The Charlotte News

Tuesday, May 8, 1951

TWO EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports, via Olen Clements, that U.N. attacks made limited gains along the western and eastern fronts in Korea this date. Withdrawing Communist troops were reported angry because they had not received tank and air support for their spring offensive.

Limited attacks by South Korean troops gained three miles northwest of Seoul, while in the east, South Korean forces moved a mile and a half forward toward Inje.

Since the launch of the Communist spring offensive on April 22, more than 80,000 enemy troops had been killed or wounded. Nearly three thousand were killed or wounded the previous day.

The Far Eastern Air Forces flew 900 sorties on Monday.

Secretary of Defense Marshall testified again before the joint Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees, indicating that the aim was to win the Korean war by inflicting as many casualties as possible on the enemy, in the hope to drive them to the peace table after destroying their trained armies. He said that he was concerned about the possible adverse effect on morale of allied soldiers by General MacArthur's testimony regarding allied casualties essentially being without purpose. He said that U.N. troops were prevented from getting within 15 miles of the Russian border. General MacArthur had been ordered to confine his operations to Korea and not enter Manchuria unless his forces were attacked outside Korea. The same restrictions applied to current operations. He said that the Russians had considerable forces in the area and that there was a "real possibility" of their intervention in the war.

Approval by the U.N. Sanctions Committee of an arms embargo to Communist China appeared assured after both Britain and France dropped their opposition. The U.S. had presented the proposed embargo to the 12-member Sanctions Committee the previous day. A vote was expected by late in the week or the following Monday and it was likely to be unanimous, save an abstention by Egypt. Upon approval, it would go to the 60-nation political committee of the General Assembly and finally to the Assembly, itself.

The U.S. rejected Russia's proposal to submit the drafting of a Japanese peace treaty to four Pacific powers including Communist China. The State Department said that the Russian purpose was to obtain a "double veto" over a Japanese peace settlement.

In New York, a strike of hundreds of AFL building service workers in 60 commercial buildings began over a demanded wage increase.

The President observed his 67th birthday this date and worked a normal day.

Congressman John Kee of West Virginia, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, died suddenly at age 77 during a routine session of the Committee. He had been a member of the House since 1933. His replacement in the line seniority, Congressman James Richards of South Carolina, had been acting chairman during most of the current session of Congress.

In Laurel, Miss., Willie McGee was executed in the electric chair following years of legal battles which attracted worldwide attention regarding his execution. He had been convicted of raping a housewife in her bedroom in November, 1945. About 25 persons protested the execution in front of the White House, where the President had refused to intervene. They carried signs saying, "You fired MacArthur—now fire Jim Crow" and "Old soldiers never die—but lynch victims do".

In Beverly Hills, actor Warner Baxter died of bronchial pneumonia at age 62. He was known for his role as The Cisco Kid. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1929 for the role in "In Old Arizona", replacing Raoul Walsh after he was blinded in his right eye in an auto accident caused by a jack rabbit.

In Hollywood, actress Mary Astor was in good condition after attempting suicide by sleeping pills. She had won the Best Actress Academy Award in 1942 for "The Great Lie".

Though it had been ten years, it was probably because Sam was going to turn her over and send her to Tehachapi for the death of his partner, Miles Archer.

On the editorial page, "The MacArthur Testimony—I" summarizes the General's testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees the prior week insofar as his plan to win the Korean war and end the "appeasement" policy of stalemate which he believed current policy to be.

He would impose a full economic embargo on Communist China, a naval blockade on the Chinese coast, engage in aerial reconnaissance of China and Manchuria, use Chinese Nationalist forces with U.S. logistical support, and bomb Chinese air and supply bases. He did not favor a full-scale invasion of the Chinese mainland with the Nationalist troops, but rather advocated their use as a diversionary threat to cause the Chinese to withdraw forces from North Korea.

He was confident that his plan would win the war and without inducing general war from either Communist China or Russia, neither of whom, he believed, were capable of waging full-scale war in the region because of distances and transportation and supply limitations.

The General fully supported the intervention in Korea to halt Communist aggression and the Truman Doctrine generally. He opposed the Hoover doctrine of maintaining ground troops in the U.S. and sending only air and naval support abroad. He believed that military leaders should be relied upon in approving the sending of U.S. troops abroad. He believed that the people of the Far East wanted better food, clothing, and shelter. He said that the Joint Chiefs had the responsibility and authority to weigh all factors in global policy for defense. He stressed the strategic importance of Formosa and that it should never be surrendered to the Communists. He also believed that politics should not govern military action.

It promises another editorial on the testimony.

"Municipalities Fare Better" tells of the North Carolina League of Municipalities finding that municipal governments had fared well in the 1951 General Assembly session. The piece provides the League's cited examples.

Drew Pearson tells of certain press reports which had been denied earlier by General MacArthur and his staff having turned out to be confirmed by the General during his testimony to the Senate joint committees the prior week. He had denied the Associated Press report that he had said in November that the troops would be home by Christmas, but confirmed in testimony that he had said it, that it was his hope.

Mr. Pearson had reported on November 8 that the State Department had warned that if the U.N. troops approached the Yalu River, the Chinese would react and enter the war. But General MacArthur, when reaching the neutrality belt, had wired Washington for permission to send South Korean troops to the Manchurian border. Those troops quickly got into trouble and he wired Washington again for permission to send U.S. troops to rescue them, to which the Joint Chiefs reluctantly gave their consent. Tokyo headquarters, however, denied the story at the time. But General MacArthur the prior week confirmed that the Chiefs had recommended halting south of the Manchurian border and wanted only South Korean troops to enter North Korea.

On March 31, 1951, the General was asked by Freeman Magazine why he had refused to supply more arms to the South Korean troops and he responded that it was a political decision made between South Korea and the U.S. Government. But a cable of the General to the Joint Chiefs on January 6 had said that the overall interests of the U.S. would be better served by making the weapons available to increase the security of Japan rather than arming South Korean forces.

The General had also stated that no transcript had been made of his meeting with the President on Wake Island the prior October, after the New York Times printed a story reliant on a transcript. General Omar Bradley had said that there were five copies of transcripts sent to General MacArthur in Tokyo, and in his testimony to the Senate, General MacArthur admitted that the transcript was accurate.

The General had testified that he had never violated an order from a superior, but on the prior December 6 he had been directed by the Joint Chiefs not to make any public speech concerning foreign policy without prior approval of the State Department and to make no statement on military policy without prior approval by the Defense Department.

Joseph Alsop, in Athens, discusses first the election of Prime Minister Dr. Mohammed Mussadegh in Iran, an extremist National Front leader, who would likely galvanize the effort at nationalization of the oil, such that shortly either the British would move troops into southern Iran to protect their oil interests or the extremists would seize the British oil properties by force. A minor disaster was now the best which could be hoped would occur. A major disaster engulfing the entire Middle East was a possibility. Dr. Mussadegh appeared to be contemplating making a deal with the Soviets and it appeared the Shah, the only relatively stable part of Iranian politics, was again planning to flee the country.

American Admiral Robert Carney would be the best Mediterranean commander for NATO, as he could effect an alliance between Turkey and Greece, whereas a British commander would run into prejudices and sentiments which would inevitably mean lack of success at the endeavor. But the Atlantic command had gone to Admiral William Fechteler, making it inevitable that the Mediterranean command would go to a British commander.

The Turkish and Greek demands for guarantees were met with empty words by the U.S. and the Yugoslavs were given aid only in driblets, resulting in a lost opportunity to unify the 70 divisions possessed by those three nations, which, with reasonable equipment and good air support, could become a formidable fighting force in the satellite area of Eastern Europe.

Robert C. Ruark tells of his loss of faith in fairy tales as a result of Rita Hayworth departing her matrimonial bonds with Prince Aly Khan. Such a romance was supposed to endure. "After the double cross by Rita, how am I to believe now that Luckies taste better than any other cigarette, that Henry Morgan is not a puppet, and there really is a Santa Claus? For all I know Santa Claus is really Toots Shor."

A letter writer from Pinehurst finds it too bad that Senator Frank Graham was still not present to cancel out the vote of Senator Clyde Hoey, citing the example of a proposed bill to hire foreign workers, mainly from Mexico, to work on corporate farms in the Southwest, for which Senator Hoey was in favor.

A letter from a former Marine who had served during World War II, defends the Corps and hopes that the Commandant, as proposed, would be made a part of the Joint Chiefs as an adviser.

A letter writer thanks the newspaper for its support of the Charlotte Sales Executives' Club sales conference held recently in the city.

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