MacArthur's decision to give Ridgway full control of the Eighth Army was critical to Ridgway's success and so was so out of character for MacArthur that it deserves a second look. Having never come across another opinion for this action, I'll offer mine.
To begin with MacArthur was shocked when the Chinese entered the war. He simply had not believed the Chinese would intervene. Jack Chiles, Almond's G-3 (Intelligence) who had been in MacArthur's headquarters at the time observed, "MacArthur did not want the Chinese to enter the war in Korea. Willoughby (MacArthur's G-3) falsified intelligence reports to show this... he should have gone to jail."
When the Chinese did attack, MacArthur lost confidence in his ability to command. He panicked, saw the evacuation of the 8th Army as inevitable, and scrambled to distance himself from the resulting debacle and personal disgrace. A similar event had happened at the outset of World War II when the supremely confident MacArthur froze at the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
As a result he failed to give the necessary orders to safeguard his command and when Japanese attack planes reached Manila six hours after the Hawaii attack, they found US planes parked wing tip to wing tip. While MacArthur was certainly an able commander, he seemed to "freeze" and become unable to function when his plans did not meet the situation.
In Korea he seemed to be maneuvering to place the blame for the Chinese rout on Walker's grave. Then the arrival of Ridgway provided him with an easy means of dumping what was, to him, the inevitable "Dunkirk of Korea," on someone else's lap. Hence, "Eighth Army is yours, Matt."
More Korea
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© Copyright 1994 by David W. Tschanz.
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