The Korean War, 70 Years Ago, Korean War Weekly Front Pages
Korean War Weekly Front Pages
14 June 1953 – 20 June 1953
The Daily Republican, Monogahela PA
A last-minute monkey wrench.
*****
The United Nations Command had decided to sign an armistice agreement with the Communists despite South Korean President Syngman Rhee’s opposition. Agreement on the armistice was believed imminent, with the actual signing ceremony taking place in only a few days. Allied and Communist liaison officers had held a mysterious 19-minute conference in the truce hut, indicating A-Day was in sight. They were believed near agreement on the cease-fire line, the last major item to be settled, even if the Communist troops sadly were pushing the battle on southward. Another sign of an imminent armistice was the increased activity in the United Nations base at nearby Munsan where doctors, medics, and troops poured in to take over the “big switch,” the exchange of 80,000 Communist war prisoners for 12,000 Allied captives.
United Nations planes turned the east central front into an inferno on Monday in a vain attempt to stop Communist troops who had pushed the South Koreans back two miles in a pre-armistice drive toward the 38th parallel. Reports from the front indicated that some South Korean units had been cut off and were trying to fight their way back to their own lines. The Reds ripped through the South Korean 5th and 8th divisions to make their gains. To the west the United States 3rd division and the South Korean 9th division withstood heavy enemy attacks. The UN planes pounded the Red-held area with 2,225,000 pounds of bombs and napalm. Some planes flew as many four formations during the day, unloading their bombs and returning to base for another. But the 500-plane Allied air strike against enemy ground troops – the biggest since the war started – failed to halt the forward motion of the surging Chinese in their biggest offensive in two years. The next day, Chinese infantrymen, lunging ahead over the bodies of their own dead, captured Finger Ridge from South Korean troops and expanded their “bulge” into the critical east-central front. Communists used 6,000 men and recklessly attacked for their newest victory in the new “Battle of the Bulge.” They struck in force after the 8th ROK Division hurled back an attack by 1,500 Reds on Finger Ridge outposts. The battle was thought by observers to be delaying an end to the fighting.
On Thursday, a drastic one-man revolt by South Korean president Syngman Ree reduced to rubble the United Nations orderly hopes and plans for an early Korean truce. By staging a mass release of 25,000 non-Communists from United Nations prison camps, the aged, embittered Rhee placed in jeopardy the entire mechanism of the truce. Harassed United Nations officials were attempting to prove their good faith by replacing ROK guards with American guards at the remaining prison camps and by chasing the elusive escapees through the hills. They had rounded up barely 1,000 men and hopes for corralling others appeared slim. President Eisenhower told President Rhee he was holding him personally responsible for the release of anti-Communist Korean War prisoners. Furthermore, it was said Mr. Eisenhower served notice on the stubborn South Korean president that the United States and United Nations expected South Korea to exert the utmost efforts to round up the 25,000 released prisoners.
American Sabrejet pilots shot down four Communist MIGs and damaged three in a new flurry of air fighting near the Yalu River. Communist propeller-driven planes flew over Seoul for the third time in the week, causing a Red air alert.
(Photo courtesy newspapers.com, Monongahela Daily Republican)