Second Round in Korea?:
LIMB, BEN C.
Are the Communists preparing a SECOND ROUND IN KOREA? By Ben C. Limb UN representative, Republic of Korea WHILE today's headlines deal with Formosa, Korea is still a danger spot and may again be...
...and at the Geneva Conference in 1954...
...Politically, Korea is effectively united under the leadership of the capable, far-sighted anti-Communist...
...The free world probably still has a margin of time to strike back in limited wars of liberation, thus doing its own "whittling down" in the only kind of strategy that can prevent a final global atomic war...
...Thus, they showed conclusively that, rather than seeking a world war, they could hardly be goaded into one...
...Of course, it is difficult for anyone outside the Kremlin and its Peking anteroom to be certain of what military aggression is being planned...
...If perpetual peace is now possible, we may all utter heartfelt prayers of thanksgiving...
...Economically, Korea, which is a rich country, was ruined by the Thirty-eighth Parallel division...
...They boast of having met and defeated the greatest military powers of the free world...
...which is hamstrung by its Polish and Czech members...
...A new diplomatic threat to us is the April conference of the so-called Asia-Africa bloc...
...necessarily to be elected in an atmosphere of sharp competition...
...Panicky free-world spokesmen cried that be had destroyed "hope" of a truce...
...the truce talks...
...But, even if the Republic of Korea is not to be once again the central target of the "Road to Paris through Peking" program, we have ample reason for concern...
...At any time in 1951-53, we and our allies could have won the war and reunified all Korea...
...In the early summer of 1953...
...But in six thousand years of recorded history, there has scarcely been a single generation that did not have to beat back the threat of imperialistic conquest...
...Since 1945, they have subjugated more than 600 million people...
...The U.S.-ROK Mutual Defense Treaty must be at least partly offset (in Communist thinking) by those American officials who frequently declare that they would never favor getting into any more "Korea-type" wars...
...What is more, they have a tremendous build-up of air and land supplies in North Korea...
...But the Communists do not want, and will not permit, the tensions to be relieved...
...and have sacrificed their property, risked their lives, and abandoned friends and relatives to escape into the free (if devastated) ROK area...
...President Syngman Rhee...
...Time after time, the world's democracies have made grave sacrifices to "relieve tension...
...The courageous action by President Rhee gave the free world positive proof that bold counter-measures can succeed where nothing else will in the struggle against Communist totalitarianism...
...But the Red armies, which were demoralized and famished for supplies in the spring of 1951, when they were "saved by the bell...
...It offers sharp contrast with the totalitarian police power of the Communist regimes...
...At least a million of these troops are already concentrated in North Korea, where they are heavily supplied with huge quantities of munitions, tanks and artillery brought up in direct violation of the truce...
...There are many reasons for this: 1. The Republic of Korea is the only continental land base for free-world military power that can threaten the industrial centers of Red China and the Soviet Far East...
...By Ben C. Limb UN representative, Republic of Korea WHILE today's headlines deal with Formosa, Korea is still a danger spot and may again be a scene of conflict between the Communist and free worlds...
...We Koreans remain strong in the belief that an attack against us would instantly bring another American expeditionary force to our aid...
...While this has been going on, our own pleas for a concomitant build-up of ROK military strength have been vetoed...
...Furthermore, the Reds have built up a series of military airfields in North Korea and have based at least 450 jet fighters and bombers on them???again in violation of the truce...
...An attack on South Korea might also start an involved argument among the "neutralists" in the United Nations...
...But the Communists undoubtedly have their eyes peeled for the time when the Republic of Korea will undergo the throes of transition to new and untried leadership...
...What industrial and mineral potential we have in South Korea has been largely devastated by the war, and the rehabilitation program is moving with ponderous slowness...
...It is painfully evident that South Korea, its population swollen by four million refugees, cannot become self-sufficient while separated from the North...
...circles for such a renewed struggle, the Reds may well be figuring differently...
...In June 1950, the Pyongyang radio was broadcasting demands for a "unity conference" right up to the hour of the sneak attack...
...True, we are now stronger than we have ever been in the past...
...Congress to make up our large annual deficits indefinitely...
...Here Chou En-lai and Nehru will provide the leadership in what may be an intensification of the decade-long program of making "just one more concession" to the Communists...
...are now cock-ily arrogant...
...The fact was quite the reverse...
...The time will come when our outside support will dwindle below our subsistence point...
...They keep rolling forward, apparently confident that the free world can be whittled down to digestible size before the strongest powers are aroused to fight back...
...They now control more than a third of the world's population and about a third of its land...
...As soon as the Communists were confronted by a man of iron instead of cautiously conciliatory negotiators, they stopped stalling and signed the truce documents...
...coal...
...but nowhere near as strong as the UN force in Korea at its peak...
...However one looks at Korean prospects, they are currently not too bright...
...But, in view of all the distaste that has been expressed in UN and U.S...
...Red China has at least 2.5 million front-line ground soldiers, with another 1.5 million in reserve...
...3. The Republic of Korea is the only continental democracy in northern Asia...
...The alternative is the investment of industrial capital in South Korea as quickly as possible...
...uranium, industry, and long-range bomber forces with which to wage a world war now...
...Perhaps the Communists have enough patience to wait for us to be starved into submission...
...The Allied air force, meanwhile, has moved its base out of South Korea, and the land armies of our allies have been drastically reduced...
...I think there is sound logic in the view that the Communist bloc lacks the iron...
...Thus, the Communists, behind a screen of diversionary threats, may be preparing a new attack on South Korea...
...And one of the commonest assertions of democratic statesmen is that "the people" simply will not permit them to pursue policies that involve risks...
...Nor is the end in sight...
...But blind hope should not divert our attention from realities: an atomic stalemate is far from being real peace...
...have declared publicly that the Communists are bringing military supplies into North Korea via four railways which (in violation of the truce terms) they will not permit to be inspected...
...Meanwhile, no one expects the U.S...
...Finally, the military forces of the Allies in Korea have been reduced by about four-fifths, leaving South Korea a tempting prize...
...In my opinion, the situation is far from hopeless...
...As has been amply demonstrated in the past, the Reds do not telegraph their punches...
...All Asia knows that more than four million Koreans have "voted" against the falsely labeled "people's democracies" of North Korea and Red China by fleeing to sanctuary in the South ??”or by remaining there voluntarily when offered repatriation...
...The military balance of power has already swung against us...
...The Communists have maintained a swift and steady advance for ten full years...
...No one could long for peace more than the war-ravaged Koreans...
...5. Communist military power in Asia is especially suited for another round in Korea...
...They should recall that it is based on more than mere logic...
...So long as it remains free, the Red imperialists cannot count on indefinite possession of their huge Chinese conquest...
...Cautious souls may argue that this course is risky...
...6. Korea appears to be relatively exposed diplomatically...
...The Communists hope our generation is different...
...while the Red armies have time to roll ahead under their strong cover of airpower...
...These Koreans have seen both Communism and democracy in action...
...at Yalta in 1945, in the White Paper on China in 1949, in the Korean truce in 1953...
...4. The Swedish and Swiss members of the Neutral Nations (Truce) Supervisory Commission...
...2. This South Korean threat also seriously hampers Communism's projected advance into Southeast Asia or Japan...
...President Rhee shocked the free world by "imperiling" the truce in Korea when he freed some 26,000 prisoners who refused repatriation to Communism...
...As they see it, a rising standard of living has made the people of the free world so comfortable that they no longer are willing to stir themselves in the face of danger...
...The most recent advance was made just last spring, at Geneva, and the newest maneuvers are being conducted right now in the Formosa Straits...
Vol. 38 • March 1955 • No. 10
