KOREA MUST STAY HALF FREE
Noble, Harold J.
Korea Must Stay Half Free Democracy's Last Asian Outpost Needs U.S. Aid By Harold J.Noble BEFORE CONGRESS at this moment Is President Truman's recommendation for $150 atflHon for aid to the...
...When spring comes aroujl again next year will the patriots 0 Korea be but a memory of heroism*6 be pitied and then forgotten...
...Many Observers believe that the North Korean communist army will not attack the south so long as American soldiers are there to get in the way...
...If that was the ultimate intention of American policy, some Koreans say it would have been far kinder to have pulled out of Korea two or three yean ago with no false talk about freedom and independence...
...It eoud not have come into existence if WMnNtt communists had been free to •Sfujf the country in bloodshed...
...An experienced soldier, he had no political experience when he took office as premier last summer...
...The problems of Korea, problems of security and stability, of feeding and clothing and lighting and policing the nation with so little against such tremendous odds can only be faced by men who are determined and courageous and downright stubborn...
...For the argument, suppose that these Comunists didn't want to fight the British for the present, and therefore were waiting for the Tommies to leave before the "Peoples Army of Florida" drove south on Miami and Key West...
...Lee is hard, expansive, fluent in Korean, Japanese and Chinese, generous, quick of mind and filled with hatred of the Communists...
...The test of Korean capacity to stand alone may begin within the next few months if our troops pull out...
...He got through by a small margin...
...The greater part of the American Army of Occupation was withdrawn last fall...
...The government of the Korean Republic works feverishly to prepare an army so that when that Russian armed and directed "Peoples Army" does begin its violent advance it can be stopped and destroyed...
...If courage can keep South Korea part of the free world, so it will remain...
...The Communists have placed good, but variable, prices on their heads, and frequent attempts have been made on Rhee's life both before and since his election...
...Perhaps the day of miracles j has not yet passed, but free Koreans would feel far safer with a few thdu-^ sand American troops to deter ih« enemy from attempted conquest than to rely on the caprice Of less teeftNe miracles...
...When Dr...
...In a recent issue, we brought you Harold J. Noble's article on Communist North Korea, entitled "Korean People's Democracy...
...THE REPUBLIC OF KOREA has existed only since last August 15th...
...They had set up a communist dictatorship, the "Democratic People's Republic of Korea," led by Russian-picked Korean Communists...
...Thirty-five miles aren't very far for a good army to advance, evea under fire...
...With the end of the Occupation and transfer «of governmental powers from Military Government to Korean Government, Washington considered our military obligation for Korea had ended...
...Do miracles still occurs...
...Communist Korean armies, organized, armed and directed by the Russians stand poised for attack at the 38th Parallel, at one point only thirty-five miles north of the free capital of Seoul...
...garrison of British troops supported from Cuba...
...His thumb is very green...
...Only because United States troops enabled Koreans to live in major security, to hold free elections and to set up a free government is it possible for the Republic to exist today...
...Rhee, his face lined with smile wrinkles beneath his flat, Oriental eye line and silver hair, is about seventy-five years old...
...If we don't, then this is not the military picture...
...They are entirely American equipped, including M-ls and light artillery, and wear American uniforms...
...But consider the reality in Northern Asia, Siberia, Mongolia, Turkestan, Manchuria, North Korea, China proper even south of the Yangtse, are now under Communist control...
...After the war he returned to Korea, but didn't mix in the violent maelstrom of Korean politics until his sudden nomination as premier by President Rhee last summer...
...Many Koreans ask why the United States should have encouraged them to establish an independent government with advice, with military afd and with extensive financial resistance if they intended to let the communists conquer in the end...
...If the United States should have to fight Russia, the ruggedmountains of Korea, some 5,000 miles from Moscow, would be the last possible place chosen for battle with the Soviets...
...THE KOREAN ARMY looks good...
...Today, Chinese and Korean and Russian Communist armies nearly encircle South Korea in a great ar...
...After the last British soldier had sailed away how long would the Communists wait to begin their drive to overrun that last outpost of freedom in North America...
...When he took office he was deeply troubled to find that the constabulary, the nucleus of the national army, which had been recruited and trained by American Military Govern ment, was heavily infiltrated by communists...
...Lee took the job of Defense Minister concurrently with the premiership because of his own extensive military experience...
...Can free Korea hope tolas' through the bitter winter which HP ahead...
...In the north the Russians have withdrawn their army of occupation across a river into Siberia...
...He was graduated from a Chinese military academy in the early 1021a, and then entered upon the rough, herd but satisfying: life of a guerilla against, the Japanese in Manchuria...
...The communists' "Peoples Army" has but one mission, the conquest of South Korea...
...police guards ride with him...
...AMERICAN POLICY seems to be to get the iroops out while backing the Korean government with money and advice...
...How they will shape up in battle, of course, remains to be seen...
...Now we present a look at the free half of that divided land...
...and was special adviser on Korea to the US delegation to the United Nations General Assembly...
...Washington certainly wants a free Korea, but in considering our various military commitments our military planners do no see how we can afford to keep any part of our small army trapped in the strategically useless Korean peninsula...
...A military Advisory Group of moderate size is in Seoul to assist the Korean army with modern technical training...
...Only a shaky Japan lies open behind...
...courageous people who are on our side in this very cold war which is so very much warmer in Korea...
...Ahead of the president rides a car full of heavily armed men...
...Syngman Rhee, a graduate of American universities, an exile during forty years of Japanese rule until his return home in 1945...
...If the Koreans still have time to fully train their 50,000 men in addition to auxiliaries they should have a formidable force...
...Suppose they held all Canada, the United States and most of Mexico...
...As a very young man Lee escaped to China because he couldn't stand life under Japanese rule...
...When the last American troops sail away how long can this small country successfully resist the enormous pressure of the Communist dictatorships to north and east and west before it too is absorbed in the Communist world system...
...He is the only cabinet member whose appointment must be confirmed by the Assembly...
...Like all other members of the government, President Rhee is marked for violent death...
...Harold J. Noble has spent a great part of his life in Korea, served as Far Eastern correspondent for the "Saturday Evening Post...
...In war with Russia, Korea would not be a Batean but a Guam, with every soldier lost to the enemy in a few days...
...Before they withdrew, however, they had -carefully trained and equipped a good army of communist Koreans, larger than the army in the south...
...The Korean Communists army is very good, and it is supported by Soviet forces across one river to the northeast and Communist Chinese forces due north across another...
...He is equally fluent in Korean and English...
...Every National Assemblyman is assigned two policemen to guard him...
...They drive along rapidly, and as soon as they have passed the police march away to other duties...
...ECA handles the money, and has developed sn extensive program for building vitally needed hydroelectric and other essential plants...
...and another car filled with armed men follows closely behind...
...A communist mutiny last October actually was helpful to the Korean government since so many of the communists in the army unmasked themselves...
...Francesca...
...Like the President a long-time exile he spent most of his years abroad in actual combat against the Japanese...
...There is some spark, some magnetism about this determined old man which captures their imagination and holds their respect...
...Nominally, this "people's democracy," which claims jurisdiction over the whole Korean peninsula, is an independent state, but behind a facade at votes and parliament it is exactly as free and independent as Outer Mongolia or the Ukraine...
...SUPPOSE Russian-led Communists had conquered North America...
...WBI they be allowed that time...
...If five Assemblymen gather at a restaurant or some private home for dinner at least ten husky young men will be seen loafing around the doors and windows...
...On a sunny day President Rhee will spend hours beside some flowering garden pool, going over papers with his wife, or sneaking time from affairs of state to work with the shrubs and flower...
...He's spent too many years fighting for a Korea free of Japan calmly to accept Kerean absorbtion by Russia...
...Only one small portion of Northeastern Asia,—the southern half of the Korean peninsula—remains outside the Communist curtain...
...Rhee was elected president last summer by overwhelming vote of the popularly elected National Assembly...
...Rhee lias known his destiny and his duty for over forty years, and he meets it witheut fear...
...Almost daily the North Korean Communists threaten belligerently over their radio that the day will soon come when their "Peoples Army" will move south to occupy Seoul, raise their flag over the capitol, and kill all "traiTors...
...Their officers are young, lean and hard...
...That is the military picture—if we should have to fight Russia...
...Aid By Harold J.Noble BEFORE CONGRESS at this moment Is President Truman's recommendation for $150 atflHon for aid to the free Republic of Korea...
...Today there seem to be no signs that war is coming in the immediate future...
...But without continued and extensive American military assistance the odds seem badly weighted against the...
...With his much younger, Austrian wife...
...A large American Embassy staff, headed by big, dark, good-looking, slow spoken John Muccio of Conecticut, not only represents the United States but stands ready to give advice on request...
...White the free nations of Western Europe have grown ever stronger with American financial aid and military alliance, during the past year the communists have advanced steadily in Eastern Asia...
...The leaders of the Korean Republic are determined to protect their country's freedom with their lives...
...Suppose onlySouth Florida still held out against them aided by a small...
...Almost alone of the neighbors of *• Soviet Union, Korea has kept her ia> dependence, and that in itself is «, miracle...
...Can financial aid and military advice, no matter how well conceived, be enough...
...The military argument for the withdrawal of every American soldier from Korea is unanswerable...
...These guards are in plainclothes, their pistols hidden, but it's easy to spot them...
...If that is so, then it seems that political rather than military considerations should govern the withdrawal of the last few United States troops still remaining in Korea...
...After three years of occupation, last summer the United States Army surrendered its governing powers to the Government of the Korean Republic, which was based on UN-observed popular elections...
...Thousands of their troops already haw been battle tested in Manchuria, asdeU their senior officers have had years ef combat experience in the Russian on Chinese communist armies...
...Despite his many years abroad, despite his semi-foreign manners and idiom, the average Korean looks upon Syngman Rhee as the epitome of Korean patriotism...
...At the urgent request of the Korean government, however, a few thousand were left behind...
...He has enormous energy despite his age...
...Rhee leaves his home to go in to town the streets are lined with police-, both afoot and mounted, along the whole route...
...The President of the Republic of Korea is Dr...
...During the recent war Lee rose te the rank of general in the Chinese Army,, first with Chinese troops and later as acommander of Korean volunteers serving as an autonomous body within the Nationalist Army...
...In Net Unset Aeia today, Korea stands alone as freedom's outpost, because south Korea has had American military protection as well as financial assistance...
...PREMIER LEE BUM-SUK is a vigorous man of about fifty, from the Korean point of view very young for such high office...
...Syngman Rhee lives in the impressive mansion of th?j former Japanese Governor General at the foot of North Mountain just behind the extensive Capitol grounds...
...Such supposition is fantasy, of course...
...The Government of the Reupblic of Korea could not have come into, existence if United States troops had not kept the Russians out of the south...
...A year ago armies of the Chinese Republic not only defended China proper, but thrust a long salient nortnward into Manchuria, flanking tru< Communist enemies of the Korean Republic...
...Ever since then Lee and his subordinates have been trying to locate the subversives...
Vol. 32 • June 1949 • No. 25
