Evening star., 1951-06-04
Peace Rumors and Korea

Peace Run1oFs and Korea
In declaring that the United Nations has
ended the pursuit phase" of its operations In
Korea, Lieutenant General James A. Van Fleet
has emphasized that his statement ought not to
be interpreted as having any political signif1-
canoe whatever As he has explained 1t, 1t has
been issued solely as commentary on the pres
ent military situation and is in no way connected
with current rumors and speculation about the
possibility of negotiating an end to the war at
the 3Sth Parallel. The same point has been made
by Secretary OF State Acheson and spokesmen
for the Defense Department
Nevertheless even though his own explana-
tion of 1t should be taken at face value, General
Van Fleets statement lends itself to measure
of political interpretation It does so because 1t
suggests that our American and allied U. N.
forces, now that they have again driven the
enemy north of the Parallel, are planning to
shift to defensive operations whose primary pur-
pose will be to keep the Communists from moving
once more into South Korea. AS for North Korea
the General has indicated that our troops will
strike there only when it is profitable" for them
to do so or when necessity demands such action
to counter threats" of renewed Red offensives.
This seems to mark an important change
from the past military policy of launching
"killer" drives to push far northward and punish
the aggresSor as much as possible. Further, even
II only by sheer coincidence, it fits in with pro-
posals now being made by numerous members
OF the United Nations for a special political or
diplomatic effort to find out whether Red China
in view of the severe casualties it has suf-
fered-is in mood to talk about working out
cease-fire or truce along the present line OF
battle. That line, of course is the 38th Parallel
the point where the aggression started last June
Is when the North Korean Communists cut loose
with their long-planned conspiracy to seize the
whole country by force of arms.
AS far as the United States is concerned,
MIR. Acheson, while describing General Van
Fleets statement as purely military in character
has made clear that our Government might
agree to settlement along the artificial dividing
line. Thus, as he has told the Senators investi-
eating General MacArthur's dismissal, the u NJ
has two major objectives in the present war:
ID The immediate military objective of expelling
the enemy from South Korea and (2) the long
range political objective of uniting the entire
country into free and independent land safe
from renewed attacks. Accordingly, since the
first objective has been achieved-at least for
the time being-and assuming an agreement
effectively barring fresh aggression, Mr.. Ache
son has voiced American willingness to negotiate
truce at the 38th Parallel, presumably with
the hope that such truce would lead eventually
to the attainment of the second objective.
In way, Mr. Acheson's remarks to the
Senate investigators thus constitute an invitation
to Red China to talk about a cease-flre. Actually
however, the significance and potentialities Of
all such bids-and there have been many of
them from the free world in recent days-will
remain academic at best unless and until Peiping
and Moscow reciprocate They have not done so
up to now. On the contrary, despite flood Of
rumors about peace feelerS from behind the Iron
Curtain, the Mao Tze-tung regime has been act
ing as if it intends to keep on fighting indefi-
nitely. AS for the Kremlin, Jacob A. Malik, chief
Soviet delegate to the U. NJ. has been at pains
to declare through spokesman that neither he
nor his government has made any kind of over
ture to Washington for Korean settlement.
AS long as these circumstances prevail, all
Of us will be wise not to get too excited over
speculation about peace negotiations. A word
from the Kremlin probably would be enough to
persuade the Chinese Communists to stop their
aggression, but until they themselves come for
ward with an acceptable truce bid, the war in
Korea-regardless of the ending of the U. Ms
pursuit phase"-will go on. What needs to be
kept in mind at this stage is General Van Fleets
assertion that the enemy, in spite of grievous
losses, still has plenty of manpower in the for
ward areas for another round of heavy attacks.