Dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur
Encyclopedia
On 11 April 1951, US President Harry S. Truman
relieved General of the Army
Douglas MacArthur
, a popular war hero, of his commands for making public statements that contradicted the administration's policies. MacArthur's relief remains a controversial topic in the field of civil-military relations
.
In June 1950, after North Korea
invaded South Korea
, starting the Korean War
, MacArthur was designated commander of the United Nations
forces defending South Korea. He conceived and executed the amphibious assault at Inchon
on 15 September 1950, for which he was hailed as a military genius. However, when he followed up his victory with a full-scale invasion of North Korea on Truman's orders, China intervened in the war and inflicted a series of defeats on MacArthur's forces, compelling him to withdraw from North Korea. By April 1951, the military situation had stabilized, but MacArthur's public statements became increasingly irritating to Truman, and he relieved MacArthur of his commands. The Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a joint inquiry into the military situation and the circumstances surrounding MacArthur's relief, and concluded that "the removal of General MacArthur was within the constitutional powers of the President but the circumstances were a shock to national pride."
An apolitical military was an American tradition, but one that was difficult to uphold in an era when American forces were employed overseas in large numbers. So too was the principle of civilian control of the military, but the rising complexity of military technology, and the consequent creation of a professional military class, coupled with the cumbersome constitutional division of powers, made this increasingly problematic. In relieving MacArthur for failing to "respect the authority of the President" by privately communicating with Congress, Truman was upholding a view of the President's role as pre-eminent. This triggered a constitutional crisis, because the constitution divided that control of the military between the President as Commander in Chief and the Congress. The notion that the President had extraordinary or even absolute power came to be known as Imperial Presidency
. Henceforth, all military officers were on notice that they could be relieved at will, with consequences that would unfold over the following decades.
became president of the United States
on the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt
in 1945, and won an unexpected victory in the 1948 presidential election. He was proud of his service in the artillery during World War I
and held a reserve commission as a colonel
. He distrusted regular soldiers and selected two National Guardsmen, Harry H. Vaughan and Louis H. Renfrow, as his military aides. During the 1948 Revolt of the Admirals
, a number of naval officers publicly disagreed with the President over cuts to naval aviation and amphibious warfare
capability, resulting in the relief of the Chief of Naval Operations
, Admiral
Louis Denfeld, and his replacement by Admiral Forrest Sherman
. In testimony before the House Armed Services Committee investigation into the affair in October 1949, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
, General
Omar Bradley
, doubted that there would ever be another large scale amphibious operation.
In stature and seniority, General of the Army
Douglas MacArthur
was the Army's foremost general. He had a distinguished combat record in World War I
, and had served as Chief of Staff of the United States Army
from 1930 to 1935. Apart from his World War I service, almost all of his overseas postings had been to the Pacific. During World War II
, he had become a national hero and had been awarded the Medal of Honor
for the Battle of Bataan
. He had commanded the Allied armies in the New Guinea Campaign
and Philippines Campaign, fulfilling his famous promise to return to the Philippines. After the war, as the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers
(SCAP), he had overseen the Occupation of Japan and played an important part in the post-war political and social transformation of that country.
By 1950, the occupation of Japan was winding down, but MacArthur was still in Japan as Commander in Chief Far East (CINCFE), a post to which he had been appointed by Truman in 1945. MacArthur had to deal with draconian cuts in the defense budget which had seen his troop numbers decline from 300,000 in 1947 to 142,000 in 1948. Despite his protests, further cuts had followed, and by June 1950, there were only 108,000 troops in his Far East Command. Shortages of funds and personnel produced shortages of serviceable equipment. Of the Far East Command's 18,000 jeep
s, 10,000 were unserviceable; of its 113,870 2½-ton 6x6 trucks, only 4,441 were serviceable. On the positive side, the Far East Command initiated a program of reclaiming and refurbishing war materiel from abandoned stocks throughout the Pacific. This had not only recovered a great deal of valuable stores and equipment, it had also generated a useful repair and rebuilding industry in Japan. Meanwhile, the shift away from occupation duties had permitted a greater focus on training for combat.
invaded South Korea
on 25 June 1950, starting the Korean War
. In response to an urgent request from the Korean Military Advisory Group
for more ammunition, MacArthur, on his own initiative, ordered the transport ship MSTS Sgt. George D Keathley
to be loaded with ammunition and to sail for Pusan. President Truman met with the Joint Chiefs of Staff
and other advisors that day at Blair House
and approved the actions already taken by MacArthur and Secretary of State
Dean Acheson
. At another meeting at Blair House held on the evening of 26 June, amid reports of a rapidly deteriorating situation in South Korea, Truman approved the use of air and naval forces against military targets south of the 38th parallel north
. Subsequently, on 27 June, the United Nations Security Council
passed United Nations Security Council Resolution 83
, which called for "Members of the United Nations furnish such assistance to the Republic of Korea as may be necessary to repel the armed attack and to restore international peace and security in the area." The South Korean capital of Seoul
fell on 28 June. The next day, Truman authorized air and naval operations north of the 38th parallel, which MacArthur had already ordered. However it was not until 30 June, following a sobering report on the military situation from MacArthur, that Truman finally authorized the use of ground forces.
On 8 July, on the advice on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Truman appointed MacArthur as commander of the United Nations
Command in South Korea (CINCUNC). He remained CINCFE and SCAP. MacArthur, faced with a desperate military situation, was forced to commit his forces in Japan to what he later described as a "desperate rearguard action." In July Truman sent the Chief of Staff of the Army, General J. Lawton Collins
, and the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, to report on the situation. They met with MacArthur and his chief of staff, Major General Edward Almond
in Tokyo on 13 July. MacArthur impressed on them the danger of underestimating the North Koreans, whom he characterized as "well-equipped, well-led, and battle-trained, and which have at times out-numbered our troops by as much as twenty to one." He proposed to first halt the North Korean advance and then counterattack, enveloping the North Koreans with an amphibious operation, but the timing was dependent on the arrival of reinforcements from the United States.
On 13 July, Truman was asked at a press conference if United States forces would cross the 38th parallel into North Korea, and he replied that he would "make that decision when it becomes necessary to do it." Some of his advisors, most notably the Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs, Dean Rusk
, and the Director of the Office of Northeast Asian Affairs, John M. Allison, argued that Security Council Resolution 83 provided a legal basis for the invasion of North Korea. Others, notably George F. Kennan
and Paul Nitze
, disagreed. In addition to the legality, the administration also had to consider the danger of intervention by the Soviet Union
or the People's Republic of China
if United Nations forces approached their borders.
MacArthur's plans for an amphibious operation had to be shelved due to the situation in Korea, which compelled him to commit the formation earmarked for the assault, the 1st Cavalry Division, to the defence of the Pusan Perimeter, to which the Eighth Army retreated in August. MacArthur now resumed his planning for an amphibious operation, which he tentatively scheduled for 15 September. Navy and Marine Corps officers like Rear Admiral
James H. Doyle, the commander of Amphibious Group One
, and Major General
Oliver P. Smith, the commander of the 1st Marine Division, were appalled by the proposed landing beaches at Inchon, which featured huge tides, broad mudflats, narrow and treacherous channels, and high seawalls. Omar Bradley called it "the worst possible place ever selected for an amphibious landing." While the Inchon-Seoul area was a key communications center, the risks of the landing were daunting. Collins and Sherman flew to Tokyo to be briefed on the plans by MacArthur, who declared: "We shall land at Inchon, and I shall crush them."
Truman was dismayed by a statement MacArthur made to the 51st National Encampment of the Veterans of Foreign Wars
on 26 August, in which he contradicted Truman's policy towards the island of Formosa
, saying: "Nothing could be more fallacious than the threadbare argument by those who advocate appeasement
and defeatism in the Pacific that if we defend Formosa we alienate continental Asia." Truman was infuriated by the word "appeasement," and discussed the possibility of relieving MacArthur with Secretary of Defense Louis A. Johnson
. Johnson responded that MacArthur was "one of the greatest, if not the greatest generals of our generation." Truman told Johnson to send MacArthur an order withdrawing his statement, which he did, but it had already been read into Congressional Record
. In the end, it would not be MacArthur who was relieved. Truman had become irritated with Johnson's conflict with Secretary of State Dean Acheson
. Although Truman had said that Johnson would remain as Secretary of Defense "as long as I am President," in September he asked Johnson for his resignation. Publicly, Johnson received much of the blame for the defense cuts that had led to the lack of preparedness and consequent early defeats in Korea. He was replaced by General of the Army George Marshall
.
MacArthur held that his military objective was the destruction of the North Korean Army. That being the case, operations would be necessary north of the 38th parallel north, although his Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2, Major General Charles A. Willoughby warned on 31 August that 37 Chinese divisions were massing on the border between China and North Korea. The Joint Chiefs agreed with MacArthur on this issue. A National Security Council
paper endorsed the legality of action north of the 38th parallel north. The paper recommended that only South Korean troops be employed in the border regions with China and Russia. Should the Soviet Union intervene, MacArthur was to immediately withdraw to the 38th parallel north; but in the case of Chinese intervention, he was to keep fighting "as long as action by UN military forces offers a reasonable chance of successful resistance." Truman endorsed the report on 11 September, but MacArthur remained in the dark because of the changeover of Secretaries of Defense, and was not informed until 22 September. When Truman was asked at a press conference on 21 September whether he had decided to conduct operations in North Korea, he replied that he had not.
In the meantime, MacArthur's amphibious assault at Inchon
went ahead on 15 September. "The success of Inchon was so great and the subsequent prestige of General MacArthur was so overpowering," Collins later recalled, "that the Chiefs hesistated thereafter to question later plans and decisions of the general, which should have been challenged." In response to a rumor that the Eighth Army planned to halt at the 38th parallel and await United Nations authorization to cross, Marshall sent a message to MacArthur informing him that: "We want you to feel unhampered tactically and strategically to proceed north of 38th parallel. Announcement above referred to may precipitate embarrassment in the UN where evident desire is not to be confronted with necessity of a vote on passage, rather to find you have found it militarily necessary to do so." A few days later, MacArthur was instructed not to issue an announcement that his forces had crossed the 38th parallel. On 7 October a United Nations General Assembly Resolution was passed that could be broadly construed as permitting the invasion of North Korea.
, came up with another way to garner votes for the Democratic Party. In July 1944, President Franklin Roosevelt had traveled to Hawaii to meet with MacArthur and Admiral Chester Nimitz
. At this meeting, Roosevelt made the call to attack the Philippines in the final year of the Pacific war. It was a political triumph in an election year, refuting Republican claims that Roosevelt fixated on Europe at the expense of the Pacific.
Truman emulated this by flying to the Pacific to meet MacArthur. Initially, Truman was cool about the idea, as he disliked publicity stunts, but in October 1950, in the wake of the victories at Pusan and Inchon, and the expulsion of the North Koreans from South Korea, MacArthur's star was burning bright. By meeting with him, Truman could emphasize his own part in the victories, as Commander in Chief. A message was sent to MacArthur suggesting a meeting on Hawaii or Wake Island
. MacArthur replied that he "would be delighted to meet the President on the morning of the 15th at Wake Island." When MacArthur discovered that the President would be bringing the news media with him, MacArthur asked if he could bring correspondents from Tokyo. His request was denied.
Truman arrived at Wake Island on 15 October, where he was greeted on the tarmac by MacArthur, who had arrived the day before. MacArthur shook hands with the President rather than salute, which Bradley considered "insulting." This did not bother Truman; what did annoy the President, a former haberdasher
, was MacArthur's "greasy ham and eggs cap that evidently had been in use for twenty years." The meeting, which had no agenda and no structure, took the form of a free-wheeling discussion between the President and his advisors on one hand, and MacArthur and the CINCPAC, Admiral Arthur Radford, on the other. Topics discussed included Formosa, the Philippines and the wars in Vietnam
and Korea. MacArthur noted that "No new policies, no new strategy of war or international politics, were proposed or discussed." Robert Sherrod
, who was present as a correspondent felt that he "had witnessed nothing but a political grandstand play."
However, MacArthur did say things that would later come back to haunt him. When asked by the President about the odds of Soviet or Chinese intervention in Korea, MacArthur replied:
MacArthur expressed the hope that the Eighth Army could withdraw to Japan by the end of the year. When Bradley asked if a division could be sent to Europe, MacArthur replied that he could make one available in January. In fact, Chinese troops had already begun crossing the Yalu into North Korea, and by November 180,000 had done so.
When he returned from Wake, MacArthur faced the challenge of turning his promises into reality. On 24 October, he ordered his principal subordinates, Lieutenant General
Walton Walker
, the commander of the Eighth Army, and Major General Edward Almond
of X Corps, to "drive forward with all speed and dull utilization of all their force." He also lifted the prohibition on troops other than South Koreans operating along the borders with China and the Soviet Union. Collins considered this a violation of the orders that the Joint Chiefs had issued on 27 September, but MacArthur pointed out that it was only, in the words of the original directive, "a matter of policy." He added that the matter had been raised at Wake Island, but no one else recalled this, particularly not Truman, who, unaware of these discussions, told reporters on 26 October that Koreans and not Americans would occupy the border areas. Within days, MacArthur encountered the Chinese in the Battle of Onjong
and the Battle of Unsan
.
Truman did not relieve MacArthur for the military reverses in Korea in November and December 1950. Truman later stated that he felt that MacArthur was no more to blame than General of the Army Dwight Eisenhower was for the military reverses he had suffered during the Battle of the Bulge
. But this did not mean that it did not factor into his decision. "I considered him a great strategist," Truman later recalled, "until he made the march into North Korea without the knowledge that he should have had of the Chinese coming in."
In an attempt to slow the Chinese advance, MacArthur ordered the bridges across the Yalu to be bombed. After due consultation with his advisers, Truman declared that he would not approve of such an action, and the Joint Chiefs cancelled the order. When MacArthur protested, the President and the Joint Chiefs authorized the bombings, subject to the caveat that Chinese air space not be violated. Major General Emmett O'Donnell would later cite this to the Congressional inquiry into MacArthur's relief as an example of undue political interference in military operations. The Yalu River had many bends, and in some cases there were very restricted lines of approach without overflying the Yalu. This made life easier for the Communist antiaircraft gunners, but correspondingly less so for the aircrew. Within weeks, MacArthur was forced to retreat, and both Truman and MacArthur were forced to contemplate the prospect of abandoning Korea entirely.
, MacArthur did at one point consider a plan to use radioactive wastes to seal off North Korea, something originally proposed in a 1950 study released by Louis Johnson. However, MacArthur never submitted this scheme to the Joint Chiefs.
At a press conference on 30 November 1950, Truman was asked about the use of nuclear weapons:
The implication was that the authority to use nuclear weapons had been handed over to MacArthur. Truman was forced to issue a clarification that "only the President can authorize the use of the atom bomb, and no such authorization has been given." Truman had touched upon one of the most sensitive issues in civil-military relations in the post-World War II period: civilian control of nuclear weapons. This was enshrined in the Atomic Energy Act of 1946
. A week later, Truman issued his directive requiring all military officers and diplomatic officials to "refrain from direct communications on military or foreign policy with newspapers, magazines, and other publicity media."
On 5 April 1951, the Joint Chiefs of Staff drafted orders for MacArthur authorizing attacks on Manchuria and the Shantung Peninsula if the Chinese launched airstrikes against his forces originating from there. The next day Truman met with the chairman of the United States Atomic Energy Commission
, Gordon Dean
, and arranged for the transfer of nine Mark 4 nuclear bomb
s to military control. Dean was apprehensive about delegating the decision on how they should be used to MacArthur, who lacked expert technical knowledge of the weapons and their effects. The Joint Chiefs were not entirely comfortable about giving them to MacArthur either, for fear that he might prematurely carry out his orders. This was overtaken by the events of MacArthur's relief, and the orders were never sent.
, Clement Attlee
, was particularly disturbed by Truman's gaffe about nuclear weapons, and sought to revive the wartime Quebec Agreement
, under which the United States would not use nuclear weapons without Britain's consent. The British were concerned that the United States was drifting into a war with China. In a visit to the United States in December 1950, Attlee raised the fears of the British and other European governments that "General MacArthur was running the show." As MacArthur's views about the importance of Asia in world affairs were well known, it was feared that United States would shift its focus away from Europe. In this instance, MacArthur was defended by Bradley, whose anglophobia dated back to World War II.
Nonetheless, the British became alarmed in January 1951 when the Americans began talking of evacuating Korea. The British argued that to maintain European faith and unity it was vital to maintain some presence in Korea, even if it was nothing more than a toehold in the Pusan area. Once again, Bradley defended MacArthur, but it was clear that he had become an irritant in the relationship between the two countries. However, the alliance with Britain itself was unpopular in Congress. House Minority Leader Joseph William Martin, Jr.
slammed Truman for following Attlee's Britain to "slavery to government and crippling debt."
gave MacArthur a legal opinion that this applied "solely to formal public statements and not to communiqués, correspondence or personal conversations." MacArthur made similar remarks in press statements on 13 February and 7 March 1951.
In February and March 1951, the tide of war began to turn again, and MacArthur's forces drove north. Seoul, which had fallen on 4 January, was recaptured on 17 March. This raised hopes in Washington that the Chinese and North Koreans might be amenable to a ceasefire agreement, and Truman prepared a statement to this effect. MacArthur was informed of it by the Joint Chiefs on 20 March, and he warned the new commander of the Eighth Army, Lieutenant General Matthew B. Ridgway, that political constraints may soon impose limits on his proposed operations. On 23 March, MacArthur issued a communiqué offering a ceasefire to the Chinese:
The next day, MacArthur authorized Ridgway to advance up to 20 miles (32.2 km) north of the 38th Parallel. Truman would later report that "I was ready to kick him into the North China Sea, I was never so put out in my life." Truman felt that MacArthur's communiqué, which had not been cleared in accordance with the December directive, had pre-empted his own proposal. He later wrote:
For the moment, however, he did. There had been dramatic confrontations over policy before, the most notable of which was between President Abraham Lincoln
and Major General George McClellan
, in 1862, over whether the American Civil War
should be fought to the bitter end (as Lincoln wanted) or solved by negotiation (as McClellan favored). Another example was President James Polk's recall of Major General Winfield Scott
after the Mexican-American War. Before relieving MacArthur, Truman consulted history books on how Lincoln and Polk dealt with their generals. Truman later said that Polk was his favorite president because "he had the courage to tell Congress to go to Hell on foreign policy matters."
There were genuine differences of opinion over policy between MacArthur and the Truman administration. One was MacArthur's deep-seated belief that it was not possible to separate the struggle against Communism in Europe from that going on in Asia. This was seen as the result of being stationed for too many years in the Orient, and of his perspective as a theater commander responsible only for part of the Far East. Another important policy difference was MacArthur's belief that China was not, as Acheson maintained, "the Soviet Union's largest and most important satellite," but an independent state with its own agenda that, in MacArthur's words, was "for its own purposes is [just temporarily] allied with Soviet Russia." If MacArthur's thesis was accepted, then it followed that expanding the war with China would not provoke a conflict with the Soviet Union. The Joint Chiefs emphatically disagreed, although this contradicted their position that it was Europe and not Asia that was the prime concern of the Soviet Union. Even among Republicans, there was little support for MacArthur's position.
On 5 April, Martin read the text of a letter he had received from MacArthur, dated 20 March, criticizing the Truman administration's priorities on the floor of the House. In it, MacArthur had written:
MacArthur later wrote that Martin had released the letter "for some unexplained reason and without consulting me". However it had not been marked as being confidential or off the record in any way.
On 11 April 1951, President Truman drafted an order to MacArthur, which was issued under Bradley's signature:
In a 3 December 1973, article in Time Magazine, Truman was quoted as saying in the early 1960s:
MacArthur was not relieved for insubordination. This was a military offense and MacArthur could have requested an embarrassing public court martial, which might have found him not guilty and ordered his reinstatement. The Joint Chiefs agreed that there was "little evidence that General MacArthur had ever failed to carry out a direct order of the Joint Chiefs, or acted in opposition to an order." Although Truman and Acheson would later accuse MacArthur of insubordination, the Joint Chiefs avoided using the term. "In point of fact," Bradley insisted, "MacArthur had stretched but not legally violated any JCS directives. He had violated the President's 6 December directive, relayed to him by the JCS, but this did not constitute violation of a JCS order."
The intention was that MacArthur would be personally notified of his relief by Secretary of the Army Frank Pace
, who was touring the front in Korea, at 20:00 on 11 April Washington, DC, time, which was 10:00 on 12 April Tokyo time. However, Pace did not receive the message due to a signals failure in Korea. Meanwhile, reporters began asking if rumors of MacArthur's relief were true. Truman then "decided that we could not afford the courtesy of Secretary Pace's personal delivery of the order," and called a press conference at which he issued his statement to the press:
In Tokyo, MacArthur and his wife were at a luncheon at the American embassy for Senator Warren Magnuson and William Stern of Northwest Airlines
when Colonel Sidney Huff, MacArthur's aide and one of the "Bataan gang" who had escaped from Corregidor with the general in 1942, heard about the relief from commercial radio broadcast. Huff promptly informed Mrs. MacArthur, who in turn told the general. Japanese radio stations soon picked up the story, but the official notice would not arrive for another half hour.
was an American tradition dating back to the founding of the republic. In his 1956 memoirs, Truman wrote:
Following the relief, most of the avalanche of mail and messages sent to the White House by the public supported MacArthur. On issues like character, integrity, honor and service, they rated MacArthur as the better man. What support Truman garnered was largely based on the principle of civilian control.
Civilian control of the military was not guaranteed by the constitution. The constitution merely divided responsibility for the military between the executive and the legislature. This meant that any attempt by one branch to assert control would likely involve a clash with the other. Debates nominally about civilian control were usually, in practice, about which branch would exercise control rather than how control would be exercised. The framers of the constitution did not consider the issue of the management of a distinct and technically sophisticated military profession because no such thing existed at the time. It appeared in the 19th century as a result of social changes brought about by the French Revolution
, and technological changes wrought by the industrial revolution
. While the framers believed in civilian control of the military, they framed it in terms of a people's militia.
That these arrangements worked for a long time was the product of the geographic and political isolation of the United States. Compared with their European counterparts, the United States was under little pressure to enact military reforms that would create a more professional military. Nonetheless, in the half century after the American Civil War
, the United States Army and Navy developed the institutions of a professionalized military, such as advanced schools.
The Spanish-American War
revealed administrative and organizational failures that prompted sweeping reforms, most notably in the Army under Secretary of War Elihu Root
. These included the establishment of a general staff and improvements to the Army educational system. The technology of war had become more complicated, so the military responded by becoming increasingly professionalized to meet the challenge. American military culture traditionally adhered to loyalty to one's superiors and deference to civilian control, which created a tension between obedience to the policy of the current administration and the constitutional responsibility to advise Congress.
Alexander Hamilton
argued that:
However, on 26 June 1950, Truman sent the armed forces into Korea without any such Congressional mandate. The subsequent Security Council resolution authorized military assistance to South Korea. However, the United Nations Participation Act
laid down that:
The congressional inquiry triggered by MacArthur's relief ruled that Truman's actions violated both constitutional and statutory requirements. While presidents had in the past had used extra-legal military force, this was in "fights with pirates, landings of small naval contingents on barbarous or semi-barbarous coasts, the dispatch of small bodies of troops to chase bandits or cattle rustlers across the Mexican border, and the like." Congressman Vito Marcantonio
, who opposed the war in Korea, argued that "when we agreed to the United Nations Charter we never agreed to supplant our Constitution with the United Nations Charter. The power to declare and make war is vested in the representatives of the people, in the Congress of the United States."
Senator William F. Knowland
noted that:
The notion that the President, as Commander in Chief had extraordinary or even absolute power came to be known as Imperial Presidency
, after the book of that name
by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. Schlesinger noted that Truman's actions in committing troops to Korea and relieving MacArthur represented an important expansion of Presidential power under the mantle of Commander in Chief. Technology forced soldiers to fight in small groups, increasingly far apart from one another. This produced a new emphasis on individual initiative. The old virtue of obedience became supplanted by that of loyalty, the focus of which, increasingly, was the president.
from 1869 to 1883, who hated politics, this custom of an apolitical military became firmly established.
Nor, unlike their European counterparts, did American generals and admirals have influence on or involvement in foreign policy; but mainly because in the frontier Army of MacArthur's youth, there was no requirement to do so. This began to change after the Spanish-American War, when American military forces started to be deployed overseas in the Pacific, Asia and the Caribbean for extended periods of time.
The concept of the theater of war
developed during World War II. At such a senior level of command, military and political issues tended to merge. As theater commander in the Southwest Pacific, MacArthur had been accountable to the Australian government as well as his own, making him, in President Roosevelt's words to him, "an ambassador as well as Supreme Commander." MacArthur's less than wholehearted support for the "Europe first
" strategy was apt to cause annoyance in Washington when the chain of command was bypassed by MacArthur through the Prime Minister of Australia
, John Curtin
.
General Marshall expressed this conflict in his testimony before the US Senate:
passed a resolution of gratitude for MacArthur, and the Emperor Hirohito
visited him at the embassy in person, the first time a Japanese Emperor had ever visited a foreigner with no standing. The Mainichi Shimbun
said:
In the Chicago Tribune
, Senator Robert Taft
called for immediate impeachment proceedings against Truman:
Newspapers like the Chicago Tribune
and the Los Angeles Times
opined that MacArthur's "hasty and vindictive" relief was due to foreign pressure, particularly from the United Kingdom and the British socialists in Attlee's government. The Republican Party whip, Senator Kenneth S. Wherry
charged that the relief was the result of pressure from "the Socialist Government of Great Britain."
MacArthur flew back to the United States, a country he had not seen in years. When he reached San Francisco he was greeted by the commander of the Sixth United States Army, Lieutenant General Albert C. Wedemeyer. MacArthur received a parade there that was attended by 500,000 people. MacArthur was greeted on arrival at Washington National Airport on April 19 by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and General Jonathan Wainwright
. Truman sent Vaughan as his representative. which was seen as a slight, as Vaughan was despised by the public and professional soldiers alike as a corrupt crony. "It was a shameful thing to fire MacArthur, and even more shameful to send Vaughan," one member of the public wrote to Truman.
MacArthur addressed a joint session of Congress where he delivered his famous "Old Soldiers Never Die" speech, in which he declared that:
In response, the Pentagon issued a press release that noted that "the action taken by the President in relieving General MacArthur was based upon the unanimous recommendations of the President's principal civilian and military advisers including the Joint Chiefs of Staff." Afterwards, he flew to New York City where he received the largest ticker-tape parade
in history up to that time. He also visited Chicago and Milwaukee, where he addressed large rallies.
Fourteen witnesses were called: MacArthur, Marshall, Bradley, Collins, Vandenberg, Sherman, Adrian S. Fisher
, Acheson, Wedemeyer, Johnson, Oscar C. Badger II
, Patrick J. Hurley
, and David C. Barr and O'Donnell.
The testimony of Marshall and the Joint Chiefs rebutted many of MacArthur's arguments. Marshall emphatically declared that there had been no disagreement between himself, the President, and the Joint Chiefs. However, it also exposed their own timidity in dealing with MacArthur, and that they had not always kept him fully informed. Vandenberg questioned whether the air force could be effective against targets in Manchuria, while Bradley noted that the Communists were also waging limited war in Korea, having not attacked UN airbases or ports, or their own "privileged sanctuary" in Japan. Their judgement was that it was not worth it to expand the war, although they conceded that they were prepared to do so if the Communists escalated the conflict, or if no willingness to negotiate was forthcoming. They also disagreed with MacArthur's assessment of the effectiveness of the South Korean and Chinese Nationalist
forces. Most famously, Bradley said:
The committees concluded that "the removal of General MacArthur was within the constitutional powers of the President but the circumstances were a shock to national pride." They also found that "there was no serious disagreement between General MacArthur and the Joint Chiefs of Staff as to military strategy." They recommended that "the United States should never again become involved in war without the consent of the Congress."
's low of 25 per cent during the Watergate Scandal
in 1974, or Lyndon Johnson's of 28 per cent at the height of the Vietnam War
in 1968. , it remains the lowest Gallup Poll approval rating ever recorded by any serving president.
The increasingly unpopular war in Korea dragged on, and the Truman administration was beset with a series of corruption scandals. He eventually decided not to run for re-election. Adlai Stevenson, the Democratic candidate in the 1952 presidential election
attempted to distance himself from the president as much as possible. The election was won by the Republican candidate, General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower
, whose administration ramped up the pressure on the Chinese in Korea with conventional bombing and renewed threats of using nuclear weapons. Coupled with a more favorable international political climate in the wake of the death of Joseph Stalin
in 1953, this led the Chinese and North Koreans to agree to terms. The belief that the threat of nuclear weapons played an important part in the outcome would lead to their threatened use against China on a number of occasions during the 1950s.
As a result of their support of Truman, the Joint Chiefs became viewed as politically tainted. Senator Taft regarded Bradley in particular with suspicion, due to Bradley's focus on Europe at the expense of Asia. Taft urged Eisenhower to replace the chiefs as soon as possible. First to go was Vandenberg, who had terminal cancer and had already announced plans to retire. On 7 May 1953, Eisenhower announced that he would be replaced by General Nathan Twining. Soon after it was announced that Bradley would be replaced by Admiral Arthur W. Radford
, the Commander in Chief of the United States Pacific Command
, Collins would be succeeded by Ridgway, and Admiral William Fechteler
, who had become CNO on the death of Sherman in July 1951, by Admiral Robert B. Carney.
in Honolulu in 1966, he told him: "General, I have a lot riding on you. I hope you don't pull a MacArthur on me." For his part, Westmoreland and his senior colleagues were eager to avoid any hint of dissent or challenge to presidential authority. This came at a high price. In his 1998 book Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam
, Brigadier General H. R. McMaster
argued that the Joint Chiefs failed in their duty to provide the President, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara
or Congress with frank and fearless professional advice. This book was an influential one; the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Hugh Shelton
, gave copies to every four-star officer in the military.
On the one hand, the relief of MacArthur established a precedent that generals could be fired for any public or private disagreement with government policy. In 1977, Major General John K. Singlaub
publicly criticized proposed cuts in the size of American forces in South Korea, and was summarily relieved by President Jimmy Carter
for making statements "inconsistent with announced national security policy." During the Gulf War
in 1990, Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney
relieved the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, General Michael Dugan for showing "poor judgment at a very sensitive time" in making a series of statements to the media during a visit to Saudi Arabia. Three years later, Major General Harold N. Campbell was fined $7,000 and forced to retire after describing President Bill Clinton
disrespectfully as a "dope smoking," "skirt chasing," "draft dodging" President. In 2009, General Stanley A. McChrystal
was sacked by President Barack Obama
after McChrystal and his staff made disparaging remarks about senior civilian government officials in an article published in Rolling Stone
magazine. This relief elicited numerous comparisons with MacArthur, as the war in Afghanistan
was not going well.
On the other hand, the relief "left a lasting current of popular sentiment that in matters of war and peace, the military really knows best," a philosophy which became known as "MacArthurism." During the 1992 presidential election, Bill Clinton used endorsements from the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral William J. Crowe
, and 21 other retired generals and flag officers to counter doubts about his ability to serve as Commander in Chief. This became a feature of later presidential election campaigns. During the 2004 presidential election
, twelve retired generals and admirals endorsed Senator John Kerry
, including William Crowe, and the former Chief of Staff of the Air Force, General Merrill McPeak, who also appeared in television advertisements defending Kerry against the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. During this election campaign, one retired four star General, Tommy Franks
, spoke at the Republican National Convention
while another, John Shalikashvili, addressed the Democratic National Convention
.
In early 2006, in what was called the "Generals Revolt," six retired generals, Major General John Batiste
, Major General Paul D. Eaton, Lieutenant General Gregory Newbold, Major General John M. Riggs, Major General Charles H. Swannack Jr.
and General Anthony C. Zinni, called for the resignation of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
, accusing him of "abysmal" military planning and lack of strategic competence. The ethics of a system under which serving generals were compelled to publicly support policies that they felt were potentially ruinous for the country, and cost the lives of citizens, did not escape critical public comment, and was mocked by political satirist Stephen Colbert
at a dinner
attended by President George W. Bush
and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace
. Rumsfeld resigned in November 2006. By 2008, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen felt obliged to pen an open letter in which he reminded all serviceman that "The U.S. military must remain apolitical at all times."
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...
relieved General of the Army
General of the Army
General of the Army is a military rank used in some countries to denote a senior military leader, usually a General in command of a nation's Army. It may also be the title given to a General who commands an Army in the field....
Douglas MacArthur
Douglas MacArthur
General of the Army Douglas MacArthur was an American general and field marshal of the Philippine Army. He was a Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during World War II. He received the Medal of Honor for his service in the...
, a popular war hero, of his commands for making public statements that contradicted the administration's policies. MacArthur's relief remains a controversial topic in the field of civil-military relations
Civil-military relations
Civil–military relations describes the relationship between civil society as a whole and the military organization or organizations established to protect it. More narrowly, it describes the relationship between the civil authority of a given society and its military authority...
.
In June 1950, after North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
invaded South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
, starting the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
, MacArthur was designated commander of the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
forces defending South Korea. He conceived and executed the amphibious assault at Inchon
Battle of Inchon
The Battle of Inchon was an amphibious invasion and battle of the Korean War that resulted in a decisive victory and strategic reversal in favor of the United Nations . The operation involved some 75,000 troops and 261 naval vessels, and led to the recapture of the South Korean capital Seoul two...
on 15 September 1950, for which he was hailed as a military genius. However, when he followed up his victory with a full-scale invasion of North Korea on Truman's orders, China intervened in the war and inflicted a series of defeats on MacArthur's forces, compelling him to withdraw from North Korea. By April 1951, the military situation had stabilized, but MacArthur's public statements became increasingly irritating to Truman, and he relieved MacArthur of his commands. The Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a joint inquiry into the military situation and the circumstances surrounding MacArthur's relief, and concluded that "the removal of General MacArthur was within the constitutional powers of the President but the circumstances were a shock to national pride."
An apolitical military was an American tradition, but one that was difficult to uphold in an era when American forces were employed overseas in large numbers. So too was the principle of civilian control of the military, but the rising complexity of military technology, and the consequent creation of a professional military class, coupled with the cumbersome constitutional division of powers, made this increasingly problematic. In relieving MacArthur for failing to "respect the authority of the President" by privately communicating with Congress, Truman was upholding a view of the President's role as pre-eminent. This triggered a constitutional crisis, because the constitution divided that control of the military between the President as Commander in Chief and the Congress. The notion that the President had extraordinary or even absolute power came to be known as Imperial Presidency
Imperial Presidency
Imperial Presidency is a term that became popular in the 1960s and that served as the title of a 1973 volume by historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. to describe the modern presidency of the United States...
. Henceforth, all military officers were on notice that they could be relieved at will, with consequences that would unfold over the following decades.
Truman and MacArthur
Harry S. TrumanHarry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...
became president of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
on the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
in 1945, and won an unexpected victory in the 1948 presidential election. He was proud of his service in the artillery during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and held a reserve commission as a colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
. He distrusted regular soldiers and selected two National Guardsmen, Harry H. Vaughan and Louis H. Renfrow, as his military aides. During the 1948 Revolt of the Admirals
Revolt of the Admirals
The Revolt of the Admirals is a name given to an episode that took place in the late 1940s in which several United States Navy admirals and high-ranking civilian officials publicly disagreed with the President and the Secretary of Defense's strategy and plans for the military forces in the early...
, a number of naval officers publicly disagreed with the President over cuts to naval aviation and amphibious warfare
Amphibious warfare
Amphibious warfare is the use of naval firepower, logistics and strategy to project military power ashore. In previous eras it stood as the primary method of delivering troops to non-contiguous enemy-held terrain...
capability, resulting in the relief of the Chief of Naval Operations
Chief of Naval Operations
The Chief of Naval Operations is a statutory office held by a four-star admiral in the United States Navy, and is the most senior uniformed officer assigned to serve in the Department of the Navy. The office is a military adviser and deputy to the Secretary of the Navy...
, Admiral
Admiral (United States)
In the United States Navy, the United States Coast Guard and the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, admiral is a four-star flag officer rank, with the pay grade of O-10. Admiral ranks above vice admiral and below Fleet Admiral in the Navy; the Coast Guard and the Public Health...
Louis Denfeld, and his replacement by Admiral Forrest Sherman
Forrest Sherman
Forrest Percival Sherman was an admiral in the United States Navy and the youngest man to serve as Chief of Naval Operations until Admiral Elmo Zumwalt became Chief of Naval Operations in 1970....
. In testimony before the House Armed Services Committee investigation into the affair in October 1949, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is by law the highest ranking military officer in the United States Armed Forces, and is the principal military adviser to the President of the United States, the National Security Council, the Homeland Security Council and the Secretary of Defense...
, General
General (United States)
In the United States Army, United States Air Force, and United States Marine Corps, general is a four-star general officer rank, with the pay grade of O-10. General ranks above lieutenant general and below General of the Army or General of the Air Force; the Marine Corps does not have an...
Omar Bradley
Omar Bradley
Omar Nelson Bradley was a senior U.S. Army field commander in North Africa and Europe during World War II, and a General of the Army in the United States Army...
, doubted that there would ever be another large scale amphibious operation.
In stature and seniority, General of the Army
General of the Army
General of the Army is a military rank used in some countries to denote a senior military leader, usually a General in command of a nation's Army. It may also be the title given to a General who commands an Army in the field....
Douglas MacArthur
Douglas MacArthur
General of the Army Douglas MacArthur was an American general and field marshal of the Philippine Army. He was a Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during World War II. He received the Medal of Honor for his service in the...
was the Army's foremost general. He had a distinguished combat record in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, and had served as Chief of Staff of the United States Army
Chief of Staff of the United States Army
The Chief of Staff of the Army is a statutory office held by a four-star general in the United States Army, and is the most senior uniformed officer assigned to serve in the Department of the Army, and as such is the principal military advisor and a deputy to the Secretary of the Army; and is in...
from 1930 to 1935. Apart from his World War I service, almost all of his overseas postings had been to the Pacific. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he had become a national hero and had been awarded the Medal of Honor
Medal of Honor
The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration awarded by the United States government. It is bestowed by the President, in the name of Congress, upon members of the United States Armed Forces who distinguish themselves through "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his or her...
for the Battle of Bataan
Battle of Bataan
The Battle of Bataan represented the most intense phase of Imperial Japan's invasion of the Philippines during World War II. The capture of the Philippine Islands was crucial to Japan's effort to control the Southwest Pacific, seize the resource-rich Dutch East Indies, and protect its Southeast...
. He had commanded the Allied armies in the New Guinea Campaign
New Guinea campaign
The New Guinea campaign was one of the major military campaigns of World War II.Before the war, the island of New Guinea was split between:...
and Philippines Campaign, fulfilling his famous promise to return to the Philippines. After the war, as the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers
Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers
Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers was the title held by General Douglas MacArthur during the Occupation of Japan following World War II...
(SCAP), he had overseen the Occupation of Japan and played an important part in the post-war political and social transformation of that country.
By 1950, the occupation of Japan was winding down, but MacArthur was still in Japan as Commander in Chief Far East (CINCFE), a post to which he had been appointed by Truman in 1945. MacArthur had to deal with draconian cuts in the defense budget which had seen his troop numbers decline from 300,000 in 1947 to 142,000 in 1948. Despite his protests, further cuts had followed, and by June 1950, there were only 108,000 troops in his Far East Command. Shortages of funds and personnel produced shortages of serviceable equipment. Of the Far East Command's 18,000 jeep
Jeep
Jeep is an automobile marque of Chrysler . The first Willys Jeeps were produced in 1941 with the first civilian models in 1945, making it the oldest off-road vehicle and sport utility vehicle brand. It inspired a number of other light utility vehicles, such as the Land Rover which is the second...
s, 10,000 were unserviceable; of its 113,870 2½-ton 6x6 trucks, only 4,441 were serviceable. On the positive side, the Far East Command initiated a program of reclaiming and refurbishing war materiel from abandoned stocks throughout the Pacific. This had not only recovered a great deal of valuable stores and equipment, it had also generated a useful repair and rebuilding industry in Japan. Meanwhile, the shift away from occupation duties had permitted a greater focus on training for combat.
Korean War
North KoreaNorth Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
invaded South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
on 25 June 1950, starting the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
. In response to an urgent request from the Korean Military Advisory Group
Korean Military Advisory Group
The Korean Military Advisory Group was a United States military unit of the Korean War...
for more ammunition, MacArthur, on his own initiative, ordered the transport ship MSTS Sgt. George D Keathley
USNS Sgt. George D Keathley (T-APC-117)
USNS Sgt. George D. Keathley, was a World War II United States cargo vessel that was used for troop transport and later converted to a survey vessel. She was laid down and launched as MS Alexander R. Niniger, Jr., then renamed MS Acorn Knot. She was put into US Army service as USAT Acorn Knot,...
to be loaded with ammunition and to sail for Pusan. President Truman met with the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Joint Chiefs of Staff
The Joint Chiefs of Staff is a body of senior uniformed leaders in the United States Department of Defense who advise the Secretary of Defense, the Homeland Security Council, the National Security Council and the President on military matters...
and other advisors that day at Blair House
Blair House
Blair House is the official state guest house for the President of the United States. It is located at 1651-1653 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., opposite the Old Executive Office Building of the White House, off the corner of Lafayette Park....
and approved the actions already taken by MacArthur and Secretary of State
Secretary of State
Secretary of State or State Secretary is a commonly used title for a senior or mid-level post in governments around the world. The role varies between countries, and in some cases there are multiple Secretaries of State in the Government....
Dean Acheson
Dean Acheson
Dean Gooderham Acheson was an American statesman and lawyer. As United States Secretary of State in the administration of President Harry S. Truman from 1949 to 1953, he played a central role in defining American foreign policy during the Cold War...
. At another meeting at Blair House held on the evening of 26 June, amid reports of a rapidly deteriorating situation in South Korea, Truman approved the use of air and naval forces against military targets south of the 38th parallel north
38th parallel north
The 38th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 38 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses Europe, the Mediterranean Sea, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America, and the Atlantic Ocean...
. Subsequently, on 27 June, the United Nations Security Council
United Nations Security Council
The United Nations Security Council is one of the principal organs of the United Nations and is charged with the maintenance of international peace and security. Its powers, outlined in the United Nations Charter, include the establishment of peacekeeping operations, the establishment of...
passed United Nations Security Council Resolution 83
United Nations Security Council Resolution 83
United Nations Security Council Resolution 83, adopted on June 27, 1950, determined that the attack on the Republic of Korea by forces from North Korea constituted a breach of the peace. The Council called for an immediate cessation of hostilities and for the authorities in North Korea to withdraw...
, which called for "Members of the United Nations furnish such assistance to the Republic of Korea as may be necessary to repel the armed attack and to restore international peace and security in the area." The South Korean capital of Seoul
Seoul
Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...
fell on 28 June. The next day, Truman authorized air and naval operations north of the 38th parallel, which MacArthur had already ordered. However it was not until 30 June, following a sobering report on the military situation from MacArthur, that Truman finally authorized the use of ground forces.
On 8 July, on the advice on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Truman appointed MacArthur as commander of the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
Command in South Korea (CINCUNC). He remained CINCFE and SCAP. MacArthur, faced with a desperate military situation, was forced to commit his forces in Japan to what he later described as a "desperate rearguard action." In July Truman sent the Chief of Staff of the Army, General J. Lawton Collins
J. Lawton Collins
Joseph "Lightning Joe" Lawton Collins was a General in the United States Army. During World War II, he served in both the Pacific and European Theaters of Operations. His elder brother, James Lawton Collins, was also in the army as a Major General...
, and the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, to report on the situation. They met with MacArthur and his chief of staff, Major General Edward Almond
Edward Almond
Edward Mallory "Ned" Almond was a controversial United States Army general best known as the commander of the Army's X Corps during the Korean War.-Early Biography:...
in Tokyo on 13 July. MacArthur impressed on them the danger of underestimating the North Koreans, whom he characterized as "well-equipped, well-led, and battle-trained, and which have at times out-numbered our troops by as much as twenty to one." He proposed to first halt the North Korean advance and then counterattack, enveloping the North Koreans with an amphibious operation, but the timing was dependent on the arrival of reinforcements from the United States.
On 13 July, Truman was asked at a press conference if United States forces would cross the 38th parallel into North Korea, and he replied that he would "make that decision when it becomes necessary to do it." Some of his advisors, most notably the Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs, Dean Rusk
Dean Rusk
David Dean Rusk was the United States Secretary of State from 1961 to 1969 under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Rusk is the second-longest serving U.S...
, and the Director of the Office of Northeast Asian Affairs, John M. Allison, argued that Security Council Resolution 83 provided a legal basis for the invasion of North Korea. Others, notably George F. Kennan
George F. Kennan
George Frost Kennan was an American adviser, diplomat, political scientist and historian, best known as "the father of containment" and as a key figure in the emergence of the Cold War...
and Paul Nitze
Paul Nitze
Paul Henry Nitze was a high-ranking United States government official who helped shape Cold War defense policy over the course of numerous presidential administrations.-Early life, education, and family:...
, disagreed. In addition to the legality, the administration also had to consider the danger of intervention by the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
or the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
if United Nations forces approached their borders.
Rear admiral (United States)
Rear admiral is a naval commissioned officer rank above that of a commodore and captain, and below that of a vice admiral. The uniformed services of the United States are unique in having two grades of rear admirals.- Rear admiral :...
James H. Doyle, the commander of Amphibious Group One
Task Force 76
Expeditionary Strike Group SEVEN/Task Force 76 is a United States Navy task force. It is at one and the same time operationally a Task Force of the United States Seventh Fleet and administratively, the USN's only permanently forward-deployed Expeditionary Strike Group...
, and Major General
Major general (United States)
In the United States Army, United States Marine Corps, and United States Air Force, major general is a two-star general-officer rank, with the pay grade of O-8. Major general ranks above brigadier general and below lieutenant general...
Oliver P. Smith, the commander of the 1st Marine Division, were appalled by the proposed landing beaches at Inchon, which featured huge tides, broad mudflats, narrow and treacherous channels, and high seawalls. Omar Bradley called it "the worst possible place ever selected for an amphibious landing." While the Inchon-Seoul area was a key communications center, the risks of the landing were daunting. Collins and Sherman flew to Tokyo to be briefed on the plans by MacArthur, who declared: "We shall land at Inchon, and I shall crush them."
Truman was dismayed by a statement MacArthur made to the 51st National Encampment of the Veterans of Foreign Wars
Veterans of Foreign Wars
The Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States is a congressionally chartered war veterans organization in the United States. Headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, VFW currently has 1.5 million members belonging to 7,644 posts, and is the largest American organization of combat...
on 26 August, in which he contradicted Truman's policy towards the island of Formosa
Formosa
Formosa or Ilha Formosa is a Portuguese historical name for Taiwan , literally meaning, "Beautiful Island". The term may also refer to:-Places:* Formosa Strait, another name for the Taiwan Strait...
, saying: "Nothing could be more fallacious than the threadbare argument by those who advocate appeasement
Appeasement
The term appeasement is commonly understood to refer to a diplomatic policy aimed at avoiding war by making concessions to another power. Historian Paul Kennedy defines it as "the policy of settling international quarrels by admitting and satisfying grievances through rational negotiation and...
and defeatism in the Pacific that if we defend Formosa we alienate continental Asia." Truman was infuriated by the word "appeasement," and discussed the possibility of relieving MacArthur with Secretary of Defense Louis A. Johnson
Louis A. Johnson
Louis Arthur Johnson was the second United States Secretary of Defense, serving in the cabinet of President Harry S. Truman from March 28, 1949 to September 19, 1950....
. Johnson responded that MacArthur was "one of the greatest, if not the greatest generals of our generation." Truman told Johnson to send MacArthur an order withdrawing his statement, which he did, but it had already been read into Congressional Record
Congressional Record
The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. It is published by the United States Government Printing Office, and is issued daily when the United States Congress is in session. Indexes are issued approximately every two weeks...
. In the end, it would not be MacArthur who was relieved. Truman had become irritated with Johnson's conflict with Secretary of State Dean Acheson
Dean Acheson
Dean Gooderham Acheson was an American statesman and lawyer. As United States Secretary of State in the administration of President Harry S. Truman from 1949 to 1953, he played a central role in defining American foreign policy during the Cold War...
. Although Truman had said that Johnson would remain as Secretary of Defense "as long as I am President," in September he asked Johnson for his resignation. Publicly, Johnson received much of the blame for the defense cuts that had led to the lack of preparedness and consequent early defeats in Korea. He was replaced by General of the Army George Marshall
George Marshall
George Catlett Marshall was an American military leader, Chief of Staff of the Army, Secretary of State, and the third Secretary of Defense...
.
MacArthur held that his military objective was the destruction of the North Korean Army. That being the case, operations would be necessary north of the 38th parallel north, although his Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2, Major General Charles A. Willoughby warned on 31 August that 37 Chinese divisions were massing on the border between China and North Korea. The Joint Chiefs agreed with MacArthur on this issue. A National Security Council
National Security Council
A National Security Council is usually an executive branch governmental body responsible for coordinating policy on national security issues and advising chief executives on matters related to national security...
paper endorsed the legality of action north of the 38th parallel north. The paper recommended that only South Korean troops be employed in the border regions with China and Russia. Should the Soviet Union intervene, MacArthur was to immediately withdraw to the 38th parallel north; but in the case of Chinese intervention, he was to keep fighting "as long as action by UN military forces offers a reasonable chance of successful resistance." Truman endorsed the report on 11 September, but MacArthur remained in the dark because of the changeover of Secretaries of Defense, and was not informed until 22 September. When Truman was asked at a press conference on 21 September whether he had decided to conduct operations in North Korea, he replied that he had not.
In the meantime, MacArthur's amphibious assault at Inchon
Battle of Inchon
The Battle of Inchon was an amphibious invasion and battle of the Korean War that resulted in a decisive victory and strategic reversal in favor of the United Nations . The operation involved some 75,000 troops and 261 naval vessels, and led to the recapture of the South Korean capital Seoul two...
went ahead on 15 September. "The success of Inchon was so great and the subsequent prestige of General MacArthur was so overpowering," Collins later recalled, "that the Chiefs hesistated thereafter to question later plans and decisions of the general, which should have been challenged." In response to a rumor that the Eighth Army planned to halt at the 38th parallel and await United Nations authorization to cross, Marshall sent a message to MacArthur informing him that: "We want you to feel unhampered tactically and strategically to proceed north of 38th parallel. Announcement above referred to may precipitate embarrassment in the UN where evident desire is not to be confronted with necessity of a vote on passage, rather to find you have found it militarily necessary to do so." A few days later, MacArthur was instructed not to issue an announcement that his forces had crossed the 38th parallel. On 7 October a United Nations General Assembly Resolution was passed that could be broadly construed as permitting the invasion of North Korea.
Wake Island Conference
With the 1950 mid-term elections drawing near, and Truman abstaining from overt campaigning while the troops were fighting in Korea, members of Truman's staff, most notably George ElseyGeorge Elsey
George Elsey was a military advisor to Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S Truman. A commander in the U.S...
, came up with another way to garner votes for the Democratic Party. In July 1944, President Franklin Roosevelt had traveled to Hawaii to meet with MacArthur and Admiral Chester Nimitz
Chester Nimitz
Fleet Admiral Chester William Nimitz, GCB, USN was a five-star admiral in the United States Navy. He held the dual command of Commander in Chief, United States Pacific Fleet , for U.S. naval forces and Commander in Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas , for U.S...
. At this meeting, Roosevelt made the call to attack the Philippines in the final year of the Pacific war. It was a political triumph in an election year, refuting Republican claims that Roosevelt fixated on Europe at the expense of the Pacific.
Truman emulated this by flying to the Pacific to meet MacArthur. Initially, Truman was cool about the idea, as he disliked publicity stunts, but in October 1950, in the wake of the victories at Pusan and Inchon, and the expulsion of the North Koreans from South Korea, MacArthur's star was burning bright. By meeting with him, Truman could emphasize his own part in the victories, as Commander in Chief. A message was sent to MacArthur suggesting a meeting on Hawaii or Wake Island
Wake Island
Wake Island is a coral atoll having a coastline of in the North Pacific Ocean, located about two-thirds of the way from Honolulu west to Guam east. It is an unorganized, unincorporated territory of the United States, administered by the Office of Insular Affairs, U.S. Department of the Interior...
. MacArthur replied that he "would be delighted to meet the President on the morning of the 15th at Wake Island." When MacArthur discovered that the President would be bringing the news media with him, MacArthur asked if he could bring correspondents from Tokyo. His request was denied.
Truman arrived at Wake Island on 15 October, where he was greeted on the tarmac by MacArthur, who had arrived the day before. MacArthur shook hands with the President rather than salute, which Bradley considered "insulting." This did not bother Truman; what did annoy the President, a former haberdasher
Haberdasher
A haberdasher is a person who sells small articles for sewing, such as buttons, ribbons, zips, and other notions. In American English, haberdasher is another term for a men's outfitter. A haberdasher's shop or the items sold therein are called haberdashery.-Origin and use:The word appears in...
, was MacArthur's "greasy ham and eggs cap that evidently had been in use for twenty years." The meeting, which had no agenda and no structure, took the form of a free-wheeling discussion between the President and his advisors on one hand, and MacArthur and the CINCPAC, Admiral Arthur Radford, on the other. Topics discussed included Formosa, the Philippines and the wars in Vietnam
First Indochina War
The First Indochina War was fought in French Indochina from December 19, 1946, until August 1, 1954, between the French Union's French Far East...
and Korea. MacArthur noted that "No new policies, no new strategy of war or international politics, were proposed or discussed." Robert Sherrod
Robert Sherrod
Robert Lee Sherrod was an American journalist, editor and author. He was a war correspondent for TIME and LIFE magazines, covering combat from World War II to the Vietnam War. During World War II, embedded with the United States Marine Corps U.S. Marines, he covered the battles at Attu, Tarawa,...
, who was present as a correspondent felt that he "had witnessed nothing but a political grandstand play."
However, MacArthur did say things that would later come back to haunt him. When asked by the President about the odds of Soviet or Chinese intervention in Korea, MacArthur replied:
MacArthur expressed the hope that the Eighth Army could withdraw to Japan by the end of the year. When Bradley asked if a division could be sent to Europe, MacArthur replied that he could make one available in January. In fact, Chinese troops had already begun crossing the Yalu into North Korea, and by November 180,000 had done so.
When he returned from Wake, MacArthur faced the challenge of turning his promises into reality. On 24 October, he ordered his principal subordinates, Lieutenant General
Lieutenant General (United States)
In the United States Army, the United States Air Force and the United States Marine Corps, lieutenant general is a three-star general officer rank, with the pay grade of O-9. Lieutenant general ranks above major general and below general...
Walton Walker
Walton Walker
Walton Harris Walker was an American army officer and the first commander of the U.S. Eighth Army during the Korean War.-Biography:...
, the commander of the Eighth Army, and Major General Edward Almond
Edward Almond
Edward Mallory "Ned" Almond was a controversial United States Army general best known as the commander of the Army's X Corps during the Korean War.-Early Biography:...
of X Corps, to "drive forward with all speed and dull utilization of all their force." He also lifted the prohibition on troops other than South Koreans operating along the borders with China and the Soviet Union. Collins considered this a violation of the orders that the Joint Chiefs had issued on 27 September, but MacArthur pointed out that it was only, in the words of the original directive, "a matter of policy." He added that the matter had been raised at Wake Island, but no one else recalled this, particularly not Truman, who, unaware of these discussions, told reporters on 26 October that Koreans and not Americans would occupy the border areas. Within days, MacArthur encountered the Chinese in the Battle of Onjong
Battle of Onjong
The Battle of Onjong , also known as the Battle of Wenjing , was one of the first engagements between Chinese and United Nations forces during the Korean War. It took place around Onjong in present-day North Korea from October 25 to October 29, 1950...
and the Battle of Unsan
Battle of Unsan
The Battle of Unsan , also known as the Battle of Yunshan , was a series of engagements of the Korean War that took place from 25 October to 4 November 1950 near Unsan, North Pyongan province in present-day North Korea...
.
Truman did not relieve MacArthur for the military reverses in Korea in November and December 1950. Truman later stated that he felt that MacArthur was no more to blame than General of the Army Dwight Eisenhower was for the military reverses he had suffered during the Battle of the Bulge
Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge was a major German offensive , launched toward the end of World War II through the densely forested Ardennes mountain region of Wallonia in Belgium, hence its French name , and France and...
. But this did not mean that it did not factor into his decision. "I considered him a great strategist," Truman later recalled, "until he made the march into North Korea without the knowledge that he should have had of the Chinese coming in."
In an attempt to slow the Chinese advance, MacArthur ordered the bridges across the Yalu to be bombed. After due consultation with his advisers, Truman declared that he would not approve of such an action, and the Joint Chiefs cancelled the order. When MacArthur protested, the President and the Joint Chiefs authorized the bombings, subject to the caveat that Chinese air space not be violated. Major General Emmett O'Donnell would later cite this to the Congressional inquiry into MacArthur's relief as an example of undue political interference in military operations. The Yalu River had many bends, and in some cases there were very restricted lines of approach without overflying the Yalu. This made life easier for the Communist antiaircraft gunners, but correspondingly less so for the aircrew. Within weeks, MacArthur was forced to retreat, and both Truman and MacArthur were forced to contemplate the prospect of abandoning Korea entirely.
Nuclear weapons
MacArthur did not advocate the use of nuclear weapons. In his testimony before the Senate Inquiry, he said that he had never recommended their use. In 1960, he challenged a statement by Truman that he had wanted to use nuclear weapons, and Truman issued a retraction, stating that he had no documentary evidence of this claim; it was merely his personal opinion. According to Major General Courtney WhitneyCourtney Whitney
Major General Courtney Whitney was an American lawyer and Army commander during World War II who later served as a senior official during the occupation of Japan....
, MacArthur did at one point consider a plan to use radioactive wastes to seal off North Korea, something originally proposed in a 1950 study released by Louis Johnson. However, MacArthur never submitted this scheme to the Joint Chiefs.
The implication was that the authority to use nuclear weapons had been handed over to MacArthur. Truman was forced to issue a clarification that "only the President can authorize the use of the atom bomb, and no such authorization has been given." Truman had touched upon one of the most sensitive issues in civil-military relations in the post-World War II period: civilian control of nuclear weapons. This was enshrined in the Atomic Energy Act of 1946
Atomic Energy Act of 1946
The Atomic Energy Act of 1946 determined how the United States federal government would control and manage the nuclear technology it had jointly developed with its wartime allies...
. A week later, Truman issued his directive requiring all military officers and diplomatic officials to "refrain from direct communications on military or foreign policy with newspapers, magazines, and other publicity media."
On 5 April 1951, the Joint Chiefs of Staff drafted orders for MacArthur authorizing attacks on Manchuria and the Shantung Peninsula if the Chinese launched airstrikes against his forces originating from there. The next day Truman met with the chairman of the United States Atomic Energy Commission
United States Atomic Energy Commission
The United States Atomic Energy Commission was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by Congress to foster and control the peace time development of atomic science and technology. President Harry S...
, Gordon Dean
Gordon Dean
Gordon Evans Dean was a Seattle-born American lawyer and prosecutor who served as chairman of the US Atomic Energy Commission from 1950 to 1953....
, and arranged for the transfer of nine Mark 4 nuclear bomb
Mark 4 nuclear bomb
The Mark 4 nuclear bomb was an American nuclear bomb design produced starting in 1949 and in use until 1953.The Mark 4 was based on the earlier Mark 3 Fat Man design, used in the Trinity test and the bombing of Nagasaki...
s to military control. Dean was apprehensive about delegating the decision on how they should be used to MacArthur, who lacked expert technical knowledge of the weapons and their effects. The Joint Chiefs were not entirely comfortable about giving them to MacArthur either, for fear that he might prematurely carry out his orders. This was overtaken by the events of MacArthur's relief, and the orders were never sent.
Foreign pressure
The Prime Minister of the United KingdomPrime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
, Clement Attlee
Clement Attlee
Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, PC, FRS was a British Labour politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951, and as the Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955...
, was particularly disturbed by Truman's gaffe about nuclear weapons, and sought to revive the wartime Quebec Agreement
Quebec Agreement
The Quebec Agreement is an Anglo-Canadian-American document outlining the terms of nuclear nonproliferation between the United Kingdom and the United States, and signed by Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt on August 19, 1943, two years before the end of World War II, in Quebec City,...
, under which the United States would not use nuclear weapons without Britain's consent. The British were concerned that the United States was drifting into a war with China. In a visit to the United States in December 1950, Attlee raised the fears of the British and other European governments that "General MacArthur was running the show." As MacArthur's views about the importance of Asia in world affairs were well known, it was feared that United States would shift its focus away from Europe. In this instance, MacArthur was defended by Bradley, whose anglophobia dated back to World War II.
Nonetheless, the British became alarmed in January 1951 when the Americans began talking of evacuating Korea. The British argued that to maintain European faith and unity it was vital to maintain some presence in Korea, even if it was nothing more than a toehold in the Pusan area. Once again, Bradley defended MacArthur, but it was clear that he had become an irritant in the relationship between the two countries. However, the alliance with Britain itself was unpopular in Congress. House Minority Leader Joseph William Martin, Jr.
Joseph William Martin, Jr.
Joseph William Martin, Jr. was a Republican Congressman and Speaker of the House from North Attleborough, Massachusetts. He was notably the only Republican to serve as Speaker between 1931 and 1995....
slammed Truman for following Attlee's Britain to "slavery to government and crippling debt."
Public statements
On 1 December 1950, MacArthur was asked by a reporter if the restrictions on operations against Chinese forces on the far side of the Yalu River were "a handicap to effective military operations." He replied that they were indeed "an enormous handicap, unprecedented in military history." On 6 December, Truman issued a directive requiring all military officers and diplomatic officials to clear with the State Department all but routine statements before making them public, "and...refrain from direct communications on military or foreign policy with newspapers, magazines, and other publicity media." Major General Courtney WhitneyCourtney Whitney
Major General Courtney Whitney was an American lawyer and Army commander during World War II who later served as a senior official during the occupation of Japan....
gave MacArthur a legal opinion that this applied "solely to formal public statements and not to communiqués, correspondence or personal conversations." MacArthur made similar remarks in press statements on 13 February and 7 March 1951.
In February and March 1951, the tide of war began to turn again, and MacArthur's forces drove north. Seoul, which had fallen on 4 January, was recaptured on 17 March. This raised hopes in Washington that the Chinese and North Koreans might be amenable to a ceasefire agreement, and Truman prepared a statement to this effect. MacArthur was informed of it by the Joint Chiefs on 20 March, and he warned the new commander of the Eighth Army, Lieutenant General Matthew B. Ridgway, that political constraints may soon impose limits on his proposed operations. On 23 March, MacArthur issued a communiqué offering a ceasefire to the Chinese:
The next day, MacArthur authorized Ridgway to advance up to 20 miles (32.2 km) north of the 38th Parallel. Truman would later report that "I was ready to kick him into the North China Sea, I was never so put out in my life." Truman felt that MacArthur's communiqué, which had not been cleared in accordance with the December directive, had pre-empted his own proposal. He later wrote:
For the moment, however, he did. There had been dramatic confrontations over policy before, the most notable of which was between President Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
and Major General George McClellan
George McClellan
George B. McClellan was an American Civil War military leader, Presidential candidate and Governor of New Jersey.George McClellan may also refer to:*George McClellan , American physician who founded medical schools...
, in 1862, over whether the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
should be fought to the bitter end (as Lincoln wanted) or solved by negotiation (as McClellan favored). Another example was President James Polk's recall of Major General Winfield Scott
Winfield Scott
Winfield Scott was a United States Army general, and unsuccessful presidential candidate of the Whig Party in 1852....
after the Mexican-American War. Before relieving MacArthur, Truman consulted history books on how Lincoln and Polk dealt with their generals. Truman later said that Polk was his favorite president because "he had the courage to tell Congress to go to Hell on foreign policy matters."
There were genuine differences of opinion over policy between MacArthur and the Truman administration. One was MacArthur's deep-seated belief that it was not possible to separate the struggle against Communism in Europe from that going on in Asia. This was seen as the result of being stationed for too many years in the Orient, and of his perspective as a theater commander responsible only for part of the Far East. Another important policy difference was MacArthur's belief that China was not, as Acheson maintained, "the Soviet Union's largest and most important satellite," but an independent state with its own agenda that, in MacArthur's words, was "for its own purposes is [just temporarily] allied with Soviet Russia." If MacArthur's thesis was accepted, then it followed that expanding the war with China would not provoke a conflict with the Soviet Union. The Joint Chiefs emphatically disagreed, although this contradicted their position that it was Europe and not Asia that was the prime concern of the Soviet Union. Even among Republicans, there was little support for MacArthur's position.
On 5 April, Martin read the text of a letter he had received from MacArthur, dated 20 March, criticizing the Truman administration's priorities on the floor of the House. In it, MacArthur had written:
MacArthur later wrote that Martin had released the letter "for some unexplained reason and without consulting me". However it had not been marked as being confidential or off the record in any way.
Relief
On the morning of 6 April 1951, Truman held a meeting in his office with Marshall, Bradley, Acheson and Harriman to discuss what would be done about MacArthur. Harriman was emphatically in favor of MacArthur's relief, but Bradley opposed it. George Marshall asked for more time to consider the matter. Acheson was personally in favor of relieving MacArthur but did not disclose this. Instead, he warned Truman that it would be "the biggest fight of your administration." At a second meeting the next day, Marshall and Bradley continued to oppose relief. On 8 April, the Joint Chiefs met with Marshall in his office. Each of the chiefs in turn expressed the opinion that MacArthur's relief was desirable from a "military point of view," but they recognized that military considerations were not paramount. They were concerned that "if MacArthur were not relieved, a large segment of our people would charge that civil authorities no longer controlled the military." The four advisers met with Truman in his office again on 9 April. Bradley informed the President of the views of the Joint Chiefs, and Marshall added that he agreed with them. Truman wrote in his diary that "it is of unanimous opinion of all that MacArthur be relieved. All four so advise." Later, before Congress, the Joint Chiefs would insist that they had only "concurred" with the relief, not "recommended" it.On 11 April 1951, President Truman drafted an order to MacArthur, which was issued under Bradley's signature:
In a 3 December 1973, article in Time Magazine, Truman was quoted as saying in the early 1960s:
MacArthur was not relieved for insubordination. This was a military offense and MacArthur could have requested an embarrassing public court martial, which might have found him not guilty and ordered his reinstatement. The Joint Chiefs agreed that there was "little evidence that General MacArthur had ever failed to carry out a direct order of the Joint Chiefs, or acted in opposition to an order." Although Truman and Acheson would later accuse MacArthur of insubordination, the Joint Chiefs avoided using the term. "In point of fact," Bradley insisted, "MacArthur had stretched but not legally violated any JCS directives. He had violated the President's 6 December directive, relayed to him by the JCS, but this did not constitute violation of a JCS order."
The intention was that MacArthur would be personally notified of his relief by Secretary of the Army Frank Pace
Frank Pace
Frank Pace, Jr. was a the 3rd United States Secretary of the Army and business executive.-Biography:Pace was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, and attended The Hill School, Pottstown, Pennsylvania...
, who was touring the front in Korea, at 20:00 on 11 April Washington, DC, time, which was 10:00 on 12 April Tokyo time. However, Pace did not receive the message due to a signals failure in Korea. Meanwhile, reporters began asking if rumors of MacArthur's relief were true. Truman then "decided that we could not afford the courtesy of Secretary Pace's personal delivery of the order," and called a press conference at which he issued his statement to the press:
In Tokyo, MacArthur and his wife were at a luncheon at the American embassy for Senator Warren Magnuson and William Stern of Northwest Airlines
Northwest Airlines
Northwest Airlines, Inc. was a major United States airline founded in 1926 and absorbed into Delta Air Lines by a merger approved on October 29, 2008, making Delta the largest airline in the world...
when Colonel Sidney Huff, MacArthur's aide and one of the "Bataan gang" who had escaped from Corregidor with the general in 1942, heard about the relief from commercial radio broadcast. Huff promptly informed Mrs. MacArthur, who in turn told the general. Japanese radio stations soon picked up the story, but the official notice would not arrive for another half hour.
Civilian Control of the Military
Civilian control of the militaryCivilian control of the military
Civilian control of the military is a doctrine in military and political science that places ultimate responsibility for a country's strategic decision-making in the hands of the civilian political leadership, rather than professional military officers. One author, paraphrasing Samuel P...
was an American tradition dating back to the founding of the republic. In his 1956 memoirs, Truman wrote:
Following the relief, most of the avalanche of mail and messages sent to the White House by the public supported MacArthur. On issues like character, integrity, honor and service, they rated MacArthur as the better man. What support Truman garnered was largely based on the principle of civilian control.
Civilian control of the military was not guaranteed by the constitution. The constitution merely divided responsibility for the military between the executive and the legislature. This meant that any attempt by one branch to assert control would likely involve a clash with the other. Debates nominally about civilian control were usually, in practice, about which branch would exercise control rather than how control would be exercised. The framers of the constitution did not consider the issue of the management of a distinct and technically sophisticated military profession because no such thing existed at the time. It appeared in the 19th century as a result of social changes brought about by the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
, and technological changes wrought by the industrial revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
. While the framers believed in civilian control of the military, they framed it in terms of a people's militia.
That these arrangements worked for a long time was the product of the geographic and political isolation of the United States. Compared with their European counterparts, the United States was under little pressure to enact military reforms that would create a more professional military. Nonetheless, in the half century after the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, the United States Army and Navy developed the institutions of a professionalized military, such as advanced schools.
The Spanish-American War
Spanish-American War
The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...
revealed administrative and organizational failures that prompted sweeping reforms, most notably in the Army under Secretary of War Elihu Root
Elihu Root
Elihu Root was an American lawyer and statesman and the 1912 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He was the prototype of the 20th century "wise man", who shuttled between high-level government positions in Washington, D.C...
. These included the establishment of a general staff and improvements to the Army educational system. The technology of war had become more complicated, so the military responded by becoming increasingly professionalized to meet the challenge. American military culture traditionally adhered to loyalty to one's superiors and deference to civilian control, which created a tension between obedience to the policy of the current administration and the constitutional responsibility to advise Congress.
Powers of the President
In the Federalist PapersFederalist Papers
The Federalist Papers are a series of 85 articles or essays promoting the ratification of the United States Constitution. Seventy-seven of the essays were published serially in The Independent Journal and The New York Packet between October 1787 and August 1788...
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton was a Founding Father, soldier, economist, political philosopher, one of America's first constitutional lawyers and the first United States Secretary of the Treasury...
argued that:
However, on 26 June 1950, Truman sent the armed forces into Korea without any such Congressional mandate. The subsequent Security Council resolution authorized military assistance to South Korea. However, the United Nations Participation Act
United Nations Participation Act
United Nations Participation Act of 1945 dealt with the process of United States joining the newly created United Nations and related bodies of the United Nations....
laid down that:
The congressional inquiry triggered by MacArthur's relief ruled that Truman's actions violated both constitutional and statutory requirements. While presidents had in the past had used extra-legal military force, this was in "fights with pirates, landings of small naval contingents on barbarous or semi-barbarous coasts, the dispatch of small bodies of troops to chase bandits or cattle rustlers across the Mexican border, and the like." Congressman Vito Marcantonio
Vito Marcantonio
Vito Anthony Marcantonio was an American lawyer and democratic socialist politician. Originally a member of the Republican Party and a supporter of Fiorello LaGuardia, he switched to the American Labor Party.-Early life:...
, who opposed the war in Korea, argued that "when we agreed to the United Nations Charter we never agreed to supplant our Constitution with the United Nations Charter. The power to declare and make war is vested in the representatives of the people, in the Congress of the United States."
Senator William F. Knowland
William F. Knowland
William Fife Knowland was a United States politician, newspaperman, and Republican Party leader. He was a U.S. Senator representing California from 1945 to 1959. He served as Senate Majority Leader from 1953-1955, and as Minority Leader from 1955-1959. He was defeated in his 1958 run for...
noted that:
The notion that the President, as Commander in Chief had extraordinary or even absolute power came to be known as Imperial Presidency
Imperial Presidency
Imperial Presidency is a term that became popular in the 1960s and that served as the title of a 1973 volume by historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. to describe the modern presidency of the United States...
, after the book of that name
The Imperial Presidency
The Imperial Presidency by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. was written in 1973.This book details the history of the Presidency of the United States from its conception by the Constitutional Founders, through the late twentieth century...
by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. Schlesinger noted that Truman's actions in committing troops to Korea and relieving MacArthur represented an important expansion of Presidential power under the mantle of Commander in Chief. Technology forced soldiers to fight in small groups, increasingly far apart from one another. This produced a new emphasis on individual initiative. The old virtue of obedience became supplanted by that of loyalty, the focus of which, increasingly, was the president.
Apolitical military
Another American tradition was that of an apolitical military, although this custom was of more recent origin, dating back only to the period after the American Civil War. Few officers voted in the 19th century, but not so much from of a lack of interest in politics as because frequently moving from state to state and living on Federal land effectively disenfranchised them under the laws of many states. Under General of the Army William T. Sherman, the Commanding General of the United States ArmyCommanding General of the United States Army
Prior to the institution of the Chief of Staff of the United States Army in 1903, there was generally a single senior-most officer in the army. From 1783, he was known simply as the Senior Officer of the United States Army, but in 1821, the title was changed to Commanding General of the United...
from 1869 to 1883, who hated politics, this custom of an apolitical military became firmly established.
Nor, unlike their European counterparts, did American generals and admirals have influence on or involvement in foreign policy; but mainly because in the frontier Army of MacArthur's youth, there was no requirement to do so. This began to change after the Spanish-American War, when American military forces started to be deployed overseas in the Pacific, Asia and the Caribbean for extended periods of time.
The concept of the theater of war
Theater (warfare)
In warfare, a theater, is defined as an area or place within which important military events occur or are progressing. The entirety of the air, land, and sea area that is or that may potentially become involved in war operations....
developed during World War II. At such a senior level of command, military and political issues tended to merge. As theater commander in the Southwest Pacific, MacArthur had been accountable to the Australian government as well as his own, making him, in President Roosevelt's words to him, "an ambassador as well as Supreme Commander." MacArthur's less than wholehearted support for the "Europe first
Europe first
Europe first, also known as Germany first, was the key element of the grand strategy employed by the United States and the United Kingdom during World War II. According to this policy, the United States and the United Kingdom would use the preponderance of their resources to subdue Nazi Germany in...
" strategy was apt to cause annoyance in Washington when the chain of command was bypassed by MacArthur through the Prime Minister of Australia
Prime Minister of Australia
The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the highest minister of the Crown, leader of the Cabinet and Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful...
, John Curtin
John Curtin
John Joseph Curtin , Australian politician, served as the 14th Prime Minister of Australia. Labor under Curtin formed a minority government in 1941 after the crossbench consisting of two independent MPs crossed the floor in the House of Representatives, bringing down the Coalition minority...
.
General Marshall expressed this conflict in his testimony before the US Senate:
Responses to the relief
The news of MacArthur's relief was greeted with shock in Japan. The Diet of JapanDiet of Japan
The is Japan's bicameral legislature. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives, and an upper house, called the House of Councillors. Both houses of the Diet are directly elected under a parallel voting system. In addition to passing laws, the Diet is formally...
passed a resolution of gratitude for MacArthur, and the Emperor Hirohito
Hirohito
, posthumously in Japan officially called Emperor Shōwa or , was the 124th Emperor of Japan according to the traditional order, reigning from December 25, 1926, until his death in 1989. Although better known outside of Japan by his personal name Hirohito, in Japan he is now referred to...
visited him at the embassy in person, the first time a Japanese Emperor had ever visited a foreigner with no standing. The Mainichi Shimbun
Mainichi Shimbun
The is one of the major newspapers in Japan, published by .-History:The history of the Mainichi Shimbun begins with founding of two papers during the Meiji period. The Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun was founded first, in 1872. The Mainichi claims that it is the oldest existing Japanese daily newspaper...
said:
In the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
, Senator Robert Taft
Robert Taft
Robert Alphonso Taft , of the Taft political family of Cincinnati, was a Republican United States Senator and a prominent conservative statesman...
called for immediate impeachment proceedings against Truman:
Newspapers like the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
and the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
opined that MacArthur's "hasty and vindictive" relief was due to foreign pressure, particularly from the United Kingdom and the British socialists in Attlee's government. The Republican Party whip, Senator Kenneth S. Wherry
Kenneth S. Wherry
Kenneth Spicer Wherry was a Republican United States Senator from Nebraska.-Early life:He was born in Liberty, Gage County, Nebraska. He graduated from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, where he was a member of Beta Theta Pi, in 1914...
charged that the relief was the result of pressure from "the Socialist Government of Great Britain."
MacArthur flew back to the United States, a country he had not seen in years. When he reached San Francisco he was greeted by the commander of the Sixth United States Army, Lieutenant General Albert C. Wedemeyer. MacArthur received a parade there that was attended by 500,000 people. MacArthur was greeted on arrival at Washington National Airport on April 19 by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and General Jonathan Wainwright
Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright IV
Jonathan Mayhew "Skinny" Wainwright IV was a career American army officer and the commander of Allied forces in the Philippines at the time of their surrender to the Empire of Japan during World War II...
. Truman sent Vaughan as his representative. which was seen as a slight, as Vaughan was despised by the public and professional soldiers alike as a corrupt crony. "It was a shameful thing to fire MacArthur, and even more shameful to send Vaughan," one member of the public wrote to Truman.
MacArthur addressed a joint session of Congress where he delivered his famous "Old Soldiers Never Die" speech, in which he declared that:
In response, the Pentagon issued a press release that noted that "the action taken by the President in relieving General MacArthur was based upon the unanimous recommendations of the President's principal civilian and military advisers including the Joint Chiefs of Staff." Afterwards, he flew to New York City where he received the largest ticker-tape parade
Ticker-tape parade
A ticker-tape parade is a parade event held in a built-up urban setting, allowing large amounts of shredded paper to be thrown from nearby office buildings onto the parade route, creating a celebratory effect by the snowstorm-like flurry...
in history up to that time. He also visited Chicago and Milwaukee, where he addressed large rallies.
Congressional inquiry
In May and June 1951, the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held "an inquiry into the military situation in the Far East and the facts surrounding the relief of General of the Army Douglas MacArthur." Because of the sensitive political and military topics being discussed, the inquiry was held in closed session, and only a heavy censored transcript was made public until 1973. The two committees were jointly chaired by Senator Richard Russell, Jr.Richard Russell, Jr.
Richard Brevard Russell, Jr. was a Democratic Party politician from the southeastern state of Georgia. He served as state governor from 1931 to 1933 and United States senator from 1933 to 1971....
Fourteen witnesses were called: MacArthur, Marshall, Bradley, Collins, Vandenberg, Sherman, Adrian S. Fisher
Adrian S. Fisher
Adrian Sanford Fisher was an American lawyer and federal public servant, who served from the late 1930s through the early 1980s. He was associated with the Department of War and Department of State throughout his professional career. He participated in the U.S...
, Acheson, Wedemeyer, Johnson, Oscar C. Badger II
Oscar C. Badger II
Oscar Charles Badger II was an admiral of the United States Navy who served in both World Wars, and, as a junior officer, received the Medal of Honor.-Early history:...
, Patrick J. Hurley
Patrick J. Hurley
Patrick Jay Hurley was an American soldier, statesman, and diplomat....
, and David C. Barr and O'Donnell.
The testimony of Marshall and the Joint Chiefs rebutted many of MacArthur's arguments. Marshall emphatically declared that there had been no disagreement between himself, the President, and the Joint Chiefs. However, it also exposed their own timidity in dealing with MacArthur, and that they had not always kept him fully informed. Vandenberg questioned whether the air force could be effective against targets in Manchuria, while Bradley noted that the Communists were also waging limited war in Korea, having not attacked UN airbases or ports, or their own "privileged sanctuary" in Japan. Their judgement was that it was not worth it to expand the war, although they conceded that they were prepared to do so if the Communists escalated the conflict, or if no willingness to negotiate was forthcoming. They also disagreed with MacArthur's assessment of the effectiveness of the South Korean and Chinese Nationalist
Chinese nationalist
Chinese nationalist can refer to:* Chinese nationalism* Kuomintang - Chinese Nationalist Party in Taiwan....
forces. Most famously, Bradley said:
The committees concluded that "the removal of General MacArthur was within the constitutional powers of the President but the circumstances were a shock to national pride." They also found that "there was no serious disagreement between General MacArthur and the Joint Chiefs of Staff as to military strategy." They recommended that "the United States should never again become involved in war without the consent of the Congress."
Fallout
Polls showed that the majority of the public still disapproved of Truman's decision to relieve MacArthur, and were more inclined to agree with MacArthur than with Bradley or Marshall. Truman's approval rating fell to 23 percent in mid-1951, which was lower that Richard NixonRichard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
's low of 25 per cent during the Watergate Scandal
Watergate scandal
The Watergate scandal was a political scandal during the 1970s in the United States resulting from the break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., and the Nixon administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement...
in 1974, or Lyndon Johnson's of 28 per cent at the height of the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
in 1968. , it remains the lowest Gallup Poll approval rating ever recorded by any serving president.
The increasingly unpopular war in Korea dragged on, and the Truman administration was beset with a series of corruption scandals. He eventually decided not to run for re-election. Adlai Stevenson, the Democratic candidate in the 1952 presidential election
United States presidential election, 1952
The United States presidential election of 1952 took place in an era when Cold War tension between the United States and the Soviet Union was escalating rapidly. In the United States Senate, Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin had become a national figure after chairing congressional...
attempted to distance himself from the president as much as possible. The election was won by the Republican candidate, General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
, whose administration ramped up the pressure on the Chinese in Korea with conventional bombing and renewed threats of using nuclear weapons. Coupled with a more favorable international political climate in the wake of the death of Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
in 1953, this led the Chinese and North Koreans to agree to terms. The belief that the threat of nuclear weapons played an important part in the outcome would lead to their threatened use against China on a number of occasions during the 1950s.
As a result of their support of Truman, the Joint Chiefs became viewed as politically tainted. Senator Taft regarded Bradley in particular with suspicion, due to Bradley's focus on Europe at the expense of Asia. Taft urged Eisenhower to replace the chiefs as soon as possible. First to go was Vandenberg, who had terminal cancer and had already announced plans to retire. On 7 May 1953, Eisenhower announced that he would be replaced by General Nathan Twining. Soon after it was announced that Bradley would be replaced by Admiral Arthur W. Radford
Arthur W. Radford
Arthur William Radford was a United States Navy Admiral, Commander-in-Chief of the United States Pacific Command and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.Arthur Radford was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1896...
, the Commander in Chief of the United States Pacific Command
United States Pacific Command
The United States Pacific Command is a Unified Combatant Command of the United States armed forces responsible for the Pacific Ocean area. It is led by the Commander, Pacific Command , who is the supreme military authority for the various branches of the Armed Forces of the United States serving...
, Collins would be succeeded by Ridgway, and Admiral William Fechteler
William Fechteler
William Morrow Fechteler was an admiral in the United States Navy who served as Chief of Naval Operations during the Eisenhower administration. He was the son of Rear Admiral Augustus F. Fechteler.-Biography:...
, who had become CNO on the death of Sherman in July 1951, by Admiral Robert B. Carney.
Legacy
The relief of MacArthur cast a long shadow over American civil-military relations. When Lyndon Johnson met with General William WestmorelandWilliam Westmoreland
William Childs Westmoreland was a United States Army General, who commanded US military operations in the Vietnam War at its peak , during the Tet Offensive. He adopted a strategy of attrition against the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam and the North Vietnamese Army. He later served as...
in Honolulu in 1966, he told him: "General, I have a lot riding on you. I hope you don't pull a MacArthur on me." For his part, Westmoreland and his senior colleagues were eager to avoid any hint of dissent or challenge to presidential authority. This came at a high price. In his 1998 book Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam
Dereliction of Duty (1998 book)
Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, The Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies that Led to Vietnam is a book written by Brigadier General H.R. McMaster that explores the military's role in the policies of the Vietnam War. The book was written as part of McMaster's Ph.D. thesis at...
, Brigadier General H. R. McMaster
H. R. McMaster
Herbert Raymond McMaster is an American soldier, and a career officer in the U.S. Army. McMaster is currently the Director of CJIATF-Shafafiyat at ISAF Headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan. He is known for his role in the Gulf War, the Iraq War, and his reputation for questioning U.S...
argued that the Joint Chiefs failed in their duty to provide the President, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara
Robert McNamara
Robert Strange McNamara was an American business executive and the eighth Secretary of Defense, serving under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson from 1961 to 1968, during which time he played a large role in escalating the United States involvement in the Vietnam War...
or Congress with frank and fearless professional advice. This book was an influential one; the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Hugh Shelton
Hugh Shelton
General Henry Hugh Shelton is a retired American career military officer of the United States Army. He served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1997 to 2001.-Early life, family and education:...
, gave copies to every four-star officer in the military.
On the one hand, the relief of MacArthur established a precedent that generals could be fired for any public or private disagreement with government policy. In 1977, Major General John K. Singlaub
John K. Singlaub
John Kirk Singlaub is a highly-decorated former OSS officer and a retired Major General in the United States Army, and a founding member of the Central Intelligence Agency . He was a joint founder, with Congressman Larry McDonald, of the Western Goals Foundation, a conservative private...
publicly criticized proposed cuts in the size of American forces in South Korea, and was summarily relieved by President Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
for making statements "inconsistent with announced national security policy." During the Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
in 1990, Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney
Dick Cheney
Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States , under George W. Bush....
relieved the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, General Michael Dugan for showing "poor judgment at a very sensitive time" in making a series of statements to the media during a visit to Saudi Arabia. Three years later, Major General Harold N. Campbell was fined $7,000 and forced to retire after describing President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
disrespectfully as a "dope smoking," "skirt chasing," "draft dodging" President. In 2009, General Stanley A. McChrystal
Stanley A. McChrystal
Stanley Allen McChrystal is a retired four-star general in the United States Army. His last assignment was as Commander, International Security Assistance Force and Commander, U.S. Forces Afghanistan...
was sacked by President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
after McChrystal and his staff made disparaging remarks about senior civilian government officials in an article published in Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine. This relief elicited numerous comparisons with MacArthur, as the war in Afghanistan
War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
The War in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001, as the armed forces of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Afghan United Front launched Operation Enduring Freedom...
was not going well.
On the other hand, the relief "left a lasting current of popular sentiment that in matters of war and peace, the military really knows best," a philosophy which became known as "MacArthurism." During the 1992 presidential election, Bill Clinton used endorsements from the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral William J. Crowe
William J. Crowe
Admiral William James Crowe, Jr. was a United States Navy Admiral who served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, and as the ambassador to the United Kingdom under President Bill Clinton.-Biography:Crowe was born in La Grange, Kentucky...
, and 21 other retired generals and flag officers to counter doubts about his ability to serve as Commander in Chief. This became a feature of later presidential election campaigns. During the 2004 presidential election
United States presidential election, 2004
The United States presidential election of 2004 was the United States' 55th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 2, 2004. Republican Party candidate and incumbent President George W. Bush defeated Democratic Party candidate John Kerry, the then-junior U.S. Senator...
, twelve retired generals and admirals endorsed Senator John Kerry
John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...
, including William Crowe, and the former Chief of Staff of the Air Force, General Merrill McPeak, who also appeared in television advertisements defending Kerry against the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. During this election campaign, one retired four star General, Tommy Franks
Tommy Franks
Tommy Ray Franks is a retired general in the United States Army. His last Army post was as the Commander of the United States Central Command, overseeing United States Armed Forces operations in a 25-country region, including the Middle East...
, spoke at the Republican National Convention
Republican National Convention
The Republican National Convention is the presidential nominating convention of the Republican Party of the United States. Convened by the Republican National Committee, the stated purpose of the convocation is to nominate an official candidate in an upcoming U.S...
while another, John Shalikashvili, addressed the Democratic National Convention
Democratic National Convention
The Democratic National Convention is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 1852 national convention...
.
In early 2006, in what was called the "Generals Revolt," six retired generals, Major General John Batiste
John Batiste
Major General John Batiste is a retired officer of the United States Army.John Batiste was commissioned as an infantry officer from West Point and served in five US Army heavy divisions over the next 31 years...
, Major General Paul D. Eaton, Lieutenant General Gregory Newbold, Major General John M. Riggs, Major General Charles H. Swannack Jr.
Charles H. Swannack Jr.
Charles H. "Chuck" Swannack Jr. is a former general officer in the United States Army who, once retired, called for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.Swannack is a 1971 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point...
and General Anthony C. Zinni, called for the resignation of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
Donald Rumsfeld
Donald Henry Rumsfeld is an American politician and businessman. Rumsfeld served as the 13th Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford, and as the 21st Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. He is both the youngest and the oldest person to...
, accusing him of "abysmal" military planning and lack of strategic competence. The ethics of a system under which serving generals were compelled to publicly support policies that they felt were potentially ruinous for the country, and cost the lives of citizens, did not escape critical public comment, and was mocked by political satirist Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert
Stephen Tyrone Colbert is an American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor. He is the host of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, a satirical news show in which Colbert portrays a caricatured version of conservative political pundits.Colbert originally studied to be an...
at a dinner
Stephen Colbert at the 2006 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner
On April 29, 2006, American comedian Stephen Colbert appeared as the featured entertainer at the 2006 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, which was held in Washington, D.C., at the Hilton Washington hotel...
attended by President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace
Peter Pace
Peter Pace is a retired United States Marine Corps general who served as the 16th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the first Marine appointed to the United States' highest-ranking military office. Appointed by President George W. Bush, Pace succeeded U.S. Air Force General Richard Myers on...
. Rumsfeld resigned in November 2006. By 2008, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen felt obliged to pen an open letter in which he reminded all serviceman that "The U.S. military must remain apolitical at all times."