North Korea in the Korean War diseases and other illnesses were a constant threat. By the end of the summer, President Truman and General Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964), the commander in charge of the Asian theater, had decided on a new set of war aims. Now, for the Allies, the Korean War was an offensive one: It was a war to "liberate" the North from the communists. Initially, this new strategy was a success. An amphibious assault at Inchon pushed the North Koreans out of Seoul and back to their side of the 38th parallel. But as American troops crossed the boundary and headed north toward the
Soviet Union in the Korean War the precarious relations between both sides, while also offering possible advantages. As American and UN soldiers were already deployed in the war on the South Korean side, it was virtually assured that Soviet forces could not engage in open and direct hostilities against the South without provoking conflicts with other UN countries. Instead, the Soviet Union was compelled to conceal its participation in the conflict (at least to the extent where Soviet involvement could still be plausibly denied by the Soviet government) so as to minimize the risk of escalating the "Cold War" into a "Hot War" with NATO and