The Korean War, 70 Years Ago, The Inquirer, Philadelphia PA
Korean War Weekly Front Pages
11 November – 17 November 1951
The Inquirer, Philadelphia PA
Atrocities.
*****
On Tuesday Allied and Communist joint subcommittees met for the 20th time at Panmunjom with the deadlocked Korean truce negotiations further clouded by informal Communist charges that Allied planes had once again violated the neutral zone. The talks were bogged down on the problem of when an armistice zone was to be set up. The Allies were preparing for a long siege in the faded truce tent as the Communists revived their familiar assertion that Allied planes flew across the conference area; it was a similar charge that had broken up the talks the past August. The next day they met again, with the Reds believed ready to follow the Kremlin in a major strategy shift that would further imperil the faltering Korean peace talks. The Russian foreign minister had called on a withdrawal of Allied troops “at once.” This demand had almost broken up the talks before they got started in July.
On Friday Red negotiators opened a chink in the deadlock by disavowing their earlier demand for a cease-fire before the final armistice was signed. However, they parried Allied attempts to pin them down on their stand. The next day, in a sudden and dramatic move to break the prolonged deadlock, Allied negotiators told the Reds that their proposal for a tentative demarcation line along the present line of battle would be accepted. But they added the proviso that it would become the permanent demarcation line if the armistice was signed within 30 days from acceptance of the proposal by the five-member armistice delegations.
A bipartisan group of angry US congressmen demanded on Wednesday that the US drop the atomic bomb on Communist troops in Korea and break off truce negotiations with the “barbaric” Reds in retaliation for newly disclosed enemy atrocities. They were shocked and angered by disclosure by 8th Army headquarters in Pusan that the Communists had massacred 12,790 Allied captives, including 5,660 Americans. The 8th Army also reported more than 250,000 Korean civilians had been slaughtered by the Reds. Equally aroused, officials of the Executive Department warned that there would be a “reckoning” if the North Koreans and Chinese Communists failed to account for all United Nations prisoners. On Friday General Ridgway confirmed that the report was true, and said it showed “the moral principles of the leaders of the forces against which we fight in Korea.” He also expressed regret for the way the report was released by the Army.
Comedian Danny Kaye’s role of Walter Mitty, a man who day-dreamed that he was a surgeon, came true in Korea. Kaye had removed a wart with a scalpel after injecting Novocain. “Danny insisted the wart I had must be removed,” Captain Stewart Paul said. “Kaye performed the surgery himself – unassisted.” Paul said a medical officer told him “it was an excellent job.”
In a broadcast, Present Truman asserted that real lasting peace was this country’s “greatest goal,” but added that the defense buildup must continue to guard against “new dangers of world war.” In the absence of Mr. Truman, who was vacationing in Florida, the defense secretary laid a wreath on the president’s behalf at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington. Noting the freshly-dug graves of Korean War dead, the secretary said that United Nations soldiers in Korea were fighting now for the same cause for which the Unknown Soldier gave his life – “freedom.”
(Photo courtesy newspapers.com, Philadelphia Inquirer)