Report: South Korean navy ship sinks
- Thread starter bruno
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Funny, but I was imagining a mushroom cloud over Pyongyang, myself.
Must be us old-timers who were taught to kill the enemy rather than understand his point of view.
Harry S. Truman's explanation for the removal of Gen. MacArthur from command of Korean operations in the Korean War.
http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=860
That worked out well.
http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=860
That worked out well.
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Yeah, but I have to give Truman the nod here.
MacAurther seems to have forgotten who runs the show in this country, and it ain't Generals.
I'd just as soon see Korea overrun by the Communists because of Obama's incompetance than to see our military basically stage a coup, no matter how correct they might be on the topic at hand. That's not a road anyone in their right mind wants to go down....
Hell, I thought the whole thing in Haiti back in the 90's was a complete political show. A total waste of time, money, and resources. BUT, when Bubba ordered me to saddle up and go, I saddled up and went. That's the oath I took, and I hadn't been given anything resembling an illegal order.
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Funny, but I was imagining a mushroom cloud over Pyongyang, myself.
Must be us old-timers who were taught to kill the enemy rather than understand his point of view.
"To understand his point of view...Hmm..."
That would imply negotiation and I always ascribed to the theory that the BEST way to negotiate with my adversary was with my KNEE in their chest and my KNIFE at their throat.
EGAD! There's that warrior thingie showing up again...Steve
USAFA ALO
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How can you equate MacArthur's stubborn personality to a military coup? That's just ridiculous. The only reason why Truman dismissed MacArthur is because Truman couldn't stand disagreeing with the general, not because he did something wrong. Which is pathetic.
I disagree. Between the general who wages the war on the battlefield and the commander-in-chief who wages the war at home, I'm going to bet that the general has a better idea of what's going on. Truman was sadly misinformed. His fears of a third world war were unconfirmed and erroneous. We were already fighting China before MacArthur was authorized to use nukes - "WWIII" never broke out. Using an atomic bomb would have been perfectly appropriate and probably would have achieved maximum results. Even though I don't think anyone's complaining that the US painstakingly saved half the peninsula but East Asia would be a heck of a lot more stable today had the UN successfully ended the war with a victory in our terms. Truman should have realized that ending the war with whatever means with a clear UN victory would have been in the best of interests of the US in the long run. And this could have been achieved by striking Chinese bases with nuclear weapons, saving later generations lots of grief over the hostility between two divideded Korea rather than a unified one.
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Spoken like some one with a truly limited historical perspective not to mention one who clearly does not understand the chain of command. In fact- virtually no student of the military situation in Korea thinks that the US/UN was going to successfully seize and hold the Korean peninsula. By 1951 virtually everyone other than MacArthur were arguing about where they could stabilize the lines- at the "neck" or the "waist" of the peninsula and after the 2d Chinese Offensive occured in 1951 - MacArthur's demands to expand the war had virtually NO SUPPORT in either the military or the Government. As far as MacArthur's strategic and operational vision- well: the Man sent his Army running northward in a helter skelter pursuit with no integrity, no regard for logistics- basically no plan & took his largest and best corps (X Corps) out of the action completely and then sent them on month long voyage around the Korean Peninsula and landed them in Wonsan- taking them right out of the picture. He basically conducted that war as if he were a rank amateur- the amazing thing is that he wasn't relieved in November of 1950. Mathew ridgeway is today forgotten but he was the real hero of the Korean War - he came in, restored 8th Army restored the tactical situation on the ground and salvaged that war. MacArthur not only was wrong about his predictions about the course of the war (EVEN AFTER THE CHINESE had put over 100,000 soldiers into the war along the Yalu and had a couple of Regiments mauled he insisted that they would not do so completely over riding the 8thArmy G2 and Commander's assessments)- he just wasn't very good in Korea Inchon aside. If you are really interested in the Korean War read Clay Blair's history of the Korean War (The Forgotten War). The Army does not look particulalry professional for the early parts of the war- MacArthur comes out looking pretty bad deservedly. The Marines though- cemented their existence with their brilliant conduct of the fighting in 1950 and 1951. Afte rthat- nobody- Army, Navy or other ever again questioned the need for their existence!
By the end with his speeches and public utterances he deliberately attempted to sabotage the strategy and policy that the Commander in Chief had explicitly directed . It's for a reason that Douglas MacArthur is remembered as a text book example of a commander unwilling to subordinate himself to the chain of command.
I don't know what the heck we are going to do about NK now- we surely are not going to vaporize any cities. Full support for South Korea is pretty ambiguous but you clearly don't telegraph your strateg or plans if you are smart (another thing that Douglas MacArthur violated in Korea)
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