Under the leadership of General Matthew Ridgeway, the Eighth Army had succeeded in pushing the enemy back across the 38th parallel into North Korea. Ridgeway then determined to press the Chinese using a new approach. Not satisfied that his Operation Ripper had inflicted enough damage upon the Chinese to discourage them, his intent was to continue the momentum of the U. N. advance hoping to destroy the enemy rather than to win territory. It was expected that the Chinese would mount an offensive to regain their recent territorial losses with a hopeful eye on Seoul which they had abandoned on 15 March.