RAdm Arleigh Burke - 5 October 1950

["Joseph S. Bermudez Jr." <joseph_bermudez@compuserve.com>]

I think that the list members might be interested in this 5 October 1950
evaluation of the KPA by Rear Admiral Arleigh Burke. It was (and is) quite
remarkable for its forthrightness and insight. If it weren't too late, I
would have used it in my latest book. ;-)

"ŠAnother lesson of equal importance has come from the North Koreans
themselves. On a battleground of smaller scale, but significantly similar to
Europe's western peninsula, the Red troops were able to march 200 miles
against overwhelming odds to within an unpleasant range of our last outpost,
Pusan, before being stopped. Against them was an angry populace conducting
vicious guerrilla warfare. Against them was geography, rugged mountains,
many rivers, [and] narrow, rough roads funneling through points vulnerable
to both air and sea attack. Against them were countless strategic bombers
hitting at their supplies and industrial potential, [and] tactical
planes-although proportionately fewer in number-effectively spreading
napalm, shooting rockets and bullets, all with deadly accuracy. Besides all
this, they were confronted with the omnipresent and omnipotent military
problem of maintaining, with each day of advance, a longer and more tortuous
line of communications. They had to support a large body of troops in a
large area far from their source of supply. They had to bring up tanks and
artillery to oppose our heavy supporting forces. They had virtually no sea
force, no air force, little antiaircraft protection-and still they came.

Although it is regrettable that some of our own strategists had to learn the
hard way that an army can advance against an overwhelmingly superior air
forceŠ"

Rear Admiral Arleigh Burke, 5 October 1950

Source: Burke, Rear Admiral Arleigh. "Burke Speaks Out on Korea,"
Proceedings, May 2000, pp. 68-72.


Regards,
Joe

Joseph S. Bermudez Jr.
joseph_bermudez@compuserve.com
PGP key available on request