July 5, 1961 - General Douglas MacArthur told the Philippine Congress today that the United States' failure to see the Korean war through to victory was "a major disaster for the free world." General MacArthur asserted that the consequences of this Korean war policy were now being felt in Communist China's rise to a military colossus. The former commander of U.N. forces in Korea said that the U.S. could have destroyed China's capability of waging war "for generations to come." General MacArthur was relieved of his command by President Harry S. Truman on April 12, 1951, after a dispute over the strategy for the war in Korea. President Truman said that the policies advocated by the general would involve a grave risk of starting a third world war.
