How far was the decision to rollback past the 38th parallel a military and political blunder by the USA?

The first 200 words of this essay...

How far was the decision to rollback past the 38th parallel a military and political blunder by the USA?

In the beginning, the USA planned to contain S.Korea, but when the opportunity arose to capture N.Korea they could not turn it down; as it would be a significant step to stopping communism in Asia. Although, the Chinese had stated that they would help defend N.Korea if any attacks commenced. The USA called this theory "rollback", as they where trying to undo all of the recent communist uprisings in Asia. I will investigate whether or not the decision to rollback over the 38th parallel was a successful political and military decision.

First of all I will look to see whether the decision to rollback was beneficial towards the military. One reason for this was because the USA wanted a foothold in Asia. This was clear, as after China fell to communism in 1949 the USA needed a country in Asia to influence other countries. If the USA had Korea as foothold in Asia they could exert their influence by making capitalism look superior over communism. They could make it look superior by helping to rebuild Korea and by