What if Douglas MacArthur had gone through w/the invasion of China during the Korean War?
I don’t think it would have drawn the USSR into the war. At least not initially. Despite both being communist, China and the USSR never quite got along. They even had nuclear missiles pointed at each other all through the cold war. It’s hard to say what effect a direct invasion of China would have had. China is big and has a lot of people they could throw back at us. On the other hand, I don’t know how well their military had been restored after the wooping they took from the Japanese in WW2. Maybe somebody else here could give us more guidance on that. If the US made major inroads into Chinese territory, then I agree that th USSR would have come to their aid. One possibility is that an invasion of China may have resulted in a stronger bargaining position for the US/South Korea in truce negotiations with North Korea. On the other hand, it could have resulted in China throwing even more men and material behind North Korea. It’s really hard to say.
