Re: Muccio-Rhee

[Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net>]

At 10:32 PM 1/30/02 EST, Jhk789@aol.com wrote:
>I am not familiar with above statement. MacA may have 
>supported the withdrawal of US troops from S.Korea 
>for tactical reasons at that time, but he certainly did not mean to 
>abandon his good anti-communist friend Rhee. 
>In fact, it was MacA who helped to bring Rhee to 
>power in S.K. 

Quite to the contrary.  MacArthur had almost no contact with Rhee prior to
the Korean War and repeatedly requested to have Korea removed from his
command area.  In 1948, the State Department proposed that Korea be taken
out of the US "Zone of Interest" in the Pacific, which, henceforth, would
be limited to Japan, Formosa, and the Philippines.  FEC was not queried on
this proposal but any response would have been positive, as FEC just had no
interest in the peninsula and MacArthur, personally, was MOST openly and
strongly opposed to any US military presence on the Asian mainland.  (He
had, in a similar vein, attempted to have the US 15th Infantry removed from
Tientsin and the Fourth Marines from Shanghai in the 1930's, and vehemently
opposed any US military involvement in support of the ROC during the Second
World War.  And MacArthur, as FEC, had worked strenuously to have the
Marine force in North China removed during 1946 and '47.)

When the decision was made, after consultation with the other occupying
Allied Powers (the UK, French, and Dutch), the formal announcement was made
in early 1949 by Dean Acheson, rather to the surprise of the USSR and PRC.
MacArthur was sent to Korea to inaugurate the change;  this was, I believe,
the first occasion on which MacArthur met Rhee.  Following this, the only
US presence in the ROK was through the US State Department and its
subordinates, such as the MAAC.

Sources, you ask?  Check any of the standard MacArthur biographies
(Manchester, Clayton James, or Perrett) or the fourth volume of Pogue's
biography of Marshall, for discussion.  The voluminous correspondence
between DoD and State over this has now been declassified and is available
at Suitland;  much of it is also in the MacArthur Library in Norfolk, VA,
or at the Marshall Library in Lexington, VA.  Ned Almond, then MacArthur's
Chief of Staff, also has more than a bit to contribute to this.  His 'oral
history' debriefing is available on the 'Net;  I forget where his papers
are stored (sadly enough, they are not at VMI) but I can dig this
information out if anyone is interested.

Finally, IF Stone has never been a creditable interpreter of historical
events but was rather a political hatchet-man.  His lack of neutrality was
confirmed by the revelations over the past decade that he was an active,
and paid, Soviet agent from 1930's until his death.

Marc

msmall@roanoke.infi.net  FAX:  +276/343-7315
Cha robh bąs fir gun ghrąs fir!