The Korean War: The Untold Truth

Chapter 97 The General Returns (1)
At dawn on April 4, General Douglas MacArthur left East Asia not like a debased soldier but like a hero on his way.The weather was cloudy and wet this morning, but when MacArthur's Chrysler sedan drove to Atsugi Airport, the five-star flag on the side fender of the car was flapping briskly.The car passed the silent roadside crowd, which reporters estimated at 16, saying goodbye to the man who had ruled their country as acting monarch for five years.The tension of the last few days had left its mark on MacArthur, whose sallow complexion and oil-stained military cap with a gold band seemed to a man a dilapidated relic rather than a relic of former dignity symbol.When MacArthur and Ridgway stood at attention side by side on the asphalt runway, a 20-gun salute was fired.He then shook hands with his successor and boarded the gangway of the Bataan.The military band began to play "Once Upon a Time," and the Bataan disappeared into the low clouds.For the first time in almost 19 years, Douglas MacArthur was not a prominent American military figure in Asia.

The ensuing days, for MacArthur, were shots of admiring crowds, words of praise, public adulation, and the passionate homage of an enigmatic dignitary .For a time, the United States seemed to ignore the reasons for MacArthur's return.His heroism and leadership began in World War I; now, six years after World War II, he will be honored with the same glory this country once bestowed on its own generals in World War II.He arrived at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii just after midnight, where tens of thousands were still cheering him on.The next day more people lined the 40-mile road to welcome him.Then in San Francisco, after midnight again, frenzied citizens broke through the cordon at the airport and swarmed the general.It took the police half an hour to get MacArthur into the car, and then it took another two hours to slowly cross the 14-mile-long cheering crowd to the St. Francis Hotel.People stood for hours in the square around the hotel, shouting until late at night.

MacArthur's demeanor has always been majestic, like a triumphant conqueror who has returned home only to receive praise and praise.He dismissed President Truman and didn't directly mention why he was in America instead of Asia.In a speech at San Francisco's Civic Center, he insinuated slightly about the incident, suggesting that he himself may have ambitions for the White House:

I was asked just now if I planned to enter politics and my answer was "no".I have no political aspirations or anything like that, I'm not going to run for any political office.I hope my name is never used in a political way.My only political opinion is contained in a phrase familiar to all of you: "God Bless America!"

The first outbursts of public outrage against Truman seemed visceral.The Los Angeles City Council announced adjournment to pay tribute to MacArthur's "political murder".In San Gabriel, California, a mock up of the president was burned, and thousands of bumper stickers reading "Remove President Truman" popped up overnight.Legislative assemblies of Illinois, Michigan, California, and Florida passed resolutions condemning the president (an "irresponsible, willful action," according to Illinois lawmakers) and supporting MacArthur.Truman was unharmed when he threw the first pitch for the Washington Senators baseball game, but he was booed by the crowd when he was announced off the field in the eighth inning.A priest in Houston, while dictating a telegram to Western Union ("You fired General MacArthur, a great victory for Joseph Stalin..."), collapsed and died in the middle of a sentence.Western Union rejected a telegram from a woman in Charleston, Maryland, who wanted to call Truman an "idiot."They settled on the word "blunt" after consulting Logit's Thesaurus.There's a guy in Denver who started a club called "Punch Harry's Nose."Some veterans sent their World War II medals to Washington. The Congressional Record is filled with angry cables from lawmakers on behalf of constituents (many of whom apparently did not meet Western Union's rejection of strong language): "Impeach that imbecile. Impeach the White House that Judas who betrayed us to the Left and the UN. Impeach that B who calls himself President. Impeach that Kansas City vote-buying petty politician fool. Impeach that smoked herring on the presidency.  …” There were thousands of telegrams like this Fly like snowflakes.

Hearst, Colonel Robert McCormick of Chicago, Luce, and Scripps-Howard, the right-wing press kings, were outraged.The New York American, a Hearst newspaper, suggested that Truman had gone mad with drugs when he ousted the general. "Perhaps the State Department gave him some kind of mental or central nervous sedative." The poet and columnist Nick Kenny of the New York Daily News described the general's situation in exaggerated lines, just like an arrow being caught by a chest armor. Rebounding, the blade plunged into his unprotected back. "Great soldier, statesman, diplomat/Hold high your gleaming sword/'It's your name they hail!'" Harry Schlach, Poet-in-Residence, The New York American Daily, is better than Kenny For one thing, his rousing verse is titled "Father, We Thank You for General MacArthur."McCormick wanted Truman "to be impeached for misappropriating Congressional authority to order American troops to the Korean front without declaring war."“Impeach Truman,” he telegraphed his Washington-based reporter and political operative Walter Troan. Troan knew what the message meant.Republican leaders said they would not do it, so Troan did not carry out the order.

Reaction abroad is a bit different.The House of Commons erupted in cheers when Foreign Secretary Herbert Morrison made the announcement. "Mr. Truman seized the bull by the horns and wheeled him out of the china shop," said the London Chronicle in an editorial. The Frankfurter Zeitung, with a bit of journalistic hyperbole, said, "When he fell, the whole world Time has stopped breathing."As for the communist world, of course, the joy is beyond words.Beijing Radio said: "The people of China and North Korea have won the struggle against American aggression." Budapest newspapers praised the dismissal of an "executor with blood on his hands, a murderous and bloodthirsty fascist."But in Moscow, the Literary Gazette warned: "Despite the replacement of the defeated general, Wall Street has no intention of abandoning its risk-taking policy."

By the time MacArthur came to Washington, criticism of Truman and Acheson was mounting.Acheson was widely regarded by the antigovernment press as a villain who had murdered a hero.From the first moment after MacArthur's dismissal, Truman's Republican opponents were in a rage.House Minority Leader Joseph Martin took center stage for his role in the letter affair, and his terse remarks about the "possibility of impeachment" made the headlines on the first afternoon's papers.Senator Joseph McCarthy was even more blunt: the general's removal was "a victory for Communism, aided by strong whiskey and Benedict. . . . That son of a bitch deserves to be impeached."Senator Robert Taft argued, "It would be difficult to deliberately create a more catastrophic course of action than the series of policies that this administration has undertaken over the past 13 months... The State Department is the colony of Downing Street.  … . . . " Senator William Jenner of Indiana snarled, "I charge that this country is today in the hands of a secret circle of men directed by Soviet spies. Our only option is to impeach President Truman."

Martin wanted a confrontation.He called MacArthur's office in Tokyo and invited him to speak at a bipartisan joint session of Congress.MacArthur temporarily agreed.But hearing that MacArthur was about to speak from this majestic rostrum was a prospect in itself that made Democrats shudder.They spent most of the afternoon grunting and haggling over Martin's proposal.Martin then issued an ultimatum: Unless an invitation was issued on that day, MacArthur would go to New York to address the nation over the radio.Were the Democrats, Martin wryly asked, too cowardly to hear MacArthur himself in Washington?Rep. Adolph Sabath, a factional Chicago Democrat, said he would chair a procedure committee hearing, of which he chairs, to discuss a resolution inviting MacArthur to speak to Congress.He asked MacArthur to "explain... the refusal to carry out the orders of the superiors... and the disregard of the instructions of the commander-in-chief, the president."Democratic leaders managed to rein in Sabath by insisting that the speech had to be at a joint session of Congress, not a joint regular session, a reflection of parliamentary procedure that would interest only philologists different rhetoric.Democrats want the speech not to be a formal event, but a voluntary rally that each lawmaker can choose to attend if they see fit.

Now that the issue of speeches has been settled, the next debate is that of the format of the hearing.Both Republicans and Democrats wanted testimony from MacArthur.The general is willing to broadcast his side of the controversy publicly.The same goes for the Republican Party, which wants the process to be heard live on radio and television across the country.But that is unacceptable to Democrats, for reasons as much public relations as national security.The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Richard Russell, did not care which kind of live performance MacArthur might provide. The hearing would inevitably involve military secrets, and Russell did not want to share classified information with the Communist Party. "We're going to go through doors that have been kept out," he said, "and we're going to expose secrets that have been kept under wraps." argued that the decision "kept General MacArthur's thunderous words from the microphones and his striking image from the screens of 1 million televisions," but national security arguments prevailed.The Senate's preference for an institutionalized process has trumped Republican demands for an investigation by a select committee. "No," Russell replied that a joint Senate committee consisting of the Armed Services Committee, which he chaired, and the Foreign Relations Committee, chaired by Tom Connolly of Texas, would suffice.

Amid the public uproar in support of MacArthur, few leading figures in the Democratic Party dared to defend the president in the first few days.One senator who did that was Robert Kerr of Oklahoma.He challenged Republicans after hearing their strident eloquence:
The Republicans are making a lot of noise here today, but they're avoiding the real issues.If they . . . believe that the future security of our country depends on following MacArthur's policies, let them either act or keep their mouths shut.Let them propose a resolution, expressed as the opinion of the Senate: We should either declare war on Red China, or do what amounts to open war with it. ...if they don't, their support for MacArthur is bogus.

Republicans are not falling for Kerr's trap.The White House watched MacArthur's coming to the east coast and attending the Congressional meeting with fear and joy.The night after the announcement of his dismissal, Truman delivered a nationally broadcast address explaining his reasons for taking the action.For the first time, he publicly disclosed his intention to seek a solution to the war through direct negotiations with the Chinese, and his intention was opposed by MacArthur.Truman emphasized the need not to turn the Korean War into an all-out war, and the cooperation of U.S. allies was crucial. "The free nations have united their forces in an effort to prevent World War III," the president said. "If the leaders of Communism wanted to start this war, it could break out. But, for this Our country and our allies are not responsible for the outbreak of war." Truman believed that history, as well as MacArthur's own rhetoric, would soon give the administration an edge.The morning after MacArthur had been deposed, he went to revisit the story of General George McClellan, who had been dismissed by President Lincoln in the Civil War.When Truman said of MacArthur, he said: "He will be regarded as a worse liar than McClellan. He does the same thing as McClellan-keep in touch with the Senate minority leader. He is with the minority, Undercutting a government while a war is going on." (Truman may have noticed another possible similarity between MacArthur and McClellan: the Civil War general who ran for president after being fired, Yet he failed.)
Despite Truman's personal distaste for MacArthur, he ordered the general to be welcomed to Washington with proper military honors.So when MacArthur arrived in Washington after midnight on April 4, Secretary of Defense Marshall and the chiefs of staff went to greet him, as did Truman's military aide, Major General Harry Vaughn.During MacArthur's 19-hour stay in Washington, a total of 20 people cheered him, half of whom formed a huge crowd in the square under the Washington Monument.On Truman's order, government workers and schoolchildren were given half a day off to welcome MacArthur, which made for a great crowd spectacle.The most exciting—and most dramatic—climax was MacArthur's speech to a joint session of Congress.

At noon, Congress meets in the chamber of the House of Representatives.A few minutes later, Mrs. MacArthur was seated in the honorary seat at the side bench, and the participants all gave a standing ovation.Then a file of uniformed officers who had served under MacArthur filed in, Willoughby and Whitney standing out among them.With them was MacArthur's youngest son, who blinked in astonishment, unaccustomed to the spectacle.They take the chairs normally reserved for joint regular meetings of the president's cabinet. (No member of the Truman Cabinet was present to credit MacArthur.) The lights of the television cameras were turned on, and the expectant crowd in the chamber murmured.MacArthur made them wait for nearly 10 minutes, with a sense of nervous anticipation throughout.Finally, at 12:31 p.m., he appeared at the door, surrounded by representatives and senators.There was a unanimous standing ovation in the public gallery, as did most members of Congress, though a few Democrats remained conspicuously seated.The doorman's voice resounded in the hall: "Mr. Speaker, the five-star general Douglas MacArthur is here."

MacArthur strode forward amid thunderous applause.His military appearance was neat, and his many medals and ribbons were missing from the Eisenhower uniform.His body is erect, his face is expressionless, and his every smile will be captured by television cameras (still a rarity on Capitol Hill) and broadcast to hundreds of thousands of TV viewers on the East Coast.He strode to the pulpit, stood still until the applause died down, and then spoke in a deep, resonant voice.

(End of this chapter)