General Douglas MacArthur, having been recalled from Korea by President Harry Truman, testified before the Senate on May 3, 1951, on his intention to involve China in a full-scale war. When asked if bombing China would start another world war, he deflected the question, saying that it was not in his area of expertise. Herblock uses the metaphor of a swamp to describe the mire in which Americans would find themselves if they went to war against China.