Alternate commanders of UN forces in Korean War
- Thread starter mlp
- Start date
Patton would not have gone to the border between Korea and China as MacArthur did.
Patton would have invaded China.
Matthew B. Ridgeway comes to mind for me to replace MacArthur, and so does Mark W. Clark.
How about a MacArthur that simply decides to negotiate with the Chinese? Is that very implausable?Patton would not have gone to the border between Korea and China as MacArthur did.
Patton would have invaded China.
Matthew B. Ridgeway comes to mind for me to replace MacArthur, and so does Mark W. Clark.
Yeah, no. Patton would have been just as boneheaded plus I don't think had the temperament for coalition work, Montgomery isn't even a possibility for what's going to be an American led UN mission. Aside from the fact that the US never likes having their troops under a foreign overall commander he didn't have the best of reputations with American commanders from the war.
When I created a similar thread a couple of weeks back the two main candidates I came up with were Matthew Ridgway who commanded Eighth Army in Korea and then took over when MacArthur got the boot or Lawton Collins as he seems to have been a decent general and able to get on with people, handy in an international force. As DoomBunny said in the other thread when the war started though Collins was Chief of Staff and Ridgway his deputy so Ridgway may be felt to be more available.
The issue with Patton wasn't that he couldn't work alongside foreign troops, but that he didn't like to do so.
In short, George didn't play well with others. Then again, his previous coalition experiences, he wasn't the one in command. That could change things.
I don't see that happening without specific orders to that effect from President Truman, and even then, it might not work.
In short, George didn't play well with others. Then again, his previous coalition experiences, he wasn't the one in command. That could change things.
I don't see that happening without specific orders to that effect from President Truman, and even then, it might not work.
MacArthur is not constitutionally allowed to negotiate with the Chinese. That is a function of the state department. Mac has no authority to make any deals.
The best thing Mac could have done is simply accept that the possibility of Chinese intervention was real, and that it could be damaging with the right situation, and therefore organized the military advance north of the 38th parallel in a professional way to keep his forces together and prepared in case the Chinese attack.
Properly done, even if the Chinese attacked, Mac should have been able to hold a defensive line north of Pyongyang.
Agreed. Chinese forces in Korea relied largely on numbers and surprise. Denied large-scale surprise, the numbers quickly become far less of an advantage. We might have even managed to achieve Korean unification with a military victory in such a scenario, with the Chinese too badly savaged to resist, and the Soviets not wanting to get still more directly involved.
A guy can have dreams.