whitehall
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- #21
Truman spent his time after WW2 trying to downsize the Marine Corps to nothing but a ceremonial detachment after all the blood they shed in the Pacific. Ironically it was the Marines that bailed Truman's ass out of Korea. After the N.K. invaded South Korea the U.N. Troops were pushed back to the end of the Peninsula and fighting for their lives. MacArthur's brilliant Inchon landing cut the N.K. Supply lines and they were surrounded and systematically defeated and even the N.K. capital of Pyongyang was captured by U.N. forces.The war was over in a year ...but wait. In a moment that can only be characterized as a "senior citizen episode" MacArthur disregarded China's threats and sent exhausted ill equipped Troops in a winter campaign in an area with the harshest winters on the planet. It seems that Truman was more afraid of MacArthur than the Chinese so the expedition to the Yalu was authorized and Truman/MacArthur managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in a three year quagmire that cost the lives of an estimated 50,000 Americans (later downsized by the Clinton administration to a "mere" 35,000 lost in three years). Truman and MacArthur received a tickertape parade organized by the left wing media that never saw a democrat they didn't like but Korean War vets remembered. Truman couldn't even win a primary to run for his second full term and MacArthur ran as a 3rd party candidate.We would have faced Russian troops as well as Chinese if we used Nukes. Russia was clear on that. I don't know if Russia had the ability to deliver nukes on the US in 50 but I am sure they would have used them in Korea.I was alive when all of this happened and remember well the news reels of the war. Afterward, I devoured just about everything I could about the war on both fronts.
I has always been clear to me that Mac, like Ike, was first and foremost politician. He relied on subordinates to make the tactical decisions and selected them for their ability to say yes to everything he said. I agree that he failed to prepare the Philippines to defend itself against the Japanese and his indecision resulted in the Bataan Death March.
However, when FDR ordered him to leave and establish a base in Australia, he had clearly learned his lesson and set about relying on men like Chester Nimitz and others in the island-hopping campaigns, using naval forces he was not familiar with, to force the Japanese back to their home islands.
Maybe because of him and a strong anti-war feeling, we were totally unprepared for the north's invasion of the south in Korea. More thousands died because of political instead of tactical decisions. And, when Mac finally woke up and wanted to use nukes, politicians stepped in and stopped him.
So, decades later, we face a serious problem in the Korean Peninsula that should have been ended decades ago.
Damn the politicians.