Letter From Tokyo

Each week the Korean war was costing the U.S. 1,300 casualties, and still there was no plan for victory. Cautiously keeping contact with the enemy, U.N. forces found indisputable evidence that he was readying an offensive, and did their best to disrupt it by air and commando assaults (see WAR IN ASIA). But the barriers reared by the United Nations and the U.S. State Department stood between the allied air and sea forces and the most vulnerable enemy areas; they were not permitted to strike across the Manchurian border at his bases, or to cut into his sea and rail supply lines in China.

In this perilous situation, a familiar voice sounded around the world last week with calculated bluntness. Said Douglas MacArthur: turn Chiang Kai-shek's forces on Formosa loose to open a second front on China's mainland. In a letter to Republican Minority Leader Joe Martin, MacArthur wrote bitterly: "My views and recommendations have been submitted to Washington in most complete detail. It seems strangely difficult for some to realize that here in Asia is where the Communist conspirators have elected to make their play for global conquest... that here we fight Europe's war with arms while the diplomats there still fight it with words, that if we lose the war to Communism in Asia, the fall of Europe is inevitable, win it and Europe most probably would avoid war and yet preserve freedom."

Only a fortnight before, Douglas MacArthur had called on the Communists to meet him on the battlefield to negotiate peace in Korea. His statement had sent Washington, U.N. and Western European diplomats into a dither, and the world rang with demands that he be silenced or recalled.

Indiscretions. This time, the Administration privately, and the nation's allies publicly, burst into angry outcry once more; the London Times pronounced MacArthur's letter the "most dangerous" of an "apparently unending series of indiscretions." British Foreign Secretary Herbert Morrison, who only a week before had announced that this was the psychological moment to seek a negotiated settlement, complained formally to the State Department against any unleashing of Chiang Kai-shek's forces. The French added their protest.

A few Republicans rallied briskly to the defense of MacArthur. Ohio's Senator Robert Taft observed: "It is ridiculous not to let Chiang Kai-shek's troops loose ... It is utterly indefensible and perfectly idiotic." A few Democrats publicly answered back. Said Oklahoma's Senator Robert Kerr: "I think the prolonged performance of his one-man act is wearing the patience of the rest of the team mighty thin."

Arguments. The argument over the propriety of MacArthur's methods obscured the basic question that he had raised: How long are the hands of the U.N. forces to be tied? U.N. policy, said Secretary General Trygve Lie, consists of a "hope for negotiations," which, Lie admitted, has had no encouragement from the Chinese Reds. "Unless and until there is such a sign," said Lie, "the United Nations has no alternative but to continue to fight to repel, and if possible, end the aggression in Korea with all the force it can safely commit to that action." Harry Truman offered no more. He sent out his press secretary to tell newsmen that U.S. policy is still the same; specifically, it still includes the "neutralization" of Formosa, which means that the U.S. Seventh Fleet keeps Mao from invading Formosa and keeps Chiang from raiding the mainland or resuming his coastal blockade.

Alternatives. Was that bleak and futureless policy all that U.N. troops in Korea could hope for? In the Administration's sparse pronouncements, there was only one slight indication of change. MacArthur had been told that if the Chinese should throw a large air force into battle, he was authorized to bomb their bases in Manchuria. In short, it was for the Chinese to decide whether to give MacArthur a new plan of battle. Meanwhile, behind the Yalu, the Reds concentrated troops and aircraft, held the initiative awarded to them by the statesmen.

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