Risky Promise

Assistant Defense Secretary Anna Rosenberg, who in 1944 was pinned down by German machine-gun fire at a forward command post near Metz, was in Korea last week for another firsthand look at war. "I've never seen anything like it," she said. "Our troops conquer one hill and go right on to the next. They are thrown back and then recapture it, are thrown back and then recapture it. There is no rest, no respite. We haven't the remotest idea of the kind of warfare our men are engaged in."

In the last sentence, which raised some eyebrows, Anna Rosenberg was probably expressing only a natural sympathy for men who had to fight a very tough war. If she were taken literally, it would do neither military nor civilian morale any good to hear that the U.S. had not "the remotest idea" what Korea was like.

Before she left Korea, Mrs. Rosenberg promised the G.I.s that no combat man would have to spend a second winter in Korea. This was a risky promise. In the Marine Corps alone, according to present Washington estimates, 15% of the 40,000-man force will have to put in a second winter of icy war. The Army's rotation program is further advanced than the Marines', but there is a strong probability that close to 5,000 G.I.s will see two winters of Korean combat.

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