The MacArthur Analogy

Peter Beinart nails it:

Truman didn't just fire MacArthur because the general treated him with disrespect. He fired him because MacArthur wanted to do whatever it took to liberate the Korean peninsula, including bombing mainland China, whereas Truman came to realize that Korea must be a limited war, fought merely to preserve South Korean independence. In insisting that America's Cold War strategy be the containment of communism, not the rollback of communism, Truman kept the pursuit of...