Americká politika, korejská válka a poučení z Mnichova (2. část)

• Authors: Petr Mareš

Title variants

EN

American policy, the Korean war, and the lessons of Munich (Part 2)

• Languages of publication: CS

Abstracts

CS

a2_Autor podrobně přibližuje tento mimořádný vnitropolitický střet v poválečných amerických dějinách, který se měl stát triumfem MacArthurovy obžaloby, ale postupně se změnil v její debakl, mimo jiné v důsledku přesvědčivých vystoupení ministrů zahraničí a obrany Deana Achesona (1893-1971) a George C. Marshalla (1880-1959). V závěru autor ukazuje, jak se k „poučení z Mnichova“ vraceli další američtí prezidenti, a konstatuje, že se stalo trvajícím politickým odkazem Harryho S. Trumana (1884-1972) a jako takové pevně zakořenilo v americkém politickém diskurzu.

EN

b1_In Part 1 of this article, published in the last issue of Soudobé dějiny (vol. 22, 2015, nos. 1-2, pp. 9-29), the author discusses how the lessons from the mistakes of appeasement, including the signing of the Munich Agreement in autumn 1938, were projected in US foreign policy during the Second World War and at the beginning of the Cold War. In Part 2, based on published and unpublished American sources, he considers the influence of this factor on the US approach taken in the Korean War in the early 1950s. He seeks to demonstrate that the decision of the Truman Administration to substantially intervene in this conflict was a direct consequence of the negative attitude to the policy of appeasing an aggressor. This attitude was also shared by the American public, regardless of party affiliation and political sympathies. Arguments based on the rejection of appeasement, however, soon began to be used by the Republicans as ammunition in the election campaign against the incumbent Democrats and the choice of strategy also became a matter of dispute in the choice of strategy on the Korean battlefield after China entered the war. Whereas the White House wished to avoid an unlimited conflict with China, the Commander-in-Chief of the United Nation Command in Korea, General Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964), was in favour of an uncompromising approach and in fact ceased to obey President Harry S. Truman (1884-1972). After being relieved of his command by Truman, MacArthur became the chief critic of his policies and a hero of Truman’s Republican opponents. In spring 1951, the Republicans organized a special Senate committee hearing on the circumstances of MacArthur’s suspension.

EN

b2_The author looks in detail at this exceptional clash in post-war US domestic politics, which was meant to be triumphantly used against MacArthur, but gradually changed into a debacle in consequence of, among other things, the compelling testimonies of Secretary of State Dean Acheson (1893-1971) and Secretary of Defense George C. Marshall (1880-1959). In his conclusion, the author seeks to demonstrate how other US presidents returned to the ‘lessons of Munich’, and he argues that these lessons became Truman’s lasting political legacy and as such became firmly rooted in American political discourse.

Keywords

CS

dějiny

EN

history

Discipline

• HISTORY: HISTORY

• Publisher: Institute of Contemporary History, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Soudobé dějiny (Contemporary History)
• Year: 2015
• Volume: 22
• Issue: 3-4
• Pages: 259-298
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Petr Mareš

• Soudobé dějiny, redakce, Ústav pro soudobé dějiny AV ČR, v.v.i., Vlašská 9, 118 40 Praha 1, Czech Republic