Posted on 06/23/2010 9:00:38 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Gen. Stanley McChrystal might be fired Wednesday because he made contemptuous remarks about senior US officials to Rolling Stone magazine. If he does lose his job, it will represent a rare – but not unprecedented – dismissal of a wartime military commander by civilian leaders.
The most dramatic such replacement since World War II was probably President Truman’s sacking of Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur. At the time, MacArthur was commander of the United Nations forces defending South Korea in the Korean War. His daring amphibious assault at Inchon helped turn the tide of that conflict, but his public statements criticizing Mr. Truman’s policies became intolerable. At one point, for instance, MacArthur called the administration’s Far East positions “appeasement and defeatism in the Pacific.”
MacArthur even then was a legendary figure, but Truman decided he could not put up with the general’s continued blather. He fired him in April 1951.
“I was ready to kick him into the North China Sea, I was never so put out in my life,” Truman said later.
Here are three other, more-recent examples of military commanders whose words or beliefs resulted in their early retirement:
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
MacArthur was right.
Civilian leadership should walk a day in the shoes of the military commanders they criticize.
RE: MacArthur was right.
I’d like to read a more detailed explanation as to why this is so.
It is really irrelevant whether or not he was correct: prosecution of war is not to be decided in the press. Resign and right a book, but don’t undermine the command.
Don’t forget Billy Mitchell!
Ironically McArthur was the youngest officer on Mitchell’s court martial board and claimed he voted to acquit.
McClellan was nominated by the Democrats to run against Abraham Lincoln in the 1864 U.S. presidential election.
Hmmm... Maybe McChrystal will run against Obama in 2012 if he gets fired, but this time, hopefully, the results will be different from 1864.
There's no claim whatsoever that the General at the center of it all said anything, or was even present when what the reporter says was said.
This could be handled quite readily with an investigation into why Rolling Stone is taking this opportunity to derail the Khandihar Operation.
Bet we could end up putting a bunch of those pukes at Rolling Stone on gurneys.
My impression is that Truman didn’t fire MacArthur for one article. It was repeated. I think Obama could have ignored this and it would have damaged Obama a tiny bit for a brief time, the General could have figured out a “PR” response to it, and we could have had the best leadership possible in the war. Instead, possible chaos after one article in flipping music magazine.
The fact of the matter was that the United States had the only deployable nuclear weapons at the time plus MacArthur never proposed nuking China. He only proposed tactically nuking the crossing on the Yalu River so the ChiComs would be unable to reinforce North Korea. Until the ChiComs intervened, the Allies had pretty much cleaned out the NK Commies as far as Pyongyang.
The point is men on the ground doing all those hard, gritty and dangerous work tend to say nasty things, not only against their enemy, but often against their superiors.
McChrystal should be given a lot of slack and if Obama were a magnanimous, non-vengeful man, he would simply slap the general’s wrist and let him continue to command the war.
vaudine
Generals (Bradley (JCS) and Marshall (SecDef) initially fought to keep Gen. MacArthur, but in the end the politicians (Averill Harriman and Dean Acheson) won the argument with Truman and he was relieved of command.
Evidently, the quotes came from the general’s civilian press aide, in a bar and on the record. My guess is that McChrystal knew about it ahead of time and did the whole thing on purpose because he was so frustrated that Obama was no listening to him. I heard on our local radio station that several more Stryker brigade members were charged yesterday, with killing civilians in Afghanistan. My guess is that the charges against the military are at the root of this controversy, along with the usual complaints about the rules of engagement.
Yah, I think so too. I don’t know if McChristol is good or not in terms of the war. But one article based on subordinates statements should not get this knee jerk reaction from Obama. Obama could have as easily said through his press aide that there are no direct quotes in the article attributed to McChristol and the President is not going to get too upset about the article.
Absolutely correct. I’ve read a number of comments regarding this, and few reflect any understanding of the chain of command. Too many armchair warriors around here - even as the lowliest of lowly midshipmen I knew the drill that this General has obviously forgotten and that some of the folks here never learned. To allow an officer in his command to make a statement to the press mocking the Vice President of the United States of America or questioning civilian leadership? Stunning its incomprehensible stupidity. Fire the General and his entire staff.
“MacArthur was right.”
Yes, he was. But so was Truman.
Forgot one of my heroes, Gen. John Singlaub, then CG of 8th Army, who very publicly disagreed withy the stupidity of his CinC , Mr. Peanut.
MacArthur deserved to be court martialled for his performance in the defense of the Phillipines. He had a substantial PR staff that kept claming credit for him the successes of his able Corps commanders, such as Eichelberger.
Although the landing at Inchon was a bold move, his race to the Yalu was a case of extreemely bad judgement as well as against the wishes of both the administration and the JCS. His (and his staffs) supression and manipulation of intelligence information about the buildup of the Chinese Army north of the Yalu was, in my opinion, criminal misconduct, and also shoould have resulted in his court martial. Truman was at that time simply afraid to combat MacArthur’s exaggerated reputation.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.