Operation Ripper, or the Fourth Battle of Seoul, was a United Nations military campaign meant to eliminate as many enemies as possible and recapture Seoul from the hands of the communist armies of China and Northern Korea. The plan was conceived by General Matthew Ridgway of the US Eighth Army. The main objective of the operation was to push the Chinese and Korean troops back to the 38th Parallel, the place where the war originally began in 1950. In a press conference, General Ridgway said that