The Korean War is often hailed as an example of a swift, decisive military intervention. After North Korea invaded South Korea, the UN launched a counteroffensive that pushed the Communists out of the South. Once the UN's mission was accomplished, President Harry Truman ordered his forces to stop at the 38th parallel and a ceasefire was negotiated. While some on the right criticized the UN for not continuing its advance into North Korea, many historians argue that Truman's decision prevented Chinese intervention and brought the war to a satisfying conclusion.

But what if Truman had decided to allow his troops to continue north of the 38th parallel? Would China have intervened? If so, would the UN still have won the Korean War?
 
That depends on how much of a Korea there is left. I mean, the Kim family is three generations of dictatorial assholes, but they’re an improvement over a series of smoldering craters.

I mean, what would have pushed the UN forces northward? Douglas MacArthur actually getting his chance to nuke North Korea? That guy who didn’t even listen when the President told him to shut the fuck up about nukes?
 
I think that the Vietnam Conflict would have gone very differently had Truman allowed MacArthur to push past the 38th Parallel to the Yalu. While Truman took a major political beating for not completely destroying North Korea and 'allowing communism to fester in Asia', the North Vietnamese leadership took his actions to believe that America would be unwilling to risk any large military actions so close to the Chinese border. However, they failed to consider the poor historical relations between Vietnam and China, and the latter did very little to interfere with the lightning US ground and air campaign into Northern Vietnam that captured Hanoi and the core NVA leadership.

If they knew that the US was willing to push that close to the Chinese border, I think they would have been far more cautious.
 
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