Quote:
Originally posted by Buff@Jun 7 2004, 10:43 PM
He could have beaten them. And we had nukes and they didn't.
|
Uhhh ... at what cost could he have beaten them? How many American lives would it have cost?
300,000 of them kicked his happy ass all the way down the Korean peninsula. There were a lot more waiting at home. Korea seriously weakened our defenses in Europe, and an assult on China would have probably brought us into conflict with the Soviets. They DID have nukes, and if they'd seen us going at China would have felt forced to get involved, fearing that they would have been next. The consequences for Western Europe would have been devestating, and predictable. The possibility of a nuclear attack on U.S. soil - remember, we were far more vulnerable to bombers back then - woud have to be considered.
And as much as I hate to remind you that public opinion matters in a democracy ... there was little stomach in the U.S. for that kind of war.
He was the Commander in Chief of the forces in Japan that were totally unprepared for anything more rigorous than a full-dress parade when war broke out. He disobeyed orders by pushing too close to the border, and he either had an intelligence staff that was totally inept, or he falsified intelligence reports he was sending back to Washington about the size and the presence of the Chicoms he was encountering.
I wouldn't have let the S.O.B. run a Boy Scout hike ... much less engage in a nuclear war with China.