What if...MacArthur Pursued the Chinese in Korea.

As MacArthur was known to be a bit of an wild card (though not so much as other Generals, such as Patton) let us assume that instead of withdrawing from Korea, he pursues them further into China, and incurs the wrath of not only Mao, but of the Soviet Union. The implications of tactical atomic warfare become apparent, as well as a potential third world war. What do you guys think?
 

nbcman

Donor
The further north that MacArthur 'pursued' the NK remnants would only result in greater losses to the UN forces. Recall that in OTL the PRC army was already in NK preparing to attack when the UN forces were approaching the Yalu river.

But for the sake of argument, if Mac tried to invade Manchuria without either a mandate from the UN or orders from the POTUS, he would have been dismissed. I would assume that no subordinate would follow MacArthur's unlawful orders to invade another country when involved in a 'Police Action' in Korea.

So other than getting Mac removed a few months earlier due to his attempts to start WWIII, there would be no significant change in the war. It may have a large negative impact to US-PRC/USSR relations if MacArthur's psychotic attempt was known by the PRC/USSR.
 
MacArthur didn't pursue the Chinese: it was the other way around. They pursued him all the way back to Seoul.

More realistic: MacArthur actually listened to intelligence warning him of the Chinese forces prepping at the Yalu, leading to a more cautious apprach by UN forces. In that case, most likely the inter-Korean border ends up a bit more to the North.
 

Typo

Banned
As MacArthur was known to be a bit of an wild card (though not so much as other Generals, such as Patton) let us assume that instead of withdrawing from Korea, he pursues them further into China, and incurs the wrath of not only Mao, but of the Soviet Union. The implications of tactical atomic warfare become apparent, as well as a potential third world war. What do you guys think?

America never withdrew from Korea
 
If MacArthur leads his forces across the Yalu, or doesn't withdraw from North Korea, I think his army will be surrounded and cut off from supply and reinforcement. The USA and UN are then faced with losing their main force in Korea, a disaster of the first order.
 
Not likely to happen as the US had control of the sea and thus the UN Forces could withdraw toward the ports and then dig in. There was no way that the Chinese could take them. The Gunfire from the Iowa class battleships could smash any attempt by the chinese.

Russia was quite unwilling to get involved in a shooting war with the US. Supplying weapons -yes, allowing some of its pilots to fly fighters against the UN yes but that was it.
 
Well, cut off from supply and reinforcement pretty much implies cut off from the ports.

More to the point, when did MacArthur ever have a chance of pursuing the Chinese over the Yalu? He got the crap beaten out of him and his army chased most of the way back to Pusan.
 
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