Evening star., 1951-10-25
The Air Score in Korea

Although he has now voiced 1t publicly for
the first time, there is nothing astonishing about
General Vandenbergs strong intimaton that
Russians are plotting the MIG jet planes in
Korea. After all, the planes themselves are made
in the U. S. S. R.. and ever since their appear
ance in the war it has been reasonable to assume
that they have been manned and are continuing
to be manned, by Soviet flyers, safe bet being
that relatively few Chinese or Korean Reds have
as yet been trained we'll enough to handle them
effectively.
The men of the Kremlin, of course, have been
at great pains to carry out the pretense that
the Soviet Union-Whch gave the signal for the
start of the whole dirty business-iS completely
innocent of any participation in the Korean
aggression. But their actions have spoken much
louder than their words Politically and mill
tary, they obviously have been supporting and
master -minding the Communist war against the
United Nations. The operations of the MICS
constitute the cleareSt proof OF that The simple,
incontrovertible fact is that the planes have
come from the u S. S. R. and that when our
own jets tange with them, as General Vanden-
berg has said, I'VE can hear the pilots on the
radio and they all speak Russian"
This is situation full of grave possibilities.
In effect, it means that the Kremlin, even though
not admitting it, is waging an undeclared war
against the United Nations, particularly against
the U. Ms predominantly American air arm. 1t
is a war, moreover that has been growing steadily
hotter, with the enemy having at his disposal
we'll over 1900 planes-half of them M1Gs-in
Manchura, north of the Yalu River. This force,
especially the iets has been challenging our own
with mounting vigor and ever-increasing num-
bers. Needless to say, if it is thrown into the
battle beyond its present limited area OF opera
tionS-operations that have been defensive rather
than offensive-the Korean struggle will be in
tensifed in way likely to oblige General Ridg-
ways U. N. command to end its self-imposed
restrictions and attack Red bases in the Man.
churian sanctuary" and perhaps even In China
proper.
In the event of such development, our own
flyers and planes could be counted upon to give
an excellent account of themselves. General
Vandenberg has had very reassuring things to
say on that score Speaking as chief of the
United States Air Force, he has emphasized that
up to now our jet pilots have been knocking
the socks off" the Russian MICS Thus, between
last June 80 and October 15-a period excluding
this weeks record toll-they have destroyed or
probably destroyed 80 of these Soviet planes,
plus 204 damaged or believed damaged. In the
same period, by way of contrast the USAF has
carried out almost $4,000 aggressive combat
missions" in Korea at a cost of So aircraft only
10 of which were shot down by the MICS.
In other words for every one of our own
planes lost, the enemy has lost upward Of nine
jets of his own, and this lopsided ratio, according
to General Vandenberg, would be even greater
if the Communists few farther south or If they
did not have the Manchurian sanctuary" to
run back to. In his opinion, although the MICS
are virtually equal to our Sabres, the American
combat score is much better because our pilots
have had superior training and enjoy equipment
advantages particularly in gun sights Pre-
sumably. as lcng as we can maintain this edge,
the Reds will hesitate to go all-out against the
U. N. in the air over Korea.