Riot police stand guard before General MacArthur's statue (China Daily)
Posted on 10/17/2005 9:18:45 AM PDT by UnklGene
Mauling MacArthur: Time to bring the Old Soldier home?
Oct 17, 2005 by Peter Brookes
This time, South Korea's anti-American crowd has gone too far.
Uncle Sam-bashing is, unfortunately, quite popular these days among South Korea's left, teachers and youth - burning the Stars and Stripes and massive anti-U.S. street protests are all too common.
But now South Korean radicals - many of them de facto North Korean pawns - are threatening to tear down the 15-foot tall statue of U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur at Inchon, the site of the intrepid landing that changed the course of the bloody Korean War.
With U.S.-South Korean relations already on the skids from disagreements over North Korea's nuclear program to the future of U.S. troop basing, it's a propitious time to bring our Old Soldier home and place him where he belongs - among other American heroes on the Mall in the nation's capital.
For the last six months, activists have gathered around MacArthur's statue above Inchon harbor for anti-American/anti-alliance hate-fests, including violent attempts to topple the monument. The latest rally was on Sept. 11, a date plainly chosen to sting Americans.
Just four days before the 55th anniversary of the Sept. 15, 1950 landing, 4,000 anti-U.S. activists, armed with bamboo poles and metal pipes, led assaults on the statue in Inchon's Freedom Park, calling MacArthur "a war criminal who massacred numerous [Korean] civilians."
Pro-American Koreans have spoken up, too. Indeed, 10,000 of them, including South Korean Marine vets, headed to Inchon on the 15th to guard the statue on the anniversary - at which point the protestors wimped out, pulling a no-show.
How quickly the Korean anti-American crowd forgets the facts of "The Forgotten War" ...
Without the genius of MacArthur's Inchon landing, the U.S.-South Korean forces then pinned down outside the southern city of Pusan would've certainly been pushed into the sea, ceding the entire Korean peninsula to Kim Il Sung's Soviet-backed communists.
Without Gen. MacArthur's wartime leadership and the service of nearly 2 million U.S. troops - and the death of 37,000 Americans - the Republic of Korea, now one of the world's most vibrant democracies and largest economies (11th largest), wouldn't exist today.
Actually, MacArthur liberated Korea twice - the first time, at the end of World War II, from a 35-year Japanese occupation and, then, from North Korean, Chinese and Soviet communist aggression during the Korean War.
It wasn't just Americans and Korean vets that the protestors offended. The U.K. ambassador to South Korea said that any attack on the MacArthur statue denigrates soldiers from the 20 nations who fought and died under MacArthur's U.N. command so that South Korea would remain free.
Instead of unprecedented peace and prosperity, 48 million South Koreans might instead be enslaved today in Kim Jong Il's police state. Famine is a daily reality in North Korea; over 200,000 live in political prison camps. It would be worthwhile for the protestors to remember that.
Yet last month's assault on MacArthur's statue won't be the last. At some point, the radicals may actually be able to pull down the monument, offending Korean vets and millions of Americans who have selflessly served - or serve - in South Korea to protect freedom a long way from home and family.
MacArthur was far from perfect, but he's a genuine American hero: highly-decorated WWI vet, WWII Medal of Honor recipient, postwar leader of occupied Japan and, arguably, America's greatest solider. He deserves better than to have his name tarnished and monument assaulted.
MacArthur isn't buried in Arlington National Cemetery, as so many American heroes are, but in Norfolk, Va., alongside his second wife in a small museum dedicated to his memory. It's time to bring a MacArthur monument to Washington, D.C.
It's upsetting, if understandable, that (some) Koreans don't want MacArthur's statue standing at Inchon - and it's their country, after all. So let's bring him home where he'll be appreciated, placing the statue of the Old Soldier at an appropriate place: the Korean War Veterans Memorial on the Mall in the nation's capital.
Riot police stand guard before General MacArthur's statue (China Daily)
Mac and the other 30,000 should come home and let the ROK deal with that wack job in Pyongyang.
OK with me and all the troops there too.
I have no idea why we wouldn't abandon these ingrates.
I wonder what they'll think of America when North Korea takes over, and they're eating tree bark like their northern neighbors?
I will join the DU crowd on this and demand we bring them home now. Bring them home from S Korea that is. Let the fish heads fend for themselves.
The elderly population loves americans for what they did. It's the student protesters that are anti-american to the core. Our own students are indoctrinated with BS anti-american values. not much different imho.
MacArthur was right about Korea/China. Truman was afraid of the Russians, and too enamored of the UN. That led to a difference in the way we fight and how we think of wars. It was not good then and is not now.
It's time South Korean stood on it's on. I agree, we need our soldiers elsewhere. Tell South Korea, "We are leaving and taking our stuff with us, don't call us, get a clue".
Being ungrateful when you have had it handed to you for so long is expected, and having someone say to you, "no more" should be expected also.
"The elderly population loves americans for what they did. It's the student protesters that are anti-american to the core. Our own students are indoctrinated with BS anti-american values. not much different imho."
Then when we leave them to be ruled by that nutcase in North Korea, they will learn a bitter lesson that we should heed. Be careful what you teach your children, one day they will set the direction of your country. (And you may be around to see what happens).
The pompous, arrogant SOB was Truman.
Truman was not pompous nor arrogant he was President and MacArthur refused to obey orders. MacArthur was a great soldier but he was too big for his britches and it got him fired. Whether he was right or not doesnt enter into the equation. The President is Commander in Chief and soldiers take orders. Macarthur's statue should be brought home , but not to the Mall . It should go to West Point. After all didnt Macarthur once say his thoughts were of the Corps. The Corps. and the Corps.?
dipper The world would be a far better place if Macarthur and Curtis LeMay were unleashed. SAC kept the Soviets at bay until they fell. Chicken Scat indeed! What will your personal legacy be?
God bless them.
MacArthur at Inchon: 1950
As I understand it, it was more MacArthur advocating through public statements a different policy than Truman wanted. I agree, it's definitely insubordination if nothing else.
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.