Word: hanley
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Throughout the uproar over Colonel James Hartley's atrocity figures, General Matt Ridgway has maintained the superior air of a commander who deplores but understands a subordinate's little errors of judgment. He made it clear that he disapproved Hanley's rushing into print before "accumulated evidence warranted," and he deprecated Hanley's tendency to exaggerate. The U.N. command, said Ridgway last week, with the air of a responsible man speaking responsibly, has positive proof of only 365 atrocity killings of captured U.S. fighting men-not 5,500 to 6,000, as listed by Hanley...
Scarcely were the words out of his mouth than Ridgway was proved a greater exaggerator and hastier reporter than Hanley. In Manhattan, a reporter picked up a report which had lain for two weeks in U.N.'s Manhattan headquarters. It had been submitted by Ridgway on Nov. 12-two days before Hanley made his announcement. As U.N. Commander for Korea, Ridgway reported not 6,000 U.S. atrocity victims (a figure he had indicated was unwarranted by solid evidence), nor 365 (the number he had said in Tokyo was proved), but "approximately 8,000 U.S. military personnel . . . reported killed...
There were other contradictions. Hanley reported that 3,610 were killed by North Koreans, 2,513 by Chinese. Ridgway's report estimated 7,000 reported killed by North Koreans, only 1,000 by Chinese...
Americans booby trapped their own Korean policy last week, thanks to the blunder of an Eighth Army colonel. Charges by Colonel James Hanley that the Communists had murdered 5500 American soldiers prompted a series of fiery speeches by public figures from the President down. But subsequent statements from the Pentagon and General Ridgway revealed Hanley's figure as the composite of largely-exaggerated rumours, released at the worst possible time...
Since there is conclusive proof of only 365 cases of murder by the Reds, Colonel Hanley's larger figure is open to suspicion of being "atrocity propaganda." The Allies carefully avoided such propaganda during World War II for an excellent reason--if backfires. Inaccurate charges of enemy brutality actually spur the enemy to further violations, and prompt our own troops to commit similar acts in revenge. Atrocity charges also stimulate the home-front hotheads (several senators called for "immediate atomic retaliation" Last week), and stiffen the enemy's will to resist. Colonel Hanley's inaccurate statement not only countered...