Delta Force
Banned
James Forrestal was a leading anti-communist and the first Secretary of Defense of the United States. During the 1948 election he thought that President Truman was sure to lose, and met with representatives of the Dewey campaign to talk about staying on after what he was thought would be a landslide victory for him. However, the meeting was leaked to the press, and Dewey of course went on to lose the election to Truman. At the same time Forrestal was facing severe hounding by members of the press. In 1949 he was forced to resign by President Truman, and then suffered a nervous breakdown that led to his hospitalization and his death by falling out of a 16th story window at Walter Reed Naval Medical Center. Forrestal was diagnosed with was a type of adjustment disorder commonly seen in middle aged men who suffer a severe setback and view their entire life as a failure, so it's possible that if the meeting remained secret or Dewey had won he might have continued on as Secretary of Defense.
Historically, a year after Forrestal's resignation the Korean War would break out. In November 1950 Truman transferred nine Mark 4 atomic bombs to the military, and signed but never transmitted an order to use them against DPRK and PRC targets. Civilian control over nuclear weapons wasn't as well established then as it is now, and General MacArthur was pushing for the use of atomic weapons against Korea.
If Forrestal had stayed on for a year or two longer, a paranoid anti-communist with a fragile psychological state would have been second only to the President in control of the United States military - his military - as it suffers defeat after defeat due to poor preparedness that he would have helped carry out. He would be there for the encirclement at Pusan, almost an American Dunkirk, and there for the rush towards the Yalu and the strategic withdrawal of UN forces with millions of PRC soldiers chasing after them. He might also have access to nuclear weapons.
The implications of this are obvious, but I'm wondering what could realistically happen with Forrestal suffering a breakdown during the early Cold War, when the nuclear taboo and civilian control over nuclear weapons hadn't quite been established. Might Forrestal have even been in a position to order or approve a nuclear strike without the President's knowledge?
Historically, a year after Forrestal's resignation the Korean War would break out. In November 1950 Truman transferred nine Mark 4 atomic bombs to the military, and signed but never transmitted an order to use them against DPRK and PRC targets. Civilian control over nuclear weapons wasn't as well established then as it is now, and General MacArthur was pushing for the use of atomic weapons against Korea.
If Forrestal had stayed on for a year or two longer, a paranoid anti-communist with a fragile psychological state would have been second only to the President in control of the United States military - his military - as it suffers defeat after defeat due to poor preparedness that he would have helped carry out. He would be there for the encirclement at Pusan, almost an American Dunkirk, and there for the rush towards the Yalu and the strategic withdrawal of UN forces with millions of PRC soldiers chasing after them. He might also have access to nuclear weapons.
The implications of this are obvious, but I'm wondering what could realistically happen with Forrestal suffering a breakdown during the early Cold War, when the nuclear taboo and civilian control over nuclear weapons hadn't quite been established. Might Forrestal have even been in a position to order or approve a nuclear strike without the President's knowledge?
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