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Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient
Gen. Omar Nelson Bradley
Birth: Feb. 12, 1893 Clark, Randolph County, Missouri
Death: Apr. 8, 1981 New York, New York County, New York
GEN. OMAR N. BRADLEY
Awarded by
President Gerald R. Ford
January 10, 1977
Military hero, courageous in battle, and gentle in spirit, friend of the common soldier, General of the Army, first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he embodies the best of the American military tradition with dignity, humanity, and honor.
Photo Caption: The Joint Chiefs of Staff, General of the Army Omar Bradley, (second from right) chairman of the joint Chiefs of Staff and the three service chiefs of staff, seated at the conference table in the pentagon. (from left) General L. Collins, chief of staff, U.S. Army; General H. Vandenberg, chief of staff, U.S. Air Force; Bradley. Admiral W. Fechteler, chief of Naval Operations.
President Truman pins the silver insignia of General of the Army on the shoulder of Omar Bradley, making him the ninth five-star General. Mrs. Bradley looks on. Source: Truman Library.
Bradley's promotion placed him at a rank equal to the Commander in the Far East, General Douglas MacArthur, thus eliminating one aspect of the difficult relationship between the Joint Chiefs of Staff, headed by Bradley, and MacArthur, who commanded all forces in Korea.
Born in Clark, Missouri, Omar Nelson Bradley was the first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1949-1953), active in this capacity during the Korean War. He had fought in Germany during World War II, commanding the Twelfth Army Group. A graduate of West Point in 1915, he went on to be commandant of the Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia, as World War II broke out. Bradley commanded forces in North Africa, contributing to the fall of Tunisia, then led the invasion of Sicily. Later he was transferred to Great Britain, where he aided in plans for the invasion of Normandy. His forces liberated Paris in August 1944. He was given command of the Twelfth Army Group, the largest U.S. Army group ever assembled, and his forces continued to fight in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Germany and Czechoslovakia until V-E Day, May 8, 1945. Shortly before the Korean War's outbreak, Bradley served as administrator of Veteran's Affairs, and chief of staff of the Army for 18 months in 1948-1949. He was chosen as the first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) after President Harry S. Truman's reorganization of the military in 1949. His relationship with the commander-in-chief, Far Eastern Command, Douglas MacArthur, had remained distant (he had not seen MacArthur since his West Point days in 1922), and he had not visited MacArthur in Japan during the occupation, nor had MacArthur come to Washington. Bradley traveled to Japan (January 29-February 10, 1950) with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and appraised MacArthur as having an obsession for self-glorification and a contempt for the judgment of his superiors, in short, a megalomaniac. Bradley oversaw the U.S. strategic plan in the Far East after the fall of China to the Communists in 1949, and which continued after the Korean War erupted. This was a policy of defending Japan and Okinawa, using them as platforms for mounting a strategic air defensive, and as naval bases to control the seas. The Philippine Islands air and naval bases supported this same strategy. Bradley, however, had placed the threat of Communism in Europe ahead of the threat in the Far East. MacArthur would have reversed these priorities. Korea did not feature in this strategy.
Bradley was an architect of the military aspects of the Japanese peace treaty which kept Japan demilitarized and encouraged the role of the U.S. military in defending Japan and Okinawa as our first line of defense in Asia. Bradley and the Joint Chiefs of Staff had consistently postponed signing of the peace treaty with Japan, believing Japan still lay open to Communist infiltration and military attack. He drew the parameters under which the United States might evacuate Japan and saw to the maintenance of the military bases the United States needed to defend its Asian interests, and had these terms grafted to the peace treaty. Bradley had originally planned secretly to rearm the Japanese; MacArthur sought to keep Japan disarmed, and the State Department later agreed.
Prior to the outbreak of the Korean War, the Joint Chiefs of Staff had little strategic interest in Korea, but Bradley disagreed with Secretary of State Dean Acheson's comments, made Jan.uary12, 1950, to the National Press Club in Washington, that Korea was outside the defensive perimeter of the United States. To counterbalance the growing North Korean Army, supplied by the Soviet Union, the Joint Chiefs of Staff had built up the Army of Syngman Rhee, and had done so to a strength of 100,000 men.
However, this force was lacking in tanks, heavy artillery, ammunition, and large-scale unit training. And after the fall of mainland China to the Communists in 1949, the JCS had reappraised their policy on Formosa (Taiwan), desiring to aid and defend the island, but Dean Acheson and the State Department disagreed. Just on the eve of the outbreak of the Korean War, however, Bradley, the JCS, in agreement with MacArthur, determined to ask Truman for aid to Chiang Kai-shek and support for Formosa's defense as an unsinkable aircraft carrier. Convincing the president, Bradley reversed the hands-off policy in regard to Formosa and Chiang Kai-shek. For military purposes, Bradley and the JCS would have also preferred to hold on to Japan longer and delay the peace treaty, encouraged by MacArthur and Acheson; nonetheless, the treaty was signed in 1951. In regard to Indochina, Bradley believed that the Chinese Communists intended to step-up aid to Ho Chi Minh, and advanced what was later called the "domino principle," the concept that if Indochina fell to Soviet-dominated Communism, this would precipitate the fall of the weak Thai and Burmese governments, as they would probably take immediate steps to orient themselves with Communist China and the U.S.S.R. If this occurred, the Communists could advance next to Malaya, Indonesia and India.
On June 25, 1950, when the Korean War broke out, Bradley did not call a meeting of the JCS, believing the South Koreans could handle the situation, and confident that South Korea would not fall to the North Korean invasion unless the “Russians actively participate.” But he did urge the defense of Formosa. Bradley met with Truman that night at Blair House (because the White House was being remodeled). Decisions were made to rush military supplies to the ROK Army (ROKA), evacuate American women and children with U.S. Air Force planes, combat North Korean tanks and planes if necessary, and defend Formosa with the Seventh Fleet. Bradley was authorized to send MacArthur to Korea on a fact-finding mission, increase aid to Indochina, and work with the United Nations to secure a cease-fire or assistance for South Korea from other nations. Bradley called the North Korean invasion an arrogant challenge to all the United Nations stood for, and the situation, in Bradley's eyes, offered an opportunity for the United States to draw the line in response to Communist aggression. Bradley attended a second meeting at Blair House June 26, 1950, after which he authorized an order for air and naval forces to aid South Korea, and additional aid to the Philippines. On June 29, Bradley and the JCS committed American ground troops in the Korean War in a limited manner: as service forces aiding communications and as combat troops to secure the ports and the airbase at Pusan. Air strikes on military installations were authorized north of the 38th Parallel, but were to stay well clear of the frontiers of Manchuria and the Soviet Union. Two Army divisions were then committed to the front lines, on MacArthur's urging. Bradley declined Chiang's offer of 30,000 troops, refusing to permit him to fight on the Asiatic mainland, believing he was needed to defend Formosa. Throughout the course of the war, Bradley gave various White House briefs on the situation and continuously advised the president, seeing Truman daily to brief him on the war. Bradley went to Korea only twice during the war, but made most of the military decisions emanating from Washington. Bradley was aware that Truman disliked and distrusted MacArthur, even though Truman had named MacArthur U.N. commander to defend South Korea. Bradley hand-carried most of the messages from Truman to the Pentagon to be relayed to MacArthur. Bradley was Truman's chief and most trusted military advisor.
MacArthur directed the war from Tokyo, naming General Walton H. Walker as tactical commander to lead the U.N. Forces (and ROKA) July 13, 1950. Bradley approved MacArthur's design for the Inchon landing and sent necessary additional forces and airborne divisions to facilitate the plan, which took the pressure off of the Pusan Perimeter, into which the South Korean and American forces had been pushed by early August 1950. Bradley defended Formosa with the U.S. Seventh Fleet although he, Truman, and Acheson sought no close relationship with Chiang Kai-shek and his corrupt government. It was a delicate balance, not allowing too much aid, for fear that Chiang would try to return to the mainland. On September 22, 1950, Truman made Bradley a five-star general and General of the Army.
Bradley accompanied Truman to Wake Island October 15, 1950, to meet with MacArthur. Premier Chou En-lai had already threatened October 3, that Communist China would assist North Korea if U.N. Forces crossed the 38th Parallel. Communist troops began to cross the Yalu River, as MacArthur's forces moved toward Wonsan and Pyongyang, and by October 26, had claimed major victories near Onjong and Unsan. U.N. forces were in retreat, and Bradley and the JCS were in continuous discussions for 60 days--November and December 1950, a period which Bradley called the most trying of his professional career. Later, U.N. forces regained the offense, and the JCS and the National Security Council (NSC) favored an end to the war through negotiations rather than by military action alone. Bradley had supported Truman in his dismissal of MacArthur and actively monitored the peace talks at Panmunjom and the exchange of POWs, while working for President Dwight D. Eisenhower after his election in 1952. One of the last official acts of Bradley was as a member of the American delegation which attended the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in June 1953. Bradley retired after the Korean War August 5, 1953, and was awarded a fourth Distinguished Service Medal. He lived on for another 28 years.
His recollections appeared in 1951, as "A Soldier's Story" and later in “A General's Life” (1983). After retirement from the Army, Bradley worked for the Bulova Watch Company, initially as head of research and development, and later as chairman of the board, resigning in 1973. In 1965, Bradley's first wife, Mary, died; Bradley later married Kitty Buhler, and together they established the Omar N. Bradley Foundation and the Omar N. Bradley Library at West Point in 1974. Bradley died of a blood clot April 8, 1981, in New York. He had just accepted the Gold Medal Award from the National Institute of Social Sciences.
Air Force One returned Bradley's remains to Washington, D.C., and he was buried with honors at Arlington National Cemetery. Bradley should be credited with balancing the United States' commitment to Korea with its commitment to resist the Soviet challenge in Europe. He was also instrumental in ensuring that the United States did not go to war directly with mainland China. Barbara Peterson
Photo courtesy of Rick Mize at Find A Grave
Sources
Acheson, Dean. Present at the Creation: My Years in the State Department (1969).
Bradley, Omar N. A Soldier's Story (1951).
Bradley, Omar N., and Clay Blair. A General's Life: An Autobiography (1983).
Condit, Kenneth W. The History of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, vol. II. The Test of War 1950-1953 (1988).
Schnabel, James E, and Robert J. Watson. The History of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, vol. III The Korean War (1979).
Reprinted with permission from The Korean War: An Encyclopedia, edited by Stanley Sandler and published by Garland Publishing, Inc.
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Medal History
