The Charlotte News

Tuesday, August 8, 1950

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that some 9,000 North Korean troops poured across the Naktong River in two crossings this date and bulged out two miles eastward along a 2,000-yard front; but MacArthur headquarters said that the threat from these two small bridgeheads was "neither increased nor decreased". Field headquarters of the U.S. Eighth Army in Korea said that the bridgeheads, one five miles north of Waegwan and 15 miles northwest of Taegu and the other six miles south of Changnyong, were of "primary concern" at present.

The defenders at the latter bridgehead were ordered to destroy the river-crossers by nightfall on Tuesday, but correspondent O. H. P. King reported that the commanding general said that the task could not be accomplished in that time frame but assured that the North Koreans would be wiped out by Wednesday.

One of eight observed tanks had been ferried across the river at the other bridgehead and seven waiting tanks were under attack by allied planes.

The two-day old Marine and infantry offensive in the extreme southern part of the defended arc had made small and bloody gains in day-long attacks, gaining ten miles, ten or twelve miles east of Chinju.

American F-8 jets struck Seoul and shot up its railyards and one squadron scored a hit on a pontoon bridge across the Han River. B-29's also bombed Seoul and dropped 450 tons of bombs at Pyongyang, while a smaller force hit Wonsan with 80 tons. North Korean flak was reported to be the heaviest and most accurate of the war thus far, especially around Kimpo airfield near Seoul. A total of 550 sorties were run this date by the Far Eastern Air Forces, 419 of which were made by the Fifth Air Force, while the Navy flew 202 sorties in support of ground troops.

General MacArthur sent word to the President via Averell Harriman, ending his three-day visit in Korea and Japan, that the military commanders were confident and urged him not to worry.

One of General MacArthur's intelligence officers estimated that Korean casualties had mounted to 44,500 in the six weeks of fighting thus far.

A North Korean "Seoul City Sue" was heard over the radio issuing propaganda, as "Tokyo Rose" had done during the last war, designed to undermine troop morale. She chided American airmen for "promiscuous bombing" of schools and strafing of farmers. She urged them to return to their "corner of the ice cream stores in the States."

Eight East German police officers, concerned by rumors that they were to be sent to Korea, fled to West Berlin early this date, seeking asylum. The previous month, 167 members of the East German police force had so fled.

In the second installment of a series of ten articles on the state of American defense, Robert S. Bird and Ogden R. Reid of the New York Herald Tribune examine, as an example of weakness in U.S. defense policy, the failure of the Government to determine in advance whether to defend South Korea—as continued here. It was axiomatic that when total war began to outrun the military ability of the country to support it, danger loomed. Such had been the case in the U.S. since the end of World War II, underlying the present scramble to build up the military establishment again to fight in Korea. It had been known for awhile that the forces at General MacArthur's immediate disposal in the Far East were insufficient to defend South Korea against concerted attack from the North, and yet no decision had been made to provide a sufficient force until after the invasion, requiring in the interim General MacArthur to have to commit troops on a piecemeal basis, sacrificing units to buy time until reinforcements could arrive. (They neglect to mention that General MacArthur had advised Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson and Joint Chiefs chairman General Omar Bradley during a visit in Japan just before the invasion that all was well insofar as danger of attack on South Korea, that the real danger was to Formosa from Communist China.)

The National Security Council, consisting of the President, Vice-President, heads of the State and Defense Departments, the chairman of the National Security Resources Board, representatives of the CIA, and the Joint Chiefs, advised the President on the fitment of foreign policy to domestic and military policies. Yet, the NSC had not listed priorities among those nations the country would defend by force if necessary. The President had thus not sent such a list to the Pentagon, which had not therefore been able to pass on to the NSRB the necessary factors for mobilization to meet the demands, preventing the latter from being able to advise the President on same as part of the NSC. The NSC was merely shaping policy in response to developing events rather than engaging in preparation and advance planning for various contingencies such as a Russian or satellite attack on Yugoslavia or Iran.

One group of planners in Washington believed that World War III would last only six months to a year and had put forth contingency plans accordingly, while another found it would endure 10 to 30 years and likewise issued plans for that possibility. Another such debate revolved around protection of U.S. bases. The NSC at least provided a forum for the heads of the various policy-making parts of the Government to exchange ideas and debate differences. But the Council members were much too busy individually with their particular responsibilities to be enough engaged in policy correlation and advice to the President. The President, in consequence, had ordered the Council to nominate members for a permanent senior staff to engage full time in this sort of policy framing and reconciliation.

At present, "calculated risks" were being assessed within a "time phase" as plans for emergencies. These risks were guesses based on assumptions about when and how war might come, in light of the country's commitments abroad. The scarce intelligence to be gathered from Russia, however, was such that it was difficult to know their political and military objectives. So, the calculated risk became the miscalculated risk insofar as plans and policy being out of joint with one another and not sufficiently joined to meet the reality of Soviet planning. The resulting estimate showed that Russia was not ready to engage the U.S. directly in general war. On this basis, the calculated risks and time-phased plans were being made.

The House postponed until at least the following day action on an economic controls bill while the Banking Committee worked on a compromise, whether to impose automatic implementation of wage-price controls when the cost of living index rose five percent over June 15 levels, as previously approved by the House and then withdrawn. The Senate Banking Committee had reached a compromise the previous night, giving the President virtually full discretion to use standby wage-price controls and rationing when necessary, not subject to automatic implementation.

The President had decided to ask Congress for an excess profits tax on corporations. He also had completed a message to Congress urging passage of an anti-sabotage bill, recommending strengthening of security laws. He urged, however, not to be swept away by hysteria, such as the police-state measures favored by extremists.

Carroll Wilson resigned as general manager of the Atomic Energy Commission, saying that he lacked confidence in new chairman Gordon Dean, as the AEC assumed more responsibilities in the management of the atomic program. The President accepted the resignation.

The Agriculture Department forecast the year's cotton crop at 10.3 million 500-lb. bales, compared to 16.1 million bales the previous year, against a ten-year average of 11.6 million bales. The drop was the result of the Government crop control program, with cotton acreage down 31 percent from mid-1949. The crop would be supplemented by a carryover of seven million bales from previous crops.

Based on the announcement, in New Orleans, cotton prices rose $4 to $6.05 per bale with heavy buying.

In Dover, England, Florence Chadwick of San Diego, a professional swimmer, swam 22 miles across the English Channel in record time, 13 hours, 28 minutes, breaking, by an hour and three minutes, the 1926 women's record set by Gertrude Ederle. Ms. Chadwick was the third woman to make the crossing.

Shirley May France, 17, of Somerset, Mass., who had tried the previous year to make the crossing without success, had to quit eight miles from shore after 13 hours and 46 minutes. She was sobbing as she was pulled from the water within sight of the White Cliffs.

Boo-hoo-hoo. Go home and do something constructive for a change. People are dying in Korea to stop World War III and you are crying about not completing the journey across the Channel. Are you out of your mind?

On the editorial page, "A New German Army?" comments on one of the pending questions before the State and Defense Departments, whether West Germany should be rearmed to defend against Soviet aggression through East Germany. It suggests several questions in need of answer: whether there was sufficient German resentment against being made cannon fodder to make recruitment of an army impossible; whether West Germans would contest actively East Germans in an East-West struggle; whether the French would cooperate to create a West German army despite their traditional objection to a strong Germany; whether the well-equipped East German police force would launch an attack at the first sign of rearmament of West Germany; and, most importantly, whether the U.S. would be willing and able to bear the cost of rearmament.

No aid was better than half-measures, as the lesson had been taught in China, where American arms were surrendered by the Nationalist troops to the Communists, often without a fight. Korea had taught that military policy had to be developed long before events required its deployment.

If defense of West Germany was to be made at all, a large war machine there had to be built up forthwith. If not, then a defense line ought be established which was thought defensible, as the small arc around Pusan now being defended in South Korea. A token West German army would be nearly useless, as would a token trickle of tanks and artillery. A French general had estimated that 75 divisions of combat troops would be required to defend Western Europe and conservative estimates placed the required strength at no fewer than 35 divisions. The U.S. would need contribute much of that manpower and equipment to arm such forces. So the ultimate question was whether the country was willing and able to do so.

"The Once-Great Senate" tells of the Senate losing grace with the American people amid the failed attempt to cut the pork from the harbors, rivers, and navigation bill, the approval of a 100-million dollar loan to Spain's Franco contra State Department reasoned advice, and the charges brought forth by Drew Pearson re Senator Owen Brewster's alleged direction of wiretapping, Senate absenteeism, and the strict party division which had resulted from the McCarthy charges against the State Department.

"The Truth about Casualties" urges that the Army either tell the truth about casualties in Korea or dispel the report of Drew Pearson the previous day regarding his claimed observation of a "secret list" of the Surgeon General which showed many more casualties than the Army was admitting, including six times the deaths.

A piece from the Richmond Times-Dispatch, titled "Dog Lovers Stand Firm", tells of a Birmingham, Ala., dog owner being fined $10 for allowing his dog to make excessive noise, creating, in turn, a stir in the city among dog lovers who had taken in response to barking as the complainant walked down the street or calling him on the phone and giving the Bronx cheer. In another case, out of Detroit, a woman went to jail for ten days rather than pay a $50 fine for letting her Bootsie run wild through the neighborhood. In Paris, a man bit a noisome cocker spaniel, for which he was fined $15.

The piece concludes that in the latter case, maybe it was worth the price of peace of mind.

Drew Pearson provides a column of snippets not susceptible to comprehensive summary, tells of there being no change in the ban by the President of use of atomic bombs in Korea but that the Air Force chiefs were nevertheless working out all of the details for future use, to be able to retaliate on 24 hours notice against any first strike by the Soviets. So they were compiling lists of principal bombing targets and atomic bases for launching B-36's to carry the bombs.

Senator Margaret Chase Smith had withdrawn from the Senate wiretapping probe because she did not want to sit in judgment of fellow Maine Senator Owen Brewster, at whose behest the wiretapping allegedly took place.

The fact that Congresswoman Helen Gahagan Douglas's proposed rent control amendment, to reinstate controls in cities where rents had drastically increased, had been defeated without a single Republican vote in support of it showed the continuing power of the real estate lobby.

The fact that General MacArthur had sent a warm letter to U.N. president Carlos Romulo, president of the Philippines, congratulating him and wishing that he could be at his right hand again, ought clinch the idea, ventures Mr. Pearson, of having General Romulo go to Korea as part of the U.N. command to convince the Asiatics that the U.N. force was not a white man's army of invasion, believed, based on Communist propaganda, by many through the Orient.

He congratulates the Greenville, S.C., Lions Club for campaigning well against hoarding and getting results.

Senator Matt Neely of West Virginia was doing a good job in the wiretapping probe, having held back initially, as he did not want to go on a "half-cocked Joe McCarthy witch hunt."

The revelations of the column since June 14 on the 1947 wiretapping scheme against Howard Hughes and others had resulted in a Grand Jury probe and a Senate investigation.

Stewart Alsop tells of Winston Churchill having bleakly addressed Commons recently concerning the great gap between Soviet military capabilities and that of Western Europe, starting with twelve divisions of men for the latter against 175 Soviet divisions, and a few hundred tanks against 40,000, and so on.

The requirements of Korea had not depleted these defenses measurably but it had caused a reassessment of the defense needs in light of the reality of Communist aggression in the world.

It would take, by the best estimates, until 1952 for Western Europe to muster thirty-five divisions, and until 1953 or 1954 to reach a strength of fifty to sixty fully equipped divisions, only then approaching an effective defense. Thus, for that three to four year interim, the West would have to wait to see whether Russia would resist the temptation to strike.

Mr. Churchill had addressed the matter only obliquely by suggesting that it would take some time before the Soviets could manufacture a sufficient stock of atomic weapons to enable such a risk to be taken without fear of nuclear retaliation. He had said that the troubled efforts of the Soviets to obtain even small amounts of uranium, however, produced some cause for hope.

Robert C. Ruark dusts off his sports writing tablet to report that Joe Louis was considering a comeback in the ring in his mid thirties because his handlers had apparently stolen the part of his four million dollars in winnings he had not had to pay to the IRB when he had been heavyweight champion between 1937 and 1949. He had retired the previous year as champion and begun promoting fights.

He laments at first the fact of his reentering the ring, thinking that Mr. Louis ought not risk his health and dignity for money, but then considers his many times being knocked around by such heavyweights as Max Schmeling, Tony Galento, Billy Conn, Buddy Baer, and Jim Braddock, not managing to make a dent in him, despite delivering hard knocks.

So, he concludes that he would be able to endure the punches again without much trouble and if he needed the money, so be it. He could still hit anybody hard enough to knock their lights out, even if he might have a rough time chasing them around the ring.

A letter writer from McBee, S.C., takes issue with a letter of August 1 which had ventured that the country ought bid au revoir to South Korea and let it defend itself. He says the country was coming to its defense and would not return home until the job was done. The country had lost many battles but had never lost a war. General Custer had taken "surrender" out of the American military lexicon in 1876.

He stands beside America in the fight.

A letter writer attaches a letter to a Presbyterian minister who had been quoted in the newspaper as saying to the City Council that elements from the wrong side of the tracks would come into the neighborhood in the event of the Latta Park recreation center being built at its proposed site. This writer says that his children were from that "other side" and the Lord did not say that only one side of the tracks should get into Heaven. He would welcome such a building in his neighborhood as the children needed it.

A letter writer says that the country was at war again because it had forgotten God, spending too much time at swimming pools, shows, and other worldly events, reading the funny papers while not reading the Bible. God could live without the people but the people could not, without Him.

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