Truman’s Firing of General Douglas MacArthur during the Korean War
http://www.socialstudies.org/sites/default/files/publications/se/6407/640706.html
However, after China’s attack, MacArthur began to challenge openly the administration’s authority over the waging of the war. He exceeded the authority vested in him by Truman by giving orders without clearing them with Washington. He ordered the Air Force to bomb the Chinese border and to “drive forward with all speed and with full utilization” of all forces—actions not authorized by the President. MacArthur explained in communiqués to Washington that he intended to secure all of North Korea, arguing that to do less would be a “psychologica#148; disaster for the troops.
At the heart of MacArthur’s strategy was the idea that total victory in North Korea was the only acceptable response to China’s invasion. Truman’s more limited objective of preserving ROK independence would not suffice. MacArthur’s statements were an explicit rebuke to the concept of limited war.