WAS GEN. DOUGLAS MAC ARTHUR RIGHT? TIME TO RETHINK?

WAS GEN. DOUGLAS MAC ARTHUR RIGHT?        

             TIME TO RETHINK?      

 As reward for keeping his promise to FDR to enter the war against Japan, the US had promised rewards to Stalin.  At the time of the promise, Germany had been defeated, but super bombs were still fantasies of scientists.  The fantasies became reality, first in the Nevada desert, then in Hiroshima.  Stalin rushed to get more troops to the borders of Asia, and entered the war against Japan.  A 2nd new bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, and though many high-ranking Japanese wanted to continue the war, the news of 2 horribly destroyed cities, and the news that neutral Stalin had now joined the Americans in a war to defeat Japan.  Emperor Hirohito spoke to the people for the first time on radio - it is time to surrender.

     POWs and enemy aliens would not be killed, but returned to their homelands, Britain, France, Netherlands, America, etc.  Russian troops looted factories in Manchukwo, and soon gave weapons to Mao's guerrillas in China, as Imperial troops retreated to sea ports for repatriation.  Without much thought an American drew a line along the 38th parallel, dividing Korea into the north for Soviet and the south for American occupations.

     The North would be headed by Kim Il Sung, a communist guerrilla fighter during the war; the South would be led by Syngman Rhee. chosen in hasty elections.  There was a major civil war in China, and the new Pres. Truman sent Gen. Marshall to demand that it stop, and both sides form a coalition government.  Nationalist leader Chiang Kai Check rejected such a compromise, so the Americans stopped supplying Chiang with supplies, while the Soviets aided Mao.  By 1949 Mao declared victory from a balcony in Beijing, and almost all the mainland was now led by the Communists.

     Korean Communist leader Kim Il Sung thought he could take all of Korea, and asked Stalin for his permission to invade South Korea.  Stalin gave Kim the green light, and North Koreans swarmed down the peninsular.  Suddenly, only a small area around Pusan remained beyond Kim's power.

    Should America help?  Alone or with allies?  The Soviets were then boycotting the new UN's Security Council because Nationalist China was still recognized as China.  Without the vote of the USSR, the UN voted to join in the American defense of South Korea.  Gen. Mac Arthur responded by landing troops near Inchon, behind communist lines.  They were cut off from supplies and had to retreat or surrender.  They did both,  The Americans did not stop at the 38th parallel, and marched north.  The UN forces (small contingent from other UN nations aided the Americans.  As we approached the Yalu River, that is the border with China, and a little also with the USSR.  Mao called upon Chinese volunteers to help the communist cause in Korea.  Massive numbers of Chinese "volunteers" now joined the fignt against the Americans.  Soon, a very cold winter.  Many Koreans, Chinese, Americans and others fighting in misery and dying in larger numbers.  What to do?

     Gen. Mac Arthur had the solution - use the A-bomb.    We cab try to endure a painful war of attrition, deadly to both sides, or we candrop the A-bomb behind the enemy lines, totally disrupting their supply lines, which would give us a quick victory.  Yes, it's a terrible weapon, but that can be said of all effective weapons.  The question, we have the power to end the war, IN VICTORY, or the war can continue one way or another (it continues today, 86 years later!!).  If we have a weapon that can end a war, it is our duty to use it.

     President Truman opposed Mac Arthur's solution.  He fired the general and removed him from the military.  Mac Arthur, like other old soldiers, faded away.

    Should America have used the bomb to end the war in Korea in 1950?  In other no-end wars since?  Or now in Iran??   A QUESTION FOR TODAY    

     Hugh Murray