Herblock here depicts General Douglas MacArthur’s attempt to influence U.S. policy in the Korean War and in Asia. The previous September, MacArthur had staged a brilliant amphibious landing at Inchon, behind North Korean lines. Truman, assured by MacArthur that China would not intervene, approved an advance to the Yalu River, the objective being a unified, anti-Communist Korea.

However, within weeks, Chinese troops poured into Korea, pushing American soldiers back to the original dividing line of the thirty-eighth parallel. Truman, worried about a wider war, was now willing to accept a divided Korea. MacArthur publicly dissented, revealing to a member of Congress his plans for a more extensive war, which included the use of atomic bombs on the Chinese border and employing Chinese Nationalist troops commanded by Chiang Kai-shek. Four days after this cartoon appeared, Truman relieved MacArthur of his command.