Soldier's Talk

The statesman of the week was a trench-coated soldier with a hand grenade taped to his shoulder harness. Almost from the moment the truce talks started in "neutral" Kaesong, General Matt Ridgway had chafed under a sense of an intolerable situation. The choice was to accept a long-drawn-out negotiation and daily humiliation, or to force a showdown.

The issue came to its sticking point on a dirt road to Kaesong, where Communist soldiers with Tommy guns halted a U.N. convoy because it included a truckload of reporters. That was but an incident. The larger fact was that the Communists were insolently creating an atmosphere of victors receiving the vanquished. In the swept-eaved building which used to be the Reai Bong Chang restaurant, the U.N.'s negotiators met under the guns of Communist guards. Unarmed, U.N. negotiators drove under a white flag where armed Communists let them drive.

On his own initiative, Ridgway ordered talks suspended, and laid down his conditions. Washington backed up his decision.

It was the kind of talk that Americans approved and understood. Apparently, Communists understood it too. After three days of bluster, the Communists backed down. When the talking began again, Kaesong was truly a neutral city. Reported the U.N. delegates of the new truce discussions: "Some progress was made."

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