Hear It Now – Edward R. Murrow and CBS Radio – Week of May 18, 1951 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
News for the week ending May 18, 1951 as presented by Edward R. Murrow and CBS Radio News Program Hear It Now. The news this week, like the news for many weeks to come was about the firing of General Douglas MacArthur by President Truman over the issue of MacArthur’s handling of the Korean War and MacArthur’s desire to expand the war into China, risking a likely start of World War 3.
The issue became a hot-button topic all over Capitol Hill, prompting Senate Hearings over the nature of the firing itself and bringing the issue to the American people in general. The end result being a serious division of Americans over just how the Korean War should be handled and whether or not President Truman was right to take matters to the Executive level.
Although the consensus of opinion was that MacArther was pushing for a larger conflict, while downplaying the risk of inciting a massive war in Asia.
President Truman’s main concern was saving as many lives as possible, even if that meant signing a ceasefire along the 38th parallel. General MacArthur did not think a ceasefire was an appropriate solution. The two men clashed. For Truman, the war represented an opportunity to stop the spread of communism into South Korea. For MacArthur, the war was an opportunity to liberate the North from communist control, and aggressive action was required.
So, almost a month after the initial firing, the blow-back and the controversy continued, only now MacArthur was being touted as a possible candidate in the 1952 Presidential elections.
Meanwhile, the Korean War was pressing on, and reports from the front were careful from conveying just how vicious the fighting had become. Even so, the public were getting glimpses that this was a war that wouldn’t be over anytime soon, contrary to MacArthur’s initial claim to Truman. The responsibility now fell into someone else’s lap to sort out.
And while the MacArther controversy continued, that’s part of what went on this week of May 18, 1951 as reported by Edward R. Murrow and Hear It Now.
