Truman and MacArthur offers an objective and comprehensive account of the                  very public confrontation between a sitting president and a well-known general over                  the military's role in the conduct of foreign policy. In November 1950, with the                  army of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea mostly destroyed, Chinese military                  forces crossed the Yalu River. They routed the combined United Nations forces and                  pushed them on a long retreat down the Korean peninsula. Hoping to strike a decisive                  blow that would collapse the Chinese communist regime in Beijing, General Douglas                  MacArthur, the commander of the Far East Theater, pressed the administration of                  President Harry S. Truman for authorization to launch an invasion of China across                  the Taiwan straits. Truman refused; MacArthur began to argue his case in the press,                  a challenge to the tradition of civilian control of the military. He moved his                  protest into the partisan political arena by supporting the Republican opposition to                  Truman in Congress. This violated the President's fundamental tenet that war and                  warriors should be kept separate from politicians and electioneering. On April 11,                  1951 he finally removed MacArthur from command.Viewing these                  events through the eyes of the participants, this book explores partisan politics in                  Washington and addresses the issues of the political power of military officers in                  an administration too weak to carry national policy on its own accord. It also                  discusses America's relations with European allies and its position toward Formosa                  (Taiwan), the long-standing root of the dispute between Truman and                  MacArthur.

Truman and MacArthur: Policy, Politics, and the Hunger for Honor and Renown PDF

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