Race Relations and Korea

[Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net>]

At 09:01 AM 4/5/2000 -0700, Young Kim wrote:
>According to the History
>Channel, Big Mac's 2nd in command was a fascist Franco's follower.
>

This is typical of the twaddle served up on television.

I suspect the reference was to then-MG Ned Almond, who was GEN MacArthur's
chief of staff and, also, X Corps Commander.  He was never MacArthur's "2nd
in command".  Nor, for that matter, was he a "fascist Franco's follower",
whatever that might mean.

He does seem to have been a bit of a racist, though, as were many of the
senior military personnel of the era.  Almond had commanded the black 92nd
ID in Italy late in World War II and made a complete mash of race relations
there, causing the unit to be stood down prematurely.  He managed to insult
the blacks, Orientals, and Marines in the Korean War, causing significant
internal stress within the 8th Army.

Again, though, the American military began the Korean War with no
significant black presence.  The Navy had no blacks on combat vessels, I
believe, though they were still employing Filipino mess stewards at this
point, and the Marines (correct me on this, please, if I'm in error, here,
Ben!) and the Air Force had no blacks at all.  The Army had only a couple
of Black regiments, tank companies, and FAB's, and these were poorly
officered.  The Secretary of Defense, George C Marshall, supported the
segregated military and had backed Almond's recommendation in Italy to
stand the 92nd ID down when he was Chief of Staff.  (And, to top the
connexion, Almond was brother-in-law to George Marshall's wife.)

An example of the military's attitude towards blacks in this era can be
seen by reviewing the fate of the three black divisions raised in the
Second World War.  The 92nd was used in combat, but was pre-doomed to
failure, the 2nd Cavalry Division was dissolved in North Africa and its
troops reassigned to various menial chores, and the 93rd ID, upon arrival
in the SOWESPAC, was used as stevedores until MacArthur learned of this and
ensured that it did receive some limited combat assignments.

The upside is that the American military entered the Korean War as a
segregated outfit and ended it as an integrated force.  This was through
the efforts of many senior Army and Marine officers, but most of all due to
Ridgway's belief that black soldiers would not fight well in segregated
units but would work well in integrated ones, a belief which the last year
of the War proved correct.

One final vignette.  The 65th Infantry from Puerto Rico had been assigned
to Korea, where the incipient racism of the military caused it to be
fore-doomed to failure, as the unit was regarded as a "black" unit.
MacArthur had cheerfully accepted a Filipino unit and, of course, the 8th
Army immediately assigned them to serve with the 65th in the belief that
all concerned spoke Spanish.  Well, a number of the Puerto Ricans spoke no
Spanish, and the Filipino battalion turned out to be Tagalog speakers.
Must have been an interesting radio net to eavesdrop on!

Marc

msmall@roanoke.infi.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!