After North Korea invaded South Korean, President Truman ordered Air Force and Navy forces into Korea on June 27, 1945 -- thereby inventing the "bastard " (undeclared) war. (America has not been in a declared war since Aug. 15, 1945.) U. S. Forces, under General Douglas MacArthur landed at Inchon and inflicted great losses on N. Korean forces. UN forces (U. S. and Allies) pursued N. Korean forces to the border of China on Nov. 20. To the great surprise of MacArthur, Chinese forces crossed the border into Korea on Nov. 26, routing UN forces and putting them in jeopardy. After a regathering of forces, Gen. MacArthur advocated attacking Chinese bases in Manchuria, blockading the Chinese coast, and reinforcing the UN command with Nationalist Chinese troops from Taiwan. When denied permission by President Truman to risk war with China, Gen. MacArthur tried to bypass the President by writing Rep. Joseph X, Speaker of the House of Representatives, thinking he could obtain Congressional support for his mission. On Apr. 11, Pres. Truman removed Gen. MacArthur from his command for unauthorized policy statements.

Truman's decision was influenced by an input-output analysis by Wassily Leontief,which had been commissioned to determine U. S. readiness to fight another war. Leontief's analysis predicted that the U. S. would require two years to provide the equipment and supplies to effectively support our forces. But, meanwhile, they would be fighting against Chinese forces who might sometimes be engaged on their own soil and who could live off the land, wherever engaged. When word of this analysis spread among Truman's advisers, those previously supporting MacArthur switched their opinion.

I knew personally the problem involved, since I had lived under "unprepared" conditions in the period before "Pearl Harbor" had propelled America into World War II. I enlisted in the Army Air Corps on Jan. 27, 1941, and went to Texas. I had no uniform for four months after enlisting. We lived in tents, shaved at outdoor watering troughs with cold water before dawn, and lacked basic equipment. We went on guard duty with only wooden clubs as defense. In that first disheartening year of the War, we often saw smoke rising from the Gulf -- from American merchant ships sunk by German submarines. In general, it took America two years to get on war footing. And now, not yet recovered from the costs of World War II, we would be faced with a war with the most populous country in the world!

I read in a technical journal that such an analysis had been made, without mention the Leontief. But my guess was confirmed by my NYU statistics teacher, the late Dr. John Curtis, who had many connections in the Government. Dr. Curtis had been Head of the Computer Department at the Bureau of Standards when its Head, the eminent physicist, Dr. E. U. Condon, was attacked by Sen. Joseph McCarthy as possibly "Pro-Communit". When Dr. Condon resigned (but was immediately hired to head up research for Corning Glass), Dr.Curtis and many others sympathetically resigned also. And Dr.Curtis had connections in the Navy since, with such mathematicians as Dr. Minna Rees, Curtis helped found the Office of Naval Research in 194x. (In 1978, I became mathematician and computer programmer at the Naval Research Laboratory, the research arm of ONR.)

Ok, this was one case wherein a mathematical recommendation was followed. But I have never found any evidence that anything like it was attempted from that time to this. Sure, these things have to be wrapped in secrecy. But at least mention of mathematical usefulness could be allowed in some journal, without details, as this one was. So the failure to follow-up must rank with all the other ignored warnings I've listed.