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→Truman dismisses MacAuthur
=== Truman dismisses MacAuthur ===
=== Truman dismisses MacAuthur ===
In March 1951, a UN operation recaptured Seoul. In April, General MacArthur asked for permission to bomb Chinese bases in Manchuria and to use KMT forces from Taiwan. When President Truman rejected both of these proposals, MacArthur went public with his criticisms. Truman dismissed him and replaced him with Gen. Matthew Ridgeway. (The dispute was not about nuclear weapons, although it is remembered this way in popular history.)
In March 1951, a UN operation recaptured Seoul. In April, General MacArthur asked for permission to bomb Chinese bases in Manchuria and to use KMT forces from Taiwan. When President Truman rejected both of these proposals, MacArthur went public with his criticisms. Truman then replaced MacArthur with Gen. Matthew Ridgeway.
At their meeting at Wake Island on 15 October 1950, MacAuthur, based on his alleged understanding of "the Oriental mind," had assured Truman that China would not intervene. So Truman had good reason to dismiss MacAuthur prior to their dispute about using KMT soldiers.
The dispute was not about nuclear weapons, although it is remembered this way in popular history. The popular history amounts to a form of blame shifting by pro-Truman historians. In reality, Truman's attitude toward nuclear weapons was, if anything, less responsible than MacArthur's. When asked by a reporter about the use of nuclear weapons in Korea on November 30, 1950, Truman responded, "I'm not a military authority that passes on those things....The military commander in the field will have charge of the use of weapons, as he always has."<ref>Patterson, James T., Oxford History of the United States, vol. 10, chapter 8 "Korea."</ref>
At their meeting at Wake Island on 15 October 1950, MacArthur had assured Truman that the chance of China intervening was "very little." The Eighth Army would be out of Korea by Christmas, he said. The basis for his confidence was not so much intelligence from the field as his understanding of "the Oriental mind." This was egotism posing as strategy. It took only ten days for the Chinese to prove MacArthur wrong at Unsan. In short, Truman had good reason to dismiss MacArthur prior to their dispute about using KMT soldiers.<ref name=Patterson/>
=== Aftermath ===
=== Aftermath ===