audiobook General MacArthur and President Truman: The Struggle for Control of American Foreign Policy by Richard H. Rovere in History

Review

3 of 9 people found the following review helpful. Ideas Have ConsequencesBy T. BernerMessrs. Rovere and Schlesinger want to see the Truman-MacArthur feud as that of a heroic liberal President who prevents a reactionary American general from dominating foreign policy. I don't know whether the authors are blind to what really went on or whether they just fell for a Manichean view of the world; but this book is extremely misleading. It is also an object lesson how today's wisdom can lead to tomorrow's blunders.MacArthur was fired for a simple reason. Truman imposed a gag order on him; preventing him from making public remarks until he gave the President the opportunity to censor them. MacArthur obeyed this request; but when he received a letter from a Congressman; he responded honestly; forthrightly and without allowing the President to censor his remarks. Since he took an oath to defend the Constitution; he thought; he answered to all three branches of the government; not solely to the President. The Congressman published the letter and MacArthur got canned.How can the authors protray this as an assertion of civilian control over the military? You have to be pretty biased not to see it for what it is: the assertion of the executive over the legislative branch. This established the ground rules for future military brass: you are subject to no one but the President. H.R. MacMaster's Dereliction of Duty shows what happened next. When Presidents Kennedy and Johnson lied to Congress about Vietnam; the generals clammed up and let Robert MacNamara misrepresent their own views. The Imperial Presidency had grown bigger.The problem with books like this is that they make you stupider for having read them. The facts are all there; but the spin blinds you to reality.5 of 5 people found the following review helpful. Short but informativeBy A CustomerThis book is concise; yet extremely informative. Richard H. Rovere and Arthur Schlesinger Jr. prove to be a great match in writing the "General and the President." The book opens on a brief note on General Douglas Macarthur's early military history; followed by the outbreak of the Korean war; and the origins and climax of the feud between General Macarthur and President Harry Truman. It comes complete with maps of Korea; political cartoons from the era; and a well documented appendix consisting of speeches; conversations; and testimonies from key government officials of the time. This book is a must read for anyone interested in the Korean War and the famous feud.8 of 21 people found the following review helpful. Establishment liberals tell us how they wanted it to beBy MynameisthisThis book clearly does a desrvce to the truth. You can't expect someone like Arthur Schlesinger to come anywhere near the truth. Here is the truth that Arthur Schlesinger doesn't want you to know.The fact is that the Communist Chinese threatened to intervene if the U.N. troops pushed passed the 38th parallel; not up to the Yalu river. It was Truman's orders to push to the Yalu river or until the North Koreans surrendered; whichever came first.It was Truman's error not to allow Gen. MacArthur to bomb the Yalu bridges thereby insuring that the Chinese could not cross over into the Korean peninsula in any substantial numbers. Intelligence documents released a few years ago identified why the Chinese were so confident about their involvement in the war. The Soviet Union used spies in the U.S. government to determine whether Truman would allow MacArthur to press a campaign against China if they were to enter the war. These are the same traitors that Senator Joseph McCarthy railed against later in his committee investigations. The Venona documents verified the validity of these espionage activities and this was all happening right under the nose of President Truman.The information that the Soviets culled from their American traitors and spies was subsequently passed on to the Communist Chinese. General Lin Piao; the commander of the Chinese troops who poured across the Yalu bridges into Korea; was able to boast in a leaflet distributed in China; "l would never have made the attack and risked my men and military reputation if I had not been assured that Washington would restrain General MacArthur from taking adequate retaliatory measures against my lines of supply and communication."The Chinese then attacked the U.N. troops; comfortable in the knowledge that Truman would do nothing more than fight a defensive war.After the war had ended; the U.S. Congress investigated. General Mark Clark told the committee empanelled to review what had happened: "I was not allowed to bomb the numerous bridges across the Yalu River over which the enemy constantly poured his trucks and his munitions; and his killers." General James Van Fleet said: "My own conviction is that there must have been information to the enemy from high diplomatic authorities that we would not attack his home bases across the Yalu." Air Force General George Stratemeyer added: "You get in war to win it. You do not get in war to stand still and lose it; and we were required to lose it. We were not permitted to win." And General MacArthur then summarized: "Such a limitation upon the utilization of available military force to repel an enemy attack has no precedent; either in our own history; or so far as I know; in the history of the world."At this point in the war; however; hordes of Chinese communist troops stormed across the Yalu River from Manchuria; and the war began again in earnest. MacArthur was denied permission to destroy the bridges over the river across which poured men and supplies destined for use against his men. He protested to no avail and was soon relieved of command by President Harry Truman; whom the Chicago Tribune stated at the time wasn't worthy to shine the general's shoes.Command of the U.S./ROK forces was turned over to General Matthew Ridgway. He immediately altered the method of fighting. In his own book; The Korean War; Ridgway stated that his first task on assuming MacArthur's command was "to place reasonable restrictions on the Eighth [U.S. Army] and ROK Armies' advance." Then he drafted detailed orders to field commanders containing such passages as; "You will direct the efforts of your forces toward inflicting maximum personnel casualties and material losses on hostile forces in Korea .... Acquisition of terrain of itself is of little or no value."Classic military strategy includes the taking and holding of terrain until so much of it has been acquired that the adversary is forced to sue for peace. But this was no longer allowable strategy in Korea. Even worse; our men were told that killing was to be their main goal. A morally sound military principle holds that removing an enemy's capability to impose his will should be the goal -- and killing him is not always necessary. Which is precisely what MacArthur had demonstrated with the successful landing at Inchon.Eventually the war in Korea degenerated to two years of fighting over relatively inconsequential hills near the 38th parallel. Bitter hard-fought battles would be waged by our troops to take a particular objective. Then; after success had been achieved with plenty of casualties on both sides; orders from on high would require them to abandon the terrain they had just won.From the victory that had been gained after Inchon; our forces were required eventually to settle for a stalemate.If Truman had let MacArthur bomb the Yalu bridges that would have stopped the Chinese from coming into Korea; we wouldn't be facing this mess. And; China could have been freed from communism if we had let the 500;000 men Taiwan had offered us to fight the North Koreans and the Chinese. This all goes back to the communists that were in the Truman administration that influenced Truman into stripping the Chinese Nationalists of their weapons and forcing them out of the Chinese mainland in the first place.So; yes; Truman is responsible for losing China to communism. Arthur Schlesinger doesn't any won't tell you this. Don't bother with this tripe.