<P> In stature and seniority, General of the Army Douglas MacArthur was the Army's foremost general . The son of Lieutenant General Arthur MacArthur, Jr., a recipient of the Medal of Honor for action during the American Civil War, he had graduated at the top of his West Point class of 1903, but never attended an advanced service school except for the engineer course in 1908 . He had a distinguished combat record in World War I, and had served as Chief of Staff of the United States Army from 1930 to 1935, working closely with Presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt, despite occasional clashes over the military budget . He would later compare Roosevelt's "extraordinary self - control" with Truman's "violent temper and paroxysms of ungovernable rage". </P> <P> Apart from his World War I - era service in Mexico and Europe, his overseas postings had been in Asia and the Pacific . During World War II, he had become a national hero and had been awarded the Medal of Honor for the unsuccessful defense of the Philippines in the Battle of Bataan . He had commanded the Allied armies in the New Guinea Campaign and Philippines Campaign, fulfilling his famous promise to return to the Philippines . In 1944 and 1948, he had been considered a possible Republican candidate for president . After the war, as the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers (SCAP), he had overseen the Occupation of Japan and played an important part in the post-war political and social transformation of that country . </P> <P> By 1950, the occupation of Japan was winding down, but MacArthur remained in the country as Commander - in - Chief Far East (CINCFE), a post to which he had been appointed by Truman in 1945 . MacArthur had to deal with deep cuts in the defense budget that saw his troop numbers decline from 300,000 in 1947 to 142,000 in 1948 . Despite his protests, further reductions had followed and, by June 1950, there were only 108,000 troops in his Far East Command . Cuts in funds and personnel produced shortages of serviceable equipment . Of the Far East Command's 18,000 jeeps, 10,000 were unserviceable; of its 113,870 21⁄2 - ton 6x6 trucks, only 4,441 were serviceable . On the positive side, the Far East Command initiated a program of reclaiming and refurbishing war materiel from abandoned stocks throughout the Pacific . This had not only recovered a great deal of valuable stores and equipment, it had also generated a useful repair and rebuilding industry in Japan . Meanwhile, the shift away from occupation duties had permitted a greater focus on training for combat . </P> <P> North Korea invaded South Korea on 25 June 1950, starting the Korean War . In response to an urgent request from the Korean Military Advisory Group for more ammunition, MacArthur, on his own initiative, ordered the transport ship MSTS Sgt . George D Keathley, then in harbor in Yokohama, to be loaded with ammunition and to sail for Pusan . President Truman met with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other advisors that day at Blair House and approved the actions already taken by MacArthur and Secretary of State Dean Acheson . At another meeting at Blair House held on the evening of 26 June, amid reports of a rapidly deteriorating situation in South Korea, Truman approved the use of air and naval forces against military targets south of the 38th parallel north . </P>

As a result of world war 2 presidential authority in the united states quizlet