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Old Soldiers Never Die: America After MacArthur In which an old soldier refuses to fade away and it doesn't end well.
Then-General MacArthur oversees the final push that would end the Korean War in early December of 1950.
Douglas MacArthur is one of the most fascinating, and most controversial, presidents in American history. Carried into office by a reputation that many argue was unearned, he has gone down in history as a warning, a cautionary tale of what happens when you put someone on a pedestal and ignore the signs that he doesn't deserve it. To understand many of the events of the 1950s and their ramifications for decades to come, it is necessary to understand the man himself, both his personality and how he rose and fell. --From the introduction of America Shaped By MacArthur, by David Kambalch
On the tail end of the Korean War, a major concern was that China was going to intervene and create a larger war in Asia. President Truman expressed this concern as a criticism of General MacArthur, who he always personally disliked for his rash plans. MacArthur assured the president many times that China would not want to get involved, and that they could win the war relatively easily by making this push to wipe out the last of the communist resistance.
For all of the controversy surrounding MacArthur today, most historians agree that he was perfectly right in his assessment of Chinese foreign policy at the time. China was still recovering from both a large civil war and the Second World War, and did not want to risk a war with the United States as well. Given that they had the protection of the Soviet Union, and repeated UN assurances that the advance would stop at the Yalu River, they decided that further threat to themselves was unlikely. They were not complacent by any means, of course--they were sure to be very clear that any attempt to move further than the Yalu would be met with a retaliation with the full might of the Chinese army behind it, and they were a constant source of worry for the Coalition forces. However, the Chinese ultimately did not intervene.
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On Christmas Eve of 1950, Kim Il-Sung was confirmed dead, shot twice in the head and three times in the stomach, and the war was declared over. The Korean Peninsula was once again united under one nation, and the United States had shown the world that it was ready to defend nations against the threat of communism, wherever in the world they were.
--From The Korean War: A Primer, by Professor James Mason
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Hey, there! This is my first timeline, based on an idea I've wanted to play with for a while as a writer and a fan of alternate history. I hope my explanation for my PoD--the Chinese not intervening in the Korean War--didn't seem too strained. I admit it's a tad unlikely, and I tried my best to make it seem plausible, a practice I will be keeping up for the rest of the timeline. Feel free to discuss things, bring up criticisms and point out any major historical inaccuracies. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy the timeline!