The primary objective of Operation Killer was to annihilate enemy forces below the Arizona line. However, the enemy had begun a general withdrawal, offering only scant resistance in the area and immediately on the end of this Operation Ridgway initiated Operation Ripper, which was basically to advance and secure positions suitable for staging a general assault to recapture Seoul and again reach the 38th Parallel.

Ridgway's staff appears to have been incompetent, if not actually craven. Apparently they were the same gentlemen mainly responsible for the Eighth Army flight when the CCF first struck in full force, with no attempt to significantly delay them by shifting defensive positions in depth. Now, when Ridgway realized the CCF were overextended and weakened and that Eighth Army was developing in skill and confidence to the point where he could and should launch a general offensive, his staff recommended a voluntary and complete surrender of the offensive. Instead of attacking, his staff recommended withdrawal to the old Pusan Perimeter. When Ridgway ordered the counterattack instead, they sneered at him behind his back, calling him "Wrong Way Ridgway."

Fortunately for many reasons, unlike his staff Ridgway was really a soldier and a man, and a true General of Infantry.