The shift from desiring a “unified democratic Korea” to a free south Korea, demonstrated a drastic change in American foreign policy. While America believed they were winning in Korea, they held onto their hopes for unifying Korea; however, as things started to look more grim, they shifted their ideology to remain victorious even in the face of failure. Being the hero of the Second World War, America was viewed as powerful and a force to be reckoned with, losing a war to such a small country, experiencing turmoil, would ruin America 's reputation. Therefore they needed to find a way they could avoid loss at all costs; however, Truman was unwilling to meet MacArthur 's requests for total warfare in Korea so, instead of contributing further into the war effort, Truman changed his policy to favour the containment of the status quo before the war in Korea. Once America achieved this goal by recapturing Seoul, the capital of South Korea, they began to negotiate an armistice with North Korea, under the guidance of Mao Zedong, allowing the end of the war, without it being viewed as a loss in other 'free ' nations.…