How the United States has conducted its military operations since becoming an independent nation has depended largely on overall political and military objectives of every single conflict. The United States' first three hot wars after the end of World War II show the marked difference in U.S. objectives and the operations used to achieve them better than any other modern war in which American troops have participated. Overall, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Persian Gulf War had virtually no similarities, particularly in the way they were fought. These differences lie largely in the technology available at the time of each conflict, as well as the world situation in which they occurred. If any distinct similarity can be found in the types of military operations the United States is engaged in, it is within the scope of the actions taken by each of the initial presidents to determine the scope of the war to be fought. In all three cases, at least in the initial phases, the fighting was deliberately limited, fought with the aim of maintaining the regional balance. In the case of the Korean War, President Truman and many of his advisors sought to engage in limited military operations with the intent of preventing China or the Soviet Union from becoming directly involved in military operations in that theater. Truman sought to focus on the most basic tenet of his Truman Doctrine, containing communism rather than directly engaging in full-scale war against its major powers. This being the case, the initial goal was simply to push the North Korean invaders back across the 38th parallel that officially divided North and South Korea. It was only after the overwhelming success of... middle of paper... that the most significant difference between the Gulf War and the Korean War was that in the Persian Gulf War President George H. W. Bush and (with the assistance of many of his advisors) was able to resist the calls, and impulse, to push operations beyond the parameters originally defined. When presented with the choice of whether or not to overstep the agreed upon goal of liberating Kuwait. It was this decision, to keep the war limited, which Truman failed to carry out, that made military operations in the Gulf War so effective. Even though American forces had broken through the Iraqi Republican Guard, if Bush had succumbed to public and military pressure to remove Saddam Hussein from power, a fate he had earned, the United States would have remained mired in the quagmire in which American forces remained blocked for nearly eight years after removing Saddam Hussein from power in the second Iraq war.