The Korean War: The Untold Truth

Chapter 117 Changes in government orders

Chapter 117 Changes in government orders (1)
From April 1950, 4, two months before the start of the Korean War, President Harry Truman harbored a secret: He had no plans to run for re-election.By the time his term expires, he will have held public office for 16 years.He agrees with the rule of two terms. "Eight years, I think, is enough to be president. And sometimes it's too much for anyone in that office," Truman wrote in his diary. "Power has an allure that can seep into Human blood, just as everyone knows that gambling and greed are alluring."

But a shrewd and powerful politician like Truman deliberately kept quiet until it was time to make his own choice.He did speak privately with Supreme Court Chief Justice Fred Vinson, whom he believed to be "the most reasonable and qualified candidate," but Vinson cited his health as an excuse to dismiss him.Truman gradually revealed his secret to other Democratic leaders, and by January 1952 he identified Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson as "the best and most well-rounded candidate."Stevenson met with Truman twice, but he was noncommittal about the matter, which annoyed the president.By March 1, Stevenson was still hesitating.On this day, Truman made a startling announcement at the annual Jefferson-Jackson Memorial Dinner at the National Guard Armory in Washington, D.C.: He would no longer be running.

Although Truman asserted in his memoirs that he could win re-election, circumstances at the time indicated otherwise.The string of scandals that rocked his administration starting in 1950 is already loathed by the public: IRS graft and fraud; "5 per cent kickbackers" who assign government contracts to friends and charge them for things like mink coats Returns; RFC loans flowed into speculative ventures like casinos in Miami and Las Vegas, and payments to top Democratic officials like Democratic National Committee Vice Chairman William Boyle Jr. were smoothed out.While no one accuses Truman of taking a dime, money-grabbing cultures have infiltrated the White House (the President's military adjutant, Major General Harry Vaughn, for example, once honestly told an audience how he easily sold his $55 watch for $500 on the German black market).Cumulatively, the scandals of the Truman administration produced some of the worst times in Washington since the Tippy Dome affair in Harding's presidency.Truman paid a high price for public support. In late 1950, when the Korean War was well under way, Truman enjoyed a Gallup poll of 46 percent, the highest of his tenure.But in the last two years of his tenure, his approval rating was never higher than 32 percent and dropped to 23 percent at times.With the support of less than 4 in 1 citizens, Truman clearly faced an uphill battle if he was willing to run again.

The task of the 1952 campaign would have been much more daunting, with the Republicans nominating a midcentury hero—Dwight David Eisenhower.The man's political orientation is unclear, but his strength and integrity are worthy of his reputation among the public.Since his triumphant return from the European War, politicians of both parties have courted him with presidential nominations, and Truman has said on more than one occasion that he offered to step aside for the general in 1948.Ike — as everyone called him — was Army chief of staff, president of Columbia University, and first commander-in-chief of NATO Allied Forces after the war. At the end of 1951, Eisenhower began to express his intentions to the Republicans who visited his Paris office: he was ready for everything.He told Herbert Brownell, a longtime friend of former New York Governor Thomas Dewey and later Ike's attorney general, that the Korean War was a deciding factor.Eisenhower saw deep national discontent with Truman's handling of the Korean War.Eisenhower thought he could easily win the Republican nomination with just one statement.Brownell was unimpressed, advising the general that winning the nomination against Senator Robert Taft of Ohio would be more difficult than winning the general election.In the past three general elections, Taft's Midwestern isolationists had seen their party nominate an "Eastern Internationalist" (Wendell Wilkie in 1940, and Dewey), and now Taft's faction hoped it was their turn.They fought hard in the primary, locking in Taft's lead. In early April 1944, Eisenhower told the president that his "unexpected progress as a political man" had been hampered by his military duties and asked to be replaced as NATO commander.Truman selected General Matthew Ridgway to replace him, in recognition of Ridgway's exploits in Korea.The shift saw General Mark Clark, the hero of the Italian campaign in World War II, transferred to North Korea to replace Ridgway.

Ike kicked off his campaign on June 6 in his hometown of Abilene, Kansas.He called for a "just truce" in North Korea, but he didn't set out to criticize the government's policies there.The most pressing issue in the campaign, he declared, was "liberty versus socialism."He called for the dismantling of "useless" federal government agencies and the "rooting out of saboteurs."About two weeks later, in a major speech known as "Answer to Abilene," Taft criticized Eisenhower for failing to condemn the administration's war policy.While Taft also offered no new policies to implement in North Korea, one promise he made stood in stark contrast to Eisenhower: Taft would return Douglas MacArthur to the administration, though in an unspecified capacity.Eisenhower understood, saying that only he would "listen to anything MacArthur had to say." (In the spring, not long after MacArthur was fired, Eisenhower wrote to an old friend: "I have kept my mouth shut about every word I have heard.")
There was no such silence at MacArthur.He believed (too much) that he had scared Truman off the candidacy, and now his goal was to represent Taft—perhaps himself—to prevent Eisenhower from winning.The Republican Party chose him to be the keynote address at the Republican National Convention in Chicago in early July.MacArthur made his wishes very clear in private conversations: Once fate calls, he will obey fate. "U.S. News & World Report" believes: "His role as keynote speaker is only the beginning, and he is ready to take off his uniform, retire from the military, and do everything in his power...to defeat his fellow five-star generals." Throughout the spring , MacArthur was attacking Truman how to conduct the war, which caused bursts of applause.Now he wants the chance to defend his name.

MacArthur's opposition to his fellow generals was both philosophical and personal.He saw Eisenhower as the embodiment of the "George Marshall faction" of the U.S. Army, which was more European than Asian oriented.Eisenhower was a staff officer rather than a soldier. Although he had patriotism, he lacked MacArthur's "anti-communist salvation" heart.As Army Chief of Staff, MacArthur had Eisenhower as his assistant, bringing Eisenhower to Manila as his key aide after his first retirement.They were at odds politically at the time (Eisenhower even had the audacity to place a sizeable cash bet that Roosevelt would win re-election in 1936), and MacArthur saw no change in a man younger than him, except for the worse .Now, MacArthur's campaign groups have sprung up like mushrooms: "Americans for MacArthur" in California, "Demand MacArthur" in Texas, "MacArthur's Warriors" in Pennsylvania, and so on.

A few weeks before the Republican National Convention, MacArthur and Taft had breakfast together at the general's retreat at the Waldorf Astoria.According to General Courtney Whitney, MacArthur promised to support Taft's nomination and run for president (without mentioning his own long-cherished ambitions); When he became president, he appointed MacArthur as the head of the armed forces.This is what the MacArthur gang said.According to Taft himself, he planned to ask the National Congress to nominate MacArthur as his running mate, and then announced that he would make the general a "deputy commander-in-chief" to share the responsibility of "making foreign policy related to national security."

As luck would have it, all of these grand plans came to naught, because by the time the convention opened, Eisenhower had won the procedural test ballot, securing a sufficient number of votes from competing delegates to bring him close to winning the Nominations are just one step away.Thus, MacArthur's only chance to reassert himself nationally was his keynote address: if he could cheer up the delegates, he might be able to tip the convention to Taft's (or his) side .But the omens are not good.Ike's forces won handily, passed the main point of the platform, and affirmed the obligation of the United States to Europe, and its momentum seemed overwhelming.MacArthur is certainly not an obstacle.Even to those friendly observers, his keynote was one of the worst of his career.His voice was interrupted, and his body heaved up and down, as if to emphasize those key sentences. The New York Times' Sulzberger wrote: "He is talking nonsense, and one can feel the passion in the room ebbing. I think he is on his own feet rather than doing Taft any favors."

That night, MacArthur flew back to New York on the "Bataan" special plane, still hoping that the National Congress might call him to fulfill his duties.The call did not come.Ike won the first ballot by 595 votes to Taft's 500. (MacArthur had 10 votes from die-hard supporters, and the other candidates shared around 100.) Although Taft failed to win the nomination, his followers brought into the picture an important theme that left its mark on the campaign. This National Convention: fomenting anti-communism and attacking the "despicable traitors" who are still operating in "Red Dean Acheson's State Department."Those words came from Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin.When the band played "Ode to the Marine Corps", the representatives held fish-shaped placards with the words "Acheson", "Heath" and "Red Herring" and lined up in front of the podium to demonstrate.McCarthy growled: "We cannot fight the Communists the way Acheson-Lattimore did. They fight the Communists at the front door with perfumed silk handkerchiefs while the Communists beat our friends at the back door with brass knuckles." !" He called on "millions of loyal Democrats" to realize their party had "abandoned" them.On North Korea, McCarthy assured that if the Republicans won, "we'll never be in any war again where we're worried we won't be able to win."The real debate in the general election is: whether the United States should "continue to squander its blood, squander its resources and sacrifice its world leadership - that's all, what else".Continuing the theme, young Senator Richard Nixon of California, brought in by Ike to run as his running mate, exclaimed, "The American people have had enough of the groveling, crying, and groveling of our diplomatic representatives, and they talk about America fears, without talking about American strength and American courage."

The official platform, full of references to "traitors at the top" and "arrogant bureaucrats", condemned the Democrats for a string of diplomatic failures from Yalta to China.The language on the Korean War, however, was relatively mild, focusing on Truman's decision not to declare war: "We accuse them of pushing us into the The Korean War, and continuing it without the will to win."

The Essentials of Foreign Policy was the masterpiece of John Foster Dulles, who had spent the past six months making himself Ike's chief foreign policy adviser.Although he continued to serve as a special adviser at the State Department until early January 1952, he became increasingly critical of the containment policies of the "Truman-Acheson Doctrine."Dulles realized that 1 years of Democratic leadership, coupled with growing resentment against them, meant that the end of Democratic rule was imminent.At its heart is the Korean War.According to Townsend Hoops, a young Department of Defense official: "Because the Korean War was played in such a way that it clashed so badly with the simpler old American style of fighting, it created tensions, anxieties, and trust issues that It has become fertile ground for new unilateralism and malicious demagoguery." Dulles hoped to be part of a new guard occupying Washington.

Involuntarily, Dulles shared fate with Eisenhower.He saw Taft as a narrow isolationist and a conservative with a staunch hostility to many of Europe's problems.Dulles, through his New York law firm ("Sullivan & Cromwell"), had long been friends with entrepreneurs and officials on the Continent.And he thinks it would be short-sighted for the US to turn its back on such an important camp for many countries.Although Eisenhower's views on world affairs are little known (indeed, his views on almost every issue he faced), Dulles called him a "basically magnanimous, practical internationalist." ".Dulles set out to get the general's attention, first by sending memos to Eisenhower through Dewey and another retired general, now an investment banker and major Eisenhower supporter, Lucius Clay, and then Visit Paris.His views were summarized in an article entitled "A Reckless Policy," which appeared in Life magazine on May 1952, 5, seven weeks before the National Convention.This article is extremely important because, among other things, it prefigured the methods that Eisenhower and Dulles would use to end the Korean War a year later.

Although Dulles saw some strength in some of Truman's actions, such as the Marshall Plan, the creation of NATO, and the intervention in North Korea (he called Article [-] "courageous, just, and in the national interest") , but on the whole he believed that the U.S. policy was a series of reactive, passive, and emergency measures, which could not fundamentally combat Soviet expansionism. "We have not worked, sacrificed and given so that we could live without this danger, but that we could live with it, perhaps forever.  …Our policy is the original A policy of standing still, it may at most keep us in place until we are exhausted."

(End of this chapter)

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