The Korean War, 70 Years Ago, The Gazette and Daily, York PA

Korean War Weekly Front Pages

19 October 1952 – 25 October 1952

The Gazette and Daily, York PA

Can India help?

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A UN front line officer reported on Tuesday that more than 7,500 Chinese had been killed or wounded in ground action alone since 14 October in the vicious central Korea fighting for Triangle Hill and Sniper Ridge. He said air strikes probably accounted for many more during the limited Allied offensive which had largely achieved the two objectives. The previous night, artillery of both sides dueled across the valley between Sniper and Triangle. The Allied troops dug in for the next enemy blow, but badly mauled Chinese Reds showed no appetite for renewing attacks on the heights. The night was perfect for an attack: starless and foggy.

Some 150 York countians, the largest number since reactivation of the draft in September 1950, would be inducted into the armed forces during November, local draft boards announced. The largest previous call came in March 1951, when 123 men were inducted Calls for February and April of that year, soon after a fierce counterattack by North Koreans, were also over the hundred mark.

The powerful UN Political Committee approved top billing for an immediate debate on Korea. The vote was 51 in favor, five (Soviet bloc) opposed, and four countries abstaining. The US Secretary of State, Dean Acheson, was ready to lay before the committee a detailed report on the entire Korea armistice negotiations at Panmunjom. He had shaped up a resolution said to contain a proposal for the committee to endorse the UN stand at Panmunjom and to appeal to the Communists to accept an armistice on UN terms. It was also disclosed that the US had asked India to help arrange a truce in Korea through top-level diplomatic contact with the Asian Communists. India had been looked upon since the start of the Korean War on 25 June 1950 as a possible peacemaker and had in effect invited herself in the past for that role. It was speculated that the Indian Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, had already begun feeling out the officials in Peiping (Beijing) before telling the US whether India was willing to undertake the task or not.

(Photo courtesy newspapers.com, York Gazette and Daily)