soviet Union had no time to help, and the whole of Korea had been taken by itself. By then, the Soviet Union had no choice. As for the new China, MacArthur did not pay attention to it at all, believing that the country that had just been established from the ruins of the war could not dare to openly oppose the United States.
MacArthur's ideas influenced U.S. decision-making, and many favored sending troops north of the 38th Parallel, after all, the United States was invincible in the just-concluded World War II. But Truman was sober, warning MacArthur that only if China and the Soviet Union did not enter the war could they cross the 38th Parallel to attack North Korea.
On October 1, 1950, MacArthur commanded the United Nations Army to pounce north across the 38th Parallel, clamoring for an end to the battle before Thanksgiving (November 24, 1950).
By this time, China had already deployed 300,000 border guards on the north bank of the Yalu River, and some anti-aircraft artillery units had already entered the North Korean side in August. Such a large-scale deployment of troops was impossible for the U.S. Air Force, which often bombed cities and infrastructure on the Chinese side for no reason at that time, without reason. At that time, U.S. President Harry Truman suggested that MacArthur return home to renegotiate, but MacArthur did not want to change the plan, so he said that he was too busy to go back, and Truman had to condescend to go to Wake Island in the Pacific Ocean to meet with MacArthur.
At the meeting, Truman asked MacArthur: What are the possibilities of China and the Soviet Union sending troops?
MacArthur replied: It is unlikely that the Soviets will come, although China has moved, but the Chinese army has no aircraft, the equipment is very poor, the possibility of sending troops is very small, even if it is to come, at most it will be fifty or sixty thousand people, not less than fear.
Subsequently, Truman warned MacArthur that the United States only wanted a limited war on the Korean Peninsula.
MacArthur couldn't listen to this at all. He believes that China has placed heavy troops on the border and warned the United States countless times, which is nothing more than scaring people and a kind of "diplomatic blackmail." China does not dare to send troops at all, so why talk about unlimited war?
On October 25, 1950, under the command of Peng Dehuai, the Volunteer Army not only sent troops, but also immediately launched a surprise attack on the "United Nations Army" as soon as it entered the DPRK, driving the "United Nations Army" south of the Cheongcheon River, and also smashing MacArthur's arrogant "Thanksgiving Offensive".
It is reasonable to say that the Chinese army fought a victorious battle as soon as it entered the DPRK and defeated the vigor of the US army, and as the commander-in-chief, MacArthur should pay attention to it. However, MacArthur was MacArthur after all, and not only did he not pay attention to it, but instead flew to the Korean front line in a high-profile plane to personally inspect the condolences and condolences, and together with The commander of the US Eighth Army, Walker, and others formulated the "Christmas Offensive", and loudly announced to the officers and soldiers and reporters present:
"I've sent a package ticket to the lads' families and let them go home for christmas!"
A commander-in-chief who experienced a defeat and, instead of reflecting, showdowned his next battle plan directly to reporters, and we can imagine how arrogant MacArthur was at that time.
According to MacArthur's "Christmas Offensive", Peng Dehuai quickly formulated a second battle plan, taking advantage of the disadvantage of the "coalition forces" divided into two roads to intersperse and divide them, killing and wounding more than 36,000 enemy prisoners in the first battle, and directly advancing the front to the vicinity of the 38th Line. Walker, commander of the U.S. Eighth Army, was killed on the way back. This time, MacArthur had lost so badly that he angrily demanded the use of an atomic bomb on North Korea, but Truman had already had the idea of an armistice.
In December 1950, Ridgway took over as Walker as commander of the Eighth Army. After Ridgway took office, he found the defects in the supply of the volunteer army, summed up the prayer offensive and magnetic tactics, so that the "United Nations Army" recaptured Seoul, returned to the 38th Line, and gradually gained a foothold in the Korean battlefield, which was a little face for MacArthur. At this time, Truman believed that the front line had returned to pre-war and that it was possible to propose armistice negotiations at one time.
But Ridgway's arrival made MacArthur instantly feel like he was doing it again. Ignoring Truman's intention to cease war, he ordered his army to attack directly across the 38th Parallel to the north, intending to expand the war and make the negotiations aborted. In addition, it is proposed that atomic bombs or radioactive nuclear waste may be used when necessary to achieve their objectives.
At the time, MacArthur's ideas directly frightened the U.S. government and their allies, truman had always insisted that the Korean War was a limited war, and now that the volunteer army was getting stronger and stronger, the Soviet Union was also more and more supplied, and if MacArthur played, sooner or later it would be a third world war. So Truman was so displeased that he told MacArthur again that he wanted to negotiate an armistice with China, and then MacArthur withdrew to Japan.
Hearing that he was going to retreat, MacArthur not only did not want to be a hundred, but he also said to the outside world:
These scheming Pentagon guys are going to give the blame for the retreat from North Korea to others. There is no doubt that the retreat from North Korea is disgraceful. These guys, they don't want to fight with China, and they don't want to take responsibility for retreat. It was clear that MacArthur by this time had completely ignored the president and the Pentagon.
Even more incredibly, the NSA at the time detected a telegram from the ambassadors of Spain and Portugal to Tokyo from their respective governments. The cable contained talking points from MacArthur and the ambassadors to Japan. Among them, MacArthur used extremely harsh predictions against the U.S. government, saying that he could expand the ongoing Korean War into a large-scale war that would completely eliminate Communist China. He also said that if such a thing happened, the Spanish and Portuguese governments should not be alarmed, and as for the Soviet Union, it would certainly ignore it for fear of getting involved in the war.
This telegram fully shows that MacArthur at this time was not only arrogant, but had been carried away, completely disobeying Washington's command, and taking the national fortunes of the United States for a moment. Truman read the telegram and was furious. His chin tightened, and his open palm slammed against the table. He saw it as a complete betrayal: "This disobedient, pretentious old guy must pay for it."
A few days later, in the face of MacArthur, he intensified his advocacy of war. Truman summoned Secretary of State Acheson, Secretary of Defense Marshall, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Bradley to his office, making it clear that MacArthur must be removed. Unexpectedly, everyone present unanimously agreed, saying: "It is long overdue."
Immediately afterward, Truman called the meeting, and he said angrily:
"The only thing I can say now is that I was deeply shocked. I never underestimated the difficulties between me and MacArthur, but since the Wake Island meeting, I had counted on him to respect the president's authority. I realized that I myself had no choice but to dismiss the nation's supreme battlefield commander. ”
At noon on April 11, 1951, MacArthur was entertaining guests at a party at his residence when his aide-de-camp suddenly burst into tears and told him the unfortunate news: "General, you have been dismissed by the president!" ”
General General Douglas MacArthur: I deeply regret that I have to do my part as President and Commander-in-Chief of the United States Armed Forces to remove you from your posts as Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces, Commander-in-Chief of the United Nations Forces, Commander-in-Chief of the Far East and Commander-in-Chief of the United States Army in the Far East. Your command will be given to Matthew Lieutenant General B. Ridgway, effective immediately. You have the right to issue the commands necessary to complete your planned trip to the location of your choice.
"There will be rain in the sky, and there will be misfortune in the madness of man", MacArthur's arrogance reached its peak when his power and prestige were at its peak, but in the end, he also paid a heavy price for his arrogance, and there was no regret.