At 70, General of the Army Douglas MacArthur seemed to have climaxed his extraordinary career by guiding Japan through a peaceful five-year transition to democracy. He had been a Medal of Honor-winning hero of both World Wars, Superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Army Chief of Staff in the 1930's, and Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers in post-war Japan with the highest rank accorded by the U.S. armed forces. But fate had one more campaign in store for him; it gave him one of his greatest battlefield triumphs and an inglorious end to his life in uniform.
The Invasion of South Korea
On June 25, 1950, the army of communist North Korea, trained and armed by the Soviet Union, invaded South Korea, which had become a republic under United Nations supervision. A small U.S. military contingent had been training South Korea's armed forces. The northern troops quickly seized the southern capital, Seoul, and drove the combined Korean and American forces south.
President Harry Truman immediately ordered reinforcements to the area and placed MacArthur, then in Tokyo, in overall command. He also succeeded in having the UN call upon its members to provide military support to South Korea. MacArthur could do little but have his outnumbered troops fall back until they could establish a defensible perimeter in southeast Korea and await reinforcements.
By September, MacArthur was ready for a bold stroke. He directed a successful amphibious assault at the port of Inchon, far behind the enemy lines, and proceeded from there to clear South Korea of all northern forces. With permission from the Administration, he continued his drive above the border until he was approaching communist China, then a staunch ally of the Soviet Union.
MacArthur seemed certain that he could complete the destruction of the North Korean army without intervention by China. However, in late November, Chinese troops in far greater numbers than MacArthur's entered the war, drove the UN forces back, and re-invaded Sout Korea. A great effort was required to restabilize the lines.
The Political Controversy
Facing overwhelming ground forces, MacArthur saw the necessity to bomb their bases, now primarily in China itself. His proposals were turned down by the Administration to avoid the danger of a wider war, perhaps nuclear, involving not only China but possibly the Soviet Union. However, the general continued to advocate his ideas to sympathetic listeners, many of whom were openly critical of the conduct of the war.
When the Republican leader of the House of Representatives made public a letter from MacArthur reiterating his support for taking the war to the Chinese, Truman felt he had overstepped the bounds of civilian control of the military. He relieved MacArthur of his commands in both Korea and Japan.
The general returned to the United States to a hero's welcome, including a ticker tape parade and an address to a joint session of Congress. But the furor died down after extensive hearings conducted by the Senate Armed Services Committee resulted in more public support for the Administration's position than for MacArthur's.
Admirers placed the general's name in nomination at the 1952 Republican Convention, but the handful of votes he garnered came nowhere near the totals for General Dwight Eisenhower and Senator Robert Taft. Eisenhower, ironically once an aide to MacArthur, prevailed and went on to overwhelming election.
MacArthur's place in American military history remains unsurpassed. Despite the political skills he displayed in Japan, however, he stumbled in challenging his own nation's commitment to civilian rule.
Reference:
Infoplease.com
