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The message was formulated more friendly, but its content remained unmistakable: “You're fired!” In essence, nothing more than this favorite sentence from ex-President Donald Trump, Harry S. Truman communicated to one of the most important and popular generals on April 11, 1951, that the US Army ever had. This Wednesday, the 33rd US President, known for his iron-hard nerves, called on the Commander-in-Chief of the Western Forces in Korea, Douglas MacArthur, to hand over his command to his deputy. But he is still allowed to give the necessary orders to “travel to the place you choose”.
As if that weren't enough, the President also refused to give the general an immediate explanation: "My reasons for your replacement will be published at the same time as this order is delivered to you and will be included in the next message." In fact, whether by mistake or intent, the " Breaking News ”of MacArthur's replacement before Army Secretary Frank Pace could give him a personal briefing on April 11 at 8:00 p.m. Washington time.
Friendly Enemies: Truman and MacArthur meeting on Wake Island in the Western Pacific in 1950
Source: Getty Images
The dismissal, its formulation and the circumstances of its becoming known were no longer a kick in the shin or a blow to the soft tissues, that was (unlike more than six decades later with Trump) a coolly calculated dismantling.
How did it come about, and what was Truman's motive?
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Anchored in the general consciousness is the interpretation that Truman deposed MacArthur because the general demanded the use of nuclear weapons against the People's Republic of China.
Truman himself came up with this interpretation a few days before Christmas 1960, more than nine and a half years after the replacement.
In a TV interview, the ex-president replied to the question: "Were you actually pressured to use an atomic bomb in the Korean conflict?", Succinctly: "Of course, MacArthur wanted to drop atomic bombs." The interviewer, a well-known US journalist at the time , was surprised and asked: “MacArthur wanted it?” Truman reiterated: “Yes, he wanted to bomb China and Eastern Russia and everything else.” In disbelief, the host repeated: “He wanted to use atomic bombs?” Truman confirmed: “ But of course, that was the only weapon we owned and recognized at the time. ”By“ she ”, that was clear, the ex-president meant the Stalinist Soviet Union and Mao's People's Republic of China.
The general and the US president loathed each other
Source: Getty Images
The American public reacted violently.
Not least because Douglas MacArthur, himself never a man of restraint, struck back relentlessly.
A man who dropped two atomic bombs in 1945 shouldn't tell "false and fantastic" lies about other people.
"We didn't need the atomic bombs in Korea any more than we did in the war against Japan," shot the retired five-star general: "This complete twist only serves to cover up Truman's own mistakes."
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MacArthur said he never called for the use of nuclear weapons because "conventional weapons would have been sufficient to destroy the bridges over the Yalu River and the communist supply bases."
It also never occurred to him to attack targets outside the Korean theater of war: "My aim was to end the war, not to expand it."
In 1951, Matthew Ridgway (with a soldier's hat and three stars) succeeded Douglas MacArthur (with a light-colored scarf) as commander-in-chief in Korea
Source: Getty Images
What was right?
Why was MacArthur really deposed?
Since the National Archives released the internal US government documents from Truman's time, this has been seen a little more clearly.
The crazy thing is, in their respective ways, both the president and his general were right.
Both the popularity and the independence of the Commander-in-Chief in the Far East had long been displeasing to Truman.
However, on April 5, 1951, Joseph W. Martin, the opposition leader in Congress, read a letter from MacArthur.
In this, the general intervened directly in the government's strategic decisions.
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The next morning, Truman asked four of his key advisors to his office to discuss the MacArthur personnel.
In attendance were Secretary of State Dean Acheson, Chairman of the United Chiefs of Staff and the highest-ranking soldier in the United States, Omar Bradley, William Averell Harriman, Truman's principal confidante, and Secretary of Defense George C. Marshall.
Harriman demanded MacArthur's dismissal, according to the protocol, Bradley objected.
Acheson had positioned himself against MacArthur internally in the State Department, but said nothing to the president.
Marshall asked for time to think about it and at a second meeting that afternoon advised Truman not to dismiss MacArthur.
However, opinion changed two days later.
The chiefs of staff advised against recalling the commander-in-chief from a military point of view, but admitted: "If MacArthur is not released, a large part of our people will assume that the civil authorities can no longer control the military." Truman then wrote in his Diary: “Everyone agrees that MacArthur will be fired.
All four advise it. ”The President then drafted the April 11th order.
MacArthur was received with a confetti parade on April 20, 1951 in New York
Source: Getty Images
The replacement of MacArthur had nothing to do with the question of the use of an atomic bomb;
it was about insubordination.
Because, of course, a leading general was not allowed to publicly criticize the government's strategy in a letter to the opposition leader.
However, because Truman had chosen a particularly humiliating form and thereby damaged a widely admired war hero, sharp protests arose in the US public.
Robert A. Taft, a leading Republican, has called for the president to be ousted immediately - the toughest possible measure under the US Constitution.
Congress did not follow suit, but opened a strictly confidential investigation.
But the result was clear after several testimonies: "The replacement of General MacArthur is one of the constitutional rights of the president." At the same time, Truman's actions were criticized: "The circumstances were a blow to the national pride of the United States."
Truman's approval ratings plummeted and in the summer of 1951 were only 21 percent - significantly lower than even for Donald Trump.
MacArthur decided (as he had done in 1948) to run for the 1952 presidential election, but withdrew when his former colleague Dwight D. Eisenhower took office.
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But what was the matter with the atomic bomb question? Harry S. Truman himself publicly discussed the use of these weapons on November 30, 1950 (and thus triggered a storm of protest among the allies of the United States). MacArthur, on the other hand, as commander in chief, had never actually directly requested the disposal of these weapons; There was not a single evidence for this, which is why Truman had to meekly withdraw his allegation in the TV interview.
However, just at the beginning of April 1951, the necessary orders were drafted with which the US commander in the Far East would have had access to such weapons;
previously, a list of 26 atomic bomb targets circulated in Washington in China and the far north of North Korea.
Since Truman's doubts about MacArthur's loyalty were simultaneously confirmed by the letter to Joseph W. Martin, action was needed.
MacArthur on Broadway
Source: Getty Images
It was only posthumously, four days after MacArthur's death, that statements were made public on April 9, 1964, confirming Truman's worries. Because in 1954 MacArthur gave an interview to two reporters for the "New York Times". In it, the ex-general said that in 1951 he had a plan to end the Korean War in ten days: "I would have dropped about 30 atomic bombs." But precisely this statement was not in writing during MacArthur's lifetime.
The US historian and Korean war expert Bruce Cummings said after the release of numerous archival documents in 2004: “Truman did not remove MacArthur simply because of his repeated insubordination, but because he wanted a reliable commander on the ground should Washington decide to use nuclear weapons. “Ultimately, then, to make clear the primacy of politics over the military.
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