23. A Commander Who Snatched Defeat from the Jaws of Victory When he Ignored Warnings of a Looming Threat
As General Douglas MacArthur’s forces drew closer to the Chinese border, concerns grew about Beijing’s reaction if American forces reached China’s borders. Despite mounting evidence that China would directly intervene in the war if his forces approached the Sino-Korean border, MacArthur blithely dismissed all warnings, and insisted that the Chinese would do nothing. MacArthur turned out to be very, very, wrong. Soon after his forces reached the Yalu River, which marked the border with China, the Chinese began to pour across in the hundreds of thousands.
The Chinese arrival in North Korea went undetected, and in November of 1950, they struck. Their sudden eruption surprised MacArthur and caught him completely off guard. Within weeks, the American general’s gains had been lost, and his forces had been forced out of North Korea. MacArthur’s judgment and estimate of Chinese reaction had been proven catastrophically wrong. His forces had been chased back down the Korean Peninsula by the Chinese even faster than they had raced up the Peninsula in pursuit of the North Koreans.
