Long before the Korean War finally came to an end in 1953, it was clear that a military solution to the conflict was virtually impossible. This was mainly because the Americans had overreached themselves by taking the war into the North rather than simply driving the Communists back across the 38th parallel as they’d originally intended.

The Communist Chinese responded to the approach of American troops to their border with North Korea by intervening militarily on the side of its neighbor. Truman feared a full-scale war with China and did everything he could to avoid it. At the same time, General MacArthur, the commander in charge of the Asian theater, undermined Truman’s authority by arguing for an attack on China as part of a concerted struggle against international Communism.

After Truman sacked MacArthur for insubordination, it became possible to try to reach a peaceful conclusion to the conflict. After more than two years of hard negotiation—during which time the war still rumbled on—a treaty to end the Korean War was finally signed in July 1953. Under the terms of the armistice, the 38th parallel was redrawn to give South Korea additional territory. Yet when all was said and done, and after three years of appalling carnage and destruction, the map of the Korean peninsula looked much the same as it had done at the start of the war.