Douglas MacArthur was one of only five "five-star generals" in the U.S. Army, one of only two servicemen to be awarded the rank of Field Marshal of the Philippines, and the only American general to have fought in all three wars: World War I, World War II, and the Korean War.
In 1950, when the Korean War broke out, MacArthur commanded the United Nations army and achieved a major victory in the Inchon Landing. However, under his command, the United Nations army crossed the 38th Parallel, and after a series of military defeats, MacArthur openly opposed Washington's decision to escalate the war across the board, culminating in his dismissal by President Truman on April 11, 1951, ending a 57-year military career. MacArthur was undoubtedly the biggest loser in the Korean War.
When the Korean War broke out in the early morning of June 25, 1950, MacArthur was awakened from his sleep to learn the news of the outbreak of the war, and his first thought was the recurrence of pearl harbor in 1941, advocating armed intervention in the Korean War.
On June 27, MacArthur was ordered to use his navy and air force to aid South Korea, and the U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet was placed under his command. On the 29th, MacArthur flew to the front line to investigate, concluding that South Korea's defense potential had been exhausted, and even if the U.S. Navy and Air Force intervened, it would not be able to stop the North Korean offensive, and then proposed to Washington that ground combat forces enter North Korea. U.S. President Harry S. Truman then authorized U.S. ground forces to intervene in the Korean War.
During the expedition, the idea of the Inchon landing to turn the tide of the war in one fell swoop had already taken shape in MacArthur's mind, but it was opposed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff because the risk of the Inchon landing was too great. MacArthur retorted that it was precisely because of Incheon's shortcomings that the Korean army could not anticipate the U.S. military to take this action, citing the Seven Years' War battle of Abraham Plains as an example, and that the Inchon landing was a "five-thousand-to-one gamble" but he was willing to gamble. In view of MacArthur's great prestige, the Joint Chief of Staff could not directly repudiate MacArthur, so it sent Admiral Collins, Chief of Staff of the Army, and Admiral Sherman, Chief of Naval Operations, to Tokyo to negotiate with MacArthur, who forced the Joint Staff to submit and approved the Inchon landing plan with his eloquent remarks and personal honors.
MacArthur won the bet, and not only were the Defenses empty in the Inchon and Seoul areas, but the fortifications on Tsukimi Island at the mouth of Incheon had just begun, and one wave was conquered by the First Marine Division. On September 15, the US 1st Marine Division successfully landed at Inchon, killing only 21 men that day. The Situation in Korea took a sharp turn for the worse. In less than half a month, the US army advanced to the 38th line. The Inchon landings reversed the defeat of North Korea, and MacArthur's prestige was taken to a higher level, and he had the right to speak about the Korean war. The Incheon landing was a major victory for MacArthur and the culmination of his military career.
However, as MacArthur's self-confidence was inflated by the success of the Inchon landings, and Washington was also affected by his exaggerated war reports, Truman approved the "military operations north of the 38th Parallel." On October 15, Truman, who was relegated to the presidency, flew over the Pacific Ocean to Wake Island to meet with MacArthur to discuss the situation in Asia. It was Truman's first and only meeting with MacArthur in five and a half years on the job.
MacArthur assured Truman in person that "the war in Korea is won and that China will not send troops" and firmly believed that the war would end before Thanksgiving.
Truman went to Wake Island to meet with MacArthur in order to understand MacArthur's views on the situation in North Korea and to confirm that China and the Soviet Union would not intervene. At the same time, the United States is approaching a midterm election, and Truman also wants to use the victory in the Korean battlefield and MacArthur's prestige to win votes.
Truman had offered to meet macarthur in the United States or Hawaii, but MacArthur was reluctant, saying that he did not like to fly at night and did not want to go far, so Truman agreed to set the meeting on Wake Island. Despite Truman's huge compromises, MacArthur was unhappy with the meeting and was in a bad mood on his way to Wake Island. He complained to his fellow ambassador to Korea, John Joseph Musio, that "it was a waste of time to be called so far away for [Truman's] political reasons," and argued that Truman should come to him (Tokyo).
When sending Off Truman on Wake Island, MacArthur asked Truman if he would run for president again, and Truman asked MacArthur "whether he had political ambitions in this regard.", MacArthur did not answer positively but said". If there is a general running with you, his name will be Eisenhower, not MacArthur", which shows that Truman is wary of MacArthur's candidacy for president. Truman told MacArthur that "today was a satisfying and pleasant meeting," but in fact he became increasingly distrustful of the latter's unruly attitude, and MacArthur's hostility toward him grew day by day.
After the US army advanced to the 38th Line, MacArthur planned that the US 8th Army, which was responsible for the defense of Busan, would advance north along the west coast of Korea, and the US 10th Army, which was responsible for the Inchon landing, would carry out the task of landing at Wonsan on the east coast of Korea and directly insert itself into the rear of the North Korean army. However, due to the North Korean mines in the sea of Wonsan, it took 10 days for the landing troops to complete the mine clearance and start landing after arriving at The Far Mountain on October 10, at which time Wonsan had been occupied by the South Korean First Army along the east coast, and Pyongyang had also been captured the day before, making the Wonsan landing meaningless.
After MacArthur was dismissed and returned home, despite being greeted heroically, it soon subsided. When the 1952 presidential election came, MacArthur ran for president on behalf of the Republicans, but lost overwhelmingly to Eisenhower and Taft in the primary, and Eisenhower won the final victory.
At the same time, the Chinese Volunteer Army also launched an attack on the US army on the western front, which was the second campaign for China to resist the United States and aid Korea. Under the blows of the volunteers, the US 8th Group on the Western Front withdrew all the way south across the 38th Line, and the commander of the 8th Army, Walker, died in a car accident during the retreat; the American troops who landed on the Western Front at Wonsan retreated all the way to Hwangnam Port, and then boarded a ship and retreated to the shore at Busan. MacArthur's so-called guarantee that China would not intervene went bankrupt, the promise of returning home on Thanksgiving and Christmas became a laughing stock, and with the great rout of the US military, MacArthur lost.
The UN forces were defeated, and MacArthur was rather pessimistic. Angry and angry, MacArthur believed that China had entered the war in full swing, advocated a massive increase in troops, and openly advocated the idea of expanding the war, advocating a large-scale bombing of northeast China, including nuclear weapons, but Truman and his supporters believed that this move would not end the war, and once the Soviet Union intervened in the Korean battlefield, the US military would inevitably bomb Vladivostok, the war would expand, and Japan would also be retaliatory attacked by the Soviet Union. As soon as the news was exposed by the media, the United States Government had not yet reacted to the Strong Opposition of the United Kingdom, British Prime Minister Attlee personally flew to Canada to meet with Truman to negotiate, and Washington was extremely dissatisfied with MacArthur.
On April 11, 1951, Truman dismissed him on the pretext of "failing to fully support U.S. and United Nations policies." On April 25, Japan's World Communications published a headline title titled "Marshal Mai's Dismissal, New Situation in the Far East, and the Ccp's Movements Deserve Attention," reporting truman's dismissal of MacArthur. Due to communication technology problems, the message was first broadcast to Tokyo via commercial radio, and MacArthur was having lunch with the embassy when he received the news, and MacArthur was expressionless after hearing the news, only telling his wife next to him that "the two can finally go home." Because the order was in force immediately, MacArthur could neither perform a handover ceremony nor give a regular farewell speech to the troops
On April 5, 1964, MacArthur died of primary biliary cirrhosis at the age of 84.