The current collapse of the unipolar world, with the inexorable emergence of a multipolar framework, has enabled a terrifying subplot to run amok – the normalization of the idea of nuclear war.
The latest exhibit comes in the form of a US admiral assuring everyone he’s ready to follow President Trump’s orders to launch a nuclear missile against China.
Forget about the fact that a 21st century nuclear war involving great powers will be The Last War. Our admiral – admirably named Swift – is simply preoccupied by democratic minutiae, as in “every member of the US military has sworn an oath to defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic and to obey the officers and the president of the United States as commander and chief appointed over us.”
So it’s all about loyalty to the President, and civilian control over the military – irrespective of the risk of incinerating untold masses of said civilians, Americans included (as there would be an inevitable Chinese response).
Swift, once again, to the rescue: “This is core to the American democracy and any time you have a military that is moving away from a focus and an allegiance to civilian control, then we really have a significant problem.”
It doesn’t matter that the proverbial spokesman on behalf of the US Pacific Fleet – in this case, Charlie Brown (an apt name?) – swiftly engaged in damage control, deriding the premise of the (nuclear) question as “ridiculous.” Both the question and the answer are in fact quite revealing.
MacArthur’s park is melting in the dark
To shed extra nuances on “civilian control of the military,” a flashback to September 1950 and the Korean War, with some help from Bruce Cumings and John Halliday’s Korea: The Unknown War, may be far from “ridiculous.” Especially now that factions of the War Party in Washington have been pressing the case for nuking not China but North Korea itself.
It’s key to remember that by 1950 President Truman had already issued a “civilian control of the military” order to drop two atomic bombs over Japan in 1945 – a historical first.
Truman had become Vice-President in January 1945. FDR treated him with the utmost disdain. He was clueless about the Manhattan Project. When FDR died he had been Vice-President for only 82 days, and became POTUS knowing absolutely nothing about foreign policy or the new military/nuclear equation.
Truman had five years after bombing Japan to learn all about it, on the job. Now the action was on the Korean front. Even before an amphibious landing in Inchon, led by General MacArthur – the greatest since D-Day in Normandy, in 1944 – Truman had authorized MacArthur to advance beyond the 38th parallel. There’s substantial historical debate that MacArthur was not told exactly what to do in detail – as long as he was winning. Fine for a man who was fond of quoting Montgomery: “Generals are never given adequate directives”.
Still, MacArthur did receive a top secret memorandum from Truman stressing that any operations north of the 38th parallel were authorized only if “there was no entry into North Korea by major Soviet or Chinese Communist forces, no announcements of intended entry, nor a threat to counter our operations militarily”.
And then, MacArthur received an eyes-only message from Pentagon head George Marshall: “We want you to feel unhampered tactically and strategically to proceed north of the 38th parallel.”
MacArthur kept going. He was sure China would not intervene in Korea: “If the Chinese tried to get down to Pyongyang there would be the greatest slaughter.” Well, he was wrong. US forces captured Pyongyang on October 19, 1950. Exactly the same day, no fewer than 250,000 soldiers of the 13th Army Group of the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army crossed the Yalu river and entered Korean territory. US intel was clueless about what military historian S.L.A. Marshall described as “a phantom which cast no shadow”.
The North’s industry and infrastructure was totally destroyed. It’s impossible to understand the actions of the leadership in Pyongyang over these past decades without considering how this human and physical destruction is still very much alive in their minds
MacArthur progressively ran amok, including calling for nukes to be used on North Korea. He had to go. The question was how. The civilians – Dean Acheson, Averell Harriman – were for it. The Generals – Marshall, Bradly – were against it. But they were also worried that “if MacArthur were not relieved, a large segment of our people would charge that civil authorities no longer controlled the military”.
Truman had already made up his mind. MacArthur was replaced by Lt. Gen. Ridgway. But the war folly still raged, hostage to the Sino-Soviet “threat” of “communist world domination”. Over two million North Korean civilians were killed. And what General Curtis LeMay – a real- life Dr. Strangelove – later said about bombing Vietnam “back to the stone age” actually was inflicted by the US on North Korea.
The North’s industry and infrastructure was totally destroyed. It’s impossible to understand the actions of the leadership in Pyongyang over these past decades without considering how this human and physical destruction is still very much alive in their minds.
So what Admiral Swift actually said, in code, is, if a civilian order comes, the US military will start WWIII (or WWIV, if one counts the Cold War), duly applying the Pentagon’s first-strike doctrine. What Swift did not say is that President Trump also has the power to pull a Truman and fire any run-amok, aspiring MacArthur clone.
林台生 How do you know UK will not nuke china….they will give you nuclear black mail for better trade deals like how the chinese did….what goes around will come around
Ken Kwan Please don’t do that man try it on North Korea okay
Buddy Frank I give you an example of steel which is one product they export close to $100BN around the world….they price it so low no one will want to build steel plants overtime no nation will have skill sets to build operate steel plants u got to rely on china…..same thing they will do in other metals like aluminium,refinery,cement etc etc
Buddy Frank The chinese would have given nuclear black mail that is how they would have built monopolies….it is classic imperialism once you trap USA it is easy to trap their allies around the world
Vijay Rag I don’t worry one bit about America, UK at all. They are not that stupid.
Let me know when those rat (and snake) worshippers living south of Chinese border want to nuke China.
Wow, just wow. The author of this article has demonstrated of fundamental misunderstanding of the history of the Korean War and a similar inability to understand basic English. The comment of Roger Dong, below, actually summarizes the true facts. Any American military officer in uniform would give the exact same response – they are required to follow orders of the civilian authorities with exceptions not here relevant. This is no big deal, no big new news, and not at all controversial.
The author’ s reference to General MacArthur turns issue on its head because General MacArthur was fired for not bowing to the supremacy of civilian control over the military. General MacArthur directly lobbied the American public for his views, and more infuriatingly to President Truman, was secretly advising foreign governments of his intention to ignore civilian authorities and go forward with his own view of how the war should be fought in Korea. I am baffled by the author’ s use of General MacArthur as an example to support his view that Admiral Swift is somehow out of control.
I sincerely doubt that China or any other Asian country were surprise, alarmed, or even particularly interested in Admiral Swift’s statements. This is entirely a non-issue. If the author is going to worry about something worry about Trump, who would be the instigator of any nuclear response by the US. And even as dumb as Trump is I would hope that he understands the concept of mutually assured destruction. Finally, it is more likely that a general would find a legal way to stall an order to launch from Trump then rush to obey it.
Wood Wu Why??? Because Americans are fools. They think they can kill all, and laugh about it. North Korea is right. Keep making nukes, ICBMs,… No nation can bully you when you have nukes, like North Korea. When you don’t have nukes, ICBMs,… just look at Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia,… You’ll be destroy, kill,…
Keep up the good work with your nukes, ICBMs,… North Korea. This way, no one, no nation can bully , or invade your country.
Marie B. Aguayo Hoo-ray for you. You should keep this information to yourself. You don’t want others to know about it, do you? Or, are you that stupid???
Vijay Raghavan I think it would be a great idea to test it first on the Indians.
林台生 America,India,UK should follow chinese tricks delete hongkong,tibet,taiwan from official china map just like how they do they should escalate tensions with china
Every American submarine Commander, strategic Air Force bomber, ICBM Launch officer will tell you the same thing. Likewise every Russian or Chinese commander of nuclear submarines or ICBM launch sites. So do not get too excited about this Admiral. Be most concerned about the civilian national leader who must make that decision to incinerate the enemy which has worldwide ramifications. We should be most concerned when you have a leader who is emotional, arrogant and hasa revengeful personality. One who ignores his professional intelligence and counter intelligence staff. Good thing there is no one like that today!
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You can also ask americans it is fair according to me whether their nukes work or not….they can show the proof of concept either on north korea or may be if you like any gobi desert
Nathan Adams His plan is to drive a wedge between americans & japanese….
Mr. Nguyen, we should look at Scott Swift and Michael Collins together. Both represent a popular American trend. As a Chinese, we should ask ourselves why Americas have such a trend.
Whatever but are you sure chinese weapons will work their quality is not so famous…..so you should test your nukes whether it works or not only then people will believe you have nukes
The prediction also says the attack on the dragon will come from the seas
According to major prediction either August 2017 or 2018 there will be nuke war…it can be either UK versus Russia or China versus USA it is bound to happen
“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” – Albert Einstein
200 nukes are enough to totally destroy USA and China has more than that figure.
Trump should dismiss this idiotic admiral or see his country and family go down in flames. Show the world that you are in control and not some old, senile admiral who will die soon anyway.
If this foolish admiral thinks that China will not retalitate if US launches only 1 missile, will US retalitate if China responds only with 1 ICBM? A MIRV ICBM has multiple warheads and there is no way for both sides to know on the radar whether the ICBM has only 1 warhead.