llied troops were swiftly with drawn from Pyongyang on December 4, 1950, in order not to be overrun by the well equipped Chinese armies. By Christmas Eve, 105,000 U.S. troops, 91,000 refugees, and 17,500 vehicles had been evacuated from Hungman Harbor back to South Korea.20 The Chinese forces moved swiftly through North Korea, and within two weeks they had crossed the 38th parallel and moved into South Korea. They took Seoul, and then met a strong line of American defense about 25 miles outside the city. The geography of the region is extremely hilly, and was named the "Punchbowl" by the Americans. The U.S. was prepared for the Chinese, and had dug trenches and tunnels, a form of fighting which would become "popular" during Vietnam.21 The fighting for the next two years resembled the trench warfare of World War I. What took place on the ridges of the "Punchbowl" was repeated hundreds of times over the next two years. Famous offensives like Heartbreak Hill, Old Baldy, Pork Chop Hill, and Bloody Ridge took thousands of men on either side. The landscape seemed nightmarish, and was blackened from all the napalm and phosphorous shells dropped. Burnt trees, bodies, and vehicles lay strewn in the muddied ground. The soldiers moral began to plummet; no one wanted to be there.22 Meanwhile in Washington, President Truman had become enraged at how Gen. MacArthur had been handling the war. Truman found MacArthur would not carry out direct orders, and found him to be extremely arrogant. Truman could not see how he and MacArthur could work as a team. Truman wanted to fight a limited war in Korea. MacArthur wanted to take the war beyond Korea and overthrow China’s communist government. MacArthur also wanted to block China’s harbors and possibly use atomic weapons to end the war. Truman feared this would lead to World War III. MacArthur had sent an ill-clothed, unprepared army at the Chinese, and ignored all signs of China even entering the...
