Hear It Now – Edward R. Murrow – April 13, 1951 – CBS Radio – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
An eventful week as far as American history went. General Douglas MacArthur, long regarded as an icon of the Second World War was elevated to Commander-in-Chief of the United Nations Command in Korea. MacArthur wanted to expand the war against China, which had entered the Korean fighting in late 1950. MacArthur complained that the president was tying his hands by forbidding the bombing of China, thereby sacrificing American lives and endangering American freedom.
Truman suffered the complaints for a time, out of respect for MacArthur and wariness of MacArthur’s allies in Congress. But the complaints began to confuse America’s allies and enemies as to what American policy was and who made it. The last thing Truman wanted was a wider war in Asia, which would weaken the American position in Europe. And Europe, not Asia, was where the Cold War would be won or lost, Truman judged.
Finally, on April 11th, MacArthur was notified, and later President Truman addressed the nation on his decision to relieve Gen. MacArthur of his command in the Far East, effective immediately.
Shock was worldwide. In America, support for MacArthur was vocal and his position of bombing, and eventually invading China led many to think it would be an easy victory. And even if Russia wanted to join in to support China, America was in a strong enough position to handle both adversaries, and in doing so, effectively quash the much-feared sweep of Communist influence in South East Asia. Those same supporters felt the real culprits in this controversy were not so much President Truman as much as the State Department, and in particular Secretary Of State Dean Acheson, whom people like Senator Joe McCarthy branded as being “soft on Communism”.
Those in support of Truman felt MacArthur abused his power and was insubordinate in not paying attention to the President’s insistence that the Korean War not be extended to China. That MacArthur had a habit of over-stepping his bounds and not being fully aware of the consequences of his actions. Those consequences were spelled out in Capitol Hill hearings, but not made public until many years later, when it was discovered Truman’s dismissal of MacArthur was based on simple logistics – that America, despite the rhetoric, was in no position to get involved in a long-protracted war, that it’s Armed forces were stretched thin, that it’s equipment was running out quickly and that an involvement including Russia would have a fleet of Soviet submarines to deal with and their potential of blocking supply as well as exit routes.
So what was essentially a dismissal of Gen. MacArthur based on insubordination and unwillingness to accept fact became a driving wedge in American politics – the beginnings of what would become the Great Political Divide In America. One that has gotten worse, not better, over time.
In this one-hour wrap-up to the week’s events, Edward R. Murrow and Hear It Now, spend much of the hour covering the dismissal and the fallout. As many declared, the MacArthur firing had as much weight and urgency as the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. At the time, it was. Here is that broadcast, as it aired on April 13, 1951.
