Why was Macarthur removed from his command in the Korean war?

Answer 1

Douglas MacArthur was relieved of his command in the pacific by president Harry Truman because of his failures in the first two of the three phases of the Korean war, the first in trying to hold the communists at the 38th paralel (the border between North and South Korea), and then in trying to push the communist Chinese forces out of Korea, which he thought he had nearly done when he push them to the China- North Korean border, but in reality, the communists were withdrawing and ammasing their forces on the border, and when the UN troops were spread out thinly across all of Korea, they struck, pushing the UN forces all the way back to the 38th paralel and a little beyond.

Mcarthur also wanted to attack China (as they were sending troops to assist the North Koreans in return for their assistance during the Chinese civil war which took place during World War 2, which the communists won), using Chinese nationalist troops (the democratic Chinese forces left over from the civil war, which they had lost) to augment UN forces in a full out assault on China, after which he wanted to drop 30 to 50 nuclear bombs along the neck of Manchuria (the section of China that borders Korea), the prupose of which would be to turn the China- North Korea border into an impassable, "radioactive no man's land for sixty years".

This plan was not the reason for Mcarthurs' being removed from his command, though it probably pushed Truman to the decision, as a poll back in America had shown that the majority of the population did not favor an all out war with China.

Also MacArthur ran a ship aground I belive and he argued with Truman about bombing china directly and that's when Truman relived his command

He was relieved of his command because he was disregarding his superiors

Answer 2

MacArthur was fired by President Truman, for insubordination. The General had spouted off to the press once too often, having already been severely taken to task by the president for doing so. MacArthur seemed unable to forget that during WWI he had been the youngest general in the AEF and had briefly commanded the 42nd Division, while Truman was a captain commanding an artillery battery. MacArthur was a military professional and a graduate of West Point; Truman was the last president who had not attended college and was a National Guard soldier, a weekend avocation he pursued as part of his career as a politician. Nevertheless, Truman was the president and thus commander in chief of the military, and was entitled to expect respect for the office and obedience from his officers. Specifically, what MacArthur wanted to do that Truman would not allow was to expand the war into China. MacArthur and his staff had completely missed all the warning signs as China had infiltrated 335,000 combat troops into North Korea and then entered the war on behalf of North Korea. China had issued statements that if UN (which were almost entirely US) troops approached within 20 miles of the Yalu River they would enter the war, which MacArthur had ignored, and MacArthur then refused to believe reports from his field commanders that thousands of Chinese troops appeared to be poised to enter the conflict. MacArthur wanted to use nuclear weapons on strikes into southeastern China, while Truman feared that escalating the scope and scale of the war would cause the Soviet Union to enter the fray and bring on World War Three. When Truman would not go along with MacArthur's desires MacArthur began talking about his plans in the press, after Truman had turned them down, in an effort to either create a wave of public opinion in favor of his plan, or to insulate his precious reputation in history if things did not go well in this new war with China he had greatly helped to provoke.

Answer 3

He was fired by President Truman because MacArthur was overriding Truman's war decisions.

Answer 4

MacArthur was removed from his command in the Korean War because he disagreed with President Truman on how the war should be conducted.