The Korean War, 70 Years Ago, The Republican and Herald, Pottsville PA
Korean War Weekly Front Pages
16 March 1952 – 22 March 1952
The Republican and Herald, Pottsville PA
Progress is made in the truce negotiations.
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Communist truce negotiators charged that an Allied plane strafed a prisoner camp in North Korea Sunday morning and wounded a British soldier. A Chinese staff officer said in a formal protest that such a “continual murder by your side of captured personnel on both sides makes people doubt whether your side has the sincerity to settle actively in [the] question of prisoners of war.” The officer was referring also to two riots in the Allied prison camp at Koje Island in South Korea, in which 88 Communist internees and soldiers had been killed. But on Wednesday United Nations and Communist negotiators were in virtual agreement on the last of their secondary problems – ports of entry. Next door, the session on prisoners of war broke up for the day after 23 minutes. Staff officers reported “no progress” in their efforts to clarify further the opposing views. Both sides asked questions – neither received answers. Late in the week Red truce negotiators proposed that both sides agreed to release all listed war prisoners without further squabbling over missing captives. The Communist “compromise” proposal provided for the freeing of only the 11,559 Allied and 132,474 Red prisoners whose names already had been exchanged. Of the Allied prisoners, 3,198 were Americans.
The battleship Wisconsin hurled 70 tons of high explosives into enemy installations along the Korean east coast in retaliation for the damage suffered during an artillery duel with Communist shore batteries. On the ground, infantryman slogged through heavy mud that hampered transportation. Fifth Air Force pilots took advantage of bright sunny skies to hit the enemy throughout North Korea, and later in the week bagged MIG-15s. Three seamen were injured when the Wisconsin, a veteran of two wars, was scarred for the first time. The 45,000 ton vessel was struck by a 76 mm shell as it pounded enemy positions as far inland as 18 miles. The hit had caused minor damage to the vessel’s deck, but injuries suffered by three casualties were reported not serious. Late in the week multiple cloud layers and snow flurries brought action nearly to a standstill in the war, both on the ground and in the air.
Secretary of State Dean Acheson predicted on Tuesday that the Korean armistice negotiations would be successful. He told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee the truth talks “are in a very difficult period,” but he said General Ridgeway was conducting them “with skill and firmness.” Atchison also said the situation in Indochina, where French troops were finding a holding action against a Communist-led uprising, is “very serious indeed.”
The national Democratic chairman said after lengthy talks with President Truman that peace in Korea would materially reduce the chances of the chief executive seeking reelection. He did not profess to know what Mr. Truman’s final decision would be, but he hoped for definite word from the president by 15 May when the Democratic National Executive Committee meets in Washington. The next day the president flatly denied that the peace in Korea was linked to his own political plans.
(Photo courtesy newspapers.com, Pottsville Republican and Herald)