President Truman's relief of General Douglas MacArthur April. Bradley informed the President of the views of the Joint Chiefs, and Marshall added that he agreed with them. Truman wrote in his diary that "it is of unanimous opinion of all that MacArthur be relieved. All four so advise." Later, before Congress, the Joint Chiefs would insist that they had only "concurred" with the relief, not "recommended" it. On 11 April 1951, President Truman drafted an order to MacArthur, which was issued under Bradley's signature: In a 3 December 1973 article in "Time" magazine, Truman was quoted as saying in the early 1960s: Although Truman and Acheson accused
President Truman's relief of General Douglas MacArthur came at a high price. In his 1998 book "Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam", then-Lieutenant Colonel H. R. McMaster argued that the Joint Chiefs failed in their duty to provide the President, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara or Congress with frank and fearless professional advice. This book was an influential one; the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time, General Hugh Shelton, gave copies to every four-star officer in the military. On the one hand, the relief of MacArthur established a precedent that