DanR
Diamond Level Sponsor
Attn: Mr. Bill Collins, Editor
Subject: Your Editorial: ‘Forgotten’ war winner? We weren’t a winner, then or now…
The Korean War has not been forgotten! Oh yes there was a winner (but not us)…. Read on.
I’m sure there are many Veterans of Korea that still have nightmares of their experiences and have wondered why things happened as they did.
Perhaps you may ponder a few of these unsettling questions concerning our military: How and why did
the U.S. lose the war in Korea? Why weren't our POWs returned from Korea and Vietnam? Whatever
happened to Congress' sole right to declare war? Should U.S. troops be sent all over the world on UN
missions? Why has the ban against homosexuals in our services been scrapped? What was the real
purpose of George Bush's Gulf War?
As a young boy growing up on Lake Greenwood near Coronaca in Greenwood County, South Carolina,
I had a Hero. He was a leader of men, an honorable soldier, a victor in time of war, He was General Douglas MacAuthur.
Our motto should be: Duty, honor, country: Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying point to build courage when courage seems to fail, to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith, to create hope when hope becomes forlorn as quoted by Gen. Douglas MacArthur (1962)
I questioned for years how President Truman could relieve this Honorable Commander. During the years 1967- 68 while stationed in South East Asia during the Viet Nam war I became curious of some tactics employed by our military. It was not until my assignment to HQ’s Alaskan Air Command in 1972 that I discovered facts that did not bear favorable to some of our Presidents and others in charge of our armed services. To acknowledge the truth when confronted with the different “facts†presented by our schools, newspapers, magazines and television was very difficult. My father, Dan “Red†Richardson, admired Gen Eisenhower and supported his bid for president. I remember dad giving me an “I Like IKE†presidential Campaign button which I wore proudly! But, after reading “the Politician†many years later, I began to realize history had been distorted.
“It is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren, till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst and to provide for it.â€
Patrick Henry (1775)
The despicable General William Tecumseh Sherman who caused the burning, raping and looting much of the south during the war of Northern Aggression is credited with saying “ War is Hell!†The goal or purpose in War is to WIN! Anyone who has ever participated in war should concur!
The United Nations Headquartered in New York seated a Delegate from Nationalist China (Taiwan) on January 19, 1950. This was an excuse for Soviet General Vasilev, Chairman of the UN's Military Staff Committee and several other Russian officials to storm out of their offices in protest.
General Vasilev proceeded immediately to North Korea and began directing the military buildup of North Korea's communists’ forces. A Department of Defense release dated May 15, 1954 claimed that Vasilev actually gave the order for the North Koreans to attack South Korea on June 25, 1950. Vasilev's replacement Soviet General Ivan Skliaro and his comrades soon returned to their posts at the UN.
The Korean War was fought under the auspices of the United Nations, like Viet Nam, the Persian Gulf and the intervention in Somalia, Bosnia, etc.
During, what President Truman referred to as "police action" all military orders and directives sent from Washington and the Pentagon to American commanders in Korea were first supplied to several offices at UN headquarters, including those of the Military Staff Committee headed by Soviet General Skliaro before being forwarded to Korea. Traitorous
These orders were subject to approval by these Communists persons at the UN who actually had authority to amend them. General Vasilev in North Korea received them from his Soviet comrades perhaps even sooner than did our own commanders in the field. General Lin Piao, the commander of the Red Chinese troops boasted in a leaflet distributed in China, "l would never have made the attack and risked my men and military reputation if I had not been assured that Washington would restrain General MacArthur from taking adequate retaliatory measures against my lines of supply and communication."
The communist forces knew what orders our troops were to follow all during the war! And they knew that, no matter what happened, U.S. and South Korean troops would have their hands tied. Traitorous!
With a meager force and under UN oversight that he would later learn was determined to see him lose, General MacArthur assumed command of the U.S./Republic of Korea (ROK) troops, greatly outnumbered, with their backs to the sea at the southern tip of the Korean peninsula, they were facing annihilation.
MacArthur attacked his enemy's rear with an amphibious assault at Inchon, far up the Korean peninsula. With that one brilliant stroke, our forces severed the supply lines of the communist forces. In less than two months, the North Korean army had been defeated, driven not only out of South Korea but out of control of North Korea as well. The allied forces completely occupied North Korea, all the way up to the Manchurian border. The war had been won. Why MacArthur's plans regarding the Inchon landing were not provided to Vasilev and his North Korean comrades remains a mystery. What is certain is that MacArthur, who did not have it within himself to refuse to follow military protocol, supplied his superiors with complete details of the invasion.
After the war and during a Congressional investigation, General Mark Clark said: "I was not allowed to bomb the numerous bridges across the Yalu River over which the enemy constantly poured his trucks and his munitions, and his killers." General James Van Fleet said: "My own conviction is that there must have been information to the enemy from high diplomatic authorities that we would not attack his home bases across the Yalu." Air Force General George Stratemeyer added: "You get in war to win it. You do not get in war to stand still and lose it, and we were required to lose it. We were not permitted to win." General MacArthur then summarized: "Such a limitation upon the utilization of available military force to repel an enemy attack has no precedent, either in our own history, or so far as I know, in the history of the world."
No one denied that General MacArthur had displayed unparalleled military competence. But, for the most part, the fact that he had defeated his adversary with a minimum loss of life and limb on both sides became lost in the adulation he received. General MacArthur was denied permission to destroy the bridges over the river which poured hordes of Chinese communist troops from Manchuria, and the war began again in earnest. Finding himself criminally restricted in the use of his military power by Washington. He objected, thereby giving Truman the excuse to remove him, not for disobeying orders, but for wanting to win. The Chicago Tribune stated at the time President Harry Truman wasn't worthy to shine the general's shoes.
“Always in war when I visited my wounded in the hospital, I could look them in the eye, no matter what their condition or how tragic their wounds, knowing that our country had backed them to the hilt. But when I went to see my Korean wounded, I just couldn't look them in the eye, knowing that they had been forced to fight with one hand tied behind their backs .... I am convinced I was restrained in Korea by some secret Administration policy directive or strategy about which I was not informed.†General Douglas MacArthur
The General was correct: There was a secret arrangement about which he had never been informed. He was not alone in realizing the betrayal. Some of America's leaders -- in and out of uniform -- have done their best to convert this proud profession into something unworthy of honor or praise.
Command of the U.S./ROK forces was turned over to General Matthew Ridgway. He immediately altered the method of fighting. In his own book, The Korean War, Ridgway stated that his first task on assuming MacArthur's command was "to place reasonable restrictions on the Eighth [U.S. Army] and ROK Armies' advance."
The perverted rules of engagement Ridgway then instituted were responsible for many of the 50,000 American deaths. Then later another 58,000 Americans were killed in Vietnam, where our soldiers' hands were again tied by similar, seemingly insane, restrictions. Secretary of State Mr. Dean Rusk and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara are the despicable traitors who created these rules of engagement in Vietnam, and Lyman Lemnitzer, Maxwell Taylor, William Westmoreland, and Andrew Goodpaster (all CFR members) as the generals who accepted them. Traitorous!
Ridgway’s orders to field commanders read in part: "You will direct the efforts of your forces toward inflicting maximum personnel casualties and material losses on hostile forces in Korea…Acquisition of terrain of itself is of little or no value."
Note: to be continued with part 2
Subject: Your Editorial: ‘Forgotten’ war winner? We weren’t a winner, then or now…
The Korean War has not been forgotten! Oh yes there was a winner (but not us)…. Read on.
I’m sure there are many Veterans of Korea that still have nightmares of their experiences and have wondered why things happened as they did.
Perhaps you may ponder a few of these unsettling questions concerning our military: How and why did
the U.S. lose the war in Korea? Why weren't our POWs returned from Korea and Vietnam? Whatever
happened to Congress' sole right to declare war? Should U.S. troops be sent all over the world on UN
missions? Why has the ban against homosexuals in our services been scrapped? What was the real
purpose of George Bush's Gulf War?
As a young boy growing up on Lake Greenwood near Coronaca in Greenwood County, South Carolina,
I had a Hero. He was a leader of men, an honorable soldier, a victor in time of war, He was General Douglas MacAuthur.
Our motto should be: Duty, honor, country: Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying point to build courage when courage seems to fail, to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith, to create hope when hope becomes forlorn as quoted by Gen. Douglas MacArthur (1962)
I questioned for years how President Truman could relieve this Honorable Commander. During the years 1967- 68 while stationed in South East Asia during the Viet Nam war I became curious of some tactics employed by our military. It was not until my assignment to HQ’s Alaskan Air Command in 1972 that I discovered facts that did not bear favorable to some of our Presidents and others in charge of our armed services. To acknowledge the truth when confronted with the different “facts†presented by our schools, newspapers, magazines and television was very difficult. My father, Dan “Red†Richardson, admired Gen Eisenhower and supported his bid for president. I remember dad giving me an “I Like IKE†presidential Campaign button which I wore proudly! But, after reading “the Politician†many years later, I began to realize history had been distorted.
“It is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren, till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst and to provide for it.â€
Patrick Henry (1775)
The despicable General William Tecumseh Sherman who caused the burning, raping and looting much of the south during the war of Northern Aggression is credited with saying “ War is Hell!†The goal or purpose in War is to WIN! Anyone who has ever participated in war should concur!
The United Nations Headquartered in New York seated a Delegate from Nationalist China (Taiwan) on January 19, 1950. This was an excuse for Soviet General Vasilev, Chairman of the UN's Military Staff Committee and several other Russian officials to storm out of their offices in protest.
General Vasilev proceeded immediately to North Korea and began directing the military buildup of North Korea's communists’ forces. A Department of Defense release dated May 15, 1954 claimed that Vasilev actually gave the order for the North Koreans to attack South Korea on June 25, 1950. Vasilev's replacement Soviet General Ivan Skliaro and his comrades soon returned to their posts at the UN.
The Korean War was fought under the auspices of the United Nations, like Viet Nam, the Persian Gulf and the intervention in Somalia, Bosnia, etc.
During, what President Truman referred to as "police action" all military orders and directives sent from Washington and the Pentagon to American commanders in Korea were first supplied to several offices at UN headquarters, including those of the Military Staff Committee headed by Soviet General Skliaro before being forwarded to Korea. Traitorous
These orders were subject to approval by these Communists persons at the UN who actually had authority to amend them. General Vasilev in North Korea received them from his Soviet comrades perhaps even sooner than did our own commanders in the field. General Lin Piao, the commander of the Red Chinese troops boasted in a leaflet distributed in China, "l would never have made the attack and risked my men and military reputation if I had not been assured that Washington would restrain General MacArthur from taking adequate retaliatory measures against my lines of supply and communication."
The communist forces knew what orders our troops were to follow all during the war! And they knew that, no matter what happened, U.S. and South Korean troops would have their hands tied. Traitorous!
With a meager force and under UN oversight that he would later learn was determined to see him lose, General MacArthur assumed command of the U.S./Republic of Korea (ROK) troops, greatly outnumbered, with their backs to the sea at the southern tip of the Korean peninsula, they were facing annihilation.
MacArthur attacked his enemy's rear with an amphibious assault at Inchon, far up the Korean peninsula. With that one brilliant stroke, our forces severed the supply lines of the communist forces. In less than two months, the North Korean army had been defeated, driven not only out of South Korea but out of control of North Korea as well. The allied forces completely occupied North Korea, all the way up to the Manchurian border. The war had been won. Why MacArthur's plans regarding the Inchon landing were not provided to Vasilev and his North Korean comrades remains a mystery. What is certain is that MacArthur, who did not have it within himself to refuse to follow military protocol, supplied his superiors with complete details of the invasion.
After the war and during a Congressional investigation, General Mark Clark said: "I was not allowed to bomb the numerous bridges across the Yalu River over which the enemy constantly poured his trucks and his munitions, and his killers." General James Van Fleet said: "My own conviction is that there must have been information to the enemy from high diplomatic authorities that we would not attack his home bases across the Yalu." Air Force General George Stratemeyer added: "You get in war to win it. You do not get in war to stand still and lose it, and we were required to lose it. We were not permitted to win." General MacArthur then summarized: "Such a limitation upon the utilization of available military force to repel an enemy attack has no precedent, either in our own history, or so far as I know, in the history of the world."
No one denied that General MacArthur had displayed unparalleled military competence. But, for the most part, the fact that he had defeated his adversary with a minimum loss of life and limb on both sides became lost in the adulation he received. General MacArthur was denied permission to destroy the bridges over the river which poured hordes of Chinese communist troops from Manchuria, and the war began again in earnest. Finding himself criminally restricted in the use of his military power by Washington. He objected, thereby giving Truman the excuse to remove him, not for disobeying orders, but for wanting to win. The Chicago Tribune stated at the time President Harry Truman wasn't worthy to shine the general's shoes.
“Always in war when I visited my wounded in the hospital, I could look them in the eye, no matter what their condition or how tragic their wounds, knowing that our country had backed them to the hilt. But when I went to see my Korean wounded, I just couldn't look them in the eye, knowing that they had been forced to fight with one hand tied behind their backs .... I am convinced I was restrained in Korea by some secret Administration policy directive or strategy about which I was not informed.†General Douglas MacArthur
The General was correct: There was a secret arrangement about which he had never been informed. He was not alone in realizing the betrayal. Some of America's leaders -- in and out of uniform -- have done their best to convert this proud profession into something unworthy of honor or praise.
Command of the U.S./ROK forces was turned over to General Matthew Ridgway. He immediately altered the method of fighting. In his own book, The Korean War, Ridgway stated that his first task on assuming MacArthur's command was "to place reasonable restrictions on the Eighth [U.S. Army] and ROK Armies' advance."
The perverted rules of engagement Ridgway then instituted were responsible for many of the 50,000 American deaths. Then later another 58,000 Americans were killed in Vietnam, where our soldiers' hands were again tied by similar, seemingly insane, restrictions. Secretary of State Mr. Dean Rusk and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara are the despicable traitors who created these rules of engagement in Vietnam, and Lyman Lemnitzer, Maxwell Taylor, William Westmoreland, and Andrew Goodpaster (all CFR members) as the generals who accepted them. Traitorous!
Ridgway’s orders to field commanders read in part: "You will direct the efforts of your forces toward inflicting maximum personnel casualties and material losses on hostile forces in Korea…Acquisition of terrain of itself is of little or no value."
Note: to be continued with part 2
