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 both an unreliable and demanding ally and took greater steps to ensure autarky from the USSR in the years following the War. In 1960, China broke from the Soviet Union in an event known today as the Sino-Soviet Split, creating a rift amongst all communist powers which were expected to pick one side of the divide. The North Korean regime, which bordered both countries, successfully navigated the split by playing one power off against the other. It did not firmly align with either power until the Soviet reforms under Mikhail Gorbachev compelled the regime to align with China. This split,