Douglas MacArthur

Douglas MacArthur, a popular World War II military leader, was named commander of the UN military forces sent to defend South Korea after the June 25, 1950, invasion by Communist North Korea. When MacArthur drove Chinese-assisted North Korean forces to the Chinese border, China intervened and drove UN forces back to the original border of North and South Korea. MacArthur believed that UN forces should bomb Chinese military installations and enlist the aid of U.S.-supported Nationalist Chinese forces in Formosa (Taiwan), led by Chiang Kai-shek, who had been ousted from mainland China in 1949 by the Communist Chinese. President Harry Truman disagreed with this strategy; he hoped to limit the war to Korea and avoid direct conflict with China or the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, MacArthur continued—publicly—to defend his position, and Truman relieved MacArthur of...