President relieves MacArthur over Korea policy
WASHINGTON (Army News Service, April 2, 2001) -- President Harry S. Truman relieved Gen. Douglas MacArthur from all military duties over a dispute over national policy, 50 years ago this week.
MacArthur was forced to step down from four jobs -- supreme commander, Allied Powers; commander in chief, U.N. Command - Korea; commander in chief, Far East; and commanding general, U.S. Army - Far East.
April 5, 1951 -- House Minority Leader Joseph. W. Martin Jr., R-Mass., reads a letter on the House floor that he received from MacArthur in answer to his letter asking the general's opinion of using Nationalist China's military in the war. "Your view ... is in conflict with neither logic nor this tradition (of meeting force with stronger force)." The general also agrees with Martin's derogatory remarks about Europeans wanting to appease China.
At a press conference, Truman responds to a remark by Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn, D-Texas, the day before. Rayburn said there is "a massing of troops in Manchuria and Korea, and not all of them are communist Chinese by a great extent," an implication that Soviet troops are going to enter the war. Truman called Rayburn a truthful man and agreed the danger of World War III existed, but there are no developments to indicate it is imminent.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are sentenced to death in a New York federal court for passing atomic secrets to Russia during and after World War II. Their co-defendant, Morton Sobell, gets 30 years. Judge Irving R. Kaufman said that in giving atomic secrets to Russia the Rosenbergs are worse than murderers.
April 5-9 -- By April 9 most divisions of the three Eighth Army corps are on line Kansas, completing Operation Rugged. In the western part of IX Corps' central front is the Hwachon Dam. It's at the northwest corner of the Hwachon Reservoir sitting astride the Pukhan River, which flows from the reservoir, looping around to the northwest and then south.
In planning Operation Rugged, Ridgway had considered the dam. His engineer told him the dam's position protected it from destruction from air attack, but only minor flooding would occur if the Chinese opened all the dam's gates. After Rugged is underway, the IX Corps engineer disagrees, saying if all gates on the dam are opened it will flood much of the Chunchon basin up to 12 feet around the Kansas line. Lateral movement in the basin along Route 17 would be impossible. Ridgway then makes the dam an objective in his planning for follow-on Operation Dauntless, and tells Maj. Gen. William Hoge, IX Corps commander, to capture it.
Hoge decides that he can use the 4th Ranger Company, attached to the corps April 7 to take the dam now. He envisions the Rangers sneaking in, destroying the sluice gates and pulling out, all in less than two hours. He attaches the rangers to the 1st Cavalry Division and orders its commander, Brig. Gen. Charles Palmer, to destroy the dam. However, he didn't tell Palmer how to use the rangers.
Palmer then orders the 7th Cavalry Regiment, with the rangers attached, to take the dam in a classical attack. The regiment's 2nd Battalion and the Ranger Company are given the mission. Enemy resistance holds up the initial assault, and on April 8 the general orders the 7th and 8th Regiments to attack the dam. The rugged terrain permits only certain routes of march, and the enemy guards those. Since the landscape makes it impossible for the GIs to bring their artillery, they are stopped. The mission is scrubbed on April 11 to wait for Operation Dauntless to begin when the force of IX Corps can be thrown at the dam.
But, perhaps because of the attack, the Chinese open the floodgates before the reservoir is filled and flooding is minor.
Ridgway announces April 11 as the start date for Dauntless. He has stopped giving operations names like Killer and Ripper because of state department complaints that they sound too bloodthirsty.
April 7 -- Viet Minh leader Ho Chi Minh says his forces will stop engaging in mass battles with French forces and begin guerrilla operations. "Our objective now is not to march on Haipong or Hanoi or even to occupy French posts," he says. "We are to begin a new war of attrition."
April 8 -- Testimony of J. Edgar Hoover, FBI director, to a Senate subcommittee is released. Date of the testimony is not revealed. Hoover says "hard core" communist saboteurs are in place in the United States to try to wreak havoc in case of another all out war. Hoover also tries to stop the deportation of a woman who gathered espionage information from Stalin's personal bodyguards.
April 10-11 -- A political furor erupts when Truman relieves MacArthur of all four of his military leadership posts, and replaces him with Lt. Gen. Matthew Ridgway, currently Eighth Army commander in Korea. Lt. Gen. James Van Fleet is put in command of Eighth Army.
Republicans and a sizeable portion of Americans support MacArthur and vociferously denounce Truman. Western Union says that from April 11-12 125,000 telegrams were sent to the White House and Congress, most denouncing Truman. Some Republicans talk of impeaching Truman while other GOP members and Democrat lawmakers side with the president.
What sparked the firing was the MacArthur letter Rep. Martin read in the House. That event comes less than two weeks after MacArthur told reporters in Tokyo that he would meet with his counterpart Chinese field commander to negotiate a peace settlement if the communist would agree.
Truman is boiling mad because he has secret peace feelers out to the Chinese, while MacArthur appears bent on carrying the war into China. In December, the Joint Chiefs of Staff told MacArthur to clear remarks with the White House. He was reminded of that order again after his offer to negotiate a peace with the Chinese.
Truman decides that MacArthur must go. But from April 6-9 he meets nightly with Secretary of Defense George C. Marshall, JCS Chairman Gen. Omar Bradley, Secretary of State Dean Acheson and Special Assistant Averell Harriman. The four men tell the president that MacArthur must go.
The group plans to inform MacArthur by wiring Secretary of the Army Frank Pace, currently in Korea. Pace will deliver the news to MacArthur before 8 p.m. April 11 - 10 a.m. April 12 in Tokyo -- to coincide with a press conference by press secretary, Frank Shorter, who will announce the dismissal.
Things go wrong from the beginning. The cable doesn't go through because of a power failure in Pusan. In the meantime on April 10, a Chicago reporter asks the Pentagon about a tip from Japan that a high-level command change is about to be made.
When Truman is told, he orders an open telegram be sent to MacArthur's headquarters informing him of his dismissal and one to Pace in Korea to notify Ridgway. He tells Shorter to hold the press conference at 1 a.m. April 11.
The order relieving MacArthur arrives at his headquarters message center about the time the press conference is being held, 3 p.m. Japan time. MacArthur, who is entertaining guests, learns of his dismissal from an aide who hears the story on the radio.
The Japanese are extremely shocked and upset over MacArthur's dismissal. William J. Sebald, State Department representative for the occupation, meets with Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida April 11 and convinces him that he and his cabinet shouldn't resign. He explains command change does not mean America has changed its Japan policy.
MacArthur orders his acting chief of staff to maintain the command for Ridgway.
April 11 -- Ridgway receives the original message late April 11 and immediately leaves for Pusan.
Because of the uproar over MacArthur's dismissal, Truman goes on radio and TV to explain his actions. MacArthur wanted to expand the war from Korea, the president says. It would be "tragically wrong for us to take the initiative in extending the war." If the communists do that, "the decision is theirs."
A small group of Republican senators call MacArthur early in the day and invite him to address a joint session of Congress. The general accepts the invitation.
The British House of Commons cheers when they hear MacArthur has been relieved. Governments all across Europe back Truman's actions. Formosa sees it as a setback to getting American backing for an invasion of mainland China.
