Word: seoul
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Waiting for Policy. Still another characteristic of the first session of the 83rd was the fact that, as in most postwar Congresses, the spotlight of world news was elsewhere-on Moscow, Seoul and Panmunjom. This was partly the luck of the news. (Congress could hardly compete with Stalin's death, Beria's arrest, Rhee's stubborn stand, or the Korean truce.) But partly it was due to the fact that the initiative in world politics is still not in the hands of the U.S. The first great steps in getting it there are not up to Congress...
Syngman Rhee, Korea's veteran fighter for freedom, sat on a stone bench in his garden at Seoul. He still spoke against the truce, but his talk now was dull and resigned. There had been some fear that his ROK troops might refuse to withdraw from the buffer zone-but they ceased fire along with their U.N. comrades in arms (see below). Syngman Rhee, whose opposition might have wrecked the truce if the Communist hunger for a truce had not been voracious, now declared: "My desire is strong not to follow unilateral policy if it can be avoided...
...last, irritations and uncertainties had persisted.. General Mark Clark, who flew from Tokyo to Seoul in his Constellation, had expected to sign the truce at Panmunjom, with Kim II Sung and Peng Teh-huai (the North Korean and Chinese commanders) as the other signatories. But for this, the Reds made unacceptable conditions: no South Koreans or reporters could be present...
Casualties were severe on both sides. When the weather cleared and U.N. planes began raking the flow of Chinese reinforcements, the attacks petered out. The Hwachon dam and reservoir (supplying most of Seoul's electric power) and the U.N. communications hubs at Chorwon and Kumhwa, which had seemed threatened under the first impetus of enemy attack, were safe. A new U.N. first line was established at the base of the Kumsong salient. But the salient itself was gone. At the cost of thousands of lives, the proposed armistice line was a little straighter-in the Communists' favor...
Last month at last, Aviator Bordelon got his chance. Nearly every night, singleengine, Russian-made airplanes were sneaking across U.N. lines, dropping small bombs on Seoul and Kimpo airfields. Against these bothersome "Bedcheck Charlies," high-speed jets were helpless: they could not turn tightly enough to draw a bead on ancient trainers and biplanes. The Air Force called for Navy help, and up flew Lieut. Bordelon in his World War II vintage Corsair...