NationStates Jolt Archive

Since China's seems to be sighted as America's next punching bag, after the Middle East in a couple decades, I'm curious as to what the other inhabitants of these forums think about Douglas MacArthur, which I shall refer to as: D-Mac.

But, particularly about the Korean War. If Truman had allowed D-Mac to attack into China, because they were getting a little too populous south of the border in North Korea during a particularly unfavorable time, would China be the upcoming economic and regional power it is now? Or would the US be even more disliked throughout the world for essentially starting what could be WWIII? Who would have won, who would have sided with whom, and the fate of the world after?

And, how would this affect the state of Taiwan? If the US could pull it off, would there be a purely democratic China, five decades ago?

Let's assume we don't evoke nuclear holocaust, just to make it more interesting.

My random thought of the day. Discuss!

Discuss!
Well, as far as I know, the North Koreans and Chinese stopped the US re-advance somewhere close to today's border and held it for years.
So to attack China would have required hugely more forces than the UN had there. Then it was unlikely that such an escalation would have support from the UN, which makes it perfectly viable for the USSR to join in on the PRC's side.

If you say that no one has nukes, then that would mean that the USSR would march all over Europe, while preparing a large scale attack on advancing US Forces in Machuria.
I would think it unlikely that the US could win a war that far away from home against those odds, especially remembering that the Japanese didn't manage to keep the Chinese down either, using much more brutal methods.