Korean War WI

[tehShifty]

What if rather than evacuating X Corp and other UN forces at Hungnam, they were reinforced?

How would such an allied pocket in the north change the latter half of the conflict if it would at all?

 

[jaybird]

What are you reinforcing with?

 

[Cook]

X Corps being reinforced and holding Hungnam would probably have been achievable but would have been detrimental; it would have been an isolated pocket containing forces urgently needed further south to stem the Chinese advance into South Korea.

 

[Japhy]

X Corps being reinforced and holding Hungnam would probably have been achievable but would have been detrimental; it would have been an isolated pocket containing forces urgently needed further south to stem the Chinese advance into South Korea.

Indeed its only possible if you can pump replacement troops into the South, meaning realistically that the United States pulls troops out of Europe (Unlikely) or The US and other UN nations agree to MacArthur's wish that the Republic of China be able to bring troops in like Chang had offered. Of course doing that turns a bad geopolitical situation even worse, and who's to say that the Nationalist troops could even be effective little over a year after they got pushed off the mainland?

But lets say it works, would such a move give MacArthur more support in the right circles when he starts butting heads with Truman? Or would he still be bound to face a mandatory retirement?

 

[Cook]

“I fired MacArthur because he wouldn’t respect the authority of the president. I didn’t fire him because he was a dumb son of a bitch, although he was.”

Says it all really.

 

[Japhy]

Yeah, I was just wondering if there's anyway the dumb son-of-a-bitch can keep being one longer. Which is a lost cause anyway.

That said I stand by my statement that the only way to keep a pocket in the North going is either to start weakening the NATO position in Europe or the Can of Worms of a Chinese Civil War 2.0 (Or 3.0?) in Korea. Both of which offer interesting opportunities but are things that Truman would have wanted to avoid.

The most senseable thing to do is still to pull X Corps Out. Even if one's paranoid about being accused of abandoning any territory to the Communists.

 

[Cook]

Yeah, I was just wondering if there's anyway the dumb son-of-a-bitch can keep being one longer. Which is a lost cause anyway.

I’m always searching for was to shorten his career, not lengthen it.