omments on Formosa to his own purposes when, in a speech, he stated, "None other than General MacArthur recently informed, with cynical candor, the whole world about the decision of the ruling circles of the United States of America at all costs to turn Taiwan [Formosa] into an American base in the Far East." 
Even so, it is probable that the Formosa incident, had it been the last instance of friction, would have been forgotten, or at least overlooked, by Mr. Truman. But it was to be only the beginning of a series of incidents that progressively weakened President Truman's patience with General MacArthur.
During the first five months of the Korean fighting, General MacArthur did not openly criticize the directives under which he operated in Korea. From time to time he did complain through official channels about shortages of men and equipment. But at the Wake Island Conference, the United Nations commander indicated that he understood the problems Washington faced in supporting him when he told the assembled officials that no commander in the history of war had ever had more complete and adequate support from all the agencies in Washington.  When, in late October, he found the terms of his current directive a little too restrictive, he did not hesitate to ignore it by ordering all his forces north to the border instead of using only ROK forces in that area, as he
 (1) Rad, DEF 89880, DEF to CINCFE, Johnson (Personal) for MacArthur, 26 Aug. 50. (2) Rad, C 61325, CINCFE to DA for Secy. Defense, MacArthur (Personal) for Johnson, 27 Aug. 50. (3) MacArthur, Reminiscences, pp. 385-86 and 389.
 MacArthur Hearings, p. 3480.
 JSSC Rpt. to JCS, p. 45
 MacArthur Hearings, p. 2002.
 MacArthur Hearings, p. 213.
had been instructed. But he did not openly criticize that directive.
During November, as signs that the Chinese were intervening in Korea began to appear, signs of differences between MacArthur and Washington officials also began to develop. MacArthur's order for bombing the Yalu River bridges on 6 November, for instance, aroused consternation in Washington. More than that, the order was not in accordance with the instructions issued him on 29 June, warning him to stay well clear of the USSR and Manchurian borders in conducting his air operations. When three days later the Joint Chiefs of Staff suggested that MacArthur's mission in Korea might have to be changed in view of Chinese intervention, he hotly proclaimed his disagreement  and his mission was not changed. The 11th-hour suggestion by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, prompted by the conviction of other nations participating in the Korean fighting that MacArthur should check his attack along a line short of the Yalu, was likewise roundly condemned by General MacArthur.  Yet at no time in this period did General MacArthur argue his case publicly, although he did deny that he had received any suggestion from "any authoritative source" that he should stop at any line short of the international boundary. 
With the intervention by Chinese Communist armies, however, General MacArthur's attitude toward public disclosures changed abruptly. Smarting from the defeat his forces had suffered, MacArthur spoke out sharply in his own defense, and in published statements in early December charged that the limitations upon his operations were an enormous handicap "without precedent in military history," and intimated that selfish interests in Europe were causing support to be withheld from his forces. 
These statements were widely assessed as a criticism of the United Nations policy of limited war in Korea and as an oblique criticism of the Truman administration in its conduct of the war. They were probably not so intended. General MacArthur pointed out quite rightly that at no time had he asked for authority to retaliate beyond the inviolate northern boundary of Korea. His statements, issued at a time when the administration was trying earnestly to reassure uneasy allies, were nonetheless of great concern to President Truman and his advisers. British fears that MacArthur might involve the wes