Harry Truman actually said...

The course of action you recommend has my approval.

I can't see any good purpose to be served by that.

I do not. General MacArthur is in the Army, and on active duty, and if he has anything that is of use to the Defense Department, he ought to...

It would have involved us in all-out war in the Far East, and we have been strenuously trying to avoid that all the time.