My Grandfather and how to start a war with China by Bram Gieben
My Dutch grandfather had a remarkable career, first in the law, then in colonial government, then as an ambassador; later on he was prominent in the rebuilding of Holland after the war, serving for a time as head of the police force, and then was put in charge of rebuilding roads and waterways, including the reclamation of land flooded by the bombing of the dams in the war.
When the Korean war started, my grandfather was asked to represent a coalition of European nations including Holland and Belgium on the spot. Once, when I considered joining the Foreign office after graduation, he warned me that there was one major disadvantage to life as a diplomat: the endless receptions, dinners and cocktail parties at which one met, and was forced to be pleasant to, some of the dullest people in the world. Well, at one such occasion in South Korea, Grootvader found himself next to the head of the Allied Forces taking on the communist invasion from the north.
General Douglas Macarthur was a major figure in the second world war and the postwar history of the Pacific region. He commanded the US forces in the Pacific at the end of the war, accepted the surrender of the Japanese in 1945, as has been previously related, and was the first governor of occupied Japan. He was a very popular figure back home in the United States, and was talked of as a possible future President. Brought back to take on the communists in Korea, here he was, forced to attend a terminally dull event. Well, he and Grootvader struck up a conversation, quickly recognising that they felt the same way about the company, and had plenty of interesting things to talk about. (Perhaps my grandfather’s four years in a Japanese prisoner of war camp, and his later oversight of the war crimes tribunal in which the worst Japanese commanders in Indonesia were held to account).
After some minutes, Macarthur asked abruptly “Do you like fishing?” Grootvader said yes, and Macarthur said “Pick you up at six in the morning”, before sweeping out with his entourage. Sure enough, a line of jeeps arrived outside of Grootvader’s bungalow at precisely six the next morning, and Macarthur waved him into his jeep. They headed for the sea, and climbed into a motor launch which weaved at high speed in and out amongst some small islands before arriving at the best place to fish. Breakfast was served, and the conversation resumed. In particular MacArthur expressed his extreme frustration with President Truman. Chinese troops were fighting alongside the north Koreans, but when pressed they simply retreated over the border into China. Macarthur said if he could pursue them there, he could take many of them out, and destroy their supply bases, which would be a huge advantage to the Allies. Truman forbad him to cross the border.
Over the course of the day, Macarthur shared his further thinking. He explained to Grootvader that in his view, America had a unique historical opportunity. China had suffered dreadfully in the war with the Japanese, and in the civil war between Mao and Chang Kai Shek. The latter had retreated to Taiwan, and the UN had not yet recognised the new communist China. What is more, America had the atom bomb and the Chinese didn’t. In the future, the Chinese were very likely to develop their own bomb, and turn into a significant world power, America’s main rival in the Pacific. This was the perfect time to knock them out of the game and install a non-communist government that America would find it much easier to deal with.
My grandfather’s thoughts on this are not recorded. But Macarthur’s views got out back home, and received some sympathetic coverage in the press. Finally Truman acted. He summoned Macarthur to the White House, and in what was apparently a short meeting, told him he was relieving him of his command, and ordering him back home. He then held a press conference and told an astonished press core that the Allied forces in Korea had a new leader. When angry journalists asked why he had dismissed the great military hero, Truman calmly reminded them that in a democracy at war the government makes policy, and the generals carry it out. With a smile he famously said “Gentlemen, we hire them, and we fire them.”
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(As a short historical foonote, the arch-conservative Barry Goldwater ran for President in 1964 as the Republican candidate against Lyndon Johnson. Himself a former air force officer, he chose as his running mate the former General Curtis Lemay. During the Vietnam War, Curtis once reminded an interviewer that, “If all else fails, we have the capability to bomb the North Vietnamese back to the stone age.” The Democrats quickly produced a campaign badge saying Bombs Away with Curtis Lemay. Lyndon Johnson won in a landslide.)