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On June 25, 1950, North Korean soldiers stormed across the thirty-eighth parallel which separated Communist North Korea and non-Communist South Korea. This was the beginning of what would soon become known as the Korean Conflict, or as some say The Forgotten War. The two main persons from the United States were President Harry Truman and General Douglas MacArthur. Truman was the head, and the military followed his orders, as opposed to the Security Council. General MacArthur had a hard time accepting that fact. He let his ego come before hs job, and on April 11, 1951 General Douglas MacArthur was removed from command.
The United States technically was not involved in a war, considering Congress never made that declaration. General MacArthur was in charge of the US troops. At first he wanted only a regimental combat team. Within a week, however, he cabled Washington that North Korea was "operating under excellent top level guidance and had demonstrated superior command of strategic and tactical principles. " He consequently asked for a minimum of 30, 000 American combat soldiers in the form of four infantry divisions, three tank battalions, and assorted artillery.
In September MacArthur and the troops regained South Korea and advanced into North Korea. After this victory, Truman and others became worried about the Chinese Communist, who could have, at any time, entered the war. Also, people at home were starting to get a little ticked off because soldiers were coming back dead. Truman's main goal was to restore South Korea to its boarder, but MacArthur had other things in mind, he had to win it all.
He would often gloat about how easy of a task this conflict was. November of 1950 proved to be a devastating blow to Truman and especially MacArthur. On November 24, MacArthur launched a general offensive all along the northern front, which was nearing the Yalu. He described it as a "massive compression and envelopment, " a pincer movement to trap the remaining North Korean forces that were backed into the mountainous northern part of the peninsula. MacArthur took this action without Truman's approval. The North Koreans and Chinese apparently waited to attack UN forces until they were well inside North Korea in order to stretch the UN supply lines and gain time for a dramatic reversal on the battlefield.
The United States and UN were pushed back to the thirty-eighth parallel. MacArthur didn't know when to stop. And now after being beaten he called for more troops, for a retaliation. Truman saw that the only thing he could do now was remove MacArthur. President Truman's decision to remove General Douglas MacArthur was smart and in the best interest of the country.
Truman did not get involved to have a war, he wanted to restore South Korea to its boarder. Mac Arthurs ego got in the way of him doing his job. There were virtually two men in charge of this conflict. Two men with two different goals. MacArthur unfortunately had a selfish one-go out with a bang. Truman's goal-restore South Korea and bring the troops home.
If both men would have worked together some of the outcomes probably would have been a lot better. Bibliography:
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Research essay sample on Douglas Macarthur South Korea
