The Korean War: The Untold Truth

Chapter 22 "Police Operations" (2)
He told reporters in an alarmist manner: "This plane is not armed. We cannot guarantee that it will be escorted by fighter jets, and we are not sure where to land. If you don't show up at the airport tomorrow, I will think that you are on other missions."

One of the reporters was eager to assure the general that he and his colleagues would arrive on time.According to Whitney, the general's subordinate, MacArthur replied with a smile: "I have no doubts about your courage, but I just want to leave a chance for you to decide for yourself."

MacArthur's warnings about the dangers of the trip were deliberately fabricated.Forewarning them in advance that they will risk their lives with him will increase their courage. Besides, how can a competitive reporter refuse the invitation to accompany the commander-in-chief on a field tour?He threatened that there would be no fighter escort for this trip, which is pure nonsense.Given that the plan for this trip was issued for half a day, the Air Force will of course arrange enough planes to escort this senior US military officer in Asia. (After the "Bataan" plane lifted off, four Air Force fighter jets followed immediately to protect it as it flew to North Korea.)
But MacArthur left Japan in a dramatic atmosphere.With heavy rain washing over Haneda Airport, Storey, a cautious landline pilot, suggested a day's delay.MacArthur was shaving when he heard the news, and said, "No, we're leaving immediately." At the airport, Life magazine reporter David Douglas Duncan noted, "MacArthur looked refreshed, his eyes sparkling, Like I've seen sometimes on the faces of people with high fevers."When the plane reached the cruising altitude, MacArthur took out the famous corncob pipe.This pipe, along with the wrinkled battle cap, had been his trademark in the Pacific War.Someone interjected and joked: "I haven't seen you smoking this pipe for many years, General." MacArthur said with a smile: "I dare not smoke this pipe in Tokyo. They will think that I am at best an old farmer." (In fact, journalist William Matthews had heard the same remark four days earlier in MacArthur's office, while the general was smoking the pipe.)
After a while, MacArthur left the reporter to discuss official business with George Stratmeyer, Commander of the Far East Air Force.Strattmeyer argued for loosening restrictions on the Air Force.He said he asked for permission to attack North Korean airports in order to gain air supremacy.His planes were too busy covering South Korean forces to search for and attack Communist targets.

MacArthur thought for a moment and instructed him to only destroy North Korean targets south of the [-]th parallel.He turned to General Willoughby and said: "If I bomb the north of the [-]th parallel, Washington will not hang me?" Willoughby was speechless, so MacArthur has been talking about this issue loudly.Several times he moved the problem to an abstract level.In his view, the direction of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is not so much restrictive as permissive.

Although the Joint Chiefs of Staff did not authorize MacArthur to bomb areas north of the 8th parallel, it did not prohibit him from doing so.In the operational environment, field commanders should be allowed discretion.If North Korea remained a sanctuary, the Communists could continue to mobilize and send additional troops south of the [-]th parallel.As long as it is in this situation, MacArthur will not be able to follow Washington's order to give "effective military assistance" to South Korean troops.The more he talked—both to himself and to a sympathetic audience—the more he felt justified in thinking that traditional military practices were not good enough for him.At [-] a.m. he dictated a telegram: "Stratemeyer to Partridge, destroy North Korean airfields immediately. Keep quiet. MacArthur has approved."

Among MacArthur's confidants, General Courtney Whitney is probably the best at flattering people. He warmly praised the general for his resourcefulness and stayed away from the orders of his superiors. "As long as Washington empowers him, there will be no timid delays here. There is courage to make a decision and the courage to take responsibility at all times, which has always been MacArthur's forte." Whitney claimed that he saw another One officer had a "light of admiration" in his eye when he heard the decision, "and he spoke to all of us on the plane: 'MacArthur is at his best -- he's an invincible general. commander!'"

But this scene also shows that MacArthur is in the worst condition. As the commander-in-chief, he wants to avoid obeying orders by playing intellectual games.Ironically, just a few hours before MacArthur's visit to North Korea, the National Security Council had just discussed the issue of bombing areas north of the [-]th parallel.Air Force Secretary Thomas Finlatt called for the restrictions to be lifted to provide "adequate air support" to the South Korean Army.

Undecided, Truman asked the chief of staff of the Air Force, General Vandenberg, to "look into the matter."The US "may have to" bomb North Korean air bases and oil storage tanks, but the president "has no intention of making a decision at this time".

Vandenberg understood the sensitivity of the issue. Since North Korea's air bases were 30 to 40 miles north of the [-]th parallel, "it was impossible for our planes to even cross the border by mistake."

Dean Acheson, who has held a hawkish view so far, hopes that "we will not fly over the [-]th parallel".

Truman was blunt: "We wouldn't do that."

Defense Secretary Johnson appeared to emphasize the president's words by reminding Vandenberg, "These are his orders."

As events unfolded, a chain of events in North Korea over a 24-hour period forced Truman to quickly reverse his views on the [-]th Parallel and allow the bombing of North Korea—something MacArthur had already decided to do desperately.It didn't matter that Truman backtracked, but it was the first (and by no means the last) usurpation breach since MacArthur went to war.Such arrogance ultimately destroyed his authority as a field commander.

patrol the battlefield
As the "Bataan" plane approached North Korea, the radio reported that Suwon Airport, the destination of the trip, 20 miles south of Seoul, had been heavily strafed.As the plane descended, a Communist Yak destroyer fighter jet swooped down in an attempt to pass through the four American escort fighter jets flying in close formation above the Bataan.

"Attack!" someone shouted in the cabin, and everyone rushed to the aisle—except MacArthur, who walked quickly to a porthole and watched a Mustang fighter take on the Yak. "Our plane is beating it." MacArthur said excitedly.The Yak plane was driven away before it could fire.The driver Storey made a sudden evasive action and finally saved himself from danger.

But just moments before, Communist fighter jets hit two American transport planes at Suwon Airfield, the Bataan passing through billowing smoke and a burning C-20 transport plane 54 feet away, in a crater-ridden gliding bumpily on the runway.

The senior U.S. military officer who was greeted at the airport was Brigadier General John Church, who had not invited any South Korean officials to greet him.According to Harold Noble, the first secretary of the embassy, ​​Church obviously knew nothing about the South Korean Army and did not want to know.Noble, who is well versed in Asian issues, was born in China to parents who were Presbyterian missionaries.He has long been a writer and intelligence officer in the Far East.Noble tartly described Church as "a muddleheaded fellow who can't help himself."A few days earlier, the pair had flown to North Korea on the same plane, and after conversations en route, Noble no longer saw him as a figure to be taken seriously.Church, who had never been to North Korea, told Noble, "I'd rather have 100 New York police officers than the entire South Korean Army." Mucho reported the matter, so General Cai Bingde, Chief of the South Korean General Staff, together with Mucho, as well as the distraught President Rhee and other lower-ranking US and South Korean officials, came to the airport to greet MacArthur.

Wearing a faded khaki shirt, a crumpled leather jacket, a battered hat with a gold trim, a telescope on his chest, and a pair of sunglasses to cover his eyes despite the gloomy weather, MacArthur is scruffy and handsome. , He pretended to be careless and set foot on the asphalt runway of Suwon Airport.He recognized Syngman Rhee, and walked up to the staggering oriental man, put his arms around his shoulders, and greeted him affectionately.Mu Qiao led the group to a crumbling school building on the edge of the air force base, where the headquarters of Church Advisory Group is located.MacArthur couldn't wait to ask about the situation.The purpose of his trip was to get more solid facts, not just Church's official briefing, which was nothing more than a repetition of information that MacArthur could obtain through telegrams.

Syngman Rhee summed up the current situation most brilliantly when he said: "We are in a dangerous situation." Church pointed out in his report that only 10 of the 2.5-man South Korean Army remained, or three-quarters lost.MacArthur asked General Tsai how he planned to deal with the situation.General Tsai replied that he intended to recruit two million North Korean youths to be trained to repel the North Korean invasion.The American officials said nothing, listening in bewilderment.Though politely refraining from saying it, they viewed General Tsai's vision as unattainable and a pathetically unrealistic gesture.Even the friendly Harold Noble had to admit that General Tsai's "fat, sleepy face failed to give the impression of a true soldier".MacArthur looked him over, but made no comment. (Later, he told Syngman Rhee that South Korea should have a new chief of staff. Within 200 hours, General Chae was relieved.) Church went on to say that the immediate tactical issue was to take a series of measures to block order The feared Soviet tank, with its clanging tracks and protective steel plates, made the Korean infantry daunting.Otherwise, they drive straight down the peninsula.Although the Military Advisory Group in South Korea had earlier deemed North Korea's rice fields unsuitable for tank movement, the North Korean People's Army managed to control the road and keep their tanks clear.

As soon as Church put down the pointer, MacArthur stood up.He patted his knee impatiently and said: "Let's go to the front to see." The cautious Church asked him to stay in Suwon. The front line 20 miles to the north was unpredictable, and the Koreans would be defeated at any time; MacArthur was already close to the front line , beyond the bounds of prudence.MacArthur flatly rejected the suggestion: "The only way to judge a battle is to be there and see the troops fighting. Let's go."

Someone found an old black Dodge car for the general to ride in, and the assistants and reporters shared several jeeps.MacArthur sat in the car, clenching his corncob pipe, as the small observation team traveled through what Church called "the dreadful countercurrent of a defeated army."They came to the banks of the Han River just as South Korean rear guards were doing their best to cover combatants and civilians fleeing south.The Han River is to Seoul what the Potomac River is to Washington.For example, MacArthur seems to be standing next to the wooden fence on the Virginia side of the "Chain Bridge", watching a rout of the army retreating south.

It was a terrifying sight.Seoul is in flames, with smoke billowing from the 600-year-old city and blazes blazing.MacArthur watched silently, listening to the dull explosion of North Korean mortar shells.Then he took down his pipe, pointed to another hill closer to the Han River, and said to the chief of staff, Major General Edward Almond, "Let's go up that hill. What do you think, Ned?"

His advice was an order, so they drove as far as cars could go before getting out and walking up the hill.

General Whitney described the scene in this way:

The screams of deadly shrapnel echoed in the sky, the stench was everywhere, and the bleak scene of the aftermath of the battlefield was everywhere.Refugees crowded all the roads in one torrent of snaking moving dusty people. ... This scene was enough to convince him (MacArthur) that the defensive potential of South Korea had been exhausted.Nothing stood in the way of Communist tank columns traveling from Seoul to Pusan ​​at the southern tip of the peninsula along the few intact roads.At that time, the whole of North Korea will be theirs.

MacArthur stayed on the hill for about an hour, the scene in front of him and the future strategy churning in his mind.He put down his binoculars and pointed to the remains of a railway bridge over the Han River (where North Korean tanks and trucks might still pass). "Get rid of it." He spit out a few words, then turned and got into the Dodge sedan to return to Suwon.

General Matthew Ridgway, then Deputy Chief of Staff of the Army and later succeeding MacArthur as Commander of the Far East, compared these grisly descriptions with General Edward Almond's contemporaneous report and found it "very interesting."MacArthur's memoirs spoke of "the dreadful countercurrent of a defeated and retreating army. The South Korean army was completely dismantled."From his vantage point overlooking the Han River, MacArthur saw "a disintegrated and panting army .General Almond, who was standing on the same mountain watching the same unit at that time, said in a report to the chiefs of staff of the three armed forces in the same week that the South Korean soldiers were "talking and laughing, everyone was armed with guns, and saluted one after another."As MacArthur said, there were mortar shells falling, but they were sporadic and far away, and no one cared.In his memoirs of the war, Ridgway expressed doubts about the source of MacArthur's sight of the troops covered in dust, because in the previous 12 hours, there had been continuous showers around Seoul.Li Qiwei discovered from MacArthur's "reports written by ghosts" that "a tendency to add fuel and jealousy, that is, the darker the darker, the brighter the brighter.  …"

On the way back to Suwon, MacArthur's car convoy was overtaken by a jeep carrying reporters. The reporters shouted, "The communist Jacques plane is coming!" They all looked for places to hide.MacArthur sat steadily in the old Dodge car, letting the Yak plane buzz and circle overhead for half an hour.The plane did not straf, but MacArthur's fearlessness left a deep impression on the bystanders and reporters, and it was indispensable to mention it in their articles.But it's hard to call it a brave move: a senior commander risking his life for show, or the kind of suicidal malady subconsciously shown repeatedly to his lieutenant Tommy Davis decades ago. relapse into old ways (see Introduction to this book).

After returning to the school building, MacArthur and Syngman Rhee had a private conversation for about an hour.MacArthur did not spread any false optimism that the ROK Army was at stake.MacArthur believes that the South Korean army is difficult to resist on its own, but he still intends to provide all possible assistance to help South Korea defend itself.As the two talked, Yak planes near the airfield and in the air battle in the distance were firing unusually hard.Since MacArthur's actions were still subject to various restrictions, he could not wish to provide full support to South Korea.However, according to his later writings, on the way of this inspection, he had already conceived a basic strategy to reverse the situation of the war: gradually put a small reserve force into the gap, as an expedient measure to boost the morale of the flagging South Koreans; Stabilize the battle in a defensive area as far south as possible, allowing the U.S. military to establish a foothold on the Korean peninsula; increase U.S. forces until they are equal or superior to the enemy; The amphibious assault launched a bold attack in the North Korean rear far from the battle lines. (According to MacArthur's later recollection, when he stood on the top of the mountain, he had already selected the landing site: Incheon Port, more than 20 miles west of Seoul. See Chapter 7 of this book.)
On his way back to Tokyo that night, MacArthur told the New York Herald Tribune reporter Margaret Higgins that if the United States intends to save North Korea, it must use ground forces. "Give me two U.S. divisions, and I will be able to hold North Korea," he said. "As soon as I returned to Tokyo, I suggested to President Truman to send two U.S. divisions to North Korea immediately. But I don't know whether the president will accept my suggestion. "

At about 8 o'clock on Thursday night, MacArthur arrived in Japan, and it was 6 o'clock in the morning US Eastern Time.But instead of immediately asking the Joint Chiefs of Staff to send troops, as he had told Higgins, he was just playing another trick of duplicity to make sure he got everything he needed.It turned out that the chiefs of staff of the armed services and the president had made the same decision—to use U.S. ground forces—but through a lengthy and deeply indecisive process.

(End of this chapter)