The Korean War, 70 Years Ago, The Evening Gazette, Indiana PA
Korean War Weekly Front Pages
9 December – 15 December 1951
The Evening Gazette, Indiana PA
Prisoner exchange discussions are stalled.
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On Monday the United Nations command demanded an answer from the Communists on the Allied proposal to start immediate negotiations for exchange of prisoners of war in Korea. There was no indication what the Red reply would be. The Reds had stood pat on the demand of the UN to answer their proposal for behind-the-lines inspections by representatives of neutral nations before discussing prisoners. The next day, truce negotiators discussed the exchange of war prisoners for the first time and immediately tangled on how to do it. The Communists proposed all prisoners be released by both sides when an armistice was reached. The UN insisted on a fair and equitable exchange which was interpreted as a man-for-man swap. The Allies were concerned about bulk swaps without adequate data, fearing sizeable numbers would not be recovered. The number of Allied troops in Red hands was estimated at 98,000 to 139,000. The UN said it held between 120,000 and 135,000 Chinese and North Korean Reds.
On Thursday the Allies demanded the Reds guarantee there would be no “death march” of Allied prisoners in Korea. An official UN command spokesman said the Reds may hold many prisoners in camps far to the east of Panmunjom, where the Communists wanted to trade prisoners. “We don’t want our prisoners to have to walk hundreds of miles,” said one Lieutenant Colonel. “We don’t want a (Bataan) death march in reverse.” The next day the Reds flatly refused to lift the curtain of secrecy surrounding the prison camps, and turn over lists of prisoners, but said they would OK the rotation of 5,000 troops a month if the Allies accepted other Communist terms for enforcing a Korean truce. The limited rotation plan was part of a new six-point Communist proposal which made little impression on Allied negotiators. An official UN communiqué made no mention of rotation and said the proposal showed “little significant departure from the unacceptable proposal of 3 December.” In Stockholm, the Swedish Foreign Office said the US had asked if Sweden would join a neutral inspection commission to help police a truce. Negotiators had not agreed on how an armistice would be enforced. The Allies had indicated they might accept a Communist proposal to use representatives of neutral nations for behind-the-lines inspections. At week’s end, the Allies flatly rejected the six-point proposal, including the POW exchange plan.
Communist delegates drove to the Panmunjom truce conference Tuesday in chromium-trimmed sedans instead of military jeeps. It was a case of keeping up with the Joneses – Allied delegates had switched from jeeps to a green army sedan the past month. One Red negotiator rode in an American-made 1949 Ford, with the horn honking. Then came another in a Russian-made Pobeda sedan.
Production of civilian items such as automobiles and refrigerators, which are made largely of critical metals, would be cut sharply in 1952 because of expanding military output. That was the emphatic warning of the nation’s top mobilization chiefs, who said that manufacturers would get only about 50 percent of their usual amounts of steel, copper, and aluminum in the first quarter.
(Photo courtesy newspapers.com, Indiana Evening Gazette)