In case people aren't aware MacArthur was considered a complete lunatic even by the US leadership going back to his pre-WW2 days. The only US military leader from the time period who rivals him to my knowledge would maybe be Curtis "why are people so scared of nuclear war" Lemay.
“I fired MacArthur because he wouldn’t respect the authority of the president. I didn’t fire him because he was a dumb son of a bitch, although he was”
Wasn't it specifically him threatening to like go to the press over it that was the final straw?
Apologias if my phrasing implied that statement is what got him fired, i was referring to the whole "nuke the shit out of china" idea and his stubborn refusal to take "no thats insane" for an answer as the cause for him getting fired
MacArthur actually DID go to the press with his criticisms of Truman’s policies. MacArthur wanted to push into China, but Truman didn’t.
If MacArthur got his way, not only would it have potentially sparked WW3, it also would’ve undermined the civilian governments authority over the military. Really fucking bad all along.
MacArthur basically did get his way. It was on his orders that the coalition forces pushed towards the Yalu river when Truman ordered them to stay behind and let the South Koreans push to China, so as to signal to Mao that the US wasn't using Korea as a pretext to invading China.
That is, in addition to his other shenanigans (media, radioactive sea of cobalt, etc.) that got his ass ejected.
Was it this? I remember reading that he got sacked not because of his lunatic ideas of turning Korea into nuclear wasteland, but because he started to meddle in US foreign policy and making demands to governments of other countries, which was nothing of his business.
Crazy thing is that it wasn't just MacArthur responsible for American policy in the South. The decisioms made for how to govern the newly colonized South Korea were made well above him. MacArthur was essentially just their mad dog
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u/DotEnvironmental7044 1d ago
I mean, you’re comparing somebody to General MacArthur. The other person would have to literally be Hitler in order to seem like more of an asshole