The Charlotte News
Tuesday, August 15, 1950
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that North Korean troops, 12,000 strong behind tanks, had hit the Naktong River defense line below Changnyong, overrunning segments of the U.S. 24th Infantry Division in fighting which produced heavy casualties on both sides. The fighting had been bloody but indecisive. North Korean prisoners reported that the objective was Taegu, to have been captured by Tuesday, the fifth anniversary of Korean liberation from Japan by the Allies on V-J Day. A breakthrough would imperil the Pusan-Taegu supply line. Americans held their own at the center and northern ends of the battle area and concentrated on retaking the southern end.
The enemy had penetrated six or seven miles east of the Naktong in the Changnyong sector, wiping out most of the gains made by the 24th Division on Monday. While considered serious, a divisional staff officer said that the Americans were confident that, in time, they could push the "gooks" back across the river.
Which brings up the question: what is a "gook"? It must be a portmanteau of "spooky guerrilla", gooky, shortened to "gook" because the bullets are flying. See? It is not really that scary. And if you are not a spooky guerrilla, you need not be offended. It is plainly not racial, as many believe, as South Korean allies were not "gooks", the same as the case would later be in Vietnam.
An enemy Yak, engaged in an aerial mission for the first time in days, dropped two 500-lb. bombs on Masan in the southern part of the line and strafed communications. American black infantrymen stormed the "Little Casino" redoubt seven miles northwest of Masan, engaging in hand-to-hand combat with bayonets and rifle stocks used as clubs, with the soldiers capturing the craggy heights and freeing some 200 American wounded artillerymen who had been pinned down the previous week in the enemy's westward drive to Chinju.
Enemy tanks and armored cars hit hard in the Waegwan area, facing South Korean troops, using submerged bridges to effect crossing of the Naktong by about 3,000 men. The South Koreans had successfully counter-attacked the river-crossers and air support had knocked out the armored cars of the enemy.
In the northeast portion of the defense line, American troops captured Yuktong, nine miles west of the Pohang air base. South Korean troops took the nearby town of Imam and combined forces moved to within a half mile of previously captured Pohang.
American fighter planes hit enemy contingents east of the Naktong, killing about a hundred enemy troops, and destroyed three of twelve enemy tanks located west of the Naktong. They also knocked out seven of nine horse-drawn artillery pieces near Kunwi, north of Taegu. This contingent indicated a South Korean withdrawal of about 13 miles. Rail yards at Waegwan and Yongdok were also struck by American fighter planes.
According to the Far Eastern Air Forces commander, efforts were no longer necessary to bomb the Wonsan oil refinery in North Korea, as previous B-29 raids had rendered it "completely inoperable".
Premier Kim Il Sung of North Korea—mentioned by name for the first time on the pages—had provided, in a monitored radio broadcast from Pyongyang, September 1 as the deadline for concluding operations in South Korea and "liberating" the peninsula from the Americans, warning that otherwise his troops would face a much harder task because of American reinforcements on the way. Kim had named eight South Korean leaders as "traitors", including President Syngman Rhee, acting Premier and Defense Minister Sihn Sung Mo, and former Premier Lee Bum Suk, who would be tried as such if caught. The U.N. holding operations had thrown a wrench into his schedule.
A 22-man Communist Chinese mission was visiting Pyongyang, a week after a Chinese Communist radio station at Peiping had reported that North Korea had turned down Communist Chinese aid as unnecessary. It was unclear what the objective of the meeting was, though some speculation had it that it was an effort of North Korea to gain closer cooperation with China.
Admirals Chester Nimitz and William Halsey, speaking before the Disabled American Veterans the previous day in San Francisco, said that Communist aggression had to be checked in Korea to avoid further attacks leading to World War III, and that the U.N. action must not stop after pushing the North Koreans back behind the 38th parallel.
A corporal from Pleasant City, O., fighting in Korea, had lost his helmet when ordered into battle the previous night and grabbed another which did not fit well over his liner. In looking for a replacement, he found one which fit, but was possessed of a bullet hole through it, from front to back, evidencing the death of the G.I. who had worn it. Inside the helmet, he found his own name.
The President would, on September 1, according to press secretary Charles G. Ross, nominate New York City Mayor William O'Dwyer as Ambassador to Mexico and Mr. O'Dwyer would then resign as Mayor. Career diplomat Walter Thurston, current Ambassador, would be reassigned.
Senator Francis Myers of Pennsylvania, after a visit with the President, said that he had urged to the President complete mobilization of the industrial economy at once. Some Senate Republicans, led by Senator Eugene Millikin of Colorado, called on the Administration to make clear whether the country was headed for complete war preparations.
The most violent earthquake in years had been recorded in Boston, centered somewhere between Turkey and the South Pacific.
Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas arrived in Tehran for a two-week mountain climbing expedition in the Azerbaijan Mountains of Northern Iran.
He's probably there to effect liaison with them Commies.
Near Lone Pine, California, a veteran mountaineer had spotted through binoculars a faded shirt in a location about 300 feet from the summit of Mt. Whitney, directly opposite Keeler Needle, and believed it to be the location of the body of Christopher Reynolds, 17-year old tobacco heir and son of Libby Holman and the late Zachary Smith Reynolds, formerly of Winston-Salem. Ms. Holman had arrived in New York from Paris and was preparing to venture to Lone Pine. The body of the 17-year old companion on the hike up Mt. McKinley's treacherous east face, begun nine days earlier, had already been discovered frozen in a crevasse below a 3,000-foot granite escarpment.
In London, the second child was born to Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip at Clarence House. The baby girl was reported doing well and weighed six pounds. She became third in line to the throne, after the Princess and the infant son, Prince Charles.
In Wrightsville Beach, N.C., former State Treasurer Charles Johnson, who had lost the Democratic gubernatorial nomination to Governor Kerr Scott in 1948, warned of possible increases in local taxes to provide public education and that "free spenders" in the 1949 Legislature had spent the State's surplus from the war years. He also warned that desegregation of the public schools would be "the worst thing" which could happen to blacks in the state as it would mean the end of black teachers in the public schools, as in other states with integrated school systems. He also warned of adopting the British system of socialism, which the British, Australians, and New Zealanders, he said, had realized had not provided the dream state they assumed.
On the editorial page, "Shall We Take the Offense?" tells of Representative Carl Durham of North Carolina, vice-chair of the Joint Atomic Energy Committee, having told the Jaycees in High Point recently that the pattern would soon become clear as to whether the Russians were seeking to defeat the country through its satellites, and that if it were so, the only alternative for America was to pick the time and place for initiating war.
Generally, Americans had never sought war. But Mr. Durham was aware that if Russia stimulated wars against such places as Greece, Yugoslavia or Formosa, then the country could be engaged in widespread fighting without actually confronting any Russian troops and thereby not depleting Russia's economic and military strength while America fought.
As long as the Politburo was allowed to control the action, the more it could sap the strength of the U.S. in meeting each crisis. It was not certain whether Americans could ever accept this viewpoint but it deems it appropriate for someone in the position of Mr. Durham to make the argument and apprise Americans of that which was at stake.
"Politics on the Home Front" finds that soldiers in Korea had to be getting tired of the politics over the war emanating from Washington. Four Republicans on the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee had charged the Administration with having conducted policies virtually inviting Russia to "grab whatever it could in China, Korea, and Formosa." Chairman Tom Connally charged the four with "pettifogging", intended to influence the mid-term elections. Senator Joe O'Mahoney of Wyoming added that it was time for truce in partisan politics, which only served to weaken the country.
It finds that while it was undeniable that the country had been ill-prepared for the Korean invasion, it had been six weeks since that time and it was thus time to get down to the business of remedying the problem rather than delaying, through bickering, the mobilization program. The problems should be addressed in public debate only to the exclusion of further delay.
"Road through Wonderland" tells of the opening of a new section of the Blue Ridge Parkway the previous Saturday, from Asheville to Mt. Mitchell, having been an occasion to rejoice, as covered appropriately by the Asheville Citizen-Times. The piece joins in the adoration as the Parkway was a thing of beauty from the Shenandoah National Park to Asheville, open all the way through that course, with the exception of a couple of sections in Virginia, around both Roanoke and Lynchburg, plus one in North Carolina, from Deep Gap to Linville. Eventually, it would extend through Pisgah National Forest to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.
It finds especially impressive the Great Craggies, with their blankets of rhododendrons.
"Hemline Heresy" tell of a rumor that college women in the area, having been informed by those in the know regarding the coming fashions that they would be asked to wear shorter skirts, had firmly rejected the idea, having become accustomed to the "New Look" of lower hemlines. They did not intend to take them up.
The piece admires their spunk but wishes that they had shown it earlier when the "New Look" came into vogue.
Drew Pearson, on vacation, again has his column indited by Fred Blumenthal and Jack Anderson. They tell of Soviet U.N. chief delegate Jakob Malik being in the Kremlin doghouse for having told U.S. chief delegate Warren Austin, in response to his persistent questioning, that the Russians had not provided any arms to North Korea which were not sold to them upon Russia's withdrawal in December, 1948. That meant that if anything other than the known equipment left behind, which did not include any jets, was observed being utilized by the North Korean forces, then it would make the Russians out to be liars in front of the world. Moreover, it was an admission for the first time that the North Koreans had Russian-made weapons. It also meant that Russia could not provide the North Koreans any fresh weaponry for the duration.
They note that Andrei Gromyko, who had schooled Mr. Malik, certainly had not coached him to make any such statement.
Senator Owen Brewster's contention that he was being followed by a New York "gangster", and so had to ask the Metropolitan Police lieutenant tied to wiretapping to provide him with protection, was breaking down as the police in Washington were prohibited from receipt of "expenses", as provided the lieutenant by Senator Brewster, and he would have needed to provide a report of the matter to police headquarters, never done.
House Republicans were receiving information from three former Communists on Russian policies, all three contending that the U.S. was too soft on Communists and had not engaged enough in counter-propaganda. The GOP candidates were being urged to exploit this information in the campaign, charging the Administration with laxity in pursuing Communists.
They point out that Francisco Franco's Washington lobbyist had purchased all of the select bed sheets at Garfinkel's Department Store in Washington, an example of hoarding which needed to be stopped.
Were they in all manner of pastel colors or only white?
Averell Harriman had not gone to Tokyo to scold General MacArthur, as reported, for meeting with Chiang Kai-Shek, but rather because the President was anxious to receive the report on the meeting and for the fact that the President had not trusted Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson to provide an accurate report as he was pro-Chiang. The President had known in advance of the meeting, also contrary to some reports.
Joseph Alsop, in Korea, tells of witnessing the first U.N. offensive action in the war, trying to take back Chinju. The objective was to obtain more room for the protection of the vital port at Pusan and to occupy positions which would threaten the rear of the enemy advancing over the Naktong River. The North Korean Sixth Division, with no air support and few tanks, was facing a task force which equated in manpower to a division backed by artillery, armor, and air support. Maj. General William Kean led the U.N. forces. The battle took place between August 6 and 8, starting with a dusk to dawn armor barrage on August 6, isolating or eliminating the front line enemy troops, before the troops started moving. The remaining North Korean troops quickly adapted, digging into the mountains, at which they had a definite advantage from knowledge of the terrain, or effecting long-range penetration.
Two roads served the approach line as pincers to be closed around the enemy. The upper road was assigned to the 35th Regimental Combat Team while the more important coast road was the assignment of the Fifth Regimental Combat Team. At a junction of the roads, the 1st Marine Brigade was to take over, with black troops of the 24th Regimental Combat Team guarding the rear.
All had gone well on the upper road, as the key heights were taken early, bringing the main concentration of enemy troops in a village under heavy fire and inflicting heavy casualties. On the coastal road, however, things had not gone as planned, after the troops failed to take a sugar loaf mountain, commanding the route of advance. The 5th R.C.T. were green and "uncertainly led". By dawn, the Marines and the infantry were under attack by enemy forces. He describes the action in some detail. Eventually, the Marines had to withdraw from the fight to protect the 5th R.C.T. which had milled about "dubiously" until brought under fire. That which had been planned as an offensive had become a defensive operation.
The North Koreans, however, had used up their strength in the battle while the Americans, at first confined to the roads, were learning the ways of mountain warfare. By the evening of August 8, little new ground had been gained by the Americans, but it was time for the battle to enter the second, defensive phase.
Robert C. Ruark approves of the actions of the Government requesting that Paul Robeson turn in his passport and the jailing of West Coast longshoremen leader Harry Bridges for perjury on his 1945 application for citizenship, claiming that he had never been a Communist.
He finds that Mr. Robeson had been given all the advantages which American life had to offer and yet constantly bad-mouthed the country to the Russians and elsewhere around the globe, while embracing Communism. Thus, Mr. Ruark concludes, he did not deserve to be a roving ambassador of good will for the country, a privilege which a passport ostensibly provided.
Mr. Bridges, he also concludes, ought be locked away for the duration of the war to avoid fomenting labor disputes helpful to the Communists while crippling shipping of arms and supplies.
A letter writer from St. Pauls agrees with a previous writer, the same providing the second letter of this date, and disagrees with a responsive letter, finds that the country might be better off in allowing the South Koreans and the peoples of Europe and Asia generally to tend "their own knitting" and "stew in their own Communistic juices" to the extent they could not defend themselves, that a good dose of Stalinism might bring them to their senses.
That ignores reality to a great extent, does it not?
A letter writer praises the series of articles on defense by Robert S. Bird and Ogden R. Reid of the New York Herald Tribune—only one more of which, the last one on Thursday, is, unfortunately, available for your reading. But he thinks they had ignored the fact that the country's foreign policy had been bankrupt since the Fulton, Mo., "iron curtain" speech of Winston Churchill in March, 1946, stimulating, a year later, the Truman Doctrine of military aid for Greece and Turkey and the Marshall Plan of economic aid to enable postwar rebuilding such that countries could withstand economically the lure of Communism to the poor and depressed. He finds the policy of police-action intervention in civil disputes, regardless of the local popularity of that intervention, to be both inhuman and immoral, and that the country might eventually run short of the necessary "blood, sweat and tears" required to make the policy work. He thinks countries ought conduct plebiscites to determine the popularity of such intervention in civil disturbances to avoid the situations where popular support was lacking, leading to high casualties on the part of intervening Americans.
A letter writer recommends not giving the enemy aid and comfort by providing the numbers of American dead in Korea, as had Drew Pearson recently.
A letter writer, representing the North Carolina Association of the Deaf, expresses thanks to the newspaper for its support of their convention in Charlotte in late July and also thanks the City of Charlotte.
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