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I have not read the various books on No Gun Ri (I
should and will) and certainly wasn't there. But I'd note that as far as
deliberate air attacks on refugee columns those certainly did happen.
Mr. Hanley's website contains a number of documents
showing that, and I can vouch that I have come across some of those documents
myself, though researching air combat not this topic, they certainly jump out at
one. For example by the July 25 5th AF memo "It is reported large groups of
civilians either composed of or controlled by North Korean soldiers are
infiltrating US positions...the Army has
requested that we strafe all refugee parties...to date we have complied...our
operations strafing civilians is sure to receive wide publicity". The memo
recommends stopping the practice and simply informing the 8th Army of that.
Similar discussions are seen in naval aviation documents.
I don't see as reasonably debatable the fact
of deliberate US attacks on refugee columns in the early weeks of the war,
under the *pre-emptive assumption* they contained NK military elements.
It's clearly documented, aside from the specifics of one incident, No Gun Ri,
that has come to symbolize it.
A more reasonable though difficult debate accepts
that this was the policy and would examine the moral and military tradeoffs
made. To what extent did the columns really contain NK elements? Has anyone seen
that documented in the sense of actual KPA regular units for example in POW
interviews (which document much of the KPA's activities since such a large % was
captured in Sep-Oct)? I haven't. It seems more likely from many allied and POW
sources the KPA outflanked the US forces in a lot of the early fighting by being
more mobile on foot over secondary routes and hills, not by hiding in refugee
columns on major routes. But I guess the real question is how reasonable was it
for the US at the command level to assume large scale infiltration via the
columns and what relative valuation of lives was implied by "playing
it safe" asking the air arms to strafe all columns. I personally think that decision is difficult to justify.
Joe
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