Three Korean War WIs

What if, rather than remaining in West Germany as a deterrent to the USSR, Creighton Abrams and his 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment were transferred to Korea in September 1950, as South Korea is being nearly overrun? Could Abrams' powerfully aggressive tactics have changed the war's outcome?

What if George Patton had survived his car accident in 1945 (albeit perhaps with a cool eyepatch)? Could he have been placed in charge of the Korean War? Could he have changed its course?

What if Douglas MacArthur was given the go-ahead to overrun the Sino-Korean border in late 1950 by a communist-wary Truman? How far could the Allies have gotten into China?
 
What if Douglas MacArthur was given the go-ahead to overrun the Sino-Korean border in late 1950 by a communist-wary Truman? How far could the Allies have gotten into China?
ASB with Truman in the Oval Office. Truman's #1 priority was to avoid WWIII.
 
What if Douglas MacArthur was given the go-ahead to overrun the Sino-Korean border in late 1950 by a communist-wary Truman? How far could the Allies have gotten into China?

or this one: WI the allies didn't drive all the way to the Chinese border, but stopped at the 40th Parallel, and annexed the south half of NK to SK, leaving NK to wither in the mountainous and farming-poor northern half? China went to war to save all of NK... would they go to war to save part of NK?
 
The 40th parallel would give SthK a border with China, but I like the idea. Perhaps not directly on some lattitude line, but a pull back to some good defensive terrain before the Chinese attack. The DMZ could be there instead of OTLs.
 
Mao wanted to intervene in the Korean War and would never allowed an US dominated Korean peninsula next to China's border. The Chinese would simply have found another reason for sending troops against the US and its allies in the war if they had stopped at they 40th.
 
1) North Korea's initial victories were due to having a good deal of T-34s against enemies without any means to handle them. If the USA sends real armor and a means to actually fight the T-34s, North Korea won't overrun anything, and will be defeated much simpler, without there ever being a Battle of the Pusan Perimeter.

2) Too many butterflies from Patton's survival to say.

3) World War III.
 
The 40th parallel would give SthK a border with China, but I like the idea. Perhaps not directly on some lattitude line, but a pull back to some good defensive terrain before the Chinese attack. The DMZ could be there instead of OTLs.
What about about 20 miles north of Pyongyang city limits?
 
What about about 20 miles north of Pyongyang city limits?

It would've been entirely acceptable to China's purposes of having a buffer zone. One has to remember in 1950 the decision to intervene came to a close vote among China's senior leaders. Mao was only the first among equals in the group.
 
Mao wanted to intervene in the Korean War and would never allowed an US dominated Korean peninsula next to China's border. The Chinese would simply have found another reason for sending troops against the US and its allies in the war if they had stopped at they 40th.

It would've been entirely acceptable to China's purposes of having a buffer zone. One has to remember in 1950 the decision to intervene came to a close vote among China's senior leaders. Mao was only the first among equals in the group.

one of the reasons I mentioned this scenario is that it makes it hard for the Chinese to surprise the Allies as they did in OTL... if the Allies stop on the 40th Parallel and dig in, the Chinese will have a hard time budging them... part of the reason the Chinese did so well initially is that they basically caught the Allies by surprise when they were at the end of long supply lines, and totally unprepared...
 
one of the reasons I mentioned this scenario is that it makes it hard for the Chinese to surprise the Allies as they did in OTL... if the Allies stop on the 40th Parallel and dig in, the Chinese will have a hard time budging them... part of the reason the Chinese did so well initially is that they basically caught the Allies by surprise when they were at the end of long supply lines, and totally unprepared...
or,...
Wiki said:
On 20 August 1950, Premier Zhou Enlai informed the United Nations that "Korea is China's neighbor... The Chinese people cannot but be concerned about a solution of the Korean question". Thus, via neutral-country diplomats, China warned that in safeguarding Chinese national security, they would intervene against the UN Command in Korea.[39]:83 President Truman interpreted the communication as "a bald attempt to blackmail the UN", and dismissed it.[97]
you could have Truman take the Chinese warning seriously.
 
one of the reasons I mentioned this scenario is that it makes it hard for the Chinese to surprise the Allies as they did in OTL... if the Allies stop on the 40th Parallel and dig in, the Chinese will have a hard time budging them... part of the reason the Chinese did so well initially is that they basically caught the Allies by surprise when they were at the end of long supply lines, and totally unprepared...

They did not surprise them. They smashed an ROK division several weeks before showing the Douglas MacArthur of 1950 learned not one damned thing from 1942.
 
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