Truman had just fired MacArthur, a popular general. During WWII MacArthur had as a personal PR force of 17 US servicemen who documented his every step and move. The famous "I have returned" wading ashore event was staged. Interestingly enough, thousands of US servicement died before then. It was truly a "We have returned" moment, but MacArthur thought it was him. The image created by his PR people has endured to this day.

The good General had snubbed the President at a meeting called by Truman. MacArthur wouldn't come to Washington to discuss MacArthur's efforts to go around Truman's refusal to use the atomic bomb on China to deny the North Koreans of that haven. And MacArthur pointedly kept the CinC waiting. Truman, a man who didn't take himself seriously, noticed the insult to the office of the President as a part of MacArthur's power play. As far as nuking China, the Chinese response would have been similar to ours if they had nuked Japan to deny that haven to the UN.

Truman fired him, an unpopular move at the time but one which has come to be regarded as necessary.

The next issue was the stalemate in Korea. Popular sentiment in the US was against that and the people were frustrated. What wasn't realized is that the division of Korea was in the best interests of both sides. There was no way China and Russia were going to allow an American satellite on their borders which would have happened had we taken North Korea.

Neither was it an option for the Communists to take South Korea with it's proximity to Japan. So the division of Korea was done the way it was, although the public wasn't aware of that at the time.

Nixon was unpopular because he was crooked, and Bush because he was incompetent and his administration was the most corrupt since Grant. Probably even more so.

Arf