ABSTRACT
The elaborate precautions had at least been partly in response to the public concern that the trip would not be worth the risk. Even some of Dwight D. Eisenhower closest advisers suggested the abandonment of such plans. In addition to attempting to persuade Eisenhower of the wisdom of his military objectives, the Korean leader was clearly anxious to convince the American visitor to include in his schedule a large public military review in Seoul. There was also little comfort for Rhee in Eisenhower’s remarks to the reporters. He observed how difficult it would be to end that kind of struggle with a “positive and definite victory without possibly running the grave risk of enlarging the war.” The exchange exacerbated the downward course of Eisenhower’s relations with Truman. Eisenhower would have been very surprised to have received a realistic, moderate solution from MacArthur.
