When Lieutenant General Ridgway left Tokyo to assume command of the Eighth Army on 26 December 1950, he asked MacArthur in parting, “General, if I get over there and find the situation warrants it, do I have your permission to attack?” MacArthur’s aged face cracked wide in a grin. “Do whatever you think best, Matt. The Eighth Army is yours.” These were, as Ridgway said later, the sort of orders to put heart in a soldier. And Ridgway’s own first task was to put heart in the Eighth Army.
