Why couldn't United States fight off China when they joined the Korean war?

Originally Answered: Why couldn't America fight off China when they joined the Korean war?

We could have if we had the political will to do so.

Korea is a peninsula with the Yalu River and the Tumen River making up most of the northern border with China. We controlled the sea so the only Chinese option was to cross the Yalu River. The Tumen River is in the extreme north east of the border. The hydroelectric dams on the Yalu River supplied the bulk of the power to Manchuria at the time. There were limited railroad lines into Korea from China plus bridges for truck traffic across the Yalu River. There was one additional rail line from the Soviet Union.

Our rules of engagement stipulated that we could not cross into China in the air or on the ground. We could only attack the bridges on the Korean side of the border and could not attack the dams at all. That is, we could only attack the southern half of the bridges as the border was in the middle of the river.

Now, if we had decided to win the war in Korea, we could have drawn the Chinese down the peninsula, taken out the bridges and dams on the Yalu River, and if necessary on the Tumen River, and interdicted the rail lines into Korea including the one from the Soviet Union. The Chinese logistical problem would have been impossible.

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