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The
President's Private War
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President
Truman and General Douglas MacArthur, Wake Island. Source: Truman
Library.
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The
President's decision to seek United Nations action and to commit
troops in response to North Korea's sudden and massive invasion
of South Korea came with peril, as the poorly-equipped and trained
American forces were rapidly driven to a small corner of southeast
Korea.
Truman's
spirits were lifted by the successful Inchon landing in September,
followed by rapid military successes and General Douglas MacArthur's
reassuring words at Wake Island in October that the war would be
won quickly and that American troops would be "home by Christmas."
Following
the Wake Island Conference, events
in Korea - and in President Truman's personal life - took a dramatic
turn for the worse. The Chinese entry into the war, the sudden death
of his lifelong friend and Press Secretary Charlie Ross, an attack
on his daughter's musical career, an assassination attempt, a massive
emergency defense buildup, and the controversy over the firing of
his military commander in Korea brought Truman to the low point
of his Presidency.
At
high cost, the U.N. forces beat back the Chinese and North Korean
advances, and the war settled into a prolonged stalemate. Truce
talks began, but then drag on month after month. With the President's
approval rating falling, he expressed his frustrations in a series
of private diary entries and letters to family and close friends.
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