In God We Trust
In the 1940s, news of the war was in the hearts and on the minds of every household member, from the oldest to the youngest. Everyone participated in scrap drives and war bond campaigns. Everyone knew the importance of rationing as it related to the war effort. Everyone watched the government-generated newsreels in the local movie houses, and they sat close to the radio to hear the latest news from the various theaters of war. Area newspapers carried information about local boys and girls who were a part of our nation’s military. Victory posters were everywhere. Service flags hung in windows. Men and women in uniform were treated with deference.
The American home front during the Korean War was far different. Following so close on the heels of World War II, the Korean War was not a popular war. Those who had experienced the hardships of the previous war were sick and tired of sacrifice, both in terms of sons lost in battle, as well as doing without and making do because there was a war going on. The president of the United States didn’t even want to mention the word "war", so he called America’s involvement in the Korean hostilities a "police action." This misnomer caused apathy among the public, so much so that generally only those families who had someone directly involved in the war actually cared that a war was, indeed, going on. "Where have you been, Mac?" was the question of the day when a veteran returned home from Korea. Then and now, the American people had no understanding of the significance of the Korean War, nor did they understand the horrors that were taking place in it or the hardships that our servicemen and women had to endure while serving in Korea.
Many books have been written on the subject of the home front during World War II. Few, if any, books can be found on the same subject when it comes to the Korean War. This page of the Korean War Educator draws attention to aspects of the Korean War home front.
Important to concerned families on the home front during the Korean War was any news about their loved one serving in the military, particularly if they were stationed overseas in the combat zone. Prior to 1951, there was inadequate distribution of information about servicemen and women to home town news media. That changed, however, with the advent of the Army's "Home Town News Center" in Kansas City, Missouri, in July of 1951. Major Walter A. Pennino was its initial Commanding Officer.
Although Pennino is no longer living, his son Walter Pennino Jr. of Fredericksburg, Virginia, provided the following text from the Army Information Digest to the Korean War Educator. No date is listed on the publication, but we guess it to have been produced in late 1951 or early 1952. Open hostilities were still going on in Korea when it went to press.
There was a time, not long ago, when many Eighth Army soldiers were beginning to consider themselves forgotten men, their individual activities almost unknown to their neighbors back home. Yet public information officers trying to get recognition for them in their home town newspapers could only hope to scratch the surface because they lacked facilities and personnel to cover all the men who deserved mention. Those public information officers who concentrated on volume of coverage frequently spread their efforts too thinly. The result was sketchy, incomplete, sub-standard copy. Thus, while editors were crying for home town news material it was difficult to provide as much usable copy as they wanted.
Today, however, thousands of hometown releases are getting into print, the editors and the reading public are happy, and the individual soldier has the satisfaction of knowing that the folks at home are following his career with interest. All this is the result of the Army's Home Town News Center in Kansas City, Missouri. Established in July 1951, it acts as a clearing house for all home town news and feature stories from the field.
Before its inception, unit public information offices mailed material directly to any media at any time they chose. Such a system had weaknesses. A public information office at Fort Dix, New Jersey, and another at Fort Ord, California, for example, might send material to the same editor on the very day he was flooded with dozens of other Army releases. The result was often a disgusted editor. To eliminate just such a reaction, the Army Home Town News Center was given the authority under AR 360-20 to "improve, supervise, and control the flow of informational material to home town news media."
The Center's chief product is an expanded version of the personal news story commonly used in many newspapers. Since about 85 percent of the daily and weekly publications use this type of story, it is an effective way to create public understanding and support and boost troop morale. Nothing contributes more to the average soldier's esprit. President Eisenhower, when he was Supreme Commander in Europe, summed it up by saying, "I know of nothing which so improves a soldier's morale as to see his unit or his own name in print just once."
Good home town stories are practically unlimited. They are pegged on individual accomplishments in training or combat, awards and decorations, arms qualifications, promotions and athletic feats. Even the most commonplace military event makes good home town copy. When Private Joe Doe reports to a division overseas, his arrival may seem quite routine. But back in Plainsville where he went to school, it is news and will be gladly treated as such by the local editor.
From wide experience with all types of media, the Center has established standard procedures to be followed by field public information officers. What it wants, for example, are good, well-presented stories about the soldier as an army man. Some public information officers have a tendency to delve too deeply into the subject's civilian background, which is really unnecessary. If the local editor wants to color a home town release with background facts, he can get it from his files or by a telephone call to the soldier's relatives. Actually, home town newspaper readers are usually familiar with Joe Doe's pre-Army exploits. What they are interested in now is Doe's Army activities. If he is an infantryman, the story should describe him further as a rifleman, machine-gunner, company clerk or cook.
No longer is it necessary for field public information officers to list media on their releases to the Center. Not only has the Center a complete file of newspapers, radio and television stations in any given town in the United States, Puerto Rico and Alaska, but it has compiled data showing exactly what newspapers and stations cover a particular area. For instance, a story about a soldier from Elko, Nevada, would be dispatched to the Elko Daily Free Press, The Progress, Wells, Nevada (a weekly), The Elko Independent (a weekly), Radio Station KELY and Radio Station KELK. The only media which need be specified are trade magazines, house organs, college or fraternal publications requested by the soldier himself.
The Center also has simplified the purely mechanical efforts of the field public information officers, freeing them for more creative work. Only one copy of any story or picture is needed, regardless of the number of agencies involved. The Center does its own duplicating and reproduction of news stories, photographs and tape recordings--the number of each being determined by the automatic distribution lists on file. The average home town release is distributed to six outlets. Roughly the breakdown is: one daily newspaper, two weekly newspapers, one special media (such as a trade or college publication), and two radio stations.
Among its facilities, the Center utilizes a photo-engraving machine which produces one-column plastic engravings. Most small newspapers and many of the dailies utilize these and print directly from the plastic.
In the main, the Center exerts its control over the flow of incoming copy to insure uniformity of style, consistency of policy and a fair distribution to all media. No guesswork is allowed. If home towns are not clear or facts do not seem to support a story, the material is killed. If the story is important enough, however, the Center checks with the unit public information officer by the quickest means possible to get the facts clear.
Incoming copy is classified into two categories--flat and roster. The flat story is a better than usual home town story presented in such fashion that it stands on its own merits. It is preferred to all others, but it must arrive complete with nothing left to be done except minor revisions, copying and mailing.
The roster story is the type which applies to every individual in a platoon, company, battalion or graduating class. The basic story remains the same. Slips indicating each man's home town, address, relatives and the like are attached to the basic story and mailed to the Center.
The roster story is the daily grist from the public information officers in the field. It may be a promotion, qualifications at arms, transfer or new duty assignment. Since it is the simplest to prepare, this type of report eliminates a considerable amount of work and affords the widest coverage for a unit in the field.
To date the Center has mailed out over two million home town stories. The staff of two officers, 51 enlisted men and 15 civilians turns out an average of eight thousand releases daily. In the order named, the following are types of stories which are given priority in handling: personal stories with a strong, timely news peg; awards and decorations; promotions; assignments of distinction; graduation from service schools; notable participation in a major field exercise; joining a unit in combat or overseas; top proficiency in weapons or equipment handling; and recognition as "soldier of the week" in a regiment or higher unit. Always the preference is for stories featuring the fighting Army either in combat or hard at work training for combat.
In submitting material to the Center, public information officers are urged to write in language which the layman understands, avoiding technical terms that are obscure to the average reader. Street addresses and towns must be given, no matter how small the town. This includes addresses of relatives. When parents live in one locality and a wife in another, the center will move the story in both directions. When only one parent is listed, the Center wants to know whether one is deceased or whether they are separated, so that neither will be slighted, a serious matter in this kind of public relations.
It is not within the authority of the Center to issue casualty reports. Frequently, though, a local public information officer finds that a soldier on whom he submitted a story several days previously is now a casualty. In that case, he should notify the Center by the fastest means possible so that the story can either be withdrawn or timed to coincide with the official notification to the next of kin. Because of the ever-present possibility of a misunderstanding, public information officers are urged to date all their releases, making the time peg in the lead unmistakably clear. Editors are happy to co-operate in these matters, since they do not want to run misleading copy, and few if any parents object to a late story which indicates that their son was a good soldier doing a creditable job.
A commendatory story, however late, is far better than no word other than a casualty report. Such an article may give a family considerable solace and pride despite their bereavement. On the other hand, all relatives are upset and will object to an unchecked story getting into print which indicates a soldier is either alive or well after they have received an official notification to the contrary from the Adjutant General.
Already this experiment is highly centralized and supervised home town news coverage has been conspicuously successful. Not only is the Center in direct support of all field units it serves, but the units themselves are placed in direct support of Army-wide information projects. Since it is the desire of the Chief of Information to place emphasis on the role of the combat man, the Center can easily fulfill this requirement and at the same time offer unit public information officers a particular project upon which to peg part of their home town programs.
The vast majority of editors are highly satisfied with the service. In practice, the Center provides each of them with as much material as possible in one envelope, but not too frequently. The result is more economy and better relations with editors. Today more than 11,950 newspaper, radio and television editors, or about 85 percent of all daily and weekly media in the United States, are on the mailing list. With many editors actually appealing for the material, the Center has hundreds of complimentary letters on file, proving that the old days of the cold shoulder and the wastebasket have passed.
Gone, too, is the soldier's feeling that he has been forgotten at home. The apparent lack of interest which came close to public apathy was actually more a problem of troop morale than public relations. It is a little known fact that when a soldier's home town newspaper goes for weeks and months without some mention of him or his unit, he somehow feels that his community has let him down. He wants to be mentioned favorably once in a while, because no matter how faithful his platoon leader or company commander is in patting him on the back for a job well performed, the praise and the medals do not have the same effect unless friends, neighbors and relatives write him to say "We read about it in the paper."
As one regimental commander in Korea wrote, "I observed the miracle of increased combat effectiveness produced by publicity. As my men read about themselves they began to know they were hot and invincible. Their morale and pride actually rose in geometric proportion...."
One week after the Korean War broke out, LIFE magazine began its coverage of the war and the home front. From then on, the popular magazine provided weekly reports from the Far East, as well as feature stories, editorials, photographs, and letters to the editor. The feature stories covered a wide range of subjects: political gaffs, production increases, hasty marriages, battles in Korea, and grieving families.
In the July 10, 1950 issue, the magazine’s publisher, Andrew Heiskell, explained on page 87 how his magazine’s coverage of the war began:
"I was in Tokyo just finishing a story on Japanese art and culture and I was trying to figure ways to caption my picture of one particularly exotic bronze so as to convince my editors that it deserved fullest play in the magazine. Then the news of war in Korea came. That is LIFE photographer David Douglas Duncan, telling how it began for him. He got to Korea in a C-47 and as he landed near Seoul a battered jeep drove up. In it was Frank Gibney, TIME-LIFE correspondent in Tokyo who had beaten Duncan over by a few hours and become one of the war’s first American casualties: a mine blew up the bridge his jeep was crossing. Gibney cabled LIFE’s editors in New York that his wounds were minor. He followed with his description of the war. Then he sent a personal request. Please would someone have eyeglasses made up from his prescription and flown to Tokyo. His had broken in the explosion. Gibney flew out but Duncan went on to maneuver through the fighting areas. On Thursday he telephoned from Tokyo to tell Managing Editor Ed Thompson that he had dispatched his first films and please would someone call up his father in Kansas City and tell him Dave was all right.
Back home our coverage of the war on domestic fronts had begun—at the White House, State Department, U.N. and in Sycamore, Ill. From the files came banks of material we had been gathering for years against the day it might be needed. All the while we waited impatiently for Duncan’s films. They had been put on Pan American flight 806, due to arrive in Los Angeles Friday night just in time to make an American Airlines plane that would arrive in New York Saturday afternoon—our editorial deadline. We cabled Honolulu to make sure the pictures could be gotten off quickly. The Washington customs office told Los Angeles customs to speed inspection. Our Los Angeles bureau head Gene Cook was about to start out for International Airport to transfer the pictures when word came that fog forced the plane to land at Burbank. He rushed to Burbank, had 25 minutes to get across Los Angeles to the International Airport. The trip is almost 35 miles. He made it with one minute to spare—and that included time out for a colloquy with a cop who stopped Cook, asked him what his hurry was, and then said OK but remember the Policeman’s Benefit.
You can see Duncan’s pictures taken barely a week ago in Korea in this issue. He and Gibney are back in Korea again. Carl Mydans, Tokyo bureau head for three years who had come back to the U.S. to settle down for a while, has gone back to join them. Other veterans of LIFE’s war coverage are being alerted to go to the front. Next week, and as long as trouble continues, LIFE’s news-gathering staff in the field and back home will help LIFE’s readers see and understand the events they are hearing about."
True to its word, LIFE did carry weekly stories about what was happening in Korea. In the three months immediately after the war, LIFE magazines sometimes carried several stories per issue about the war. However, by October of 1950, the stories were briefer because many thought that the short war in Korea was already winding down. Only a handful of LIFE’s 5,200,000-plus readers responded to the magazine’s Korean War coverage through Letters to the Editor. In fact, during the month of November 1950, there was not a single such letter. One issue of LIFE (Volume 29, No. 16, October 16, 1950) was devoted to the subject of education, and carried no news whatsoever of the Korean War. Various issues in October through December 1950 carried no editorials on the subject of the Korean War either.
The content of LIFE magazine began to change in the December 1950 issues. LIFE editors obviously realized that the notion that the Korean War would be a short war was wishful thinking on the part of the United States and the United Nations. When China entered the war, the death toll grew, and LIFE’s coverage of the war increased.
Following is a list of the articles found in LIFE magazine regarding the Korean War. They are listed by volume, issue number, and page. The title of each article is in quotes, followed by a short description of what Korean War enthusiasts and researchers can find within them. The description was written by Lynnita Brown of the Korean War Educator.
Volume 32, Issue No. 9, March 3, 1952
During the 1950-1953 time frame, there were several short Letters to the Editor in response to articles that LIFE magazine ran about the Korean War. One of the Korean War Educator’s personal favorites is this one, written by W.F. Bragg of Worland, Wyoming. It appeared in the January 15, 1951 issue on page 10. Bragg wrote the letter in response to "Christmas in Korea", a story in pictures by David Douglas Duncan. Bragg wrote:
The scenes of the Marine retreat in your Christmas issue moved me strongly as I am a veteran of World War I, and have one son who served four years with the Marines in World War II. The indifferent attitude of the nation in general toward its fighting men in distant lands stirs me to an anger beyond words. Maybe these pictures of gaunt, frozen, undaunted men will stir that tiny spark of national pride and indignation which seems to be smothered in the cold, dead ashes of business and politics as usual."
Below are the names of persons whose Letter to the Editor appeared in LIFE magazine from July 1950 to the end of the war. Most of the editorials were very small.
The following editorials were produced by the staff of LIFE magazine, rather than from reader's comments.
Senior Scholastic, pp. 12-14, September 20, 1950
Dayton, Ohio
You need men, materials, money, and morale—the knowledge that citizens at home are staunchly supporting the men at the front. What have we done, since June 25, to carry out our part of the United Nations mission in Korea? When the Communists attacked in Korea, Uncle Sam had 1,500,000 men in uniform, the smallest number since the beginning of World War II. The Army had only ten divisions of fighting troops. These divisions did not have their full quota of men. In wartime a division is 17,000 men. In peacetime it may be much smaller.
Our first task was to get troops to Korea quickly. Troops were moved from occupation duty in Japan and from Okinawa, a strategic Pacific island held by the U.S. since World War II. Marines and infantrymen were rushed by ship from the Pacific Coast. But this was only a beginning. To bring other Army divisions up to full strength and to man ships and planes, Uncle Sam called men from civilian life in four ways:
The Draft
At the time of the Korean attack, Congress was debating whether or not to extend the draft. The outbreak of war decided the matter. Congress passed a law extending the draft to July 9, 1951. Within a few weeks the call went out for 150,000 young men to be taken into the armed forces during September, October, and November. For boys in senior high school the draft will soon be important. Under the selective service system (as the draft is called), every boy must register with his local draft board within five days after his eighteenth birthday. There his name is kept in readiness, although no 18-year-olds are being called to service now. In recent months, draft boards first called those who are 25 years old, then 24, and so on, to make up the number of draftees required. There are severe penalties for neglecting to register or failing to appear for physical examinations by draft boards. Many young men are rejected for military service because they are not physically or mentally fit. Many others obtain deferments and have their service delayed. For the present this applies to college students if they are in the top half of their classes, veterans of World War II, those in certain important technical jobs, and those with families dependent on them. These deferments may be eliminated or made more strict if the need for draftees becomes much greater.
The National Guard
In each state there are National Guard units. National Guardsmen meet regularly for training during the year and are subject to call in all kinds of emergencies. In case of war the Army calls upon National Guard units to become part of the regular Army. By the middle of August, four National Guard divisions and two smaller Guard units had been called into active service from widely separated states. More and more will be called as time goes on.
The Reserves
Each branch of the armed services has reserves. These are men who have been in the armed forces before and have agreed to keep up some training in peacetime. Some of these men are in the organized reserves—units trained to fight together in some special task. Others are in the unorganized reserve. For all services, there were more than two million men in the reserves on June 25. The Marine Corps is calling all of its reserves (125,000 men and 2,000 women) to duty. The Army, Navy, and Air Force are calling up large numbers of their organized and unorganized reserves.
Volunteers
All services have opened their ranks to volunteers. The Navy especially takes great pride in filling its ranks with volunteers rather than with draftees. Young women are also encouraged to volunteer for service in the WACs (Women’s Army Corps), WAVES (Navy) and other groups. As in World War II, it is not expected that women will be drafted for service (except a few veterans now in the reserves).
In addition, the President extended the enlistments of men already in the armed services. Last month military planners were aiming to put 650,000 men in uniform, to bring our armed forces well over the two-million mark. This number will probably be expanded. The number will depend upon the difficulty of our task in Korea. It will also depend upon how much help our United Nations allies can provide in the near future.
Men alone cannot fight a war. They must have guns, tanks, bazookas, ships, planes, food, clothing, and thousands of other vital items. They must have training bases, air fields, command posts, and so on. To pay for all these President Truman asked Congress to appropriate 11 billion dollars. This is in addition to the 14.7 billion dollars which had previously been approved for national defense for this year.
It is hard to realize the gigantic size of 11 billion dollars. It is one fourth as much as Uncle Sam had expected to spend for the present fiscal year for all his expenses. It is about $73 for every man, woman, and child in the United States. In July Congress passed a bill appropriating more than one billion dollars for the second year of our Military Assistance Program. Under this program the U.S. supplies arms and technical military assistance to the democratic nations of Western Europe and to the Philippines, China, Iran, and (of course) Korea. Because of the Korean situation Congress has been asked for an additional four billion dollars to help our allies resist Communist aggression—wherever it may erupt. Here, too, American military equipment is needed quickly.
Where do we get the money to pay for all this? The answer is: More taxes, and more borrowing through issuance of more Government bonds. Up to June 25 Congress was working on a bill to reduce some taxes. It seemed certain that World War II excise taxes (on transportation, jewelry, etc) would be cut down. With the billion-dollar demands for new military spending, these reductions were thrown out the window. In their place came moves to raise more money. National leaders agree that we should take care of these new expenses on a "pay-as-we-go" basis, as far as possible. That is, we should increase tax rates enough to absorb much of the cost now, so that Government borrowing of funds can be kept to a minimum.
To do this President Truman asked Congress to raise an additional five billion dollars in taxes this year. He said that this was just a temporary program—and that even higher taxes might be expected next January. Congress plans to raise the additional five billion dollars in three ways:
We already know that sacrifices will have to come from every American family to support the war effort. Many of these sacrifices are reflected in new economic controls imposed by the Government. Soon after U.S. forces entered Korea, President Truman used a few of his executive powers to help support the war on the home front. For instance, he issued orders curbing Government loans on new homes and apartments. Purchasers of homes are now required to pay more cash as a down payment. The purpose of this is to cut down dangerous expansion of credit. The President also asked his Cabinet Departments to see if they could not reduce or eliminate expensive projects which they are about to undertake.
For other economic control powers, Mr. Truman went to Congress. He said, in effect, that this is not an "all-out" war. He suggested that we need not, for the present at least, go back to such broad World War II controls as price ceilings and rationing.
Many people did not agree with Mr. Truman. One of them was Bernard M. Baruch, 80-year-old adviser to Presidents since World War I. He said that we cannot do things in piecemeal fashion, and that we must adopt rigorous controls over materials, wages, profits, and prices right now. In that way we would avoid serious inflationary trouble which cannot be repaired.
Congress is usually reluctant to give the President all the powers he may request. But in this case many Congressmen felt that the President had not gone far enough in asking for war powers for himself. As a result, Congress fashioned a bill somewhat stronger than the President requested. Mr. Truman indicated that he was happy to go along with it.
Here are the highlights of the Defense Production Act of 1950, covering most of these economic controls.
Priorities and allocations. The President is given power to see that our defense industries get the materials they need. Priorities, for instance, give first call on wool to manufacturers making Army uniforms. Those making women’s coats or men’s suits would have to wait their turn. Allocations divide up supplies of materials which are even more scarce, such as steel, rubber, and oil. The Government might have to decide, for instance, how much steel shall go to the makers of tanks and how much to the makers of airplanes.
Production loans. The Government may grant loans to manufacturers to help them expand their plants to take care of military orders. These loans may total as much as two billion dollars. Eventually they would be repaid.
Credit controls. Many of the things we buy, such as houses, autos, or washing machines, are bought on the installment plan. We pay so much "down," and the rest in regular weekly or monthly payments. When the down payment is small and installment payments are stretched over a long period, many people are tempted to buy expensive items they cannot immediately afford. This puts a lot of people in debt and creates a heavy demand for civilian goods. Under the new law, the President may curb installment buying, by requiring higher down payments and shorter periods for complete payments. This is similar to restrictions in effect during World War II.
Rationing, price control, wage control. The President has been given "stand-by" powers to put controls over the goods we buy. As in World War II, he may put price ceilings on food, clothing, autos—or whatever becomes scarce or wherever prices tend to get too high. At the same time, he may start a system of rationing to limit the amount of goods we may buy. If price ceilings go into effect, he must impose wage ceilings at the same time. Thus, if the prices Mrs. Housewife has to pay are held down, her husband’s wages would alsobe held at their current level. Mr. Truman indicated, however, that he hoped it would not be necessary to use these emergency powers. Earlier Congress had extended Federal rent controls until December 31. Communities requesting it may have Federal rent control continued until next June 30.
Hoarding. During July and August many people rushed to buy large quantities of sugar, tires, nylon stockings—anything they thought would become scarce. They remembered the early days of World War II when such goods disappeared from store counters. They bought the things that became scarce in1 942, not bothering to think whether they would be scarce in 1950. Sugar, for example, was scarce in 1942 because many sources of supply in the Far East were cut off from us. But today we have more sugar in stock than ever before. The hoarder (the person who buys far more than he needs) is a bad citizen. He deprives others of things they really need, and may help to cause an artificial shortage by his greed.
Congress took a close look at hoarding and put into the new Defense Production Act a provision making hoarding a crime. For buying excessive amounts of food, clothing, or other necessities, a person may be fined $10,000 and sent to jail for a year.
If we buy more things than we really need, we can start the ball of inflation rolling. When there is a sudden demand for goods the price usually goes up along with the cost of living. If the cost of living goes up, workers demand higher wages. Higher wages give people still more money to spend. With more money to spend and good still scarce, prices go up again, like the "Third Man" in the cartoon [credit goes to the Cincinnati Enquirer] on this page. This kind of economic leapfrog can go on and on unless there are controls. (In a future issue we shall discuss the problem of inflation in detail.)
Prices of most goods, especially food, have already risen. In a number of cases, labor unions are asking for wage increases to keep up with the increased cost of living. Strict price controls, rationing, and wage controls may be required to support our military effort in Korea. If the war spreads beyond Korea, the home front will have to go on a full war footing.
Except for American Communists and their dwindling group of sympathizers, the American people stand four-square behind the efforts of the United Nations in Korea. In Congress, Democrats and Republicans have banded together to work out the necessary action which Uncle Sam should take.
Of course, there are honest disagreements, but these are the usual disagreements between Republicans and Democrats. Secretary of State Dean Acheson is accused of following a policy that led to Communist aggression in Asia. To meet these criticisms, he is defended for his increasingly firm stand against Russia since he became Secretary of State last year. Secretary of Defense Louis A. Johnson is criticized for cutting our armed forces to the point of weakness, in his drive to economize on defense expenditures. He, too, is defended. Of the $50-billion appropriated for armed services from 1946 to 1950, only one dollar is seven went for new weapons and equipment. The rest went for higher army pay and non-military supplies.
And, war or no war, this is a Congressional election year. All 435 Representatives and one third of our Senators (plus a few serving unexpired terms) will be elected on November 7. The Administration’s conduct of the war, and the events leading to the Korean crisis, will undoubtedly be an issue in campaigning by Republicans and Democrats alike. Many people believe that this type of criticism hurts our war effort. But it is part of the American tradition to take every issue to the voters. They, by secret ballot, set the future course of the nation. That is the American way.
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The mother of a boy twice wounded in Korea asks this writer: "Why is my son fighting in Korea?" The question was not a protest but an earnest search for a definition.
American boys are fighting in Korea -
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"Why Are We Fighting in Korea?", The New Republic, August 11, 1952
Why are we fighting in Korea? Our soldiers in the front lines, whose combat morale is high, stumble on the answer. Civilians, five thousand miles away, know still less as they learn from General Van Fleet, Commander of our 8th Army, that after two years at war the Communists "still have the capability of striking at any point" and that after one year of truce talks "recent trends indicate less of a chance for an armistice than ever before."
Why are we fighting? If you go to the Pentagon and read through the three thick volumes of official releases on the truce talks, you will come away aware only of a grey blur. You learn much of the flights of helicopters and the journeys of jeeps to the meeting places; little of our purpose, and not much more if you turn to the occasional rhetoric of Secretary Acheson and President Truman. The lack of public reaction to Van Fleet’s depressing statement is a sign of the nation’s apathy, as well as a real tribute to its patience and its trust.
Our mood was different on June 23, 1951, when Jacob Malik’s broadcast opened a road to the tents at Kaesong. MacArthur was calling then for all ot war against china; our troops were advancing slowly against positions that were not yet fortified. The will to reach a truce seemed apparent on both sides. The talks in Kaesong were marred by trouble with flood waters, continuous "incidents," difficulty with communications, and extreme tension on both sides. None the less progress was made. By July 26 the Communists gave up their insistence that the negotiations consider the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Korea. An agenda was adopted. Point one was the agenda itself; point two was the establishment of a permanent truce line; point three was the provision of inspection and enforcement machinery; point four was prisoner reparation. Point five was the arrangement of a subsequent political conference. The UN briefing officer, Major Nuckols, reported that Admiral Joy and General Nam Il "had their elbows on the table." However the elbows were forced off the table by a series of "incidents" and disagreement on the 38th parallel, politically indispensable for the Communists, militarily indefensible for us. The talks collapsed.
For the Communists, obviously, all lines went back to Moscow. In Moscow on October 5, Admiral Kirk and Andre Vishinsky discussed the resumption of negotiations. When they began again on October 22, the Communist troops were down to 60 percent strength in the front lines. North Korean and Chinese soldiers captured by raiding parties, reported lack of ammunition, poor equipment, bad food and low morale. To make things worse for the Communists the UN Air Force started "Operation Strangle" one of the greatest air interdiction campaigns ever attempted. But the Communists evidently had plans of their own. When "Operation Strangle" ended in early 1952, the Communist forces were up to full strength, with new weapons, and good clothing and provisions. Their railroads were operating.
The initial weakness of the Communists in the autumn contributed to their willingness to retreat in negotiations from their former insistence on the 38th parallel. The UN in turn agreed to narrow the demilitarized zone from 20 to 2 ½ miles. Then the talks progressed rapidly. Point one on the agenda was accepted. Point two was agreed. Point three became progressively less important as the UN withdrew from its first demands. Point five was advanced by the little word "etc." The State Department instructed the UN delegation to accept with only one reservation the Communist proposal to fulfill point five by having the negotiations "recommend" to their governments a "high level" conference after the armistice, "to settle the questions of withdrawal of all foreign troops from Korea, the peaceful settlement of the Korean question, etc." The Communists agreed, arguing that "etc." included Formosa and UN membership for Communist China. The UN reservation specified that "we wish it clearly understood that we do not construct the word "et cetera" to relate to matters outside Korea." This was agreed on February 17. Further agreement on point three, the inspection issue, seemed possible on March 20, when the Communists ceased to insist that Russia should be one of the "neutral" members of the supervisory team. Basically, by March 1952, the prisoner issue alone remained.
Talks on the prisoner issue had actually started in December. It was in a subcommittee then that the two sides exchanged prisoner lists. The UN list contained 132,000 names; 16,000 South Koreans, 20,000 Chinese Communist soldiers, and 96,000 North Koreans. The Communist list included only 11,599 names, including 3,198 Americans and 7,142 South Koreans.
The exchange of these lists led to immediate protests. The UN demanded to know why the Communists had not listed 50,000 South Koreans which they had claimed to have captured. The Communists demanded inclusion in the lists of an additional 37,000 troops captured by the UN. These men were South Koreans, impressed into the Red Armies, and therefore reclassified as civilians, not as prisoners of war.
When the full delegations discussed in executive session the exchange of these prisoners, the communists implied that they would forget the 37,000 South Koreans. They proposed a "recheck" of the prisoners of war, implicitly approving the UN screening process. So the screening in the compounds at Koje began.
Had the UN command known in July, 1951, that the war would still be raging 12 months later, it might have moved at once to regroup the prisoners into small and manageable groups. However it was believed then, that an armistice would be quickly reached. The UN command followed the traditional, dangerous course of leaving the prisoners in large compounds, under their own officers, subject to their own internal discipline, and with only skeleton UN troops to stand guard.
Under these conditions the screening took place. The UN, contrary to Communist propaganda, stacked the results heavily in favor of the Communists. It retreated from its original insistence on "voluntary repatriation" to "non-forcible repatriation." That is, instead of asking North Koreans and Chinese, "Do you want to return?" it asked them, "Would you forcibly resist return?" To further stack the results, the UN command proposed to the Chinese Communists that they issue a general amnesty, promising to disregard anti-Communist mottos tattooed on the prisoners, and other signs of anti-Communism. This the communists did, and the amnesty was publicized throughout the compounds. Yet the interrogation of 106,000 prisoners in two weeks demonstrated unsuspected hatred for Communism. The South Koreans of course wanted to remain in their homes. The Chinese showed a higher percentage who would "forcibly resist" repatriation than the North Koreans. It has since become clear that the original "screening operation" was poorly executed. UN interrogators, unable to enter many compounds, had to make rough guesses. Their calculations were slipshod and the UN command now admits the figure closer to 80,000. The Communists however did not cavil about minor discrepancies. The UN estimated that 70,000 prisoners might be repatriated. This figure, far below the previous guesses of the UN, caused the Communists to rise in fury.
Since then General Harrison, the new chief negotiator, has tried many variations of the formula. The Communists have replied that they are interested in numbers of prisoners, not in words. Meanwhile according to General Van Fleet the Communists have prepared themselves for a deadlock of indefinite duration.
One year ago, the Communist weakness lay in the lack of fortified positions. Now their lines are fortified, making ground advances by the UN extremely costly. Later their weakness was lack of air defense. Now they have the world’s second or third strongest air force, one sixth of Russia’s front line strength. Given these defenses, the UN hopes turned to amphibious landings behind the Communist lines. Now General Van Fleet reveals that the Reds have built up their defenses on both coasts. He adds that the Communists have "finally come to their senses" thinning out their troops in the front lines where they were exposed to continuous UN artillery fire. Their one million troops are now in positions where they can be kept indefinitely on the assumption that there will be no armistice, and no UN ground attack.
If the Communists are ready for a stalemate in Korea, are we? What principle makes worthwhile our continued losses and our major efforts there?
On the exchange of prisoners, an issue of principle has been raised. The Communists have taken a position in accordance with their fundamental beliefs. For them the individual is integrated in the state; the maintenance of absolute power forbids the recognition of any legal escape road; every citizen must know that if he goes over to the enemy in time of war, the long arm of the state will get him back.
On our side, nations which defend the right of political asylum in peacetime can hardly abandon it in war. How basic is this principle, which applies today chiefly to 14,000 of the 20,000 Chinese prisoners?
The principle at stake is important, and it is politically related to the significance which the Korean war has come to assume in Asia. Many Asians have long believed that the United States dropped atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki because the inhabitants of these cities were not white. They suspect America and the European nations who play a major role in the United Nations of an unconscious contempt for non-whites. This dangerous misconception will be strengthened if the UN goes back on its word and turns over unwilling Asians to Communist rule in order to regain the freedom of a much smaller group of American prisoners. Whether or not the truce is finally reached, the United Nations, and many allied divisions are committed to guard Korea against another attack. For us the principal difference between a truce and a stalemate is the return of 11,000 Communist-held prisoners and the ending of the continuing but fortunately short casualty lists. The difference is not great, in contrast with the dangers of world war. If patience is needed to move from a stalemate to a truce, then patience is worth it for peace.
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Reader's Digest, December 1952, "We Haven’t Been Getting the Facts About Korea" by Robert C. Miller, United Press roving correspondent. Condensed from Nieman Reports.
While there was a plethora of movies produced about World War II during the war years, only two motion picture shows and one documentary were known to have been produced on the subject of the Korean War during the years the war was actually in progress. The Korean War Educator found references to them on the Internet, and now provide them on the Home Front page of the KWE.
The KWE's friend, Chris Sarno of Medford, Massachusetts, pointed out that other movies were made at later dates about the Korean War. He wrote:
The Steel Helmet [Gene Evans]....Hold Back the Nite [John Payne]....Retreat, Hell!! [Richard Carlson]...First Yank in Korea [Lon MacAllister] ...Battle Circus [Humphrey Bogart]...Men at War... [Robert Ryan/Aldo Ray]...The Bridges at Toko-Ri [Wm Holden]...Let's Go Marines...[Richard Hedison]...Sayonara [Marlon Brando]...Three Stripes in the Sun [Aldo Ray/Chuck Connors] My personal favorite of all of the above movies is: The Bridges at Toko-Ri....it brought out ever so clearly the heroic endeavors of the US Armed Forces committed to Korea; contrary, against the doubts from home and abroad.
"Touching drama about the effects the Korean War and the enactment of a new military draft have on a small town family." Source of Information: Cinebooks Database.
Producer Goldwyn tried to recapture the success of his film THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES with this tale about the problems that result from wartime military service. Here the effects of the Korean War are felt by men and women, young and old. Andrews is a WWII veteran and a family man who is ambivalent about his decision to reenlist. His wife, McGuire, is totally against the idea. Graner is a young man faced with the draft and in love with Dow. Being taken away from his sweetheart creates a growing resentment inside him. Dunnock, Granger's mother, doesn't want to have another son killed in action and confronts her husband, Keith, about his continuous lectures to their son on the heroics of war. Milner tries to deal with his possessive father, Baldwin. Not as insightful as THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES, though still a very powerful film with an important message about the effect war has on individuals and families. Nominated for an Oscar in the Best Sound category.
Dana Andrews, Dorothy McGuire, Farley Granger, Peggy Dow, Robert Keith, Mildred Dunnock, Ray Collins, Martin Milner, Jim Backus, Marjorie Crossland, Walter Baldwin, Walter Sande, Peggy Maley, Jerrilyn Flannery, Erik Nielsen, Ann Robin, Carol Savage, James Adamson, Harry Lauter, Frank Sully, Robert Johnson, David McMahon, Melodi Lowell, James Ogg, Jean Andren, Charles Marsh, Don Hayden, Dee Carroll, Lee Turnbull, Ralph Brooks, Rolland Morris, Al Murphy, Paul Smith.
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Cease Fire was originally produced as a 3-D movie in 1953. It was a real-life documentary drama produced and photographed entirely on the battlefields of Korea in cooperation with the Department of Defense. The actors in the film were real fighting soldiers on active duty in Korea. One of the main characters was a soldier from Texas named Ricardo Carrasco. Not happy with his role as "movie star" as opposed to being with his buddies on the frontline, Carrasco played his "death scene" in the movie in the late morning of July 6, 1953. He went back with his unit, where he was killed in action about 12 hours later just before midnight.
Military historian Resa Kirkland, who has spent many years gathering data about Richard Carrasco, told the Korean War Educator, "CEASE FIRE has the marvelous distinction of being the only movie in American movie history to be shot entirely on the frontlines of a an ongoing war, and the only one ever to use no stars, but all non-actor frontline soldiers! Isn't that something? It will forever remain as such because the Pentagon told me 10 years ago that in the 1960's they banned movies and their crews from being filmed on the front lines. In fact, Francis Ford Coppola wanted to do it for his movie APOCOLYPSE NOW on the frontlines of Vietnam, and complained to a magazine, "I don't know why the military refused to let me when they let Hal Wallis do it with that movie CEASE FIRE 20 years ago!" So it will never, ever, ever happen again! a wonderful and unique distinction for our Korean Vets, don't you think!?"
In this documentary, actual American soldiers and others re-enact a real Korean War operation, with some real battle footage, filmed some time before the actual truce. The story: with peace supposedly imminent, Lieut. Thompson and 13 men of his platoon are ordered on a deep scouting mission to check for last-minute treachery. Assorted perils are encountered, ending with a decidedly un-peaceful battle. Summary written by Rod Crawford { [Please enable JavaScript.] }"
[Source of Information: IMDb]
Men Who Answered the "Why?" The American Soldier
[KWE Note: As mentioned earlier, Resa Kirkland has researched the life of Ricardo Carrasco for over a decade. She sent the following narrative about Cease Fire and Carrasco's role in it to the KWE for inclusion on this Homefront page.Kirkland note: This article was originally written at the behest of Medal of Honor recipient Gen. Raymond Davis, USMC ret., and he had a segment of it run in Graybeards magazine two years ago. Graybeards is the official publication of the Korean War Veterans Association.]
PFC Ricardo Carrasco is a name that I have determined will not fall into the anonymity of the abyss of time. Why? Well, I’m not sure I’m wise enough to answer such a simply complicated question, but I love a challenge and will at least make the attempt. One would think that Ricardo’s story would be explanation enough. I agree; however, it sat for forty years collecting dust and slowly fading from memories. This disturbed me greatly. How could so perfect, so beautiful a sacrifice be forgotten? Why? I came to find out that it was forgotten because the full story had never been known in the first place. The truth of it was more stunning, more inspiring than anything man could have imagined.
Ricardo Carrasco arrived in Korea and landed on Old Baldy Hill in late March, 1953, just in time to join Company "A" of the 32nd Infantry Regiment of the 7th Division in a battle extraordinaire against Chinese Communist Forces. Baldy and its sister, the infamous Pork Chop Hill, would be his world for the next three months. He was 19, and had lived all of his life in El Paso, TX. Born during the depression and raised during WWII, Ricardo would cut his teeth on this first war against communism. He was the sixth of eight kids, and had wanted to be a career soldier like those men he had so admired in the newsreels of WWII. He received a terrible blow when he learned he could not be part of his beloved 82nd Airborne as he’d always dreamed; he was slightly nearsighted, and with no particular skills, was assigned to the infantry.
He was cocky at boot camp; his letters gently teasing friends back home for not volunteering like he had. But his first day in Korea knocked the macho right out of him. His letters home now begged friends not to join up. He was terrified and a million miles from those he loved. He wanted nothing more than to go home. He never could have imagined that the opportunity would present itself on a silver platter.
Director Owen Crump knew war. He had filmed much of WWII in the Army Air Corps and was a full-bird by the end of the war. However, something about this new war ate at him, and he finally realized what it was. They weren’t showing the whole picture. He wanted to do just that, but wasn’t sure how. His inspiration came in the form of a newspaper article written by Scripps-Howard war correspondent Jim Lucas. One simple line would instigate a movie: " It was a quiet day on the front with limited patrol action." Knowing war as he did, Crump knew there was no such thing as a "quiet day" for front-line soldiers. He wondered how those front-liners would write that line, and decided to do it for them. He had a revolutionary idea.
Crump approached Paramount Pictures producer Hal Wallis for help. He pitched his idea for the first movie ever filmed entirely on the front lines of a war. It would be in black and white to give it a documentary feel. Every soldier would be played by-of all things-a real front-line solder. No actors for this movie. Every explosion, every bullet would be the real, government-issued thing. Wallis loved the idea, and sent Crump and a skeletal crew to Korea to pick their men for the movie’s plot.
The movie was to be set on the last day of the war. A squad of 13 men, knowing that the cease fire would be declared that night, must still take a hill and set up an observation post. These are the most intense, most frightening moments of any war; everyone knows it’s over, but the bullets are still flying. Crump wanted to show the heartbreak of coming so close to the end, then dying anyway. He wanted the world to know the loss. One of the Americans in the fiction movie would die within hours of that cease fire.
Crump hand-picked his 13 American soldiers and one ROK soldier to play their parts. Among them was PFC Ricardo Carrasco. He would be the American to die in the movie. Ricardo was livid at being chosen for the movie, but it was written up as a TDY, so he obeyed and went. He’d been squad leader when Crump had informed him of his new assignment, and he worried incessantly about his men. It was mid-June, 1953, and everyone knew the summer would out-live this war. It was over. But Ricardo knew of the Chinese desire to take Pork Chop, where he was fighting, and their habit of nighttime attacks. Every morning at the War Correspondents Building in Seoul-where the cast and crew were staying--he would run to a reporter and ask if the Chinese had attacked Pork Chop yet. Every night his prayers were the same: Please, God. Please don’t let the Chinese attack before I can get back. So far, he had been "lucky"-at least in his way of thinking. He knew that hill, and he knew the horror. The thought of his "fellahs," as he called them, fighting and dying while he was getting the star treatment sickened him. He felt that he was shirking his duties, letting down his friends. The war had become for Ricardo what it becomes for all good men: it was no longer about democracy, America, or even the damned hill-it was about his love for his friends. He could never live with himself if one of them died in his place or because he wasn’t there to help. His love over-ruled his fear.
The rumors of Chinese amassing around Pork Chop flew as the filming began. Every day Ricardo begged Crump to "kill" his character off so he could get back to his fellahs. Every day Crump told him they weren’t ready to film that scene yet. The other soldier/actors puzzled over this quiet, moody young man who had the opportunity of a lifetime. They loved this life! Good food served to them on tablecloths, by waiters no less, plenty of booze, and no one trying to kill them. They could not figure the kid out.
Still he continued to pester the director, who firmly reminded him that he was to obey his orders. Crump liked the kid, but couldn’t reckon him. Maybe he loved the battle and terror, or maybe he was bucking for a promotion or a medal. Or maybe it was like he said; that his friends were up there. Crump figured the problem would be solved one day in early July when he received a wire from producer Hal Wallis. Wallis had seen the first rushes of the movie and had been so impressed by one young man in particular that he wanted Crump to get the boy to sign a contract with Paramount. Wallis knew a star when he saw one. In fact, in Hollywood he was referred to as "The Starmaker"; everyone he’d ever tagged to be a star had become one. And now he had Ricardo Carrasco pegged as the next star he would mold and create.
Crump grinned as he ordered Ricardo aside from the other men. As he explained that Hal Wallis wanted to make the young man a star, he held his breath and waited for the reaction: a yelp, weak knees, all the color draining from his face…something to indicate his shock and excitement. But Ricardo stood still, the only movement being that of his head slightly lowering. Crump furrowed his brow, but before he could say anything, Ricardo spoke. "No thank you, sir." Now it was Crump who lost all color. He asked for an explanation. How could this kid turn down such an incredible offer from the most powerful producer in Hollywood? And how the hell was he supposed to tell Wallis?
At first Ricardo skirted the question, simply saying that it was time to get back and they didn’t really need him here to make the movie, even though his part was a pivotal one. Crump could see that it was something else, and finally pried it out of the boy. Why did he want his character killed ahead of schedule? Why was he turning down once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to go back and fight in a war that would be over in a matter of days now? Why had he nagged the director from day one to get back to the mud and the digging and the fighting and the dying? Why? Ricardo’s voice was low and husky. After an eternity, he raised his head up and looked the director in the eye. He just had to go back. Crump had to let him go back. The director was angry now. Was the kid a martyr? Why was he beating a dead horse? Ricardo’s explanation would do little to quell his angst and frustration with this odd young man.
He told Crump that the men at the front were under his command. There was no hiding the tenderness he felt toward those men, or the responsibility. He pleaded with the director to let him go back and help his friends in the final battle he knew was brewing on Pork Chop. That was infinitely more important to him than a movie. The respect and safety of his fellahs meant so much more. He could not bear the thought of them up there, fighting and dying, while he was back in a safety zone being treated like royalty. It was not right.
Crump and Carrasco argued for the next hour. The director finally gave up and dismissed the private. He wired back to Hal Wallis that his offer had been declined.
Wallis was furious. He’d never been turned down before, especially not by a punk kid on some glory kick! But after he calmed down, he decided that since the war was going to be over soon, he’d give the boy a chance to serve his country and fulfill his sense of obligation; then he’d bring him home and make him Audy Murphy.
The young, lone private continued to ask the director to kill him off, in spite of that scene being about two weeks away. Crump finally gave up. They began shooting his death scene that same week, and finished the close-ups on the morning of July 6. Ricardo was enormously relieved when he learned that the Chinese had not yet made the rumored attack on Pork Chop, but he knew his luck would not hold for long. So that very afternoon he insisted on going back. Fellow actor Otis Wright drove the jeep, cussing Ricardo out the whole way for being a "damned fool." But Ricardo was quiet, only smiling or nodding his head, occasionally speaking of his mother. They arrived in the late afternoon; Ricardo turned to wave goodbye over his shoulder. His "luck" had held; he was back with his men before the final assault. He let out a sigh of relief. He’d made it back in time…but barely.
After darkness fell, Chinese Communist Forces began the final attack on Pork Chop Hill. It was brutal, and the cost for it would be high. So high, in fact, that American military leaders made a moral decision to pull off on July 10, only four days later. It would not be in time for Ricardo. At about 2330 that night of July 6, a scant nine hours after wrapping up his movie death, a mortar round took out the left side of his head, wrapping up his life. Not many men can say they died twice in one day.
I don’t know what happened that night. Oh, I have the casualty report and some documentation. But what has made the past twelve years of research into this story so agonizing is that I’ve yet to find anyone who knew Ricardo and was with him that night. I must find someone. I must know if his going back made any difference to them that night. More importantly, I want them to know what Ricardo sacrificed to be there for them. Through my research and tracking down men, I have been astonished to learn that none of his fellow temporary thespians knew that he had been offered that contract from Wallis. I’m willing to bet that the men for whom he sacrificed such an opportunity do not know just how much he gave up to be there with them that night. I’ll bet they don’t know that he didn’t have to be there that night, wasn’t supposed to be there that night, and had nagged and pestered and "killed" himself off early so he could be there that night. I’ll bet they don’t know the eeriness of him dying in both "reel" life and "real" life, on the very same day. I’ll bet they don’t know that he did what he did out of his love and concern for them. I’ll bet they don’t know why.
"Cease Fire!", as it would be titled, came out in November of 1953 with its all- soldier cast. Most of the men were flown to the New York and Los Angeles premieres in high style. They appeared on Ed Sullivan and the Gary Moore Show. But Ricardo was rarely mentioned. Out of respect for the Carrasco family, Crump re-shot the death scene later using an extra. He knew that watching her son die on the screen would be too much for Mrs. Carrasco to bear. He also edited Ricardo out of as many places as he could in the film, but his part was too important. He could not be totally eliminated.
Mrs. Carrasco took it hard. In one of his last letters home discussing the making of the movie, Ricardo had written a line that now seemed ominous and foreboding: "Don’t worry when you see me die, Mom, it’s only acting." Her heart broke, and 18 months later, she, too died. She was only 47. Paramount would be there to film Gen. Mark Clark signing the armistice only 21 days after Ricardo died. At one of their last meals together, the cast and crew of "Cease Fire!" raised their glasses to "the one who isn’t here." He was rarely mentioned thereafter.
Why? Why would he go back to fight in a war that was over anyway? He had been under orders; no one would have thought less of him. In fact, no one had expected him back before the end of the war. They assumed when he was chosen in mid-June that he would be gone the rest of the summer. So why did he go back to fight in a war that was almost over, however tenuous that ending might be? Why would God allow one such as Ricardo to give up so much, but have his sacrifice virtually unknown by the very ones for whom he did everything? I’ve pondered that long and hard myself. Why?
I once listened with great interest to a man explain his interpretation of Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac. The question had been posed: If God is omniscient, then he knew what Abraham would do. He knew this faithful son loved Him more than even his own long-promised son, and would give him up at his Father’s command. Then why the test at all? Why did God ask Abraham to do what He already knew he would do? Why?
Then came the answer that to me seemed so perfect, so beautiful in its simplicity that it had to be right. God had to prove to Abraham just how strong he was. It wasn’t that God doubted Abraham’s capability…it was that being mortal, Abraham doubted himself. Abraham had to know what Abraham could do. Like everything God does, it was not for His benefit, but for ours. I loved it! This was so very characteristic of our Father in Heaven…to show us, weak as we are, that we have within the seeds of godhood, Deity’s DNA. That we are capable of turning evil that we do or that is done against us into something divine is what makes us most like God; a "God Moment," as I often call magnanimous acts of mere mortal men.
This analogy is the warrior spirit defined. I have always felt that man is at his most spiritual when he is at war. Now this puzzles many who have heard me say this. Surely war is an evil, murderous event in our existence for which we are punished by God, right? How can it then also be good? Why?
I have been studying the men of the Korean War for twelve years now. These valiant servants of both God and man hesitate to speak of what they’ve seen, what they’ve done. I have seen their tears, slow and trembling on the edge of graying eyelashes, slipping down care-worn cheeks as they recount their tales of war. I have strained to hear their voices, so low with the agony of this cross they bear. Many of their tears are for the brutality and horror inherent in war…the dead and mangled bodies of beloved friends, boys barely old enough to shave now forever frozen in time, never aging another moment in the memories of those who watched them die.
But what has touched me most is their anguish at what they hesitate to share…and that is the memories of what that war forced them to do. These gentle men, who lovingly cup the face of a child or make love with tenderness and sincerity to the woman they adore, sob over the clear and unforgiving images of those they were forced to kill. It is the memories of these long gone screams, these tears, this enemy pain that haunt them most as the years go by. For all of the hatred and anger they may have felt against the enemy, it is still a hard thing to kill another man. However they may have understood the need to kill the enemy, the need to win the war, the price they pay is still the greatest to bear. They did what they had to do, and would do it again if faced with it, but the price such action exacts from a tender soul is no small thing.
This is a most glorious testament to manhood and the warrior spirit…that they bear this arduous burden with quiet dignity so those they love won’t have to. The beauty of this selfless act leaves me in awe. I have long understood the willingness to die for a friend…after all, that is the epitome of what Christ did, and for which we mortals strive. He died that we might live. But those who must live with the memories not only of dead friends but butchered enemies are the closest we, as weak, wretched beings born into this veil of tears, can ever come to knowing what Christ bore. The memories of war are the price that the good man pays; it is out of his deep love for others that he spares them this particular agony. It is perhaps summed up best this way: Upon these two laws doth every commandment hinge-that we love God, and that we love each other. There is no better example on earth of this unconditional love than the American soldier. They would die for their friends, true, but even more heart-breaking and remarkable about such men is that they also live with what they’ve had to do.
The Korean War Veterans who went on to live instead of dying on that distant soil are acutely aware of such suffering. They came home to nothing - no "Thank you’s", no recognition - just nothingness. America acted as if the Korean War had never happened, in spite of it being the only war from the twentieth century that is still being waged. This was unimaginable to these men who had seen WWII and the honor bestowed upon their fathers, their older brothers, or even themselves. Their homeland wouldn’t even give them the decorum of calling their campaign a war. And yet it is a direct result of what they gave - and gave up - for what they believed and for those they loved that made possible my own existence. I sit and write today because of what they stood and gave yesterday.
Is the soldier man at his most base animal or most spiritual God? Is it the monster coming out in us, or the Deity weaving its way in? This is what I see when I look into the eyes of our warrior brethren. Thrown into the most horrifying concoction of man’s inhumanity to man, it is the fact that these mortals are capable of such unselfish, beautiful acts of humanity-no, Divinity-that reaches the heart and soul of those left behind in a dust-cloud of wonder. Of all God’s children, surely He must relate to and glory over the American soldier. Why?
Greatest of all warriors on earth, the American soldier is capable of fighting fiercely, loving gently, living nobly, and forgiving totally. These are not the war-mongers that feminists and Hollywood have tried desperately to portray; these are gentle, loving creatures who want nothing more than to be free to go on living and loving. It is this desire that enables our brothers to choose to step out of their own selfish tendencies on behalf of another. Why?
Just like with Abraham, God was showing Ricardo just how good, how magnificent he truly was capable of becoming. God was willing to sacrifice His son because He knew there were good men out there like Abraham and Ricardo-and most good soldiers - and he wanted them back with Him. Whether it requires dying for a friend or living with the memories, the order of the day for the American soldier is and always has been that of sacrifice. For them, "life, fortune, and sacred honor" are not only words. They know this meaning by their wounded hearts; no one has to tell them why.
Keep the faith, bros, and in all things courage. - Resa Kirkland
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This is Korea" was the only color documentary made during the Korean War.
Source of Information: IMDb
This documentary contains rare footage of aircraft and ground action. The film was claimed to be, "an unsuccessful attempt to encourage public support for an unpopular war." It was an impressionistic study of the U.S. Marine Corps’ role in the Korean War.
Source of Information: Taken from Asian Educational Media Service.
"John Ford's documentary about the Korean War was produced under U.S. Navy supervision and released theatrically by Republic Pictures. Despite its propagandistic origins, the film did give a real sense of what the conflict was all about to American moviegoers still weary from World War II. The advancement of American forces in Seoul is given special attention and the Medical Corps is presented in a heroic, inspirational light."
Music from the early 1950s reflects the fact that there was a war going on in Korea. Below are some of the songs produced at that time with themes relating to the Korean War.
During the Korean War, a patriotic song called, "God Bless Our Boys in Korea", was written by Louis Perosi. The rousing music and lyrics of this song were recorded by Vanity Records of Patterson, New Jersey, on a 78 rpm record. The lyrics expressed support and hope for the troops, and called for prayers and support. The music content included an introductory snare drum cadence, followed by several choruses sang by vocalist Jo Ann Lear and reprised by a male group. The Justin Leonard orchestra provided the background music. On the reverse of the album, Cal Cala crooned "Angel." Both songs were written circa 1951. "God Bless Our Boys in Korea" is one of only two songs known by the Korean War Educator to have been written specifically on the subject of the Korean War during the time that the war was actually in progress. The other song can be found on the "Home Front In The Songs page" of the Korean War Educator under the title, "Say a Prayer for the Boys in Korea."
Two of the "God Bless Our Boys in Korea" albums were posted for auction on Ebay in October of 2002, where they were discovered by Lynnita Brown of the Korean War Educator. The albums were the last of their kind from a stock of records sold in the Trudy Whyte Record Shop which operated in Racine, Wisconsin, from 1946 through 1969. One of the Ebay albums is now owned by Lynnita Brown, and the other is owned by Lou Perosi, son of the song’s author. The Perosi family was unaware of the album’s existence until one of his two sons was contacted by Mrs. Brown. In response to her query about Louis Valentine Perosi Sr., Mr. Perosi’s son, Lou (Stroudsburg, PA) Jr., provided the following information about his father.
Louis Valentine Perosi, Sr.
Louis was born on March 10, 1920. He was the oldest of five children: Frank, Anthony, Mary and William. He was raised in New York City by his parents Mario and Rafella, who met in New York City, but came from Italy. At the age of eight, his parents divorced and the children were placed into the custody of the New York State Children’s Services, where they were cared for in a Children’s Home until Louis was twelve. During his time at the Children’s Home, Louis suffered a broken ear drum as a result of being severely punished on numerous occasions. At the age of twelve, his father got custody of the children again after remarrying, and had another child, Americo. His father worked as a construction worker and played the violin on city sidewalks in New York City to make extra money. Mario had become a master of most musical instruments before coming to America. Louis graduated high school through the New York City school system.
The family moved from New York City in 1938, and settled in Suffern, New York, where Mario became the music director for the Suffern school system. Louis worked in construction and began learning the accordion, piano, and other instruments. At the age of eighteen, Louis was an accomplished musician working full time in construction as a mason and, playing music part time. In 1942, the family moved to New Jersey where Mario set up a music studio in Paterson, New Jersey. Louis helped his father and taught music.
In 1943, one of his students, Frances Randazzo, taking mandolin lessons, caught the eye of Louis. On June 4, 1944, Louis and Frances were married and settled in West Paterson, New Jersey. They had two sons, Louis Jr. And Vincent. Louis Senior continued to play and compose music. He was a prolific composer, writing songs about everything from love to important news stories of the day.
In 1951, he composed the song, "God Bless Our Boys in Korea." He never served in the military because of his broken ear drum. In 1952, he recorded the song in New Jersey. The song was never nationally distributed. Only a limited number of copies were made.
In 1955, Louis began working full time for Bendix Corporation, Teterboro, New Jersey, where he was a foundry worker. He also learned the printing trade and worked part time in a printing shop in Paterson, New Jersey. He also published his own local paper called "The Star Bulletin."
Louis wrote more than 25 compositions, and he copyrighted ten, including "God Bless Our Boys in Korea." His greatest opportunity to become a nationally-known songwriter was in 1958, when he was a contestant on Steve Allen’s "Songs for Sale" game show. Louis entered his song, "Daffy Down Dilly", which was sung by a popular singer of that era on national TV with a background of dancers in costumes of toy soldiers and dolls. The panel of judges thought the song was a hit, but one of the panelists, Morey Amsterdam, a comic from that period, voted the song down. Ironically, Amsterdam later published a song called Huckle Buck, which was never a hit but nonetheless received Amsterdam’s backing.
After that, Louis continued to seek recognition for his work, but times were changing, and so was music. Rock and Roll was the new thing, and shortly after that, Elvis, the Beatles, and other groups of the 60’s changed music as Louis knew it, forever. He could not adjust to the music of the early baby boomers.
However, one song still remains unpublished, and will undoubtedly place Louis Valentine Perosi Senior on the national hit list in the near future. That song is, "Let’s Decorate the Merry Christmas Tree," and competes with classics like "Jingle Bell Rock" and "Rockin around the Christmas Tree." The song is a treasure of holiday joy and happiness and his son, Louis Jr., along with his brother, Frank, who is in the record business, plan to publish the song for Christmas 2003, along with a number of other new Christmas songs.
Louis died unexpectedly at the age of 64 on December 10, 1984, at a Christmas party for Bendix retirees. In front of everyone, Louis Perosi Sr. sang the song, "You Light Up My Life" to his wife Frances. After completing the song, he slumped into his wife’s arms and passed away. He died of congestive heart failure and was buried in Holy Sepulcher Cemetery in Totowa, New Jersey. His survivors included his wife, brothers William and Frank, sons Louis Jr. and Vincent, and grandchildren Maria, Matt, Vincent Jr., and Christopher. His widow, Frances Randazzo Perosi of West Paterson, later died on July 29, 2003.
Why my father wrote the song, "God Bless Our Boys in Korea" will probably remain a mystery. I believe, however, based on other songs he wrote, my father wrote the song as a patriot and because he was moved by the conflict of that time. No doubt he felt this was his own contribution to the war effort and he hoped to motivate other Americans to support our men in uniform. My father was a staunch conservative Republican and believed in America. I think the basis for his idea to compose this song finds its roots in the ideals of the man.
This Korean War song. It was written by Joe Simpson, and made its appearance on country western/cowboy LPs when Canadian country music artist Wilfred "Wilf" Charles Carter (aka Montana Slim) performed it. Wilf Carter's career was at its height in the 1930s until the end of the 1950s. Carter, who was born December 18, 1904, died December 5, 1996 in Scottsdale, Arizona. The lyrics to "Goodbye Maria, I'm Off to Korea" are as follows:
It wasn't long ago that we met in Italy
I was a G.I. Joe, and you were Bella Marie
Soon we were married and then we sailed away
Across the ocean blue to my home in I-O-Way
There we've been living happy as can be
Raising fields of corn and a small family
But now Maria, you must be brave, and smile
We're in another fight, so I must leave you for awhile.
For now it's:
Goodbye Maria, I'm off to Korea
Far across the sea
It's the same old story, it's up to Old Glory
To win another fight for liberty
So, keep the home fires burning
And it won't be long, until I'll be returning
Good Maria, though I'm off to Korea
In my heart you'll always be my Marie.
A newspaper editor in Ashland, Wisconsin, was one of only two American citizens of the 1950s known to honor Korean War veterans by writing an original published song. John B. Chapple entitled his song, "Say a Prayer for the Boys in Korea." A copy of the sheet music for the song was found by the Korean War Educator in the Robert Donner Collection in the Margaret and Herman Brown Library, Abilene Christian University, Abilene, Texas. The Donner Collection holds a copy of the sheet music, which includes not just Say a Prayer for the Boys in Korea, but also another Chapple song, There's a New Song in My Heart Today. The sheet music cost $1.00 and could be purchased through mail order from Ashland.
John Chapple was a musician of many years experience when he wrote the words to the song located at the right of your computer screen. In a speech to the Salem Baptist church Men's Brotherhood Club on March 23, 1953, Chapple stated that he had been a dance band musician for some years. A man of deep religious conviction, he further stated, "When I think of all the turmoil in the world today, the boys who are dying in Korea, the horror of the atom bomb as it has been used, and as it may be used again to maim and mutilate human beings by the hundreds of thousands, I feel very convinced that we are all living in those latter days when the forces of Evil are contending most powerfully against the power of Good."
It is uncertain why John B. Chapple wrote the song, which he copyrighted in 1953. The Korean War Educator contacted the Ashland, Wisconsin Historical Society, but the workers there were unaware that Chapple, who was a well-known figure in the history of the area, had written the music. The Korean War Educator is equally uncertain as to how a copy of the song (which sold for $1.00 in 1953, and could be purchased by mail order from Ashland) found its way to the Robert Donner Collection. The Donner Collection consists of about 4,000 volumes of books and over 3,000 pamphlets and ephemera on American history, political science, economics, Americanism, minority groups, and Communistic and Socialistic activities within America. Donner collected most of his library in Colorado Springs, Colorado, after he retired in 1957.
John B. Chapple authored several songs during the early 1950s. His other songs included, "There’s a New Song in My Heart Today," "Would Jesus Have it That Way," "Put on the Whole Armour of God", "The New Testament Will Save Us," "Greater Love Hath No Man Than This," and "We’ll Sing, Sing, Sing to Victory." The songs could each be purchased for $1,00, postpaid.
Sharon at the Ashland Historical Society provided the following information about John B. Chapple.
John B. Chapple
Education:
Military:
Post War:
Worked various jobs as journalist:
After graduating from Yale, he returned to Ashland and the Daily Press, serving as city editor and managing editor under his father, John C Chapple, where he worked until retirement.
Politics:
1930’s unsuccessful candidate for:
Civic:
Family (at time of his death):
John B. Chapple was a "country kid" who became class-conscious among the sons of wealth at Yale University. After college he returned to Ashland politically "left of center". He noticed that "American capitalism was pretty sick". During this time, while writing for the Daily Press, he also wrote under his byline for the Daily Worker, the organ of the American communist Party. One poem printed in this paper follows:
My people are men of the farms,
And men who work on the docks,
And men who handle the axe,
And men who are punchers of clocks.
My people are men who are slaves,
Slaves who yet fail to see
But they’re eager for someone to tell them,
And that is the job for me.
He saw his farm friends working 12-18 hours a day with not enough money to buy seed. In Chicago, he "saw the wreckage of capitalism"--meaning slums and drunks. Seeing the flaws in the American economy, he went to Moscow, Russia, in 1927. His ten days in Moscow were eye-openers. He didn’t find "heaven on earth", but found a system where the individual was sacrificed for the good of the "world revolution". The sanctity of the family was not respected. Chapple was offered the job of editing the Daily Worker, which was based in New York City. He left Moscow, but did not take the job. He returned to his job at the Ashland Daily Press and spoke no more about communism. He gradually developed his theme of the "American Way of Life". He dabbled unsuccessfully in politics and became Ashland’s unofficial historian and the city’s booster.
A religious man, Chapple was raised Presbyterian, then "had every last shred of religious faith knocked out of him" in his college years. After returning from his Moscow trip, he checked out several different churches and finally found his place with his wife in the Catholic Church.
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Blues guitarist and singer-songwriter J.B. Lenoir was born on March 5, 1929. His song "Korea Blues" was licensed to and released by Chess Record label in the 1950s. It was performed by "J.B. and his Bayou Boys", a band consisting of J.B. Lenoir; pianist Sunnyland Slim; guitarist Leroy Foster; and drummer Alfred Wallace. The song "Eisenhower Blues" was recorded by the Parrot Recording Company, but Parrot made Lenoir re-record the controversial song under the title, "Tax-Paying Blues." Lenoir died on April 29, 1967 in Urbana, Illinois, from injuries received in an automobile accident a few weeks earlier. Thanks to KWE viewer Adam Assad for pointing out these two songs.
Lord I got my questionnaire, Uncle Sam's gonna send me away from here.
Lord I got my questionnaire, Uncle Sam's gonna send me away from here.
He said J. B. you know that I need you, Lord I need you in South Korea.
Sweetheart please don't you worry, I just begin to fly in the air.
Sweetheart please don't you worry, I just begin to fly in the air.
Now the Chinese shoot me mdown, Lord I'll be in Korea somewhere.
I just sittin' here wonderin', who you gonna let lay down in my bed.
I just sittin' here wonderin', who you gonna let lay down in my bed.
What hurt me so bad, think about some man has gone in your bed.
Hey everybody, I was talkin' to you.
I ain't tellin' you jivin', this is the natural truth.
Mm mm mm, I got them Eisenhower blues.
Thinkin' about me and you, what on earth are we gonna do?
My money's gone, my fun is gone.
The way things look, how can I be here long?
Mm mm mm, I got them Eisenhower blues.
Thinkin' about me and you, what on earth are we gonna do?
Taken all my money, to pay the tax.
I'm only givin' you people, the natural facts.
I only tellin' you people, my belief.
Because I am headed straight, on relief.
Mm mm mm, I got them Eisenhower blues
Thinkin' about me and you, what on earth are we gonna do?
Ain't got a dime, ain't even got a cent.
I don't even have no money, to pay my rent.
My baby needs some clothes, she needs some shoes.
Peoples I don't know what, I'm gonna do.
Mm mm mm, I got them Eisenhower blues.
Thinkin' about me and you, what on earth are we gonna do?
[KWE Note: Charlie Louvin was a veteran of the Korean War. His name appears on the KWE's American Notables page.]
Performed by Louvin Brothers
Recorded June 1953
Written by Ira and Charles Louvin
From mother's arms to Korea
And tomorrow I'll face the front lines
Then the next line was wrote by his buddy
From a foxhole to a mansion on high
They sent her an unfinished diary
That she once gave her darling son
It starts the day when he left her
And ends 'neath the enemy's gun
From mother's arms to Korea
And tomorrow I'll face the front lines
Then the next line was wrote by his buddy
From a foxhole to a mansion on high
Last night I saw mother kneeling
By the old hearthstone to pray
In my dream I thought I was with her
And that's all my darling could say
From mother's arms to Korea
And tomorrow I'll face the front lines
Then the next line was wrote by his buddy
From a foxhole to a mansion on high
Please tell his sweetheart who's waiting
For his ship to anchor at shore
To change her plans and forget him
Her lips he'll kiss no more
From mother's arms to Korea
And tomorrow I'll face the front lines
Then the next line was wrote by his buddy
From a foxhole to a mansion on high.
The Rev. Billy Graham traveled to Korea in December of 1952 to meet with missionaries, chaplains, officers, pastors, and soldiers during the Christmas holiday season. Publicity about this famous evangelist’s ministry in Korea was published in the form of a book entitled, I Saw Your Sons at War: The Korean Diary of Billy Graham. It was published in 1953 by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Minneapolis, Minnesota. No doubt many anxious families on the home front read it for some kind of reassurance as they worried and waited for news about their loved one stationed in Korea.
According to Graham, he made the trip to Korea for multiple reasons. "I thought that if I could see how Christians were suffering in Korea, it would make an impact in my own life, and in turn would enable me to be of greater help to the hundreds of people to whom I have the privilege of ministering," he said. "Then, too, the trip would make it possible for me to spend Christmas with the troops, to bring them just a touch of home at Christmas time. That was something I had wanted to do for a long time. During the past two Christmas seasons, I had found it difficult to sit down and enjoy my dinner as I thought of the boys in the cold, muddy trenches of Korea." Graham said that a trip to Korea would also be a way to encourage the missionaries in Japan, Korea, and Formosa, and it would mean that he could see the Korean Church at first hand.
I Saw Your Sons at War is a 64-page account of Graham’s evangelism in the Far East. It tells about his visit with GI’s in Tokyo General Hospital and his tour of Korea from December 14 to December 25, 1952. He visited orphanages, hospitals and mission stations in Pusan and Taegu; attended prayer meetings at various churches in Seoul; spent a short time on the Danish hospital ship Jutlandia; and then traveled in a small aircraft to "the front" where Graham said he spent three days visiting every American division in all three Corps areas. One day, following a preaching session, Graham asked to go into the bunkers and trenches on the main line of resistance. He was flown by helicopter up and over a ridge, and very near the fighting front. His book indicates that Graham actually did go into the bunkers and trenches to visit with men on active duty for a short time before returning to the rear for noon chow. His trip to Korea also included a visit in President Syngman Rhee’s home, a tour of a MASH hospital unit, and a Christmas Eve meal of steak with General Dewey. For Graham, the climax of his missionary trip was preaching a Christmas morning service to three or four thousand men in an area called the "Bulldozer Bowl," followed by a second service "right at the front, in partial view of the enemy lines."
It was the hope of the Korean War Educator that the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association would allow the entire text of I Saw Your Sons at War to be reprinted on this website. The publication is very small. However, we received a message from Stephen G. Scholle, Vice President of Administration, Billy Graham Evangelist Association, Charlotte, North Carolina, declining our request. He stated that, "We do not wish to have the material readily accessible to others at this time." His reasoning behind not making the material accessible was that, "The book contains statements about Korea and Japan that would not necessarily be compatible with Mr. Graham’s present perspective and might be misunderstood if taken out of context. This concerns us because our ministry has continuing work in both North and South Korea, as well as Japan."
Even though I Saw Your Sons at War: The Korean Diary of Billy Graham is not available on the Korean War Educator, it is available and highly accessible to our readers through interlibrary loan. Its OCLC number is 12277525, and it can be accessed at the following libraries: the Billy Graham Center in Illinois; Library of Congress in Washington, DC; Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in New York; Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives in Tennessee; Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Austin, TX; Houston Baptist University Library, Texas; Southern Methodist University’s Bridwell Library in Texas; Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Texas; and the University of Wisconsin General Library System, Madison, Wisconsin. From time to time, volumes of the book also come up for sale on eBay. Ebay is where Lynnita Brown, text editor for the Korean War Educator, first learned about the existence of Graham’s Korean War diary.
In addition to this small publication, the Rev. Billy Graham participated in a radio broadcast about Korea in his Christmas message of 1952. In the early 1950s, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association sponsored a series of coast-to-coast ABC radio broadcasts featuring messages by Rev. Billy Graham. The series was entitled, "The Hour of Decision." In 1952, a few anxious families back in the United States were able to hear the voices of their loved ones when Billy Graham interviewed them and aired portions of the interviews on the Hour of Decision, in a special holiday segment entitled, "Christmas in Korea" .The segment was aired as part of Graham's "Over the Million Series" in 1952. The copyrighted message was sent to the Korean War Educator courtesy of the archives, Billy Graham Center, Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL 60187-5593. The OCLC number for "Christmas in Korea" is 28717086. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in Minneapolis, Minnesota will not allow this Billy Graham publication to be reproduced here, so the KWE encourages readers interested in knowing its contents to visit their local library and provide the above OCLC number to facilitate finding it through interlibrary loan.
The lives of thousands of married American couples were disrupted when the Korean War broke out. Some had been married since before World War II. Others were newly-weds who had just recently entered the bonds of matrimony, gone to housekeeping, and started families. When the Korean War broke out, husbands in the reserves were whisked off to war by government order, leaving their families behind to worry about the fact that their life’s partner was now in harm’s way. Meanwhile, servicemen were not only dealing with the stress of being drawn unexpectedly into a war, but also they were dealing with the stress of worrying about how the wife and children were getting along back in the States without the man of the house to tend to family affairs and deal with the small and large emergencies that face every household now and then.
Most of these couples wrote letters back and forth expressing their worries and concerns, as well as their love and affection. Many of these missives have been lost to time and moves from one house to another. One couple that lived on the east coast—one of those couples who was deeply affected by the Korean War—did, however, manage to keep all of the letters that they had mailed to each other while the husband was in Korea. Decades later, Dorothy Horwitz edited the letters of her husband, Mel Horwitz, and published a book entitled, "We Will Not Be Strangers."
Mel and Dorothy Horwitz were married only one year when he was drafted into service as a surgeon with a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) in Korea. While Mel was in Korea, Dorothy lived with her widowed mother in an apartment in New York. "He and I wrote daily letters so that we would not be strangers when we would meet again," Dorothy said in a CNN Korea Chat Series in 2000. Mel wrote about his daily activities in the MASH unit, and Dorothy wrote about her daily activities in New York. Their letters were romantic, sad, humorous, and filled with longing for each other. "We wrote about our feelings, our longings, our thoughts, and everything that was on our minds during those months apart," Dorothy explained to the CNN chat moderator.
Look on the World Wide Web for an edited transcript of the CNN interview with Mel and Dorothy Horwitz. The Horwitz’s book, We Will Not Be Strangers, is 248 pages hardcover. It was published in 1997 by the University of Illinois Press. The book’s ISBN number is 0252022041. For more information about this really fascinating book about the Korean War home front/Korean War theatre of war, just type in "We Will Not Be Strangers" (in quotes) in any search engine. This book is highly recommended by the Korean War Educator for those who wish to gain an insight into the American home front during the Korean War, as well as for those who want a glimpse of the horrors and boredom of war from the perspective of a MASH surgeon.
When the Korean War broke out, the draft was initiated again in order to provide the number of replacement forces needed on the Korean peninsula. An excellent resource to study the draft-related topic of student deferment is M.H. Trytten’s book, Student Deferment in Selective Service: A Vital Factor in National Security. (University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN, copyright 1952). Trytten was the Director of the Office of Scientific Personnel, National Research Council, and some of his research appears below. At the time he published his research findings about draft age college students, there were about 1,050,000 men reaching age 18 and a half each year.
The Director of Selective Service, General Lewis B. Hershey, created six advisory committees on August 20, 1948 to help him review and understand the ramifications of drafting college-age males. According to Trytten, committee members made recommendations about the "feasibility of administration, of political acceptability in a democratic society, and of the extent to which the recommendations will meet the needs they are intended to meet in the light of other needs" (p. 10). Trytten said that when draft calls ceased after January 1949, the recommendations made by the committees received no further official action until the outbreak of hostilities in Korea.
Committee recommendations called for selective deferment of college students based on two criteria: (1) aptitude test scores (2) class standing among male members of their college class. Trytten explained, "To qualify for deferment according to this criterion, the student must rank in the upper half of his class if a freshman, the upper two thirds if a sophomore, the upper three fourths if a junior, and the upper half of his senior class to qualify for deferment as a graduate student." On March 31, 1951, a student deferment policy went into effect when the President signed legislation authorizing it on March 31, 1951.
The nation-wide "Selective Service College Qualification Test" was developed by the Educational Testing Service of Princeton, New Jersey. It was administered in the spring of 1951 to college students, with the test score being sent directly to the individual student’s local draft board. Each student’s class standing was also sent there. According to Trytten, "Those who qualified as eligible for deferment by these criteria during the summer of 1951 and who were so classified by their local draft boards, entered upon their studies in the fall under a special Selective Service Classification (II-S) as students. There were something over 200,000 young men in college during the academic year 1951-1952 under this special classification."
For those Korean War Educator readers who are interested in learning how the United States government justified deferring some males from military conscription, while at the same time drafting others, Trytten’s book can provide insight in the chapter called, "Summing Up." In it, Trytten gives six detailed reasons why college deferment was acceptable during the Korean War.
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