33. An International Firestorm
Back in Washington, President Truman held Douglas MacArthur responsible. He suspected his troublesome commander in Korea of deliberately attempting to provoke a war with the Soviets. The story became front-page news, but both the Soviet and US governments, each for its own reasons, preferred to deescalate and put the incident behind them.
On October 19th, America’s ambassador to the United Nations admitted the attack, and informed the UN Secretary: “The commander of the Air Force group has been relieved and appropriate steps have been taken with a view toward disciplinary actions against the two pilots concerned“. The pilots were tried before a court-martial, but in a proceeding that was closed to the public, both were found not guilty. The findings were not released by the Air Force, which wanted both the Soviets and Truman to assume that the airmen had been properly punished. However, neither Alton Quanbeck nor Al Diefendorf was permitted to fly any more combat missions.