If Truman intentionally lost the Korean war, then why did he decide that we should intervene in the first place? If he was a communist, why didn’t he just let North Korea take over South Korea without a fight?
>If he was a communist, why didn’t he just let North Korea take over South Korea without a fight?
Because a lot of US troops were about to die if the communist overran us and the US system of client states would have collapsed if we hadn’t tried to fight back. Which in turn would have gotten him impeached/overthrown and the communists running the state department arrested and shot. Truman had to at least pretend like he was doing something.
Truman had no interest in destroying North Korea but once Mac had routed them he didn’t have a lot of options. However, he ignored recommendations to bomb the bridges bringing in supplies troops over the North Korean border which ultimately cost us a victory in the war when the Chinese moved a huge army over the border. Note that once MAC was removed from command the US never again tried to win the war. Instead, we fought a war of attrition to a stalemate.
>If Truman intentionally lost the Korean war, then why did he decide that we should intervene in the first place?
Truman approved MacArthur plan to land Inchon despite the joint chiefs of staffs objections that it would never work. Truman already hated MacArthur’s for informing the press when he tried to given Northern Japan to Russia. If you think North Korea /South Korea has been a pain, North vs South Japan would have been much worse. I believe that Truman expected the landings to fail thus giving him the opportunity to give up on holding South Korea and to get rid of MacArthur. It’s the typical liberal ploy: There wasn’t anything I could do about the rioters/crime/commies, my hands are tied!