1951: Truman and McArthur

By 1951, President Truman was not very popular at all.  He barely won reelection in 1948 and had to deal with Korea and the post-war economic adjustments. 

Then he had to fire General MacArthur, an extremely popular military leader on this day in 1951:

“In perhaps the most famous civilian-military confrontation in the history of the United States, President Harry S. Truman relieves General Douglas MacArthur of command of the U.S. forces in Korea. The firing of MacArthur set off a brief uproar among the American public, but Truman remained committed to keeping the conflict in Korea a “limited war.”"

In the end, President Truman had no choice and acted correctly.  You can not have any kind of insubordination against the commander in chief.

As always, let me recommend “Truman”, a great biography:

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