Douglas MacArthur

Douglas MacArthur is presented through two linked moments in the Korean War: an extreme proposal for containing the conflict and his subsequent removal from command. In the book’s account, those developments carry consequences far beyond the military theater, briefly feeding—and then frustrating—the war-widening hopes of fascists in Buenos Aires and Juan Perón.

War and the Cobalt Proposal

At the end of 1950, as tensions mounted in Korea, President Truman promised to use America’s full arsenal against the North Korean offensive in the South. MacArthur, then commanding in the Far East, wanted to construct a belt of radioactive cobalt between the Yellow Sea and the Sea of Japan to prevent Chinese and Soviet forces from entering the combat zone. The proposal is presented as part of a moment when the conflict seemed capable of expanding into a much larger war.

Relief from Command and a Reversal of Expectations

In the book’s parallel account of Buenos Aires, fascists greet the prospect of a Third World War with euphoria, while Juan Perón monitors telexes amid hopes for imperial expansion. MacArthur’s relief from his Far Eastern command changes that outlook: the front stabilizes, and the anticipated escalation is postponed. Perón’s anger at the reversal accompanies a shift in attention toward securing re-election, as his regime tightens censorship, intensifies propaganda, and suppresses dissent.

Narrative Significance

MacArthur’s role is brief but structurally important. His proposed barrier gives the distant Korean conflict a concrete, alarming scale; his dismissal then supplies the reversal that punctures the Buenos Aires circle’s expectation of imminent global war. The contrast links military developments abroad to the ambitions and political calculations of Perón’s regime without making MacArthur a participant in Argentine politics.