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Besides the British, the two other main influences on Truman's Asia policy are Dean Acheson and George Marshall. Both men, highly successful in other fields, failed on China. The failure rankles. They keep looking back. They will not face the future.
MacArthur, on the other hand, was the West's great success in Asia. Faced with Communism in Asia, he had what many other Western leaders lacked: a will to win. Millions of Japanese, Filipinos and other Asiatics respected him as liberator and guide. In the Night of the Long Knives when MacArthur was fired, the failures cut down the success.
The one note of hope that emerges from the tragedy is that Harry Truman is too patriotic and sensible a man to pursue for long the policy he laid down on April 11. The great danger is that the Reds will take Truman at his word.