military men assembled at Blair House concerning Acheson’s easy assurance about ‘our capacity for meeting’ the North Korean threat. By the summer of 1950, the American armed forces were at the lowest point of the great post-war run-down undertaken by the Administration. Their numbers had shrunk from 12 million men in 1945 to 1.6 million. Spending was down from $82 billion to $13 billion, just 5 per cent of the GNP. Nearly every unit in the army was under-strength, under-trained, and under-equipped. Almost every regiment in the four divisions of MacArthur’s occupation army in Japan had been stripped of a battalion or a battery, every company of a platoon, and so on. Their training and readiness for war – for whose shortcomings MacArthur would later seek to blame everyone but himself, their Supreme Commander – werelamentable. Admiral Forrest Sherman, Chief of Naval Operations, declared later: ‘I was fully aware of the hazards involved in fighting Asiatics on the Asiatic mainland, which is something that, as a naval officer, I have grown up to believe should be avoided if possible.’ 4
Yet from the outset, Truman’s Administration was determined to resist the North Korean aggression. ‘The symbolic significance of its [South Korea’s] preservation is tremendous, especially in Japan,’ George Kennan told the British Ambassador in Washington, Sir Oliver Franks. The President and his advisers were convinced that, even if the communist invasion did not signal Moscow’s readiness to risk all-out war with the United States, it represented a challenge to the will of the non-communist world that had to be met. ‘The invasion of the Republic of Korea by the North Korean army was undoubtedly undertaken at Soviet direction,’ declared a CIA report of 28 June, ‘and Soviet material support is unquestionably being provided. The Soviet objective is the elimination of the last remaining anti-communist bridgehead on the mainland of northern Asia; thereby undermining the position of the United States and the Western Powers throughout the Far East.’ 5
At that first Blair House meeting, Truman made three immediate decisions. First, MacArthur would be told to evacuate the two thousand Americans in Korea, covering the operation with fighter aircraft from his command. Second, the Supreme Commander Allied Powers (SCAP) would be ordered to provide the South Koreans with every available item of equipment and round of ammunition that could be dispatched from Japan. Third, his area of command would be extended to include Formosa. The Seventh Fleet would deploy immediately between the island and the Chinese mainland, to ‘quarantine’ the Korean struggle, and discourage either Mao Tse Tung or Chiang Kai Shek from embarking upon a dangerous escalation of Asian hostilities. Throughout those first days of the crisis, Washington’s thinking was profoundly influenced by fears that the communist powers were now embarking upon an orchestrated offensive, which might be scheduled toextend at any moment to other flashpoints around the globe. Seldom has mutual ignorance between the superpowers seemed so dangerous, or the absence of solid political intelligence posed a greater threat.
At noon on 26 June, the Korean mission in Washington received yet another call from Syngman Rhee, this time audibly shaken. ‘Things are not going well militarily,’ he said. ‘Please see President Truman and ask him for immediate supplies of arms, for help of any kind.’ That afternoon at 3 p.m., distraught and weeping, the Koreans were shown into the Oval Office at the White House to meet President Truman and his Secretary of State. Han was impressed by Truman. Like some Americans and many foreigners, he had formed a picture of a somewhat homespun president, a hick from the sticks. Instead, now, in the flesh he saw a smiling, self-assured statesman. ‘We admire your people and their struggle in adversity,’ Truman told the visitors. ‘Your soldiers
Yet from the outset, Truman’s Administration was determined to resist the North Korean aggression. ‘The symbolic significance of its [South Korea’s] preservation is tremendous, especially in Japan,’ George Kennan told the British Ambassador in Washington, Sir Oliver Franks. The President and his advisers were convinced that, even if the communist invasion did not signal Moscow’s readiness to risk all-out war with the United States, it represented a challenge to the will of the non-communist world that had to be met. ‘The invasion of the Republic of Korea by the North Korean army was undoubtedly undertaken at Soviet direction,’ declared a CIA report of 28 June, ‘and Soviet material support is unquestionably being provided. The Soviet objective is the elimination of the last remaining anti-communist bridgehead on the mainland of northern Asia; thereby undermining the position of the United States and the Western Powers throughout the Far East.’ 5
At that first Blair House meeting, Truman made three immediate decisions. First, MacArthur would be told to evacuate the two thousand Americans in Korea, covering the operation with fighter aircraft from his command. Second, the Supreme Commander Allied Powers (SCAP) would be ordered to provide the South Koreans with every available item of equipment and round of ammunition that could be dispatched from Japan. Third, his area of command would be extended to include Formosa. The Seventh Fleet would deploy immediately between the island and the Chinese mainland, to ‘quarantine’ the Korean struggle, and discourage either Mao Tse Tung or Chiang Kai Shek from embarking upon a dangerous escalation of Asian hostilities. Throughout those first days of the crisis, Washington’s thinking was profoundly influenced by fears that the communist powers were now embarking upon an orchestrated offensive, which might be scheduled toextend at any moment to other flashpoints around the globe. Seldom has mutual ignorance between the superpowers seemed so dangerous, or the absence of solid political intelligence posed a greater threat.
At noon on 26 June, the Korean mission in Washington received yet another call from Syngman Rhee, this time audibly shaken. ‘Things are not going well militarily,’ he said. ‘Please see President Truman and ask him for immediate supplies of arms, for help of any kind.’ That afternoon at 3 p.m., distraught and weeping, the Koreans were shown into the Oval Office at the White House to meet President Truman and his Secretary of State. Han was impressed by Truman. Like some Americans and many foreigners, he had formed a picture of a somewhat homespun president, a hick from the sticks. Instead, now, in the flesh he saw a smiling, self-assured statesman. ‘We admire your people and their struggle in adversity,’ Truman told the visitors. ‘Your soldiers
Similar Books
