Stalemate, Armistice, and Korea's Divergent Postwar Paths

MacArthur publicly advocated a strategy of escalation, including bombing Chinese bases in Manchuria and using Chiang Kai-shek's Taiwanese Nationalist troops to open a second front, and in March 1951 he issued a public statement that undermined peace negotiations the administration was then exploring. Backed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Truman relieved MacArthur of all his commands on April 11, 1951, grounded in the constitutional principle of civilian control over the armed forces, in what historians regard as a paradigmatic case of civil-military tension. General Matthew Ridgway assumed command, recaptured Seoul in March 1951 through tactics of controlled attrition, and the front stabilized near the 38th parallel. The war then entered a prolonged stalemate marked by bloody, limited fighting over hills such as Pork Chop Hill, Old Baldy, and Heartbreak Ridge, extensive trench systems reminiscent of the First World War, and constant aerial combat between MiG-15 and American F-86 Sabre fighters over "MiG Alley."