Korea - 50 years ago this week, Jan. 17-23, By Jim Caldwell

[Brooke Rowe <global-national-security@pacbell.net>]

Korea - 50 years ago this week, Jan. 17-23, By Jim Caldwell

(EXCERPT) WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Jan. 15, 2002) - Peace
negotiations came to a halt in Korea 50 years ago this week as the
National Guard's 40th Infantry Division replaced the 24th ID on the
front lines.

Jan. 17-23, 1952 -- Korean War peace talks at Panmunjom are deadlocked
over the issues of prisoner of war exchanges and whether the
communists will upgrade and build new combat airfields during the
truce. Peking radio says Jan. 21 that peace talks are ended unless the
U.N. drops its "nonsensical, blackmail" stance of allowing prisoners
to decide whether they want to be repatriated. Many communist
prisoners held by the U.N. do not want to return to China and North
Korea. U.N. headquarters in Tokyo claims the reason for the stalled
talks is that "Soviet communists" are pulling the strings to support
the Soviet claim in the U.N. that talks are mired at Panmunjom and
must be shifted to the Security Council for resolution. The spokesman
also says the reason the communists insist on beefing up North Korean
airfields during a cease-fire is "to prolong the Korean War and create
an unacceptable threat to the security of the U.N. command ground
forces during an armistice." Gen. James A. Van Fleet, Eighth Army
commander, tells reporters in Korea that his troops are prepared for
anything and "feel they will win." He says the Korean War is a
"blessing" because it caused the rest of the world to become strong
enough to "knock down" the communists and if they had to they could
"wipe them out... on all fronts, anywhere there are free people. There
had to be a Korea, either here or somewhere else in the world," Van
Fleet says. The Jan. 21 U.S. News & World Report quotes Adm. C. Turner
Joy, U.N. truce talks chief delegate, as saying a "stable armistice
agreement" will happen only through "a sudden voluntary change of
heart on the part of the communists or the application of sufficient
military power to induce such a change of heart." U.N. Supreme
Commander Gen. Matthew B. Ridgway tells a visiting Filipino
congressman in Tokyo Jan. 23 that the allies can obliterate the reds
"to a man" wherever they attack." Ground fighting is limited to daily
small-scale clashes. Aerial combat continues every day except Jan. 22
when bad weather keeps planes grounded on both sides. On Jan. 19, the
U.S. Air Force says its losses since the Korean War began total 457
planes, with 37 jets and prop-driven planes shot down in dogfights.
Enemy groundfire knocked down 133 jets and 230 other types of
aircraft. The other planes have been lost in a variety of situations.
Communist losses in dogfights are 339 planes, including 204 MiGs lost
mostly in dogfights. U.N. pilots claim 100 more "probables," 51 of
them MiGs. An additional 387 enemy planes were damaged on the ground.
On Jan. 20, the U.N. command reports that from Jan. 12-18 the U.N.
lost two F-86 Sabrejets in dogfights, eight planes shot down by enemy
groundfire. The reds lost three MiGs and had eight others damaged. The
U.N. claims two MiGs downed in dogfights each on Jan. 20 and Jan. 23
The result of Ridgway's request for more troops in Korea is an order
to exchange the two National Guard divisions serving as part of the
Japanese defense force for two divisions now on line., By the end of
December the 45th Infantry Division replaced the 1st Cavalry Division
in I Corps using techniques first used by American divisions in World
War II. Van Fleet established this method in November for allied
units. In November France wanted to pull out its battalion to replace
it with troops who would arrive and train before taking their place in
the line. Van Fleet suggested that the French Army train their troops
first and send them in to take over the departing troops positions,
weapons and equipment. France agreed. Beginning in early December, as
each unit of the 1st Cavalry pulled out, they left their equipment and
weapons in place for the Guardsmen. Then they sailed to Japan on the
ships that brought the 45th Division to Korea. Now the 40th Infantry
Division is replacing X Corps' 24th Infantry Division in the same way.
The movement will be finished in early February. Chinese troops give
the 45th ID soldiers their first taste of battle. The communists
attack the untested troops but the Guardsmen hold their positions.
Both Guard divisions' active-duty period is scheduled to end in
August. The swap-out of divisions could be brought off only because of
the lull in action. Jan. 18 -- In an additional meeting between
President Harry Truman and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill,
Truman agrees to ship iron and steel to England and England will sell
the United States $60 million worth of aluminum. In return, Churchill
will drop his demands for Briton to lead the NATO navy. That causes an
uproar in England. The British are also upset because they think that
Churchill has also agreed to help the U.S. attack China if the peace
efforts in Korea fail. Jan. 21 -- Communist-led Asia is becoming "a
gigantic anti-imperialist revolution" that "no force whatever" can
stop, Peter Pospelov, director of the Marx-Lenin-Engels Institute in
Moscow says in a speech on the 28th anniversary of Lenin's death. If
American and British imperialists "dare to force a third world war,"
he says it will "only accelerate the death of world capitalism." Jan.
23 -- The weekly Defense Department tally of American casualties in
Korea stands at 104,644 with 18,049 dead. (Editor's note: Jim Caldwell
is a senior writer for the TRADOC News Service.)

 

http://www.dtic.mil/armylink/news/Jan2002/a20020115koreajan17-23.html

---------------------------
   Brooke Rowe
   Associate Librarian
   The American War Library
   http://www.americanwarlibrary.com