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Question: What if Douglas MacArthur had gone through w/the invasion of China during the Korean War!?
As history shows Truman and McArthur diageed on how to win the Korean War!. McArthur felt an invasion of China (which had recently sent troops to fight for North Korea) was neccesary to win well Truman sought to avoid this fearing it could cause WWIII!. McArthur complained publically and as a resuult was released!. My question what if Truman had given McArthur the go ahead to invade China!. What would've happened!. How would history be altered!?
Personally I feel full war w/China would draw in the Soviet Union who originally provided weapondry to the North Koreans!. I honestly question if we could take both China and the USSR!. Well we still had alliences to France, Britian, Canada ect!. The Soviet Union was now also a world superpower and had China as well!. Not to mention this very likely could've been a nuclear war and the USSR now had nuclear arms as wellWww@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
I don't think it would have drawn the USSR into the war!. At least not initially!. Despite both being communist, China and the USSR never quite got along!. They even had nuclear missiles pointed at each other all through the cold war!.
It's hard to say what effect a direct invasion of China would have had!. China is big and has a lot of people they could throw back at us!. On the other hand, I don't know how well their military had been restored after the wooping they took from the Japanese in WW2!. Maybe somebody else here could give us more guidance on that!. If the US made major inroads into Chinese territory, then I agree that th USSR would have come to their aid!.
One possibility is that an invasion of China may have resulted in a stronger bargaining position for the US/South Korea in truce negotiations with North Korea!. On the other hand, it could have resulted in China throwing even more men and material behind North Korea!. It's really hard to say!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
It wasn't an invasion that he wanted, he wanted to place a radioactive wall along the boarder with several other nuclear strikes deeper into the country to keep their military occupied!. Had we done it them, it would have worked since the Soviets didn't have the number of bombs needed to retaliate at that time!.
The United States of America is the ONLY country in history that could have taken over all of the civilized world and didn't try!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
most likely we'd either still be fighting!.!.!. or speaking Chinese!. They have a serious lack of concern for their dead and another few billion where those came from!. I think you are naive about China and Russia!. Although they both helped North Korea, they share a border and distrust eachother immensely!. It goes back to the tartars ( ancient asian horsemen ) raiding russian villages since antiquity!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
You can't win in China!. It is a country almost as large as the USA and it has 3-4 times as many people!. You might get into China, but China doesn't change!. We could have changed the leadership, perhaps, but we would not have won a victory over China!. No one wins a land campaign against China!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
1!. Douglas MacArthur was pretty much clueless during the Korean conflict!. He barely spent any time in Korea!. Oh sure, Inchon was brilliant!. But our troops at the start of the conflict were not ready--fat, untrained, poorly equipped and unready for battle (as the N!. Koreans basically whipped our butts)!. MacArthur deserves some accountability for that!. MacArthur surreounded himself with yes-men and synchophants!. He was absolutely convinced that he knew the "Asian Mind!."
Well, the world had passed MacArthur by!.
--He felt that if we used Chaing Kai-Shek's men in Formosa, he'd be able to take over the Chinese mainland!. Duh!.!.!.!.!.didn't Mao kick Chaing and his boys off the mainland!?
--When asked about the threat of Chinese intervention, MacArthur said that he welcomed possible Chinese intervention because US aircover would destroy their forces before they got close enough to hit US forces!.
--MacAthur divided US forces, sent them too far North in weather they were not prepared for!.
--MacArthur discounted warning signs of Chinese involvement!.
--Oh, and a direct shot at the Chinese mainland would have cost us UN support for the war and all of those forces would have likely been pulled!.
In short, MacArthur as chief of command against anyone we'd face would have been bad news for us!. If MacArthur had remained in command, our forces would have been ineptly led, intelligence inconsistent with beliefs would be ignored and we'd probably continually underestimate the Chinese!.
2!. I don't think we'd have been able to use nuclear weapons against China!. Several reasons why:
--look at all the condemnation we still get over using the atomic bombs in Japan!. Starting a war against China would have been a even worse in terms of that!. We'd have had almost no support world-wide for that action!.
--having read Halberstamm's book on Korea, I recall that the US had been given the impression that if we did something like this (act against China) than Russia would use the opportunity to move into another area, probably Berlin!. Not so much to support China but just in recognition that we had limited forces!. And by fighting a war in China we would not have had the forces to defend Europe or meet any other treaty obligations!.
3!. So assuming that the war with China would have been conventional, I think we'd have gotten a first-rate ************!. That's exactly what happened with limited Chinese resources in the dead of winter with them having no artillery, poor logistics and being on the offensive!. Go the mainland and their supply line gets as short as it can (while our supply line is long), they have access to all of their artillery and armor (which would still be greater than ours because we'd lack the ability to transport armor quickly!. They'd know the land, we wouldn't!. They'd rally up in defense against the "running dog capitalist invaders!."
That MacArthur advocated invading mainland China shows just how far gone he was at that point, how little touch he had with reality!.Www@QuestionHome@Com