The combined Chinese/North Korean forces try to defeat the UN in South Korea. Ridgeway’s change of strategy meant that the UN forces would hold ground, relinquish it, then counterattack with superior air and artillery support. Napalm became the UN’s favored aerial bombardment weapon, with over 14 million gallons of it used in the Korean War.
The US military’s reliance on artillery and airstrikes during the war causes enormous damage in the populated areas of Korea where it is used. By early March 1951, the UN forces were just south of Seoul, and pushing back. Peng Dehuai, the Chinese Army commander, gives up on “victory”. MacArthur still wants to attack China.
He tells Philippe Daudy, a French journalist, that he would like to drop five atomic weapons on China’s main cities. MacArthur criticizes the US president again for wanting to negotiate with the opposition. Mac gets fired.
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