"It was Marshall who sent Deane to Moscow to collaborate with Harriman in drafting the terms of the wholly unnecessary bribe paid to Stalin at Yalta. It was Marshall, with Hiss at his elbow and doing the physical drafting of agreements at Yalta, who ignored the contrary advice of his senior, Admiral Leahy, and of MacArtbur and Nimitz in regard to the folly of a major land invasion of Japan; who submitted intelligence reports which suppressed more truthful estimates in order to support his argument, and who finally induced Roosevelt to bring Russia into the Japanese war with a bribe that reinstated Russia in its pre-1904 imperialistic position in Manchuria-an act which, in effect, signed the death warrant of the Republic of China."
"It was Marshall, with Acheson and Vincent eagerly assisting, who created the China policy which, destroying China, robbed us of a great and friendly ally, a buffer against the Soviet imperialism with which we are now at war."
This was a huge blunder in our foreign policy. Unfortunately, no one at that time knew the degree of threat the Soviet communists would have on the world scene. With Yalta it was planned that the Soviets could declare war on Japan as soon as the Germans were defeated. With the defeat of the Germans, the Soviets declared war on Japan on August 8, 1945 and launched a massive military invasion to drive the Japanese out of Korea and Manchuria. Even though Yalta had not set the amount of Soviet control for Korea it was assumed that unless events changed, the Soviets would have all of Korea. Instead, the United States under President Truman proposed that the Soviets could occupy all of Korea above the 38th parallel while a provisional government was established in Seoul. Stalin agreed on the provision. Then in December of 1945, allied ministers met in Moscow and decided that a five year trusteeship would be established to help put together a Korean provisional government towards full independence. The goal for the trusteeship was to bring Korea towards organizing a single unified government with a new constitution for the entire peninsula. This trusteeship was immediately opposed by the Syngman Rhee who was also chosen by the United States as one to head the Korea provisional govenment. Rhee began his nationalist campaign to become Korea's first elected president. He rallied popular support with his strong anti-communist campaign. He won the presidency by a vote of the first Korean parliament in 1948. Synman Rhee's anti-communist politics wanted the Soviets out of Korea. You can imagine how the Soviets might have reacted when their game plan was hit with a huge political blow with Rhee's election. The Soviets wanted their communist party activists to have political representation in the democratic process in all of Korea. Rhee would have no compromise. The Soviets were to get out. Rhee correctly interpreted this as an effort by the Soviet communists to eventually control all of Korea. Unfortunately, Rhee proved to be a corrupt leader who soon ruled with dictatorial powers sending goon squads out to kill anyone who opposed him. It was his inept leadership and, I suspect, Soviet agents at work in the Truman Administration that mishandled the Korean unification process. Indeed, as Nixon called it, it was the "Dean Acheson College for Cowardly Containment of Communism." It was this failure that precipitated the Korean War and thwarted the desire for unification that these people have for so long wanted.