The Korean War: The Untold Truth

Chapter 6 Introduction (3)
The only time Davis didn't speak his lines correctly was when the two officers were on a train across the American South bound for Washington.MacArthur slammed on the door of Davis' private room, again holding a pistol. "We're getting close to where my dad got the Medal of Honor," MacArthur told Davis. "I'm in the Army, I'm in life, I've done my job, and I'm at the end of my term as chief of staff. When we go through Tennessee River bridge, I'm going to jump off the train. This is where my life ends, Davis."

"General," Davis replied, "then please get over this quickly so I can go back to sleep."

MacArthur slammed the door of the private room.The next morning, he apologized for being "excessively emotional".His mother, Pinkie MacArthur, died shortly thereafter, and Davis never heard threats of suicide again.

However, those strange scenes that Lieutenant Colonel Davis saw are quite related to the Korean War period, and MacArthur also showed some eccentricities of his personality at a critical turning point in this conflict.Reading the dozens of wartime telegrams he sent to the Joint Chiefs of Staff—most of which have not been published before—one can get the sense that he was a man out of touch: he wanted every victory on the battlefield to be To himself, the failures were all through no fault of his; every telegram he sent came with a condition attached, "give me what I want, or you will bear the consequences (referring to American casualties)".The Joint Chiefs of Staff files offer a more to-the-point explanation of MacArthur's actions: What he lost was not Sensible, but gutsy, the military's favorite generation terrified at the brink of public defeat that he had always dreaded.

MacArthur's response was to try to excuse himself.He asked the Joint Chiefs of Staff to allow a dramatic escalation of the war, including the blockade and bombing of mainland China, and he wanted to create a "radioactive waste belt" along the south bank of the Yalu River, the border between North Korea and China's "Manchuria."In private conversations, he also talked about something more substantive: a nuclear attack on China.If these attacks lead to a war with Russia, so be it.MacArthur did not want to fight a ground war in Asia; because a confrontation with the Chinese navy had taught him the necessary lesson.However, if the Soviets really started the Korean War (as the U.S. intelligence community and the diplomatic community agree), then the Soviets should pay the price.Unfortunately for MacArthur (as we shall see), he revealed these insights to Spanish and Portuguese diplomats in Tokyo, who, as usual, reported to their governments.The NSA routinely intercepted and deciphered such diplomatic cables and sent them to Truman immediately.MacArthur had already been at odds with the president over his public remarks critical of the administration's Asia policy; this, combined with direct evidence of now more serious treason, had MacArthur dismissed by Truman within a week (certainly for security and diplomatic reasons. Politely, Truman cannot mention the NSA intercept). The "Firing of MacArthur" was a political sensation of our time, a harrowing and confusing episode for the American public that shattered national unity and prevented peace for two years.

However, MacArthur had no regrets when he left office. He firmly believed that he had not done anything beyond the boundaries of professional soldiers.He also confided to his successor, General Matthew Ridgway, that President Truman's mental illness may have contributed to his removal from office.MacArthur spoke to Ridgway the day after his dismissal, claiming to have learned from a "distinguished medical person" that Truman suffered from a disease called "malignant hypertension."MacArthur went on to say that this painful condition is "characterized by confusion and confusion of the mind."MacArthur accused Truman of being hot-tempered, such as when he wrote a vile letter to a Washington Post music critic who criticized a concert given by Truman's daughter Margaret. (Ridgway listened to MacArthur and understood that a mentally ill person is not the president.)
War is essentially a fraudulent act, and the Korean War naturally has many secrets.During the four years of research that led to the creation of this book, many secrets have come to light.The records of this war are mixed with flaws and beauty, and beauty and beauty coexist:

——The nascent CIA was fortunate to conduct field activities during the war, planning all kinds of ghost ideas to torture the Chinese.One such operation was the hijacking of a hospital ship bound for China on the high seas, just as an epidemic was killing thousands of Chinese soldiers.The ship is flying the flag of Norway, which has long maintained friendly relations with the United States.Unbeknownst to the Norwegians, the "Chinese pirates" who captured the ship north of Taiwan were hired and directed by a CIA agent.

-- At a frustrating time for the United States to consider abandoning the war, the Joint Chiefs of Staff approved a contingency plan to relocate the South Korean government and military, including 60 dependents, to a so-called "new war" in American Samoa. Korea".The Joint Chiefs of Staff said that the climate is suitable for farming and that most of the island is uninhabited, and that the Koreans would "probably" adapt to the new environment.However, the plan was never discussed with any South Korean officials "for fear of causing public discontent".

—Despite President Truman's frequent public assurances against the use of atomic weapons in North Korea, in December 1950 an unassembled atomic bomb was quietly transported to an American aircraft carrier moored off the Korean peninsula.U.S. aircraft also carried out a mock nuclear attack on the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, as part of contingency plans to fight an atomic war.

—Truman’s diary, which shows that he is more aggressive in private, has angry scribbles that read like lunatic mail the newspaper receives. In January 1952, Truman, annoyed by the intransigence of the North Koreans and Chinese in the armistice negotiations, wrote:

Dealing with the communist government is like an honest man trying to make a deal with a gambling king or a gang leader.I think the right thing to do right now is an ultimatum with a 10-day deadline, telling Moscow that we are ready to blockade the Chinese coast from the Korean border to Indochina, that we are ready to destroy every military base in "Manchuria" by any means possible, Including submarine bases.Should there be further interference, we will destroy any port or city if necessary to achieve our peaceful goals.

Truman was aware of the possible consequences:

This means total war.This means that Moscow, St. Petersburg (called Leningrad in 1952), Shenyang, Vladivostok (Vladivostok), Beijing, Shanghai, Lushun, Dalian, Odessa, Stalingrad, and every country in China and the Soviet Union All factories will be destroyed.This was the last chance for the Soviet government to decide whether it wanted to survive.

Five months later, Truman was furious again, repeating his old story.This time, he posed a series of questions to the Soviet leader that no one else had to answer: "Now, are you willing to end your operations in Korea, or are you ready to have China and Siberia destroyed? It's your choice, either... …accept our fair and reasonable proposal or be totally destroyed.” Although Truman never took any action to implement these personal ideas, they revealed his inner world about the deployment of nuclear weapons.

But under the Eisenhower administration, the use of nuclear weapons was close to reality. On May 1953, 5, the National Security Council discussed what must be done if the Communists did not accept reasonable peace terms.The committee decided on air and sea operations "against China and 'Manchuria'," which included the "strategic and tactical widespread use of atomic bombs."The major escalation, which will begin with a naval blockade of Chinese ports and gradually expand to nuclear bombing, is aimed at "maximizing surprise and psychological impact".Warned by oblique warnings of such American intentions, the Chinese quickly decided to end the war, and an armistice was signed within a month.

This “bitter little war”—to borrow Avril Harriman’s phrase again—almost turned into a nuclear war for the United States. In July 1953, with the armistice, the fighting ended and North Korea remained a divided country.Now, after nearly 7 years, representatives of the two North Koreas (accompanying the South Koreans by American military officers) hold a formal meeting every month or so in a neutral area.The ostensible reason is to seek a common ground for peace, but in fact the two sides say nothing, except for occasional recriminations.Kim Il Sung, still North Korea's dictator, has occasionally made strong statements about his attempt to retake South Korea by force, as he tried to do in 30.South Korea has replaced dictators, presidents and political strongmen one by one like a lantern, imprisoned dissidents and scoffed at any mention of reconciliation with North Korea.About 1950 U.S. soldiers still serve there as a sort of security defense against any North Korean aggression.The new generation of American soldiers is constantly asking, "What am I doing in this lonely little part of the world?" That's the question many Americans have been asking since the war began in June 4.

(End of this chapter)