Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1951-02-12
Red China and the Paper Tiger

Not long ago when the overwhelmingly out
numbered forces of the United Nations were
suffering reverses in Korea, Peiping's propagan-
dists took great delight in ridiculing the United
States as paper tiger" In effect they did their
best to persuade the people of China and OF all
Asia that Americans were milltarny soft, that
the power of our country was a myth and that
the armies of Mao Tse-tung would smash us with
ease and soon drive us into the sea:
But the paper tiger has turned out to be
a thing of terrible fire and steel-the same sort
of fearsome thing it was in the Second World
War. Together with allied U. N forces-South
Korean, British, Turkish French, Greek etc
American land, sea and air power has been con-
Quoting, for close to month now, limited
offensive" that has been cutting the enemy to
pieces south of the 38th Parallel. The superior
numbers are not SO superior today. Since Janu-
airy /, according to conservative estimates (and
not counting losses from frostbite and typhus),
something like $4,000 Communist troops have
been killed and 175,OO0 wounded.
Moreover these Chinese and Korean Red
casualties-which for the past two weeks have
been averaging in the neighborhood of 4500
day-have been inflicted at relatively little cost
to the forces of the United Nations Indeed,
reports indicate that in some areas the enemys
losses in relation to the U. MS have run as high
as 100 to l. This is explained by the fact that
the paper tiger" has better than Offset its nu-
merica disadvantage with tremendously superior
firepower- frepower in the form of what our
American and allied troops carry in their hands,
in the form of tank guns, in the form Of field
artillery in the form of devastating Smelling
from ships at sea, and in the form of relentless
day -and-night air attacks on the Communists
supply lines and fighting personnel AS far as
the supply lines are concerned, they have been
greatly extended and have thus become highly
vulnerable development that apparently is
making it extremely hard for the enemy to
prevent heavy destruction of equipment en- route
from Manchuria to the front.
AS has been indicated by General Matthew
B. Ridgway, commander of all allied ground
forces in Korea the recapture of cities like
Seoul or a sweeping northward advance is only
Incidental to the U. MS real objective at this
juncture. That objective is to in1ict, at minimum
cost, the heaviest possible punishment on the
aggressors armies, which means principally the
Chinese Communists. Very probably, when the
spring thaw begins in a month or so, action to
that end will be hampered on the ground, for
General Mud will then be operating against our
tanks and heavy guns. Meanwhile however the
bell is likely to keep on tolling for the enemy,
and air strikes and naval Shellfire will continue
without letup regardless of the weather.
1t is necessary, of course, to be on guard
against wishfulness and to reckon with the
possibility that the Chinese Communists will
strike back once again with great fury. But
unless the Kremln is ready to risk starting an
to break our sea and air dominance, it is difncuk