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MacArthur's solution [0] to every military problem after 1945 was to drop a nuke on it: > On 24 December 1950, while responding to a formal request from the Pe

MacArthur's solution [0] to every military problem after 1945 was to drop a nuke on it: > On 24 December 1950, while responding to a formal request from the Pentagon, specifically Major General Charles L. Bolte, about a hypothetical question regarding which targets should be bombed with atomic weapons if the Soviets got directly involved in the Korean War or if the Chinese military sent bombers to bomb UN forces in Korea and Japan from mainland China, MacArthur submitted a list of "retardation targets" in Korea, Manchuria and other parts of China, for which 34 atomic bombs would be required. And from that same link, here's a direct quote from an interview with MacArthur which was published posthumously: > Of all the campaigns of my life, 20 major ones to be exact, [Korea was] the one I felt most sure of was the one I was deprived of waging. I could have won the war in Korea in a maximum of 10 days.... I would have dropped between 30 and 50 atomic bombs on his air bases and other depots strung across the neck of Manchuria [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relief_of_Douglas_MacArthur#Nuclear_weapons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relief_of_Douglas_MacArthur#Nu...

kelnos 3y ago
It's a little weird to avoid quoting the rest of the passage: > In January 1951, MacArthur refused to entertain proposals for the forward deployment of nuclear weapons. On a similar note, showing MacArthur directly rejecting the use of weapons of mass destruction when he had the power to answer a subordinate, in January 1951 he immediately rejected Lieutenant General Matthew Ridgway's urgent request to use chemical weapons on Chinese and North Korean soldiers. Though MacArthur made many statements regarding nuclear weapons after 1951, there has never been evidence, like memos or transcriptions of meetings, provided by anyone that MacArthur ever requested to use nuclear weapons or tried to push Truman or other Pentagon officials to use them during the Korean War while he was the UN Commander. MacArthur may have been pro-nuke in public statements, but I think it's telling that, when the actual, real-world opportunities presented themselves, he actively refused to entertain the idea of nuking anything. He wouldn't even authorize the use of chemical weapons. I don't know a lot about MacArthur, and have no dog in this race; I'm just reading more at the link you provided.

kelnos 3y ago

It's a little weird to avoid quoting the rest of the passage: > In January 1951, MacArthur refused to entertain proposals for the forward deployment of nuclear weapons. On a similar note, showing MacArthur directly rejecting the use of weapons of mass destruction when he had the power to answer a subordinate, in January 1951 he immediately rejected Lieutenant General Matthew Ridgway's urgent request to use chemical weapons on Chinese and North Korean soldiers. Though MacArthur made many statements regarding nuclear weapons after 1951, there has never been evidence, like memos or transcriptions of meetings, provided by anyone that MacArthur ever requested to use nuclear weapons or tried to push Truman or other Pentagon officials to use them during the Korean War while he was the UN Commander. MacArthur may have been pro-nuke in public statements, but I think it's telling that, when the actual, real-world opportunities presented themselves, he actively refused to entertain the idea of nuking anything. He wouldn't even authorize the use of chemical weapons. I don't know a lot about MacArthur, and have no dog in this race; I'm just reading more at the link you provided.