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Today In History...Truman Relieves MacArthur Of Duty 4/11/51 · Gil I Am

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Well, we are back, Jim and Amanda here at the
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: MacArthur memorial, and it's time for some question answered about
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: MacArthur's relief by President Truman. So we will just get
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: right into the questions. So, Jim, question number one, what
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: effect did relieving MacArthur of duty have on Truman's political career?
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Do you think it played a role in his brief
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: nineteen fifty two re election campaign.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean he doesn't, does he?
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: He sort of? I think he. I mean there's a
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: primary challenger, and I think he loses, like the New
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Hampshire primary to someone else, but now he's out quickly.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: It was detrimental to about them. I think, you know,
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: the whole flare up and whatnot. But yeah, I didn't
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: realized that he had tried to do that.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: May being wrong on that. I think he did briefly,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: but I don't think he's in very long right. But
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  Speaker 1: I think he also has like an approval rating of
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: twenty nine, so it hurts him, but I think it's
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: also been My impression is that firing MacArthur certainly didn't help.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: I think it splits up a lot of moderate Democrats
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: and southern Democrats from supporting him, okay, But I think
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: more than that, it's kind of the stalemate in Korea.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: People are tired of war. But we've won World War
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: two and we've won it, well, yeah, and then this
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: war goes into stalemate, and I think people are just like,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: what is going on?
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: When does Ike get into it?
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Fifty three?
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  Speaker 2: Because he wins the election. But I'm wondering, like, you know,
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: once I declares, I mean, I think that's at the
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: convention that they figured that out, that that he'll get
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: the bone right. But I wonder, you know, because once
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: Ike declares, I think the writing's on the wall, right,
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: you know that the Truman's probably like, you know, you
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: got every g I from World War two is good
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: about you know. So I mean that's that's probably got.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: I don't know when the timeframe is, but it seems
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  Speaker 2: like that would probably weigh on Truman more than the
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: MacArthur thing.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: And then it makes you think back of when you know,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: MacArthur's telling him, look, it's not going to be me
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: running against you, It's going to be Ike.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: But no, I don't think that. I think it was
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: probably a confluence of a number of events. It's a
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: perfect storm for him and the end. So but I
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: think MacArthur's firing is just one factor in all of that. Yeah, yeah,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: but I have to read up more on on that timeline.
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  Speaker 1: All right. Second question, what was the relationship between Truman
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: and MacArthur, Like in later years? What positive things did
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Truman say about MacArthur.
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  Speaker 2: I don't think he ever said anything positive about him
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: later on. I mean, they get in the big fight
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: in fifty four that goes into to Life magazine, and
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: then Truman, you know, says in sixty that he wanted
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: to MacArthur wanted to use nuclear weapons, and MacArthur calls
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: him on that one. And then even after MacArthur's gone,
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: you know, he keeps going back to it. And I think,
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: like there's one of those books that talks about you know,
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  Speaker 2: his advisors are just like, which just let it go already? Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: you know, I mean he does send that telegram to
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: MacArthur on his death bet really but which is nice. Yeah,
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: But I mean I don't I think that they he
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: couldn't get over it as much as MacArthur was able
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: to get over it. I think MacArthur blamed other people
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: more than Truman.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: I think he just thought Truman had some guts to
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: do it.
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  Speaker 2: And he said that later.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, but I think Truman is asked at one point,
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  Speaker 1: you know, was MacArthur the right person for this job?
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  Speaker 1: And he makes it very clear, you know, he was talented,
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: he was the right you know, I chose the right
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  Speaker 1: person in nineteen fifty for the Korean War.
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  Speaker 2: I mean there's talk that Leafs Fadruw, who's the guy
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  Speaker 2: who runs the spair drib engineering. He'd been MacArthur's engineer,
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  Speaker 2: and he was from Missouri, and he knew Truman and
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: Larry Bunker, who was MacArthur's aid. They tried to get
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: some kind of meeting with them later on, like a
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: Reproachmont type thing, and never came to fruition. Neither of
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: them were going to do.
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  Speaker 1: That, So they weren't. They weren't close and admiring each
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  Speaker 1: other from afar. There was still some hard feelings.
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  Speaker 2: But yeah, yeah, all right.
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  Speaker 1: Next question, when did the myth of MacArthur requesting to
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: use nuclear weapons against China first appear? That?
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  Speaker 2: I'm not sure. I wonder, you know, because I can't
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: remember if Revere and Slessinger are the first ones that
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: come out with the Big Book, The Gentleman, the President,
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: you know about the the conference. But you know, even
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: even if MacArthur you know, the talk and whatnot, you know,
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: would that have still been classified to even talk about that,
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: you know? So I'm not real sure. I mean, we know,
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  Speaker 2: of course because of the you know, after he dies,
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: there's all the you know, the talk of him using
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: nuclear weapons, but they had I think that that a
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: lot of people were talking about it at the time.
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  Speaker 2: I just I don't know, you know, because I mean,
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: we have all the newspapers, but it doesn't you know,
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: there's not really any kind of stories in there about that,
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  Speaker 2: And I think it's really you know, after he dies
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  Speaker 2: that people you know, see that, you know where he said,
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: you know, I would have dropped, you know, thirty fifty.
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  Speaker 1: Kim thinking back years later, saying maybe we should have
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  Speaker 1: done this what ifs?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, those are interviews with Jim Lucas and Bob Considan, right,
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  Speaker 2: I mean.
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  Speaker 1: But Truman mentions it in his interview with that Chicago
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  Speaker 1: TV station. Though. This is one of the reasons.
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  Speaker 2: I find that's probably that's probably the first you know
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: time that but then he were tracked. Yeah, because MacArthur says,
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: show me where I ever said that, and then Truman says, well,
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: I just thought he wanted to do that.
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  Speaker 1: Next question, what was Truman's plan to end the Korean
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: War when MacArthur communicated with China in March of nineteen
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: fifty one, Well.
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  Speaker 2: I think he was wanting to get the Chinese to
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: the table, you know, to start talking and pretty much
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: go back to a status quote Antebellum. And when MacArthur
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: sabotages that, he says later in that VFW speech he
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: gives in Miami after he comes home. I think it's
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: like in the summer of nineteen fifty one, and he
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: said that in that speech that he sabotaged it because
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: they were going to offer the Chinese a table at
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: the United Nations or a seat at the United Nations,
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: and you know, that was like rewarding them for an
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: undeclared war, okay, like and he would always call them
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: a rogue nation, you know, And so that's why he
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: does it. You know, wats Truman's plan. I think he
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: just wants to end it as as soon as possible.
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: Everybody was, you know, at that point, we got to
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: get out of here. Whereas Mal's just going to wait
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: him out, you know, until Stalin tells him.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: To stop it by armistice or end it ended.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: By armistice. Yeah, yeah, coming to a you know, we're
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: gonna have a truce or or whatnot, you know. And
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: that's what, you know, got them going because MacArthur kept
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: having plans to win it right, you know.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: Next question, is there any credibility to the story of
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: MacArthur talking to foreign ambassadors in Tokyo about how he
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: would convince Truman to bomb China.
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: Well, MacArthur denies it, you know, and we talked about
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  Speaker 2: in the in the the broadcast that we did about
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: the Spanish and the Portuguese you know, and uh and
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  Speaker 2: what they're saying back and MacArthur said, you know, this
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: is that's like I said, he said, this is so
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  Speaker 2: beyond anything that's real, which it is. You know, A
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: great deal of that was just you know, not true.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: You know what they were saying in those in those
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: messages that were going back and forth, you know, and
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: I've looked at it to see if MacArthur met the
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: Spanish ambassador I think it was Ojeedo or something like
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: that at that time, and it didn't jibe you know,
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  Speaker 2: with it at that point. But you know, I mean,
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  Speaker 2: I don't we know what we know because of what
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: we have on paper, you know what I mean? So
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  Speaker 2: I mean to say, you know, did he meet those
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: people at some other point?
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: I don't. I don't know, you know, Okay, next question,
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: and I may mispronounce this. Tell us the story of
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: the USS John A Bowl. Did I say that?
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: Right? Well, that's a story that's come out recently and well,
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: I guess in the past couple of years and these
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: it's a story of a navy ship. This guy's done
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: all this work. He sent it to us. Actually, I
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: just you know, I haven't cataloged been gone through it
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  Speaker 2: all yet. But it's the the story of this shift
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: that supposedly MacArthur sent in to try and uh get
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: the Chinese to attack the shift, you know, the foremost
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: a straits kind of But you know, I does does
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  Speaker 2: MacArthur have the capability or the command structure to tell
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: certain ships where to go? I think that that's the Navy,
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: you know that does that. You know, But like I said,
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: I haven't I haven't read all this guy's thesis and
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: everything yet. But he did send it to us and
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: so you know, eventually it will go through it, you know.
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: But that that's about all I know.