The Truman-MacArthur controversy and the Korean War
"Detailing for the first time the story of America's homefront during the Korean War, Truman and Korea fills an important gap in the historical scholarship of the era. Paul Pierpaoli analyzes the political, economic, social, and international ramifications of America's first war of Soviet containment, never losing sight of the larger context of the Cold War. He focuses on how and why the Truman administration undertook a bloody, inconclusive war on the Korean peninsula while permanently placing the nation on a war footing." "Based upon extensive research in the papers and official presidential files of Harry S. Truman, as well as many manuscript collections and records of wartime and government agencies, Truman and Korea offers a new perspective on the Korean War era and its inextricable ties to broader Cold War decision making."--Jacket
xii, 311 pages illustrations 24 cm
412555
Part One: Introduction
Clausewitzian realism and American liberalism
I. Civil-military relations and limited war
Part Two: The Korean War, June to November 1950: the period of North Korean aggression
II. The North Korean attack: communist "liberation" and American "containment"
III. Domestic politics and Formosa: the republican Drang Nach Westen
IV. MacArthur, Formosa, and Inchon: the many-splendored general
V. Crossing the 38th parallel: the point of no return
VI. Wake Island: the eagle's two heads
VII. The "home by Christmas" offensive: prelude to disaster
Part Three: The Korean War, December 1950 to April 1951: the period of Chinese Communist intervention
VIII. The MacArthur-Taft alliance: the great debate
IX. The allies seek peace: Mr. Attlee and Mao Tse-Tito
X. China's condemnation and MacArthur's dismissal: Harry Truman, middleman
Part Four: The MacArthur hearings
XI: MacArthure returns: the eagle reclaimed
XII: The general's prosecution: rebel with a cause
XIII. The administration's defense: the meek shall inherit
XIV. Truman versus MacArthur: Achilles rebound