President Truman faced a conundrum not before any president since the Civil War. Seeing that the vast majority of people are demanding an end to this war. Although he very much wanted to save the face of the US allies, the rotten war situation in Korea forced him to make the decision of "joint [***]" under MacArthur's command to withdraw from Korea and make every effort to protect his car. At this time, he was more worried about the Soviet Union and China capturing the mainland. For the United States, the strategic position of the United States is far more important than that of the DPRK.

When to withdraw? How to withdraw? Truman had a lot of brains. Secretary of State Acheson, Secretary of Defense George Marshall, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Bradley, and others held discussions and consultations overnight, and finally found the best plan. Finally, with Truman's approval, the Joint Chiefs of Staff sent MacArthur an ambiguous telegram: All available estimates indicated that [***] and the Soviets had taken action and that they were capable of driving the joint [***] out of Korea. Committing a large number of U.S. troops to the zone would jeopardize our obligations in other areas, including our security obligations. It is also unrealistic to expect other UN member states to provide large reinforcements to North Korea. We don't think North Korea is the place to fight a big war. Moreover, we believe that in the face of the growing threat of a new world war, we should not send the existing remaining ground forces to Korea to fight [***]. Until the truth of the attack on the two aircraft carrier fleets is known, it is impossible to send the aircraft carrier fleet to the area again. However, if we do not suffer serious losses, it will be of great significance to our national interests that we can successfully resist an attack in a certain part of Korea and retain a strategic force on the Korean Peninsula. For the time being, it is very important to withdraw troops in an orderly manner and to withdraw the combined [***] forces in North Korea at the appropriate time.

MacArthur was very frustrated and angry, and he looked at the telegram with an indecisive and ambiguous attitude. It seems to indicate that the U.S. political axe has lost its will to win in North Korea. On the other hand, he was not resigned to his own failure. Advocate for large-scale retaliatory action against [***]. He immediately sent a telegram to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, proposing: 1. Blockade China's coast; 2. Use atomic bombs to destroy China's war-fighting industrial capacity and bridges in the Soviet Far East; 3. Let the Kuomintang troops in Taiwan launch a diversionary attack on the mainland.

After receiving MacArthur's reply, Bradley told Truman: "The reason why MacArthur put forward such a proposition regardless of the national interests of the United States was entirely because his fabulous dignity had been damaged, and the Chinese had fooled this consistently correct 'military genius' and knocked him off the altar." In order to restore the face and military reputation he had lost, MacArthur did not hesitate to take advantage of his desire to push us into an all-out war with Red China and the Soviet Union, provoking a third world war and a nuclear holocaust."

The US Joint Chiefs of Staff formally rejected MacArthur's claim for retaliation and again instructed MacArthur: "We must organize the withdrawal of troops in North Korea to South Korea as soon as possible in an orderly manner, and give priority to the safety of your troops and the basic task of defending the country." Once you determine that you must retreat to avoid serious losses in personnel and materiel, withdraw from North Korea to Yuben.

On November 4, Truman, in a telegram to MacArthur, also expressed his ambivalent state of mind, on the one hand, he insisted that he could keep as much of a force in Korea as possible that could preserve South Korea, and on the other hand, he asked him to ensure the security of the Eighth Army for the defense of the capital. Where do we go from here? Truman also had a lot of thoughts in his heart, and he couldn't make up his mind.

Resolving the Korean issue by purely military means inevitably runs the risk of causing a world war. And the United States is not ready, nor does it have the strength to fight a world war, and he no longer has mobile forces to move to Korea. Truman thought of turning to the allies again, but they had clearly seen that the United States had no hope of victory in Korea. Can we send more troops? Don't look for that two-skinned face. At this time, he already felt that the situation in North Korea was "helpless." Forget it, we must not ignore European interests for the sake of South Korea, still less can we cripple the United States for the sake of momentary courage. We must not waste our forces on the Korean Peninsula any longer. Bradley completely agreed with Truman. He famously said, "If we continue to expand the war in Korea, even to China, it will make us fight the wrong war against the wrong enemy in the wrong place, at the wrong time."

Therefore, on the fourth day of the Chinese People's Volunteers' all-front counterattack, that is, on November 5, the United States held a meeting of the National Security Council to review the US Korean war policy, believing that relying solely on military means could no longer solve the Korean issue.

After the meeting, Truman took Secretary of State Acheson to his office and said to him: "You have to find a way, not only to get in touch with the Soviet Union, but also to find a way to get in touch with [***] to find out what they really mean. Find a way to a political solution. ”

Acheson immediately said: "I think it is absolutely necessary and possible to make contact with [***], and on October 23, Premier Zhou Enlai called me to protest against the invasion of our aircraft into South Manchuria, China." In this protest, he sent a relatively mild signal to China's political axe, saying in a telegram: "In the spirit of humanitarianism, the Chinese political axe and people are willing to hold a meeting at an appropriate time and place on the return of the remains of US military personnel and the US political axe." It's just that we didn't have time to deal with it, and there was a war. Mr. President, one of their delegations is coming to the United States in the next few days to attend the UN General Assembly, and we will use this as an excuse to get in touch with each other, and wouldn't it be a good opportunity to hold a meeting? But I have to call Zhou back beforehand, otherwise the delegation will not be authorized to talk to us. "I don't know, what level of delegation is this, and whether it can represent the true consciousness of the [***] high-level." Truman said worriedly. No matter what level it is, it's always [***] the official representative, and it's no problem to be a microphone." Acheson replied.

Truman said, "You can arrange what to do, but it must be done in secret. Also, don't report on the attack on the aircraft carrier this time. Minimize its impact. It is necessary to further strengthen intelligence work on the Soviet Union, especially on weapons. Find out as soon as possible what kind of weapons were used to attack our aircraft carriers this time. ”