Korean War #41: Adored No More

When Diplomacy Fails Podcast

Zack Twamley

Phd, International Relations, Korean War, European History, 17th Century, 18th Century, Politics, 20th Century, Thirty Years' War, History, 19th Century, War, First World War

4.8 • 773 Ratings

🗓️ 12 October 2018

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Episode 41: Adored No More examines the week following the shattering experience of Chinese intervention on a grand scale. With General MacArthur’s credibility in tatters, President Truman’s plan to apportion blame to his least favourite General now appeared to make all the more sense. MacArthur was under immense pressure to explain himself, and when he finally did, Truman’s response was to place a gag order on all US figures from talking about the country’s foreign policy. Truman claimed he was protecting the unity and integrity of Washington’s plans, but this was debateable.

On the ground, amidst the schemes of the President and the desperate errors of the General, the men suffered. From late November until early spring, the soldiers were to experience a debilitating retreat in the worst wintery conditions seen in living memory. As all the practical difficulties blended in together, and as the talk in Washington continued, few could deny that the once triumphant General had taken a severe knock to his reputation and prestige. Here was the man who had led the President astray, and who had promised that all would be over by Christmas. Here was the man, who even if he was still respected for his tenure of service, was adored no more.

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Music used:

“Columbus Stockade Blues”, by Bert and Ruby Rains released in 1940, covered by the likes of Willie Nelson, it’s one of my personal favourites. Available: http://www.museumsyndicate.com/item.php?item=82651

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Hello and welcome, history friends, patrons all, to the Korean War episode 41.
0:33.3	Last time we investigated the week which immediately followed the full-scale intervention of the People's Republic of China into the Korean War.
0:42.1	While not actually declaring war, Mousadong did send hundreds of thousands of his volunteers into the weak spots of General MacArthur's divided forces,
0:52.4	splitting and hemorrhaging them further as a retreat to the
0:55.6	south began. It was to be a bitter and bitterly cold experience for the men of the UN armed forces
1:02.7	for the next few months, as retreat and withdrawal were the only options seen on their menu for
1:07.6	some time. In the midst of this crisis in security and strategy was General MacArthur, the man who had
1:14.3	announced only the week before the Chinese intervention that the boys would be home before
1:18.4	Christmas.
1:19.4	Now in Washington and in the capitals of America's allies, people were wondering how and why
1:24.5	MacArthur had managed to get it all so wrong. As MacArthur's failure
1:29.8	became all the more glaring, though, the spotlight was Sean not on Washington's lacklustre
1:35.2	supply of intelligence, but largely on the failure of MacArthur and his staff to see the
1:40.5	assault coming. This narrative had been steadily added to and buoyed by the talk of
1:45.8	MacArthur's character, his refusal to listen to counsel, especially from politicians, and by
1:51.1	the grizzled general's inbuilt sense of his own importance following in Chaun. It was easy to
1:56.1	believe MacArthur was to blame, in other words, because the general had the reputation of,
2:02.8	well, being a bit of an ass.
2:10.2	Truman took full advantage of the perceptions surrounding MacArthur's character and his role in facilitating the Chinese intervention,
2:19.2	and in the process the President engaged in an admittedly ingenious PR campaign, which not only shifted the blame from President to General, but also began to urge the formation of a response to this troubling state of affairs.
2:25.0	MacArthur's very personality, as this episode will show, made crafting this picture that much
2:30.3	easier for Truman.
	...

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