15. Douglas MacArthur’s Plans to Nuke China
In September of 1950, Douglas MacArthur changed the character of the Korean War with a successful amphibious landing at Inchon. It led to the collapse of North Korea’s invasion of South Korea. MacArthur vigorously – as things turned out, too vigorously – pursued the routed enemy northward up the Korean Peninsula. Despite repeated warnings, MacArthur blithely dismissed mounting evidence that China would directly intervene in the war if his forces approached the Sino-Korean border. He insisted that the Chinese would do nothing.
MacArthur was wrong. Soon after his forces reached the Yalu River marking the border with China, the Chinese began pouring across in the hundreds of thousands, successfully evading detection. They struck in November, 1950, surprising MacArthur and catching him completely off guard. Within weeks, the Chinese had defeated and pushed his demoralized forces out of North Korea and back across the border into South Korea.