The Korean War, 70 Years Ago, The Plain Speaker, Hazelton, PA
Korean War Weekly Front Pages
22 July – 28 July 1951
The Plain Speaker, Hazelton PA
The Five Point Plan emerges.
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Allied troops beat back eight Red probing attacks along the Korean front Tuesday and fought for the third successive day to drive Communist troops off high ground near the east coast. All but one of the Red attacks were described as light. But south of Kamsong, east of the fallen iron triangle, Chinese forces made “a large probing attack.” It was halted, as were three in the Yanggu sector of the east central front and four northwest of Kansong on the East Coast. Later in the week was quieter, but the Red buildup continued. Nearly 1,200 trucks were sighted moving behind the enemy lines, heading south. At the end of the week, Allied attempts to capture dominating hills on the eastern front were blocked by stubborn communist resistance. The 8th Army reported that attacks by UN soldiers were blunted northeast of Yanggu and north of Inje. UN troops made similar attacks Thursday but fell back before intense mortar and artillery fire from Chinese positions.
At the start of the week, Allied negotiators gathered at UN Advance HQ, armed with final UN instructions for the resumption of Korean War cease-fire talks in Kaesong on Wednesday. The decisions made in Tokyo at a series of UN conferences would probably remain secret until the ninth meeting of negotiators in a Kaesong schoolhouse Wednesday. On that day, the Korean War would be 13 months old. Whether it would end soon or flare up anew on bloody fighting hinged on settlement of one vital question: Will the question of withdrawal of all foreign troops from Korea be placed on the cease-fire agenda? The Reds had insisted that the question be debated in full-scale armistice talks, to start when the list of topics for discussion had been adopted. The United Nations had said it was a political matter to be decided after an armistice.
At Wednesday’s restart of armistice talks, Communist negotiators advanced a new proposal on withdrawal of foreign troops from Korea. A UN spokesman said the new Red proposition was “reasonable in content and phraseology.” A UN general deemed it “more temperate and reasonable in tone” than previous Communist demands, and said it took 25 minutes to read. Officially the UN said the new Chinese and North Korean suggestion on troop withdrawals was “sufficiently interesting” for Allied delegates to propose a long overnight recess for further study. On the next day, Allied and Red delegates agreed on the exact limits of Korean armistice negotiations. United Nations spokesmen said negotiators approved a five-point program and immediately disposed of the first item. A Communist spokesman heralded this as a “progressive move toward an armistice.” But a UN announcement cautioned that delegates were far apart on the remaining four points, nobody knows how long it will take for them to agree, and shooting would continue until the armistice was signed. The five-point agenda included: 1) Adoption of the agenda; 2) Where to draw the truce line; 3) Arrangements to end the shooting; 4) Exchange of prisoners; and 5) Recommendations to both sides (including withdrawal of foreign troops.
On Friday the second item was addressed. The general understanding was that the UN wanted to set the truce line along the current battle line, while the Reds preferred the 38th Parallel. Starting from a point 35 miles north of the 38th parallel on the east coast, the battle lines ran roughly 15 to 20 miles north of the Parallel, for 75 miles to Chorwon. Then they dropped sharply south along the Imjin river, crossing the parallel at a point east of the Kaesong armistice site. Saturday’s session stalled over this disagreement. At the end of two hours and 25 minutes both sides held stubbornly to their positions. A heavy rain hammered down on the former Kaesong restaurant as grim negotiators faced each other across the green-topped conference table.
President Truman told Congress it probably would be necessary to strengthen the armed forces beyond the present goal of 3,500,000 men, regardless of peace prospects in Korea. He called for “full speed ahead” on the military buildup, with no yielding to those who would discard the anti-inflation control system “or shoot it full of holes.” Mr. Truman set his sights on a $30 billion [$314 billion in 2021] increase in the annual military spending rate in the year ahead. The president called the target strength of the Armed Forces, now almost reached, an “interim goal” which may be inadequate against the worldwide threat of Soviet “blackmail” and aggression. He also expressed his belief that the stand by the UN against aggression in Korea may have headed off a world war.
Higher prices on some clothing, especially woolens, were permitted under a ruling of the Office of Price Stabilization (OPS). The OPS also lifted a 23 day freeze on wearing apparel ceiling prices. The freeze was ordered 30 June on a long list of clothing items. It followed a congressional move banning price rollbacks in July while Congress worked on new economic controls legislation.
General Douglas MacArthur was mapping plans for a series of major speeches on foreign and domestic issues, an authoritative source said. MacArthur had returned late in the week from a railroad tour of southern and western New England. He had addressed a joint session of the Massachusetts House and Senate in Boston on Wednesday night. MacArthur’s official spokesman confirmed the fact that more speeches and observation-platform tours had been planned by the former Far Eastern commander.
(Photo courtesy newspapers.com, Hazelton Plain Speaker)