Evening star., 1951-11-28
BY the Assoeioied Press


telligence has accused six news
papermen of inaccurate, biased
and prejudiced" reporting of the
Korean war. and charged their
writings gave aid and comfort to
the Communists.
The officer is retired Mai. Gen
Charles A. Willoughby.
In an article in the December
issue of Cosmopolitan magazine,
which carried word of indorse-
. ment by Gen. Macarthur, Gen
Willoughby named the six in
dividual newspapermen and also
criticized three news-magazines
He said they appeared to go out
Of their way to create defeatist-
thought patterns. and to belittle
the country's armed forces"
Newspaper coverage of the war,
Gen. Willoughby said, may have
been the major factor in President
Truman's decision to fire Gen.
Macarthur.
=, II am convinced the nuance of
defeat created an atmosphere of
tension, uneasiness and diStrust
between Tokyo and Washington.
This is believed to have been the
major cause of the Macarthur
Truman split"
Sharp Denials Immediate.
Sharp denials Immediately came
from the newspapermen whom
Willoughby identified by name.
They are:
Joseph Alsop. syndicate colum-
mist; Hanson Baldwin. military
correspondent of the New York
Times: Homer Bigart. war cor
respondent Of the New York
Herald Tribune: Hal Boyle. war
correspondent and columnist of
the Associated Press; Drew Pear
son. syndicate columnist and
Christopher Rand. former mem
ber of the Herald Tribune's Ko-
rea staff, now resigned.
During the most difficult days
in Korea" Gen. Willoughby wrote,
These men were often inaccurate,
biased. prejudiced and petulant;
they confused an unhappy public.
The corrosive effect of their ir-
responsible reporting was equal
to, that of calculated defeatism.
even if such was not intended.
Their reporting furnished aid and
comfort to the enemy"
Gen. Willoughby also cited
Time. Newsweek. and U. S. News
and World Report for "inferential.
If not calculated deception of the
public"
He called the newspapermen-
These ragpickers of modern
literature . . careless chroniclers
:. .<Jittery experts :. Journals
tic soothsayers the tickle
press =. the painting eagerness of
a sidewalk huckster and the
unctuous concern of an under
taker.'
Made Two Points.
Gen. Willoughby's accusations
centered, mainly, around two
points:
!. That the correspondents had
"belittled'' the 9Th Army, and,
2. That they enormously de-
scribed ,iast years withdrawal,
under Chinese attack. as de
feat" !anagntfying its proportions.
cr.ticizing Army intelligence, and
exaggerating the casualty figures.
On the CHS television program,
Douglas Edwards and the News"
last night Gen. Willoughby de-
clared he did not "ascrbie a de-
liberate intent on the part of
these reporters.
They merely reported what
they believed unquestionably was
the impact of what they saw"
Gen. Willoughby said on the tele-
vision program However. they
have a responsibility to the pub
lie and to the reputation of the
9th Army"
In their replies, the correspond
ents denied having criticized the
Army. as such. or the individual
soldiers. They said they had criti-
cized Gen. Macarthur. for his
overall decisions, and Gen Will
loughby for his intelligence re-
ports. on which Gen. Macarthur
apCarently based his strategy IN
Korea.
Devastating, Surprising"
AS an example of the "belit-
ting" of the Army. Gen. Will
loughby quoted extensively from
an article by Mr.. Baldwin. 1t
compared American generalship,
troops and equipment with those
of other countries, and said the
Americans were not always the
best in the world.
Gen. Willoughby described this
as devastating, surprising and
telling reportorial attack"
Mr.. Baldwin said the article
was written before the Korean
fighting began. He said it was
prepared early in the spring of
1850, but was not published until
after the war started. He added:
"As an intelligence officer, Gen.
Willoughby was widely and justly
criticized by Pentagon officials as
well as, in the papers. His present
article is as misleading and in
accurate as were some of his in
telligence reports"
Mr.. Bigart. cabling from Paris,
said his criticisms had been di-
rected against Gen. Macarthur
and Gen. Willoughby, not the
Army as such. He replied:
Gen. Macarthur and his
tight little circle of advisers have