Reddit reviews The General vs. the President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War

MacArthur has a pattern of disregarding Presidential orders to do whatever the hell he wants. He did it with the Bonus Army under Hoover, in the Philippines under FDR, and then tried it in Korea with Truman, but Truman finally set the man straight.

In short, He came home after being fired and whined like a god-damned child, completely fabricated the situation in the Korean war to his benefit, lied to the American people, and almost had the Congress agree with him that escalating the war in Korea to involving Communist China was the right decision. He used his reputation as a General since WW1 to try and challenge Truman's authority as the Commander-in-Chief of the US Military, disregarded Truman's authority as the "final word" of the US Military, and tried to get several Generals to walk out on Truman for refusing to escalate to the nuclear option, which likely would have triggered a serious crisis in the Defense Department if he succeeded.

He began contacting friends, congressmen, and media, using his former station as a lightning-rod for political office-seeking. Sen. Taft (R-Ohio) said Truman “must be impeached and convicted. His hasty and vindictive removal of Gen. MacArthur is the culmination of a series of acts which have shown that he is unfit, morally and mentally, for his high office.” Make no mistake; MacArthur knew exactly what he was doing. He was a shrewd politician as much as he was a General, and he had been the bane of FDR and Hoover before Truman. He wanted to escalate the war in China, and he would do anything to do it, even if that meant torpedo'ing his CIC to run for President.

His actions were nothing short of an attempted coup-by-public-opinion.

The principal reason he failed in these endeavors can be found in the post-firing period. He returns to the United States, gives a "blistering" speech before a joint-session of congress (the only time a General was given this privilege in American history), and claimed that the USA could effectively own half of South-East Asia. Congress then called a emergency Senate Hearing with all of the prominent leaders in the Defense Department: Omar Bradley, George Marshall, Hoyt Vandenburg, Joe Collins, Curtis LeMay, and several other important leaders. In that briefing, they tore MacArthur to shreds;

>Joe Collins, the army chief of staff, explained how Communist restraint had prevented an utter American debacle. Referring to the moment MacArthur had initially sought permission to bomb into China, Collins said, “When the first recommendations came in to bomb across the frontier, our troops were separated in Korea. The Tenth Corps was operating from the base at Hungnam, and our other forces were operating from bases at Pusan and Inchon. As soon as the Chinese attack began we were very much concerned about the fact that we would have to get that Tenth Corps out; and had we permitted the bombing north of the Yalu, we were dreadfully afraid that that might be the thing that would release the Russian planes, and additionally, have them give additional assistance to the Chinese, and might well have subjected the Tenth Corps to bombardment and possibly submarine attack during the perilous evacuation from Hungnam. Troops evacuating from a port of that character, in commercial ships, are terribly subject to air and underwater attack; and in my judgment, it would be a much too risky procedure.”

After this kind of testimony, his support in Washington dried up, and with it his power. The Senate hearing is central to understanding what MacArthur did. Unfortunately, there are very few readily available sources for it online. You can read the Smithsonian's article on it, or read H.W Brand's "The General vs. the President", which has almost all of the testimony from Defense Department officials.

Its the 5th grade version because this is a reddit comment and I didn't feel like writing a wall of text. I've read plenty of books on the subject as I find it a fascinating and under-discussed topic.

There were plenty of reasons that led to the actual hostilities, as you have outlined in part above. But the bottom line is that the North invaded the South on June 25, 1950, which began the series of events that brings us to today. What caused the North to take those actions is beside the point, in the end the North was the aggressor. That is black and white.

We seem to be on the same page regarding history, so again I ask, if the North was the aggressor, what is not black and white?

Since we both seem to be interested in the same topic, I'd like to recommend a couple books I have read recently and very much enjoyed, so you can "do some reading":
Conflict: The History Of The Korean War, 1950-1953, by Robert Leckie

The General vs. the President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War, by H. W. Brands

And if you have any recommendations of your own, I'm all ears, I love a good history book.

Edit: links

A really good book about it came out last year.

https://www.amazon.com/General-vs-President-MacArthur-Nuclear/dp/0385540574

Even a few history books wouldn't hurt:

https://www.amazon.com/General-vs-President-MacArthur-Nuclear/dp/0385540574/ref=zg_bs_5029_7