The Korean War, 70 Years Ago, The Press, Pittsburgh PA

Korean War Weekly Front Pages

13 July 1952 – 19 July 1952

The Press, Pittsburgh PA

One issue holds up the armistice.

*****

Allied strategists believed that the greatest one-two aerial punch of the Korean War had knocked out a vast Communist buildup in and around the shattered North Korean capital of Pyongyang. Allied Command had hurled a record fleet of 850 warplanes at select targets in and outside the city. They shuttled over the area all day Friday, then 54 B-29 Superforts from Japan and Okinawa, the biggest armada of bombers mobilized lately, delivered the second blow of the assault Friday night. Returning airman reported “excellent results.” They saw mushrooming explosions and fires still roaring from the daylight assault. The raiders kindled great fires in a rubber factory, a railroad roundhouse, and key supply points in the capital city.

 A new tone of less hatred and distrust in the Panmunjom conference tent kept the Korean truce talks alive and even showed faint signs of progress. But the week which saw the conference go into a second year brought no real evidence that the Allied and Communist negotiators would find peace in the foreseeable future. Foggy clues seeping through secrecy surrounding the talks indicated the delegates were playing a cat-and-mouse game with voluntary repatriation, the sole issue holding up a truce. Cautious comment by Allied spokesmen and Communist propaganda broadcasts suggested both sides were willing to give some ground within the framework of their basic demands – the Allies for voluntary repatriation, the Reds against it. But neither side showed any desire to withdraw far enough from its “final and irrevocable” stand to make way for an armistice.

 (Photo courtesy newspapers.com, Pittsburgh Press)