Introduction for Students

The Cold War, which lasted from the end of World War II until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, set the framework for global politics for the second half of the 20th century.  It also influenced American domestic politics, the conduct of foreign affairs, and the role of the government in the economy after 1945.   The Cold War was essentially a competition between two very different ways of organizing government, society, and the economy: the American-led western nations’ belief in democracy, individual freedom and a market economy, and the Soviet belief in a totalitarian state and socialism.
 
The United States and the Soviet Union represented starkly different fundamental values. The United States represented democratic political institutions and a generally free market economic system.

The Soviet Union was a totalitarian government with a communist (socialist) economic system.
 
During the years following WWII, Harry Truman was president of the United States.  His administration developed the Truman Doctrine of “containment of communism,” which served as a guiding principle of American foreign policy throughout the Cold War, to keep communism from spreading and to resist communist aggression into other countries.

The U. S. government’s anti-Communist strategy of containment in Asia led to America’s involvement in the Korean and Vietnam Wars. American involvement in the Korean War in the early 1950s reflected the American policy of containment of communism.  In June of 1950, War suddenly erupted in Korea.  President Truman selected  World War II hero General Douglas MacArthur, to lead an American-led coalition of United Nations forces in Korea. MacArthur reversed the dire military situation in the early months of the war with a brilliant amphibious assault behind North Korean lines at the Port of Inchon. But within weeks of this great triumph several strategic miscalculations were made.

MacArthur's approach to the Chinese border triggered the entry of Mao's Communist Chinese, and as 1951 dawned, they faced what he called "an entirely new war." Although the able leadership of General Matthew B. Ridgeway stabilized the military situation near the prewar boundary at the 38th parallel, MacArthur's months of public and private bickering with the Truman administration over limiting the scope of the war or expanding the war through the use of nuclear weapons came to a head. On April 11, 1951, the President relieved General MacArthur of his command, triggering a firestorm of protest over our strategy not only in Korea, but in the Cold War as a whole. As the last great general of World War II to come home, MacArthur received a hero's welcome. Despite his dramatic televised address to a joint session of Congress, however, the issue died quickly.

True to his word, the old soldier "faded away" from the public eye, living quietly in New York until his death in 1964. While it's questionable whether his storied life ever brought him complete satisfaction, one thing is clear: Douglas MacArthur had more than fulfilled his self-imposed destiny of becoming one of history's great men.

Essential question: Was President Truman’s decision to fire General Douglas MacArthur during the Korean War justified?