ABLE:  What is your response to the steadfastness of MacArthur’s insistence on the Inchon landing? How does it change, had the mission gone otherwise?

MacArthur’s insistence on the Inchon landing is an example of one of his greatest qualities, his decisiveness and his ultimate downfall, his stubbornness. Mac’s landing on Inchon was a successful and decisive victory for ROK/US forces immediately following the US retrograde to the Pusan Perimeter. At this point, early in the conflict, it was imperative that a decisive operation was conducted in order to bring about some kind of momentum to carry forward. At the outset, MacArthur had envisioned a landing at Inchon in order to regain control of the capital city, Seoul. Had the landing been unsuccessful it could have possibly resulted in MacArthur’s relief in place as commander and of course, worse, destruction of the US X Corps which had been formed so quickly. Although his idea, the landing at Inchon was not successful due only to MacArthur’s leadership. First, the X Corps was able to be formed extremely quickly with a force of 70,000 Soldiers prepared for the assault. Without the ability of the US Army to quickly mobilize, train, and transport these forces the landing would have been less than decisive. Additionally, the quick and effective reorganization of the Marines at Pusan and abroad led to success. Although these factors were of great help, MacArthur’s decisiveness and strategic thinking led to success as his gamble at Inchon proved to be successful due to some of the reasons that he listed in his arguments that he laid out to his peers. He determined that because the area was so heavily guarded that the North Koreans would not expect an invasion at the beach. Also, the element of surprise was maintained by the United Nations staging a faint to the south at Inchon leading the DPRK to believe that the landing would be further South. All in all, MacArhur’s leadership, the element of surprise, and the ability of the US Military to quickly mobilize forces led to the success at Inchon in September 1950.