Chinese Intervention

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

At 05:01 PM 5/25/02 -0500, Ed Evanhoe wrote:
>
>Very true.  The problem in Korea was General Willoughby had told MacArthur 
>the Chinese were there to cover the North Korean army's withdrawal out of 
>the country and would follow as this took place.  SO, MacArthur went on the 
>public record saying the war was almost over and should be finished before 
>Christmas.  Once this happened, there was no way Willoughby was going to 
>let anything through to MacArthur that would change what Willoughby had 
>told him.  While there were many reasons for the intelligence failure, I 
>have always believed Willoughby was the main reason.

Ed

That IS the story commonly mooted about, but it isn't in accord with the
facts, as Washington most carefully covered their tail after MacArthur was
relieved.  MacArthur had quit paying attention to Willoughby on any
significant point by 1943 and kept him about mainly as part of the cheering
section without using Sir Charles as a real head of intelligence.  

In the autumn of 1950, FEC began sending reports of Chinese forces to
Washington where this directly conflicted with the agency position of the
OSS as adopted by Bedell Smith, the agency's head, and with the State
Department position developed by Dean Acheson.  State, for that matter, had
received a direct warning relayed to them through the Indian Ambassador to
the UN, almost certainly a warning sent by the Chinese themselves, and
ignored this as it was not in agreement with the attitudes of the Truman
Administration.

The Defense Department consistently told FEC that there would be no Chinese
intervention so long as no military forces were actually employed on the
Yalu;  the OSS and State consistently told the Defense Department the same.
 Blame who you want, but MacArthur is almost certainly an innocent patsy on
this one.

Marc

msmall@infi.net  FAX:  +276/343-7315
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