URL#2에 "반공포로석방"에 대한 나무위키의 한글 포스팅을 올렸으니 참고 하시기 바랍니다. #1 보다 더 자세한 내용이 포함 되어 있습니다.

"북진통일" 또는 "멸공통일"을 외치는 이 대통령의 호전적인 태도는 휴전 협정 당시의 미국 내의 반전 분위기에 도움이 되지 않는 것이어서, 향후 미국은
이 승만 정권을 갈아 치우려는 정책을 세우게 됩니다. 크리스마스 총 공세가 중국군의 개입으로 실패로 돌아간 이후 일사후퇴, 다시 서울 수복 그리고
3.8선 근방에서 티걱 태걱 하며 사상자 만 내는 2년여에 걸친 전쟁은 미국 국민 에게 필요 없는 전쟁으로 인식이 됐고, 미국 정부는 이러한 여론에 부응 하여 조속한 휴전을 하는 수 밖에 없었습니다.

Doc, I have a different view and opinion.
공자, 맹자 says that I am not supposed to be contrary to you and keep my mouth shut for the best interest of me.
But I don't give a damn to those pro-봉건주, pro-ruler philosophers who eventually ruined Chosun under the Lee Dynasty.
Not even the Chinese don't think much of them.

Any president under the situation of Korea in those time could have made the same decisions.
It was simply what all the Korean people wanted then !!
It wasn't any big or smart decision. It was nothing but a common sense that any idiot could have followed.

In your line of thinking or evaluation, even the likes of 김일성, 김정일, and even 김정은 could be  smart and great heroes.
See, while Syngman Rhee got chased out for his corruption and incompetence, those Kims not only still stay in power
but also threatening South Korea with their nuclear weapons. They have done all those even without relying on foreign powers.

Syngman Rhee may look like a hero to you but not to me.
He was nothing but a corrupted, incompetent, and self-protecting president of Korea by being an American puppet,
just like the Kims were Russinan puppets.

Please think about his elimination of 독립군 세력 just to fortify his shaky position.
그 이후 12년간의 통치에 한국을 그냥 미개국으로 깔고 뭉긴 사실. 결국은 부정선거로 Student protest에 쫗겨난 무력한 통치자...
Yes, he was brilliant in keeping his corrupted regime in place until he got chased out.

We should evaluate a president by his contribution to the nation and it's people
and by how he finished his end. Syngman Rhee doesn't get any good points there.

I have no doubt in my mind that he is a stubborn, incompetent, corrupted dictator.

But I think that the release of North Korean P.O.W's a few days before signing armistice agreement was exceptional.

Anti-war mood of the U.S. public made Eisenhouer hurry to sign armistice agreement.

Release of POW threatened to spoil it. It might have cost his presidency as Curchill requested after the incident.

On the contrary, Eisenhauer softened his attitude toward Rhee and asked what he wanted.

Eventually, he agreed to it.

Doc, in my emotional and subjective bias against president Rhee,

I like to believe that he was "a stubborn, incompetent, corrupted dictator" as you said.

But you didn't have to say that far. Now, I feel sorry for him. Maybe, I was too critical of him.

President Eisenhower가 분명히 바보가 아니였고, 인간애가 있던 humanist 이였기에,
분명히 이승만 대통령의 반공포로 석방의 간절한 심정을 이해했으리라 생각합니다.
물론 본국의 야당 정치인들이 그 기회를 포착해서 왈가왈부 떠들었을 것은 당연하겠지요.