The Korean War, 70 Years Ago, The Morning Call, Allentown PA
Korean War Weekly Front Pages
20 January 1952 – 26 January 1952
The Morning Call, Allentown PA
The Twilight War.
*****
On Sunday the UN General assembly formally rejected a Russian proposal for new Korean truce terms. The vote was 35 against, five (Soviet bloc) for, and ten abstentions. Russia had revived an old proposal for an immediate Korean cease-fire and armistice, withdrawal of troops from the 38th Parallel in 10 days, and pulling out all foreign troops, including “volunteers,” in three months. A US delegate said the move would only “confuse and delay the negotiations for an armistice,” and debates in the UN would not provide a substitute for the good faith needed on the other side. If the USSR really wanted an armistice, it was noted, they should bring influence where it might have some effect – on the North Korean and Chinese commanders.
A new Communist charge of Allied aerial violation muddied still further the bogged down Korean armistice talks. Injected into Saturday’s unproductive meetings was a Red charge that four US jet planes bombed and strafed a plainly marked truce motor convoy between Kaesong and the Korean communist capital of Pyongyang on Friday afternoon. The Communists termed it a “grave protest.” A US spokesman said the charge would be investigated, but he added that the Allies did not view the charge “with any more gravity than we have viewed past allegations.”
On Sunday the UN Command offered to reconsider an important phase of their armistice prisoner exchange demands if the Communists would say how many civilians they intended to return to South Korea. The Communists reacted warily, but did not flatly rejected the move. They had agreed previously to the principle of repatriating civilians, but not as part of an exchange of war prisoners. The chief Allied negotiator on the prisoner exchange issue said that the talks were drifting toward “a complete stalemate.” On Tuesday, the Communists rejected flatly an Allied offer to accept the full Red proposal for policing a truce if the Reds would agree to ban construction of military airfields in North Korea. Actually, both sides already had reached virtual agreement on all issues of truce supervision except in the airfield reconstruction. The Allies hinted that an oral promise by the Communists not to build up Red air power during a truce might break the deadlock on supervising an armistice. At week’s end, the Allies were awaiting a Communist reply to their proposal to shelve the airfield issue while other aspects of an armistice were worked out.
The US Fifth Air Force reported that by Saturday ten Allied planes had been shot down during the past week, two of them F-86 Sabrejets, in dog fights with Russian-built MIG-15s. Eight of the Allied losses were attributed to ground fire. Sabre pilots downed three MIGs and damaged seven others during the same period. The Allied losses brought to 26 the number of warplanes shot down in aerial combat and by ground fire within the past two weeks. The 16 losses during the first week in that period were a new high in the Korean War. Snow flurries fell Saturday on the generally inactive battlefront. Despite the limited disability, Air Force fighters and bombers flew 386 missions, most of them against northwest rail lines linking Communist battle positions and the Manchurian border. A ten minute exchange of fire on the central front was the only clash reported on the entire 145-mile Korean ground front Sunday. It was one of the quietest days since the “twilight” war set in last November, as Allied troops maintained position and patrolled. On Tuesday, an Allied patrol killed ten Chinese Reds and wounded four others in a sharp grenade-throwing skirmish on Korea’s western front. The action northwest of Korangpo lasted thirty minutes before the UN troops withdrew. On Thursday Allied raiding parties fought two short but sharp actions with the Reds on the western front as the Korean War went through its 19th month.
President Truman’s call for an $85.4 billion budget [$898.4 billion in 2022] – the biggest ever except in all-out war years – drew quick congressional outcries against “squandering” the taxpayers money. Senate and House tax leaders said they would insist on cuts ranging from four to seven billion. Would such cuts materialize was another question. Three out of every four dollars of the outgo would be for national security spending, including 60% for military services.
(Photo courtesy newspapers.com, Allentown Morning Call)