The Charlotte News

Tuesday, December 12, 1950

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that some 27 Chinese divisions, including 8,000 to 14,000 Mongolian cavalrymen, pressed toward South Korea after driving the bulk of the U.N. forces from the North. The Mongolian horsemen out of medieval times provided effective mobility to the vanguard of the Chinese million-man force as it moved virtually unopposed to recapture North Korea from the allies.

On the western front, the bulk of the Eighth Army had withdrawn to the 38th parallel, while in the northeast sector, most of the Tenth Corps had retreated to the Hamhung coastal plain in North Korea, where they were surrounded by Communist forces with the road south blocked. At nearby Hungnam, the U.N. fleet stood by awaiting evacuation of the Tenth Corps if needed. The location of the allied regiments which had been on the Yalu River was being maintained in secrecy, but apparently they were heading south to Hungnam.

Lines of refugees swarmed from Seoul, as there was virtually no fighting contact between the U.N. ground forces and the slowly advancing Communists in that sector as the Chinese were apparently reinforcing their supply lines.

Correspondent Don Whitehead tells of allied forces formerly in the northwest being safely south of the critical point on their retreat, with the Eighth Army's exact position being maintained in secrecy. It was presently in a position to fight an orderly rearguard action toward Seoul and the Chinese had lost any opportunity to trap the Army north of the 38th parallel. The Communists had not yet struck with a second massed attack in the western sector, following by a week the concerted drive into Pyongyang, but there was no indication that the Chinese had been halted.

He tells further of the Tenth Corps in the northeast sector having set up a defense perimeter around Hamhung, at which Tom Stone had reported there was no longer a fighting front. The Marines and infantry had fought their way out of the trap laid by the Chinese to reach Hamhung and neighboring Hungnam. The battered Tenth Corps could only establish a defense perimeter and could not wage an offensive battle. Evacuation of these forces by sea at Hungnam was the next logical move for General MacArthur to order.

At the U.N., the Indian delegate, saying that he was convinced, after talks with General Wu, representing the nine-member Communist Chinese delegation, that the Chinese wanted peace, laid forth to the General Assembly's political committee the 13-nation Asian and Middle Eastern plan to halt the fighting in Korea and resolve other Far Eastern problems. He warned, however, that the Chinese people appeared to be moving toward a hands-off doctrine with respect to the Far East. He proposed that the Chinese Communists, following the determination of terms of a ceasefire in Korea, be given a direct input in settling outstanding Asian problems. One of the proposals would create a three-man commission, headed by the General Assembly president, to determine the basis on which a satisfactory ceasefire could be achieved. It was offered to meet U.S. objections to an outright ceasefire, which could open the way for continued build-up of Communist Chinese forces in Korea.

Brack Curry and Richard K. O'Malley report from Frankfurt, West Germany, that strategic war materials, as machine tools, ball bearings, optical supplies, steel tubing and raw steel, were flowing behind the Iron Curtain from West Germany and that the Western allies were powerless to interdict the flow, with export licensing power available only over certain specific strategic materials. Allied officials believed that most of the materials wound up in Russia, that they were purchased from Army surplus and deviously shipped to Soviet satellites for relay to Russia. Allied officials said that as much as six to eight million dollars worth of steel out of the Ruhr had been illegally shipped to East Berlin and thence to Russia in 1950. American lead had been shipped to Switzerland, then to Stettin, Poland, and from there to Russia. Other shipments were relayed via Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Recently, the allied high commission asked West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer to take steps to stop the shipments, but some officials said that the West Germans did not have adequate border police to interdict the shipments of the contraband.

What about the Telefunken radios and them little Beetles? You better protect those at all costs.

The American military explained that whether leave was to be given to American troops for Christmas depended on local commanders' decisions on whether the troops could be spared for holiday leave.

You can let them go home for a couple of hours to trim the tree, open the presents, pat the kiddies on their heads, and then come on back to kill some more Commies.

NATO's top military men met twice behind closed doors this date, apparently setting up a command staff for the Western European defense force. A joint session the next day or Thursday would meet to determine how to integrate German troops into the defense force. General Eisenhower was expected shortly to be named supreme commander of NATO.

When is Dick going to be named supreme vice commander?

The President was planning to address the nation on Friday or Saturday night regarding the world situation. The conference to be held the next day with Congressional leaders regarding whether to declare a national emergency had been broadened to include Senator Walter George, chairman of the Finance Committee. Senator Lyndon Johnson, head of the Senate Armed Services Preparedness subcommittee, said that the time had already arrived for implementation of economic controls.

A demand for military aid to Nationalist China was delayed until the next Congress, after Senator William Knowland of California failed the previous day to muster enough votes in the current Senate to earmark 38 million dollars for such aid, and said he would have to try again in January when there would be four additional GOP Senators to the 43 in the current Congress.

Dick'll be there for ye. He likes a good Chinaman.

Prime Minister Clement Attlee, after his return from the Washington conference with President Truman, told Commons that the forces of the U.N. would maintain themselves in Korea. When opposition leader Winston Churchill asked for a report on the President's intention to use the atomic bomb in the Far East, Mr. Attlee responded that he was certain that there was no difference of opinion between the British and Americans on this point. He also said that he was satisfied that the general directives of the U.N. had been followed by General MacArthur in Korea. Defense Minister Emmanuel Shinwell had stated ten days earlier his reservations in this regard.

You better not be too sure about old Harry. He might decide a music critic rubbed his daughter the wrong way and get up one morning and just drop one of the Big Ones for the hell of it.

The price of eggs fell precipitously this date on the Chicago Exchange, with top grades being 11.5 cents per dozen lower than the previous week, in a roller coaster market ride. At New York, prices fell as much as 16 cents per dozen. Both markets had reached a 30-year high the previous week at 80 cents per dozen for top grades. At Raleigh, top grades gained 6 to 8 cents per dozen, reaching 80 cents for top quality.

How much for one o' them eggs that spins on its narrow axis like a top? We seen that on the tv. We would like one of those.

On the editorial page, "Hindsight vs. Foresight" finds it good that Republican Senators were losing their zeal for the proposal of Senator Irving Ives of New York that Secretary of State Acheson resign. It hopes that it reflected a growing realization that Mr. Acheson was not the principal culprit in the international debacle.

If the country had chosen other courses of action, the readily flexible Communists would have responded with different but likely equally threatening moves. The crisis confronting the country was bigger than partisanship. No party or individual had a monopoly on wisdom or could see into the future. It urges Americans to remember that the true culprits were the men of the Kremlin, not U.S. leaders in Washington.

Auh, you're one of those lib'ral Commies. That's why you believe that Commie prop'gander. Theya all godless Commies and Socialists up theya in Washin'ton, except the good Republicans.

"Useful Conference" tells of the importance of the Mid-Century World Outlook Conference at Bob Jones University, welcoming delegates from all over the world. It commends Dr. Jones for contributing to better world understanding in hosting the conference.

But, it quickly adds, he had perhaps impaired the usefulness of the conference with an attack on U.S. leaders, saying that "weakness and betrayal" in the State Department and "other high places" had threatened the "very life" of the democracy. He found that U.S. leaders had "tossed the forces of democracy in China to the raving wolves of the Kremlin" as "the blood of American youth smokes on the snows of Korea as a result."

It hopes that his remarks reflected only his personal opinion and not the theme of the conference.

"How They Voted" tells of Senator Clyde Hoey and newly sworn-in Senator Willis Smith voting alike against an amendment regarding rent control and then both voting in favor of the three-month rent control extension bill. It also provides the voting record in the special extra session of the North Carolina delegation in the House.

A piece from the Raleigh News & Observer, titled "Perilous", tells of Dr. Claudius Murchison, economic adviser to the American Cotton Manufacturers Institute, having stated that the current shortage of cotton was "perilous". The piece warns, however, that between the world wars there was a large excess of cotton, causing growers to be in a condition which they regarded as perilous. The surplus was cut down during World War II, and then another surplus had developed after the war. Thus, while the cotton farmers should produce enough for the demand of war necessities, they should not forget what would likely occur after the war when demand would drop again while thus stimulated supply remained heavy. Reliance on a one-crop system at the expense of diversification would, it finds, indeed be perilous.

Drew Pearson tells of the trap of the Marines and infantry at Hagaru being one of the most serious military errors of any recent war. The first of three errors causing the trap was lack of any direct communication between Lt. General Walton Walker, commander of the Eighth Army in the northwest sector, and Maj. General Edward Almond, commander of the Tenth Corps in the northeast sector. They had to communicate only via MacArthur headquarters in Tokyo, in consequence of which, both generals had their men racing for the Manchurian border to see who could get there first, being reassured by General MacArthur's G-2 intelligence that they had nothing to fear from the Chinese, causing them to fan out rather than attacking in a concentrated spearhead. The Tenth Corps went racing toward the north rather staying close to the Eighth Army.

French Ambassador Henri Bonnet, acting on instructions from the French Government, warned U.S. officials of there being Chinese concentrated along the 700-mile Manchurian border. The British also warned against the advance. These warnings, however, were ignored despite being relayed to General MacArthur.

The Joint Chiefs also found it disturbing that there was no communication between the leading ground commanders, to which General MacArthur had responded curtly that he knew what he was doing.

The Chinese then struck in the gap between the two forces and between the two armies which were fanned out. General Almond sought to send the Marines to close the gap, but after a brief, bloody battle, they were forced to turn back to the Chosin reservoir, where, for unexplained reasons, they remained for four days, giving the Chinese time to surround them in a trap. The Marines and Seventh Infantry could have turned back toward Hungnam immediately, but those orders were delayed for the four critical days because of the need to communicate through Tokyo.

Mr. Pearson notes that during this period, General MacArthur had time to send five messages to American newspapers, explaining why he was not to blame for Korea.

Dwight Palmer, president of the General Cable Co., and chairman of the Democratic dinner in New York, had received a letter from an Indiana Democrat calling him a "nigger-loving, pro-labor Rooseveltian", to which he had responded philosophically that his job was to run a company with 7,000 employees spread among plants from Rome, New York, Perth Amboy and Bayonne, New Jersey to St. Louis and Emeryville and Los Angeles, California, that for some time he had been interested in opening up jobs to persons based solely on merit, regardless of race, creed or color. He said that the company had two vice-presidents who were Jews, another vice-president who was Italian, plus Protestants and Catholics within management, and blacks serving as foremen, department managers and in the company's laboratories. He said that it took him quite some time, having been born in St. Louis a white Presbyterian, to free himself from his prejudices but felt it his duty to see what he could do to get people to understand each other better.

You ever been to the Doggie Diner in Emeryville? You achieve instant understanding.

Bellhops at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel were angry about the parties thrown there by the Chinese Communists. One, when summoned to bring newspapers to the suite, dutifully produced three New York newspapers, to which the Chinese Communist who responded to the door said that he instead wanted the Daily Worker, to which the bellhop replied that he would have to make his own arrangements as they could not get that.

Call Leon. He can help.

Joseph & Stewart Alsop examine the mistake made by General MacArthur in launching the November 24 "end-of-the-war" offensive, ignoring the while the fact that a horde of Chinese troops were prepared to cross the Yalu River after many Chinese troops had already been engaged in the fight since around October 20. He had relied exclusively on his Army G-2 intelligence, which had obviously steered him in the wrong direction, with Chinese and Soviet intelligence deliberately misleading the allied intelligence sources and General MacArthur into a trap.

The Alsops suggest that had General MacArthur pulled back his lines to the narrow portion of the peninsula and not divided his forces in the east and west offensive operations, the allies could have held that relatively short line almost indefinitely.

They also, however, fault the President and Joint Chiefs for going along with the MacArthur plan, albeit reluctantly, in traditional deference to the judgment of the commanding officer in the field, presumed to have the best view of the situation. Joint Chiefs chairman General Omar Bradley and the Chiefs were dubious of the plan, as was the President, but finally deferred to General MacArthur, especially after he had said that he was operating in the best interests of the U.N. mandate. The Alsops suggest that the plan, however, was a major political and strategic move, designed to impact diplomatic efforts at the U.N. and bring an end to the war, not just a tactical maneuver to be left to the judgment of the field commander. The President and the Joint Chiefs, therefore, should have exercised their own independent judgment and overruled General MacArthur. His error in judgment, consequently, they contend, was not to be borne alone.

Robert C. Ruark seeks to act as mediator in the ongoing battle of the sexes, in which mutual general dislike had been professed. A female friend of Mr. Ruark said that women had always regarded men as naughty children. Mr. Ruark finds man neither naughty nor a child, insists also that men did not like war, as his friend had suggested. She had said man had the urge to kill livings things, but that had come naturally by way of the need in earlier times to hunt animals for provender. Mr. Ruark ventures that war was man's excuse to get out of the house for a time.

Psychologists claimed that men did not like women generally because of the resentment of being bossed around by their mothers, and because the "broa—excuse me, the ladies—" had invaded industry. They had also said that men were more interested in work than romance.

He finds these arguments silly, says that he had been interested in women since he had pulled his first pigtail, despite his mother having pushed him around on occasion, as once when he was smoking corn silk. He also welcomed being supported by a woman.

He thinks that the only people who didn't like women were those who tried to understand them, as neither women nor men did.

He hopes that, in his role as mediator, he had cleared up this squabble.

A letter from an Army private in the Enlisted Reserve Corps, en route to Japan, asks whether the newspaper would help the ERC members who had signed up as veterans with the assurance that they would only be activated in case of national emergency and now found themselves being shipped to Korea. The Army, he believes, had therefore reneged on its promise but would not hear the men's complaints.

A letter writer praises General MacArthur for whipping the North Koreans and teaching them a lesson, feels the recent criticism of his offensive was unwarranted, as the military mistake could have befallen anyone. He is mainly worried about England's vacillation and favors sending General MacArthur to take charge of occupation troops in England in case of British defection.

What are you talking about? Occupation troops in England? Don't you mean Germany?

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