The Korean War, 70 Years Ago, The Times-News, Mauch Chunk, PA
Korean War Weekly Front Pages
16 September – 22 September 1951
The Times-News, Mauch Chunk, PA
“The wheel of peace.”
*****
At the start of the week, General Ridgway notified the Communist high command that he was ready to resume cease-fire negotiations broken off by the Reds. However, the Supreme Allied Commander made a 12-hour flying trip to Korea to confer with his Eighth Army Commander, General Van Fleet, in case his offer was again rejected. He also saw British Commonwealth Division commanders before he returned to Tokyo Monday night. Ridgway’s terse message to the Reds made no mention of Kaesong, which he previously had declared unacceptable for further armistice talks. It was his second Korean visit since the Reds called off the talks on 23 August, with the first of a series of twelve charges that Allied ground and air forces had violated the five-mile neutrality zone around the city. The day after Ridgway’s message, the Communists charged that four Allied soldiers had entered the neutral zone. The Reds demanded a meeting of liaison officers “to settle this matter.” The meeting would be at Panmunjom, six miles east of Kaesong. On Wednesday the UN command agreed to send a team the next day. The Reds had asked for an 0600 start time, which raised suspicions that the Communists were more interested in leveling still more charges than resuming the talks.
On Thursday the Red high command reversed itself and suggested that Korean cease-fire talks be resumed immediately in Kaesong. Heretofore the Reds had demanded that the allies admit responsibility for a string of alleged neutral zone violations before the truce talks could be resolved. They proposed now only that a “suitable organization” should be set up to guarantee the neutrality of Kaesong. A release from the Supreme Commander’s HQ said “There is reason for hope that the latest communist reversal in policy and agreement to renew the peace talks may bring some sort of a cease-fire in Korea.” But the Supreme Commander withheld his answer; the battle of words over how to get the peace wheel revolving again was as muted as the UN’s limited offensive action was loud. Even Peiping [Beijing] radio was notably silent. There was only a dribble of hashed-over complaints of Kaesong neutrality violations where torrents used to flow.
Mr. and Mrs. Clyde Smith, of Snydertown, received word from the Defense Department that their son Donald had been killed in Korea on 3 September. He had been sent overseas in September 1950, and was awaiting rotation beck to the US. He had received the Purple Heart with cluster for sustaining frozen feet and shrapnel wounds during the fighting last winter.
(Photo courtesy newspapers.com, Mauch Chunk Times-News)