Re: CIA Korean War failure

[<DasHaas@aol.com>]

In a message dated 1/18/2002 12:44:37 PM Pacific Standard Time, mike_yared@hotmail.com writes:


> Now CIA operations officer P.K. Rose, writing in the current issue of 
> the CIA journal "Studies in Intelligence," has exposed a major CIA failure 
> during the Korean War to predict Chinese intervention in the conflict, which 
> he described as a "blunder" that proved to be deadly for U.S. troops.


   This presupposes that MacArthur didn't already know from military intelligence channels that the Chinese were in North Korea in Strength by late 1950.  I think he did, based on my own research.  Intell reports in FECOM on the Chinese presence was either right or wrong, and from Mac's viewpoint I think he saw the situation as a win-win.  If the Chinese were in NK in strength and attacked US forces, it would bolster his attempts to escalate the war into a US-Chinese confrontation.  If the Chinese were not there in strength, he would own NK by the end of the year and have "the boys home by Christmas" as he proclaimed.  Not a bad deal, from Mac's point of view.

Col. Mike Haas, USAF, ret., author
Apollo's Warriors:  US Air Force Special Operations during the Cold War
In the Devil's Shadow:  UN Special Operations during the Korean War