Korean Job Discussion Forums

[koon_taung_daeng]

what do you think would have happened if Macarthur got his wish and the US bombed the bejesus out of china during the Korean war?

[YoshaMazov]

You mean aside from WWIII and nuclear winter?

[cbclark4]

His (MacArthur's) true wish was to bomb the bridges on the
Chinese side of the boarder with conventional armaments.
That alone would have stopped the red advance cold.
His grudge with the Administration was that the was
not allowed to use "every" weapon in the arsenal.
That and I believe he was vying for a shot at the presidency,
luckily Ike was a little more popular.
Truman was a bit of a wimp.

The Nukes may have needed to be played at a later time though.

Also nuclear winter would not have been the issue
the bombs were not quite what they are today.
The intercontinental strike was still a few years out (1958).
The Russian Nuclear threat was only 1 year old at the time
of the Korean war and China had none. The US had the
more advanced Hydrogen bomb.

http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/timeline/1950/1950.htm

It may have been WWIII however
the superior Nuclear hand was with the US.

I would expect a Harry Turtledove novel may one day address this assumption, probably differently than mine.

http://www.futurefiction.com/harry_turtledove.htm

Maybe a Greater Corea as in a recently seen map
in another thread, who knows?

[RACETRAITOR]

I'm sure Korea would've been wiped out on the counterattack.

[Scotticus]

[cbclark4]

[cbclark4]

Yep once those bridges were out the surge would have stopped.

It was one of the biggest military blunders ever thanks to Truman.

He refused permission to take out the bridges.

Some say it was over his regret/guilt at using the Bomb against Japan.

Taking out the bridges and strafing the stranded troops would have scattered the human wave completely.

[koon_taung_daeng]

thats really interesting about those bridges i never knew that, why does my country always have complete idiot assholes as presidents

[hellofaniceguy]

Look at the history....Chosun Reservoir.....when the U.S. reached it....zillions of Chinese were waiting and that's where it ended. If the U.S. had the military numbers....they would have taken the north. The problem was that the Chinese did not want the U.S. on its door step had they taken the north.....and the U.S. backed down. Too close for comfort.
Even the bomb would not have helped. China is just to big and to many people...the U.S. would have been out numbered 1000 to one.
Even today...China would win against the U.S. which is why past, current and future Presidents won't fight them. All the resourses that the U.S. has would be in China and then the rest of the forces would be spread to thinly elsewhere. Can't risk it. Not to mention that the north would help China against the U.S......as would many other countries.

[wylies99]

MacArthur had the right idea. He wasn't always right, but he was in that case. He had the ba11s to do it, too. We need more men like him- intelligent builders with the ba11s to kick butt when necessary.

[oneofthesarahs]

In 1949, MacArthur wanted to extend a belt of radioactive cobalt along the Chinese/North Korean border to prevent land invasion of Korea for 60-120 years, the active life of cobalt.

It is also 320 times more radioactive than radium, and one 400 tone cobalt H-bomb could wipe out all animal life on earth.

FUN!!!

[Hollywoodaction]

[jvalmer]

If Korea was unified after the Korean War, would Korea be more like the North or South?

I think if Korea were unified after 1954, Korea would have been dirt poor.

[Alias]

[djsmnc]