On this day in 1951, President Harry S. Truman terminated Gen. Douglas MacArthur as the leader of U.S. forOn this day in 1951, President Harry S. Truman terminated Gen. Douglas MacArthur as the authority of U.S. powers engaging North Korean and socialist Chinese powers on the Korean promontory and supplanted him with Gen. Matthew Ridgeway. Truman's activity lighted a political firestorm.
In Tokyo, MacArthur and his significant other, Jean, were going to a lunch meeting at the U.S. International safe haven for Sen. Warren Magnuson (D-Wash.) and William Stern, chief VP of Northwest Airlines, when Col. Sidney Huff, MacArthur's own helper and one of the "Bataan posse" who had gotten away from Corregidor with the general in 1942, caught wind of the terminating from a radio news account. Fit educated Jean MacArthur. The official notification showed up a half hour later.ces engaging North Korean and socialist Chinese powers on the Korean promontory and supplanted him with Gen. Matthew Ridgeway. Truman's activity lighted a political firestorm.
In a location to the country, Truman stated: "I accept that we should attempt to restrict the war to Korea for these imperative reasons: to ensure that the valuable existences of our battling men are not squandered; to see that the security of our nation and the free world isn't unnecessarily risked; and to forestall a third universal war." MacArthur was terminated, Truman stated, "so that there would be no uncertainty or disarray regarding the genuine reason and point of our approach."
In the beginning phase of the war, which started in June 1950, MacArthur conceived a technique that spared South Korea from tumbling to the attacking powers from the north. As the U.S.- drove powers picked up the advantage, MacArthur squeezed the assault to the Chinese fringe, guaranteeing Truman that the odds of a Chinese intercession were thin.
In November 1950, Chinese divisions flung U.S. troops once more into South Korea. MacArthur needed to bomb China and utilize patriot Chinese powers on Taiwan against the socialists. Truman repelled him.
In a 1973 article in Time magazine, Truman was cited as having stated, in private, in the mid 1960s: "I terminated him since he wouldn't regard the authority of the president. I didn't fire him since he was a stupid bastard, despite the fact that he was, yet that is not illegal for officers. In the event that it was, half to 75% of them would be in prison."
In his 1956 journals, Truman stated: "If there is one essential component in our Constitution, it is regular citizen control of the military. Strategies are to be made by the chosen political authorities, not by commanders or chiefs of naval operations.