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The 'Home-By-Christmas' offensive is still celebrated in the United States and in the Republic of Korea as being the last nail in the coffin of the Communist Kim regime and the beginning of the end of the Korean War, with Korea finally being 'officially' reunited under Seoul a year later (even though China sheltered a Korean Communist 'government-in-exile' for years...)
However: the offensive could so easily have failed. Faulty intelligence grossly underestimated the number of Chinese soldiers actually present in Korea, it was only the fact that American troops were better armed and equipped than their Chinese counterparts that let them win through in the end.
With that in mind... What would the world look like if MacArthur's gambit had failed? Would the war in Korea have dragged on longer? Could we see it still divided between North and South (or united under the North ) Could the Chinese intervention have escalated, or could the Soviets have joined in openly?