In 1951, Chinese hordes crossed the Yalu River in Korea to aid the North Koreans in their battle with the South Koreans. Gemeral of the Army Douglas MacArthur's forces were isolated and barely escaped. Then MacArthur wanted to take the fighting into China. It would have taken one or two years to supply our troops for this for this hazardous venture, so President Truman removed him. General Matthew B. Ridgway was appointed as his successor.

As you often hear in the TV show, "M*A*S*H", MacArthur was known to many of his troops as "Dugout Doug", because he rarely exposed himself to danger. Ridgway, on the other hand, went fearlessly about, encouraging his troops, he always had a hand grenade attachedto one shoulder strap on his battle jacket, and a first aid kit on the other. "Some people thought I wore the grenades as a gesture of showmanship," he said years later. "This was not correct. They were purely utilitarian. Many a time in Europe and Korea, men in tight spots blasted their way out with hand grenades.". This grenade became a symbol to the troops of Ridgway's courage and leadership.

In 1952, Dwight Eisenhower was elected President of the United States. Ridway succeeded him as Supreme Commander of Allied Forces (NATO) in Europe.

In 1953 Ridgway was appointed Army Chief of Staff by President Eisenhower, under whom he had served in WWII. But, in bitter frustration, Ridgway retired in 1955 after finding himself in almost constant disagreement with Eisenhower, the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

His objections were many. But the critical one for us is that Eisenhower had started to intervene in Vietnam. Ridgway warned that we would become bogged down in years of war in the same way that MacArthur would have involved us by going into China.

When Ridgway died, in 1993 at age 98, Ridgway's opposition to involvement in Vietnam was one of the main comments in the Washington Post obituary. Ridgway's warnings could have saved America from lasting "wounds", but he was not heeded.