China’s Rise Is MacArthur’s Vindication

OP, you're not wrong. MacArthur was correct in his sweeping strategic concepts but always had trouble actually putting ready forces in place to make his strategies effective. Every general loses some battles, but we're are looking at a general who lost just as many battles as he won. His forces in the Philippines at the start of WWII were cut off and surrounded and forced to surrender. The Army of occupation in Japan were woefully unprepared to counter the NK strike into the South. For example, Task Force Smith's artillery battery had only six anti-tank rounds for the entire battery going up against T-34/85s. If MacArthur had been so prescient then he should have been jumping up and down on the CSA desk to get the men and material needed before they attacked. And finally, he ordered "MacArthur's Legion," the Tenth Corps (1st Marine Division and the US Army's 7th Infantry Division) to conduct another amphibious assault on the Eastern side of the peninsula hoping to replicate the feat at Inchon. Turns out the ROK Army had already seized the area and all he had done was to split Tenth Corps from the rest of Eighth Army with a mountain range left unsecured between them. Guess where the Red Chinese infiltrated? Of course, this was a surprise to him. As Patton said: Sound tactics can save a poor strategy, while poor tactics can doom a sound strategy. I think MacArthur was in the latter category.

You're cotton pickin' right. You were wrong about your cousin. Big time wrong. I coulda told you that 50 years ago.

Don't ever forget that had Patton been allowed to go to Moscow the World would be incredibly different.

I read “American Caesar” by William Manchester years ago. I remember the part where MacArthur saw how the Japanese were totally dedicated to their emperor and obeyed without questioning anything, years before Pearl Harbor. He worried that the Japanese were going to be a serious problem for the U.S. before there were any hostilities. He foresaw the expansionist nature of the Japanese. And he was definitely right about China, too. Brilliant man.

OP, you don't need to apologize and are not wrong. While Mac was not perfect, he made his share of mistakes in execution. In my opinion, Truman mishandled Asia Pacific foreign policy. To this day, I wonder if dissing France and embracing Ho Chi Minh would have kept Korea and Vietnam intact. i' m anything but the expert in this war history.

"History is written by the victors" it is "...often interred with the bones..."

Had the West continued to isolate the Red Chinese...but once Nixon/Kissinger opened the doors and Western business rushed to make China a nation of consumers by relocating manufacturing... The Chinese are on the verge of overplaying their hand. India and Russia are no friends. Neither are the Japanese. NorKor is a parasite, while SoKor is also armed and dangerous. Vietnam and SE Asia is not friendly territory, either. Should it come to a "hot" showdown one day, there's not much there there. They'll end up fighting everybody, and to what end?

China's CCP would have failed from economic and agrarian mismanagement long ago if Mao and Deng Xiaoping had not realized they could never compete head to head with the US like the Soviet Union tried to do. Instead they employed the ancient tactic of wuwei er zhi (no action under control). The best way to understand this in our culture is the story of how Tom Sawyer convinced his friends to whitewash the fence for him rather than do the work himself. People still think that Nixon and Kissinger reached out to China but this was all part of Mao's deception to join forces with the US against the Soviets in Afghanistan. They were paid billions to supply arms to the Mujahedeen on our behalf. This lead to the gradual shift in trade policy, WTO membership, and massive Wall Street investment in China under the ruse that capitalism would lead to liberalization and freedom for China. China didn't rise, we paid to build them up in exchange for cheap slave labor. As Lenin so aptly put it, "The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them".

Vain glorious,bug out, dugout Doug?

If Harry had aloud Mac to drop the A bomb on the Yalu river, we would not have North Korea of today! We would not of had Vietnam!

Patton wanted to take the German prisoner, re-arm them and go after Russia. It was during the Korean war that MacArthur wanted to go after the Chinese, and by that time Pattons idea was over and we would have faced China and Russia. Also by that time Russia had a Nuke.

Those who call him "dugout Doug" are shallow and ignorant of history. Gen. MacArthur was awarded the Medal of Honor in WWI as a Lieutenant, not long out of West Point. He is and was the most brilliant strategist the American military ever had. His campaign in the Pacific in WWII was also nothing short of brilliant, often referred to as, "Hit the 'em (Japanese) where they ain't." A few facts about MacArthur. He was already RETIRED from the Army when he was called back into action for WWII, mainly because of his incredible knowledge of Asia-Pacific, having lived there for decades. He would have been promoted to General of the Armies (6-Star General) had we gone forward with "Operation Downfall" which was the invasion of Japan. Only Gen. John J. Pershing had held that rank during WWI and George Washington was awarded it posthumously. Gen. MacArthur was called back into action for the Korean War, and carried out the most revered military action in modern history with the Inchon Landing. The Korean and American Armies were on the run and losing the war before that maneuver, which turned the tide against Red China and the Korean Commies. Truman had already given MacArthur battlefield authority to do whatever he felt best, but 12 hours before MacArthur's widely publicized comment about pursuing the retreating enemy, Truman had changed his mind and yapped to a reporter before MacArthur knew anything about it. MacArthur was hung out to dry for Truman's going back on his word. Truman was deceitful AND wrong, and the world would have suffered less with a "neutralized" Chinese Communist military, and even the Vietnam War might never have happened.