"The Redacted Testimony that fully explains " Topic

….why General MacArthur was Fired

Far beyond being insubordinate, the military leader seemed to not grasp the consequences of his desired strategy

link

There was precious little for the United States to escalate with. American air power, in particular, was stretched very thin. Hoyt Vandenberg, the Air Force chief of staff, told the committee that Korea was already claiming a large part of America's available air strength. "The Air Force part that is engaged in Korea is roughly 85 percent—80 to 85 percent—of the tactical capacity of the United States," he said. "The strategic portion, which is used tactically, is roughly between one-fourth and one-fifth. The air defense forces are, I would judge, about 20 percent."
Many Americans, and much of the world, imagined the United States had boundless military capacity. MacArthur had suggested as much, regarding air power, when he had told the committee that the U.S. Air Force could take on China without diminishing America's capacity to check the Soviets.
Vandenberg wasn't going to disabuse America's enemies of such notions, but he needed for the senators to hear, behind closed doors, that this was far from the case. "I am sure Admiral Davis will take this off the record," Vandenberg said, referring to the officer overseeing the excisions, who did indeed take his remarks off the record. "The air force of the United States, as I have said, is really a shoestring air force." Vandenberg had used the phrase in open testimony; now he provided details. One small, intrinsically insignificant country—Korea—was absorbing an alarming portion of America's air resources. "These groups that we have over there now doing this tactical job are really about a fourth of our total effort that we could muster today." To escalate against China, even if only from the air, would be reckless in the extreme. "Four times that amount of groups in that area over that vast expanse of China would be a drop in the bucket."

Very interesting.

It's astounding to see rational thought emerge from a Congressional hearing.
For the record, I have always thought MacArthur was vastly overrated. This just reinforces that opinion.
It's also interesting to see how little interest there was in both parties in giving Truman any cover or support.

An interesting read, thanks for sharing.

The idea that Korea occupied 80-85% of the tactical air force is quite interesting.

Really no surprises here. The start of the Korean War was a low point for the American military, at least tactically.

With the USAF ascending to power, the dominant idea at the Pentagon was that war would would never again need to be fought on the ground. It could be won with just strategic bombing. AT the outbreak of the KW the USAF had virtually no ground attack aircraft. Most of the support was done by the Navy, while the AF pulled WWII A/C out of mothballs.

As far as MacArthur goes he was completely out of line and violated the most basic principals of being an American Military officer. He seem to be mad with the idea that the Pacific was his personal domain.