It is being reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin has a personnel problem.  He’s lost numerous Generals and Colonels in combat, fired at least 150 members of the state security service, and is scrambling to fill empty leadership slots all the way down to company commander in his tables of organization.  While personnel changes are not uncommon in any military, we thought it might be interesting to look at some of the really big ones that have shaken up the US military in history.

It was not uncommon for the top military commanders and presidents to have disagreements and clashes at times. As the leader of a whole nation, it was the president’s responsibility to make major and sometimes difficult decisions that most of the time involved the military, especially in times of conflict. What was harder was if the general was popular at home while taking a different view of foreign or military policy and was against the president’s agenda. In our military that just can’t be allowed to happen.  The military answers to civilian authority.

MacArthur Triggered a War With China

Even before President Harry S. Truman relieved General Douglas MacArthur as commander of the US forces in Korea, problems with the general had already been brewing for months. It all started in the early days of the war in Korea, beginning in June 1950. MacArthur successfully devised a brilliant strategy and approach to prevent South Korea from falling to the invading forces of the North Korean.

The war hero was aggressive in pushing North Korea literally to the border with Communist China and argued for a policy that would reunify the Korean peninsula under South Korean control. Truman was concerned that Communist China was freaking out about UN forces being so close to the Chinese border and that the conflict would turn into a general land war in China as well.