Guide
Why was MacArthur, who had always been a brash man, appointed commander-in-chief of the "United Nations Army"?
After the Inchon landing, the American army marched forward, but Truman was not without worries, what was he worried about?
After the Volunteers launched three campaigns, the Americans were defeated, and MacArthur was embarrassed and angry.
Truman's intention to use the atomic bomb frightened America's European allies?
The defeat on the battlefield was not the last straw that crushed MacArthur, what caused him to lose his position?
And let this article take you to briefly review the self-deception of the war peddlers Truman and MacArthur before and after the Korean War and the wisdom and courage of Chairman Mao and other leaders of New China!
MacArthur in his early years
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="135" > Prologue: The Wolf of Zhongshan is rampant</h1>
On August 15, 1945, five-star General Douglas MacArthur, commander-in-chief of the Allied Southwest Pacific Theater, was appointed Supreme Commander of allied forces in Japan, the pinnacle of his military career.
The young man became the youngest principal of the United States Military Academy at 39, the president of the United States Olympic Committee at the age of 47, and the unruly general who was promoted to chief of staff of the Army at the age of 50, thus becoming the emperor of Japan.
There was a book called "The Emperor's Emperor Has Five Stars", and this "five stars" was, of course, the general star on MacArthur's medallion.
MacArthur was a man who had the typical qualities of the American nation: brazen, showmanship, bravery and warlikeness.
He is said to be brave because this brother had already fought the First World War in 1917, when he took a division to fight fiercely and made many achievements. He never wore a steel helmet on the battlefield, and he looked stupid at Patton in the same trench.
MacArthur, who was full of ambition in World War I
MacArthur is said to have triumphantly said to others, "The shell that could kill me has not yet been produced!" ”
He says he likes performance because he likes mavericks everywhere he goes. Including the exaggerated and gorgeous military hat he wore before and after World War II, which was not the standard military hat of the US army, but after he arrived in the Philippines in 1935, the Philippine government specially gave him a customized "marshal hat" in order to please him.
In the eyes of the media and ordinary citizens, MacArthur liked to smoke corn cob pipes, but he actually did not like to use such pipes, but when exposed to the media spotlight, he must pick them up to show his uniqueness.
In the fall of 1944, MacArthur landed in the Philippines with a mighty army, and he and a large group of reporters waiting to make headlines came by landing craft, but when they were about to dock, he suddenly shouted: Stop! stop!
Then, despite the confusion of the soldiers driving the boat, Lao Mai jumped from the boat into the sea water about the depth of his calf, and had to wade into the water to land. Then, a news reporter with a face full of excitement and admiration made a wild shot on the shore: war hero MacArthur returns to the Philippines!
MacArthur returned to the Philippines
After landing ashore, Old Mai proudly said a word: "I once said I would come back." This posture, this style, is no less than the words that Julius Caesar said when he won a great victory in Asia: "I am coming, I see, I conquer!" ”
In today's buzzword, MacArthur was the absolute Internet celebrity of his time.
He is said to be brazen because this man is an absolute egoist and self-centered, and he can do whatever it takes for his honor and interests, which is not very similar to the United States in modern times, it is exactly the same!
During the economic crisis in July 1932, MacArthur, who was still the army chief of staff, ordered the use of force to suppress the petitions that rallied in front of the Washington Capitol building, demanding that the government pay the retirement grant on time, resulting in many deaths and injuries.
MacArthur became infamous and had a lot of resentment in the Army. He was not soft on his former comrades, let alone the people of other countries.
General Marshall, a former U.S. military veteran who had been chief of staff, secretary of state, and secretary of defense, was very unaccustomed to MacArthur's style, and unceremoniously ridiculed him: "If MacArthur takes off his military uniform and puts on his suit, he can go to Hollywood and become a movie star." ”
The old and heavy Marshall was not optimistic about MacArthur
Of course, except for Marshall, there were people who were not accustomed to MacArthur's big presence.
Truman, who succeeded Roosevelt as the 33rd President of the United States in 1945, had two extremes compared to MacArthur's: one in the sky and one on the ground.
Truman was born poor, when he was a child, his family could not afford to read, in order to earn a living as a worker, postman, bank clerk, and partnered with others to open a company as a result of the company bankruptcy, it was difficult to make a comeback and open a company, did not expect the outbreak of Truman conscription in World War I, the company was forced to close.
At the age of 36, Truman, who retired from the European war, started a clothing store for the third time, and then the United States fell into an economic crisis... Until the age of 40, Truman was a destitute auto salesman.
Unexpectedly, in 1926, when the 42-year-old Truman came to run, he became famous in one fell swoop when he first entered the political world, and then repeatedly got the help of nobles, and he was always the vice president of the United States under ten thousand people.
There is a way: the heavens and the earth are all in the same force!
Truman and Roosevelt
When Roosevelt died suddenly on April 12, 1945, the crown of the President of the United States fell almost from the sky and fell on Truman's head.
Truman was 4 years younger than MacArthur, and while Truman was still struggling to sell auto membership cards, MacArthur was already a major general in the Army, a military commander, and a huge mess in the American military.
For MacArthur, Roosevelt still had to fear three points at the time, and this Truman who ran out of the ravine was a green onion?
As a result, Truman was very dissatisfied with MacArthur, who treated him as a "schoolboy", and when he saw MacArthur's military hat, Truman privately criticized people: It was like making sausages and eggs and pasting them on the hat!
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > MacArthur was once again in the spotlight</h1>
With the end of World War II, the United States, like other countries, put the south mountain, knives and guns into storage, and greatly reduced the number of troops, of which the army was reduced from 89 divisions and 8.3 million to 10 divisions and 590,000 people.
Truman believed that it was time for generals like MacArthur, who had made a splash in the wartime, to come to an end.
American gendarmes in Europe read newspapers that the Nazis surrendered
On June 25, 1950, the Korean War broke out, and in just a few days, the hundreds of thousands of troops put together by the Syngman Rhee government in South Korea were crushed by Kim Il Sung's Korean People's Army.
After all, the main force of the Korean People's Army is the Korean troops in the Chinese People's Liberation Army, which have successively fought against Japanese imperialism and Kuomintang reactionaries, and their combat effectiveness is by no means comparable to that of the puppet army and the pseudo-police during the Japanese occupation period under Syngman Rhee.
The fiasco in South Korea made Truman anxious, believing that it had endangered the position of the United States in the Asia-Pacific region, and on July 1, Truman decided to send two divisions to Korea to directly intervene in the Korean War.
As early as the beginning of the Korean War, MacArthur in Tokyo flew to Suwon, south of Seoul, with a group of reporters, to support the terrified Syngman Rhee and government officials, earning enough attention and praise from the American media.
There is no doubt that no one is more suitable for the commanders of these two divisions than MacArthur, who has long commanded the war in the Asia-Pacific region.
Half a month after the outbreak of the Korean War, on July 8, 1950, Truman appointed MacArthur as commander-in-chief of the newly formed United Nations Army and commander-in-chief of the American Army in the Far East, with unified command of the U.S. and South Korean forces and the invading forces of 15 other countries against the North Korean People's Army.
MacArthur visited Taiwan without authorization to meet Chiang Kai-shek in July 1950
In the early days of the Outbreak of the Korean War, Truman was still willing to cooperate with MacArthur, because the appointment of MacArthur to fight, the victory was won by the president with good employment and insight, and the defeat was MacArthur's own blind command!
MacArthur lived up to his expectations and on September 15, 1950, at great risk, commanded 70,000 "United Nations troops" to land at Inchon, turning the tide of the Korean War in one fell swoop.
As with the Philippine landings, the hype of Old MacArthur's staff spared no effort to hype them, and reports and photographs of the heroic United Nations landing at Inchon under the command of the wise and mighty General MacArthur filled the front pages of the American tabloids.
Even the success rate of the Inchon landing was blown to "one in a thousand"! At this time, the generals who will fight in the world seem to be macArthur alone.
This "turning the tide" immediately brought MacArthur back to the focus of the American public eye, because the back road was cut off, the Korean People's Army, which was deep in the south of the peninsula, was suddenly in disarray, and on September 28, the US and RoK troops occupied Seoul and continued to advance north.
MacArthur and Syngman Rhee colluded closely
By this time, MacArthur was completely indifferent to the new Chinese government's warnings of an expanded war for the "United Nations Army," and on September 30, he triumphantly sent a telegram to General Marshall, the Secretary of Defense, saying, "I will regard the entire Korean Peninsula as open to our military operations." ”
On October 3, Premier Zhou Enlai asked Indian Ambassador to China Paniga to send a message to the US government: "The US military is trying to cross the 38th line and expand the war. ”
To discuss whether the new China's warning could actually happen, on October 15, Truman and MacArthur met on Wake Island, a small island in the Pacific, and when Truman asked about Premier Zhou's remarks, MacArthur said contemptuously: "That's just a diplomatic blackmail." ”
He swore a promise to Truman: "The war can end before Thanksgiving... I hope that the Eighth Army will be transferred back to Japan and another division back to Europe at Christmas. ”
This sentence undoubtedly hit Truman's heart: he was more eager than MacArthur to end the Korean War, because Europe was undoubtedly the top priority of the US global strategy, and the main weapons of the US military in the future could only be deployed in Europe.
After a conspiracy between the two, Truman decided to support MacArthur's plan to occupy North Korea in its entirety and continue to expand the Korean War. On October 19, 1950, the "United Nations Army" occupied Pyongyang.
The volunteer army entered the DPRK in a big way
What Truman and MacArthur did not know was that on the same day, the Chinese Volunteers crossed the Yalu River without Soviet air cover and entered the war in Korea.
On October 27, 1950, the South Korean Army reached the Yalu River on the third day of the first volunteer campaign, which was also the northernmost point touched by the "United Nations Army" in the Korean War.
Victory in the war was almost within reach, and MacArthur's personal prestige and the prestige of the "United Nations Army" reached its peak on this day, and it is no exaggeration to say that MacArthur, who was at the headquarters in Tokyo, had already begun to celebrate the victory of the war.
However, it is also from this day that MacArthur will begin to perform the second half of this scene: transporting the hero is not free.
< h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > second, When Truman was in a dilemma, MacArthur added fuel to the fire</h1>
From october 25, 1950, when the volunteer army launched its first campaign, to the end of the third campaign on January 8, the "United Nations Army" broke more than 70,000 troops and retreated from the Yalu River to the south of Seoul.
On December 9, the Sino-North Korean coalition recaptured Pyongyang, and on January 4, 1951, the Volunteers re-entered Seoul, the first time since the Opium War of 1894 that Chinese troops had entered the capital of an enemy country.
In January 1951, the Volunteer Army occupied Seoul
There was no doubt that repeated defeats on the battlefield had made MacArthur angry. In particular, the collapse of the US 9th Army in Sansho and the escape of the US 10th Army at Chosin Lake made the US Army, which prides itself as "the world's first", lose face in front of the world.
This also made the White House and the Pentagon very worried, and on the morning of November 29, the third day of the Volunteer 9th Corps' launch of the Battle of Chosin Lake, General Bradley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, called Truman, and he said crisply:
"There was a disastrous defeat ahead, and it turned out that Chinese had already stepped on both feet!"
On the morning of the 29th, at the emergency national security affairs meeting convened by Truman, the Department of Defense, the War Department, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff expressed quite unanimous and clear opinions.
Defense Minister Gen. Marshall said the United States should not be involved in an all-out war with Communist China, or it would "fall into the trap carefully laid by the Soviet Union."
General Bradley said: "This is also the view of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, if we are involved in a big war with China, then our forces in Europe cannot continue to grow." ”
As chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Bradley holds a high position of authority
Army Secretary Perth said that there is only one division in the United States, the 82nd Airborne Division, and the National Police Force will not be ready until March 15, "it is very important to know this."
Vice President Buckley said with a grim face that MacArthur's previous claims about "bringing the kids home for Christmas" had been widely circulated in the United States, and if this promise was not fulfilled, it would exacerbate public dissatisfaction with the government's foreign policy, "such a situation is frustrating."
Secretary of State Dean Acheson gave MacArthur a diplomatically appropriate punch: "We cannot ignore the fact that we are facing the Soviets all over the world. ”
All five were one notch higher than MacArthur, and their opinions drove Truman crazy:
First, Truman's preconceived goal of resolving the Korean War as soon as possible and gaining great prestige for the United States in the "free world" had gone completely bankrupt with the intervention of New China. As Acheson complained, "This war seems to be headless." ”
A million Soviet Reds were enough to frighten the Americans
Second, because the Korean War has hollowed out the U.S. reserve military force, and the mobilization efficiency of the National Guard is very slow, the United States is now completely unable to deal with another regional war, and once an unexpected situation occurs in Europe, it is useless to rely on more than 90,000 troops in Europe and the United States.
It is not difficult to imagine that if the Soviet army of a million took the opportunity to attack on the thousand-mile front from Berlin to Trieste, they would easily cross the Rhine and reach the English Channel, which would have disastrous consequences for American global strategy.
Third, Marshall, Acheson, and Bradley all said they could not imagine and agree that the United States would go to war with New China in Asia. In that case, the United States, as the Soviet Union had planned, would shed its blood in the war against New China, and the only person who would reap the benefits would be Stalin.
Last but not least, MacArthur, who boasted about the mouth of the sea, has now put the U.S. government on the fire, and as discontent grows from the defeat in the war, it will soon lead to a crisis of trust in the government.
Those attending the meeting agreed that the top priority was to first find a defensive line that the U.S. military could hold securely, and then to seek a dignified departure from North Korea.
The reporters' constant questioning made Truman anxious
Against this backdrop, Truman held a press conference on November 30 to brief the situation in North Korea. When the president mentioned that "we will take whatever necessary steps are necessary to meet the needs of the military situation," it immediately blew the nerves of journalists.
Reporters for the Chicago Daily News, the New York Daily News, and The New York Times asked, "Does the 'any necessary step' mentioned by the president include the use of the atomic bomb?" This put Truman in a dilemma.
No matter how vague he was, several major newspapers published large reports such as "The President Said Today that the Use of the Atomic Bomb is Under Active Consideration" after the press conference.
A diplomatic uproar ensued. The Italians, who have always been good, even wrote with a straight face: The plane carrying the atomic bomb has taken off from the Japanese airport!
This first frightened the British, and in the lower house of parliament, more than a hundred left-wing Labour MPs jointly protested to Prime Minister Attlee, claiming that if the British government supported Truman's madness, they would immediately withdraw from the government, which would lead to the collapse of the cabinet.
Why would British parliamentarians oppose Truman's use of the atomic bomb so "in a hurry"? The answer to that question can be found in the November 29 criticism of U.S. officials by British and French ambassadors to the United Nations.
Frightened, British Prime Minister Attlee hurriedly visited the United States
In New York, British Ambassador Sir Jeb and French Ambassador Schoffre stressed: "The use of atomic bombs would undoubtedly put European countries on the front lines and open the door to a Soviet offensive." ”
It turned out that these European countries did not want to be the first cannon fodder of the US-Soviet war. The fear of nuclear war made the people of Europe restless, so much so that the representative of the Netherlands asked, almost crying, "Is it possible for us to avoid war?" ”
There is also a layer of fear for the British that if the United States uses nuclear weapons, the People's Liberation Army across the Shenzhen River will surely sweep Hong Kong within 12 hours, throwing British officials and troops into the South China Sea to feed fish.
In this case, Attlee had to run to Washington and ask Truman to avoid discussing the use of atomic bombs: it would be feasible to add some more conventional forces to North Korea, but not nuclear weapons!
At this time, how did Chairman Mao, who was far away in Beijing, express his position on Truman's nuclear blackmail? In fact, he had already seen the weakness and embarrassment behind Truman's statement!
On December 3, chairman Mao, when meeting with Kim Il Sung, calmly said in response to Truman's intimidation on November 30: "Truman did not dare to risk fighting an atomic war, that is, he also dropped atomic bombs in Korea as he did against Japan. ”
A generation of great men, the savior of the people
Chairman Mao pointedly pointed out that Truman's approach was essentially a threat and intimidation, because every mature politician should know that the greatest power of the atomic bomb is on the launcher.
Finally, Chairman Mao said humorously: "We still have to thank Truman, he let us touch the bottom of the US army, it is nothing more than a paper tiger!" "Not daring to actually use atomic bombs is Truman's biggest weakness."
To Truman's chagrin, MacArthur seemed to be completely oblivious to the trouble he had caused, and instead repeatedly made a big fuss about the media in Tokyo.
He not only intended to launch a full-scale bombing campaign against China's southeast coast, but also planned to use Chiang Kai-shek's army in Taiwan to "counter-attack the mainland."In any case, as early as July 1950, he had already disregarded the restrictions of US political rules on the diplomatic activities of military generals, visited Taiwan without authorization, and reached certain agreements with Chiang Kai-shek.
Not only that, But MacArthur also openly declared that he would use atomic bombs against New China, not one or two, but twenty or even thirty.
There is no doubt that if MacArthur had atomic bombs in his hands, he must have used them when he ordered the bombing of the Yalu River Bridge in early November 1950!
The United States conducts nuclear tests
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="121" > three, on the road to death, MacArthur was eventually spared</h1>
In Truman's view, he was at best bluffing diplomatic rhetoric, and MacArthur must have been really crazy. At all times, the military must be subordinated to politics, because war is nothing more than a continuation of politics.
When the U.S. government decided that there was no point in continuing the Korean War, the use of the atomic bomb would not only help to withdraw it from North Korea, but would drag the United States further into the abyss.
In March 1951, the U.S. national security services even overheard MacArthur's conversation with the ambassadors of Spain and Portugal to Japan. In his conversation, he said in all his words that he would turn the war in Korea into a large-scale conflict that would solve the "communist problem" once and for all.
This stunned Truman and the heads of the State and Departments of Defense, who began to suspect that MacArthur had put his honor and interests above the national interests of the United States!
In March 1951, toward the end of the Fourth Campaign, Truman and his staff sensed that the situation of the U.S. and South Korean forces seemed to have improved somewhat, and after some consultation, Acheson and Marshall prepared to ask Truman to issue a statement about the United States' intention to seek an armistice near the 38th Parallel and seek negotiations with China.
Wounded U.S. troops on the Korean battlefield
Unfortunately, the Joint Chiefs of Staff informed MacArthur of the gist of the statement.
This was like throwing a bomb into a cesspool pit, and MacArthur, in order to undermine the government's plan to negotiate and thus continue the war, went ahead of Truman and issued a separate statement on March 24.
The statement not only stressed that he would continue the war, but also declared even more rhetorically that the Volunteer Army was not at all an opponent of the "United Nations Army" and that if it attacked the coastal and internal bases of new China, China would collapse immediately.
Finally, MacArthur said: "The final outcome of the North Korean problem must be resolved militarily." ”
Of course, in the eyes of Chairman Mao and the leaders of the new China, this was just a dream of MacArthur who was almost hysterical in order to save face, but it became the last straw that crushed Truman's confidence in MacArthur.
The U.S. troops in the Korean battlefield
Truman and senior government officials were convinced that the "United Nations Army" commanded by MacArthur would not only be out of control, but would also lead to an unbearable end for the United States.
Because MacArthur's opinions were completely contrary to those of the White House and the Pentagon, governments questioned the United States and asked: Is the U.S. policy toward North Korea about to change again? This simply left Truman with no place to himself.
Truman said bitterly: MacArthur's action forced me to have no choice, and I could no longer tolerate his resistance!
No wonder Truman was so angry, because MacArthur's actions had touched the bottom line of American politics, namely that military personnel could not stand up to the powers given to the president by the Constitution.
On April 6, Truman, Acheson, Marshall, Bradley, and others unanimously decided to dismiss MacArthur from all positions after a brief meeting.
Truman and MacArthur were also once complicit
In order not to embarrass MacArthur too much, the order was originally brought to Tokyo by Secretary of War Pace to face MacArthur, but due to communications failures, the Chicago Herald Tribune took the lead in grabbing the explosive news.
That's bad, because by tomorrow morning, newspapers all over america will be running this headline!
The White House, helpless, rushed to hold a press conference at 1 a.m. on April 11, a time that had never been seen before, and issued an order to dismiss MacArthur.
MacArthur, an ambitious and arrogant war dealer, eventually stepped down and left Tokyo, where he died 13 years later.
There is no doubt that not only MacArthur, but any foreign force that tries to launch a war of aggression, undermine world peace, and obstruct the reunification of other countries will not end up with a good end!