The Korean War, 70 Years Ago, The Times-News, Mauch Chunk PA
Korean War Weekly Front Pages
10 February 1952 – 16 February 1952
The Times-News, Mauch Chunk PA
Compromises and new plans.
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The chief UN truce negotiator questioned Red China’s right to take part in a Korean peace conference and suggested that the problem of which nations should negotiate a peace be solved after an armistice was signed. He told the Reds, in effect, to give up any ideas of deciding the fate of Formosa [Taiwan] or settling other Asian problems at a Korean peace conference. The Allies previously made it clear that unless both sides agreed on recommendations none can be made. Negotiators had agreed to discuss withdrawal of foreign troops from Korea and peaceful settlement of the Korean question.
On Wednesday Allied negotiators accepted a 60-day limit on exchanging prisoners and offered to compromise their demands for supervising a Korean truce. The Communists had proposed the 60-day limit. The exchange was to start when an armistice was signed. The agreement did not touch the key question of voluntary repatriation. The Allies were offering a two-part compromise: first, if Communists agree to rotating 40,000 troops a month in addition to men on temporary leave, the Allies would drop two demands the Red opposed. Second, both sides would meet “halfway” on the number of ports of entry through which troops and arms could move under neutral supervision during a truce. The Reds were expected to draft a new plan for the last item on the armistice agenda, recommendations to the governments concerned for a settlement of the Korean problem. The next day Communist truce negotiators presented a new prisoner exchange plan incorporating some Allied ideas but clinging to their own demand for forced repatriation. The Allies had repeatedly said that they wouldn’t turn a single prisoner away against his will.
At the end of the week, the UN Command vetoed the Communist nomination of Soviet Russia as a neutral nation to help police a Korean armistice. The UN accepted two Soviet satellites, Poland and Czechoslovakia, as the other Red representatives on neutral behind-the-lines inspection teams. An Allied staff officer said the reason for rejection of the Russians should be obvious.
PFC Francis Nilo, Hazelton soldier in Korea, forwarded a letter to his mother. It emphasized the need for Red Cross blood on the Korean battlefield. It read, in part, “I’ve seen boys that have lost legs, arms and eyes, but they’re alive. Due to one major thing, yes, the blood you people back home gave through the Red Cross…I saw the medics in Korea divide, yes, mother, I said divide a pint of blood. It’s a shame and downright criminal…Please start another blood drive and make it clear just how much these kids need blood.”
(Photo courtesy newspapers.com, Mauch Chunk Times-News)