The Charlotte News

Tuesday, October 3, 1950

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the Far East Air Force attacked heavy traffic columns moving southward in North Korea from Communist China's Manchurian border, destroying 56 trucks and five other vehicles, most of the trucks being in the vicinity of Pyongyang. The northernmost point of attack was 30 miles south of the Manchurian border. Meanwhile, the South Koreans pressed nearly 50 miles northward into North Korea, on a drive intending to proceed to the Manchurian border at the Yalu River, a destination which they estimated they would reach within a month or two.

Tom Lambert reported that American Marines had captured Uijongbu, twelve miles north of Seoul.

The Korea Military Advisory Group was concerned that enemy troops might be going into the hills to form a flanking attack. The Group also expressed concern that only 50 to 75 North Korean prisoners were being taken each day by the South Korean forces.

Hal Boyle reports from North Korea that the forward elements of the South Korean Army had advanced nearly 50 miles beyond the 38th parallel as the force was nearly unopposed, and that the main body of it had pushed into Kansong by midday, 35 miles north of the parallel. The enemy was retreating so fast that the South Koreans were having trouble keeping up with them. These troops had moved 275 miles along roads since they had begun their push from the south 15 days earlier, averaging more than 18 miles per day, mostly on foot. A South Korean colonel told Mr. Boyle that the morale of the men was very high and that only a few casualties each day had been sustained, but that he was concerned that the front commanders might move them too far too fast.

According to Lt. General George Stratemeyer, commander of the Far East Air Forces, allied land-based planes had destroyed or damaged 1,050 Russian-made tanks and over 5,000 trucks, 330 locomotives and 874 rail cars thus far in the war. Eighteen major North Korean targets had been neutralized. He told the press conference that at no time was there consideration given to use of the atom bomb. The Air Force had suffered 175 casualties, including 52 killed, and lost 139 aircraft. He also said that Air Force attacks on Manchurian villages north of Korea had been accidental.

At the U.N., Australia called for occupation of all of Korea by the U.N. forces, but India again expressed grave doubts of the wisdom of such a move, opposing the eight-nation resolution for unification and rebuilding of Korea under U.N. auspices. The Australian representative argued that without the crossing and occupation into North Korea, the three months of fighting would have been in vain.

Senator Styles Bridges of New Hampshire accused the State Department of a "great sell-out" and giving away everything won in Korea, opening the back door for entry by Communist China into the U.N. He contended that the first move was the Security Council inviting the Communist Chinese to present their charges of U.S. aggression in Formosa. The U.S. had voted against it, as had Nationalist China, which argued that its vote constituted a veto. The U.S., however, took the position that the vote was not subject to veto. Senator Bridges saw it as selling out the American effort in Korea by acquiescing to the proposed Russian settlement that seating of Communist China would avoid further bloodshed. Senator Bridges called for a complete housecleaning at the State Department, starting with Secretary Acheson.

In Pittsburgh, a local judge, Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor and former member of the Nuremberg tribunal, released documents which he claimed established without question that the Communist Party in America was a war machine with its primary purpose being the overthrow of the government. The documents had been seized in an arrest raid August 31 at the Pittsburgh headquarters of the party. The judge sent the originals to HUAC.

Thomas Reedy reports that Congressman Thurmond Chatham of North Carolina had slipped into the Soviet sector of East Berlin without being spotted during a 50-mile jeep ride, visiting a new air base and an infantry tank compound during the journey. He was subject to arrest and even being shot as a spy for doing so, but was escorted by a Russian officer he had befriended during World War II, whom he had recognized in a West Berlin nightclub. The officer had said to checkpoint guards that Mr. Chatham was a friend from one of the East European satellites. Along the way, Mr. Chatham observed a new type of tank, lower in profile than anything produced during the war, about three feet high, immune thereby to ordinary fire.

A small but severe Atlantic hurricane, with 100 mph winds, was moving toward Cape Hatteras but was expected to turn seaward before striking land, with its center remaining about 490 miles east-southeast of the North Carolina coast. A squall, with winds of 45 to 55 mph, was moving westward in the Gulf of Mexico toward the Texas coast, expected to bring bad weather by the afternoon.

On the editorial page, "Accessory after the Fact" finds that most Americans would be dismayed about the failure of the U.N. yet to authorize crossing of the 38th parallel, in advance of the crossing of the line by South Korean troops on Sunday.