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The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War

Page 92

by David Halberstam

“We have been bastard children”: Ibid., p. 210.

  Few people have suffered so terrible”: Heinl, Robert, Victory at High Tide, p. 242.

  “a callous indifference to casualties”: Ibid., p. 294.

  “The public relations brigade”: Goulden, Joseph, Korea, p. 241.

  “invite you to all our landings”: Weintraub, Sidney, MacArthur’s War, p. 204.

  “the greatest conflict of interest”: author interview with Jack Murphy.

  was scarier still: author interview with Jack Murphy.

  its full implications much too late: author interview with Matthew B. Ridgway; Ridgway, Matthew B., The Korean War, pp. 46–62.

  CHAPTER 21

  senior Chinese Nationalist officials had very good intelligence: author interview with Robert Myers.

  consequences of such an encounter: Koen, Ross Y., The China Lobby in American Politics, p. 83.

  “is here in Washington where its lobbyists”: Zi Zhongyun, No Exit?, pp. 243–244.

  “a little more friendly to us”: Ibid., pp. 278–279.

  CHAPTER 22

  “probably more bloodied”: Foot, Rosemary, The Wrong War, p. 103.

  “and the Congressional Medal of Honor”: Halberstam, David, The Best and the Brightest, p. 324.

  “a shift in the balance of power”: Foot, Rosemary, The Wrong War, p. 52.

  “some early affirmative action”: Ibid., p. 43.

  “bigoted influence of the China Lobby,” Kennan, George F., Memoirs 1925–1950, pp. 490–493.

  “in a time of despair”: Ibid., pp. 102–103.

  “the more unsound it would become”: Ibid., p. 488.

  “why should we hesitate?”: Ibid., p. 73.

  “up to a surveyor’s line and stop”: Acheson, Dean, Present at the Creation, p. 445.

  “The Hiss Survivors association”: Foot, Rosemary, The Wrong War, pp. 69–70.

  “had adopted a hawkish stance”: Bradley, Omar, with Blair, Clay, A General’s Life, p. 558.

  “a ratification of actions”: papers of James Webb, Harry S. Truman Library.

  “the neatness of the phrasing”: Isaacson, Walter, and Thomas, Evan, The Wise Men, p. 532.

  “to take on the entire Joint Chiefs”: author interview with Lucius Battle.

  “a superhuman effort”: Isaacson, Walter, and Thomas, Evan, The Wise Men, p. 540.

  “There is no stopping MacArthur”: Weintraub, Stanley, MacArthur’s War, p. 163.

  “terrible, terrible defeats”: author interview with Frank Gibney.

  “We love you as the savior of our race”: Spurr, Russell, Enter the Dragon, p. 428.

  “wasting your valuable time”: Weintraub, Stanley, MacArthur’s War, p. 162.

  “without regard to dark hints of possible disaster”: Ridgway, Matthew B., The Korean War, p. 45.

  “someone ready to give it a try”: Ibid., p. 44.

  “old and even pitiable without his hat”: Thompson, Reginald, Cry Korea, p. 87.

  CHAPTER 23

  just to do ordinary shopping: Panikkar, K. M., In Two Chinas, p. 23.

  “deportment of a queen”: Ibid., p. 25.

  “for whose culture she had no great”: Ibid., p. 27.

  “what can atomic bombs do there?”: Ibid., p. 108.

  “MacArthur’s dream has come true”: Ibid., pp. 109–112.

  “mere vaporings of a panicky Panikkar”: Isaacson, Walter, and Thomas, Evan, The Wise Men, p. 533.

  their real problem was that long border: Foot, Rosemary, The Wrong War, p. 81.

  was around 60,000 deaths: Chen Jian, China’s Road to the Korean War, pp. 153–154.

  “I will respond with my hand grenade”: Chen Jian, China’s Road to the Korean War, pp. 153–154.

  he knew the population better: author interview with Chen Jian.

  the half person, he said condescendingly: Ibid.

  “a 1,054 page whitewash”: Foot, Rosemary, The Wrong War, p. 44.

  and asked for Chinese: Shen Zhihua, Cold War International History Project, Winter 2003, Spring 2004.

  apparently agreed to: Chen Jian, China’s Road to the Korean War, p. 161.

  CHAPTER 24

  136 of 199 division commanders: Laquer, Walter, Stalin: The Glasnost Revelations, p. 91.

  “Every crime was possible”: Djilas, Milovan, Conversations with Stalin, p. 190.

  “Revolution is not a dinner party”: Bloodworth, Dellis, The Messiah and the Mandarins, p. 62.

  “not even a fart”: Li Zhisui, Dr., The Private Life of Chairman Mao, p. 117.

  unlikely to invest their military: Djilas, Milovan, Conversations with Stalin, p. 182.

  “Chairman Mao will reconsider”: Goncharov, Sergei, et al., Uncertain Partners, p. 29.

  “he needed no instructions”: Ibid., pp. 29–30.

  “Long live Comrade Stalin!”: Ibid., p. 62.

  “had never read Das Kapital ”: Ibid., p. 88.

  “This is feudalism”: Ibid., p. 105.

  Stalin’s fiftieth birthday: Laquer, Walter, Stalin: The Glasnost Revelations, p. 179.

  “as the starting point of time”: Ibid., p. 183.

  the bodies of potential rivals: Li Zhisui, Dr., The Private Life of Chairman Mao, p. 122.

  “to its original greatness”: Ibid., p. 124.

  “served to order, like food”: Ibid., p. ix.

  “neither is as close as Chairman Mao”: Laquer, Walter, Stalin: The Glasnost Revelations, p. 189.

  “a needle up his ass”: Li Zhisui, Dr., The Private Life of Chairman Mao, p. 261.

  “the head of the Bulgarian party”: Ulam, Adam B., Stalin: The Man and His Era, p. 695.

  Again they refused: Goncharov, Sergei, et al., Uncertain Partners, p. 85.

  “You know that Chinaman”: Talbott, Strobe (editor), Khrushchev Remembers, pp. 239–240.

  “I am here to do more than eat and shit”: author interview with Chen Jian.

  mutual instinct for misunderstanding: Talbott, Strobe (editor), Khrushchev Remembers, p. 239.

  “meat from the mouth of a tiger”: Bloodworth, Dennis, The Messiah and the Mandarins, p. 101.

  “an abiding hatred of the Soviet”: Ulam, Adam B., Stalin: The Man and His Era, p. 695.

  with an urgent request for Chinese troops: Chen Jian, China’s Road to the Korean War, p. 172.

  the terrible dangers in store: Ibid., pp. 173–175.

  “is nothing to be afraid of”: Li Zhisui, Dr., The Private Life of Chairman Mao, p. 125.

  “how can we stand aside”: Chen Jian, China’s Road to the Korean War, p. 182.

  “and last, as a leader”: Peng, Dehuai, Memoirs of a Chinese Marshal, p. 7.

  giving his teeth a greenish pallor: Li Zhisui, Dr., The Private Life of Chairman Mao, p. 99.

  “Only our general”: Ibid., p. 383.

  “let alone provide for our parents”: Peng, Dehuai, Memoirs of a Chinese Marshal, p. 161.

  or roughly 130,000 men: Chen Jian, China’s Road to the Korean War, pp. 195–196.

  “How many bombers”: Ibid., p. 201.

  “may cause great harm”: Ibid., p. 202.

  for the majority of battle commanders: Ibid., p. 207.

  CHAPTER 25

  “God’s right hand man”: Nellie Noland interview, Harry S. Truman Library.

  his staff pressured him to go: Charles Murphy interview, Harry S. Truman Library.

  “king go to the prince”: Matt Connelly interview, Harry S. Truman Library.

  “the attributes of a foreign sovereign”: Acheson, Dean, Present at the Creation, p. 456.

  “he was still fighting”: John Muccio interview, Harry S. Truman Library.

  “all American soldiers regardless”: Walters, Vernon A., Silent Missions, p. 204.

  “the Chinese are about to intervene”: interview with Vernon A. Walters, American Masters, WGBH Television.

  “the Palace Guard”: author interview with Frank Gibney.

  more smoke blown in his face: Toland, John, In Mortal Combat, p. 2
41.

  no commander in history: Ibid., pp. 241–242; Blair, Clay, The Forgotten War, pp. 346–349; Spurr, Russell, Enter the Dragon, p. 159.

  “before we get in trouble”: Dean Rusk interview, Harry S. Truman Library.

  “as if they were the heads of different”: Gunther, John, The Riddle of MacArthur, p. 200.

  “a different idea of what it was”: Acheson, Dean, Present at the Creation, p. 455.

  “luster to his dream of victory”: Ridgway, Matthew B., The Korean War, pp. 37–38; Spurr, Russell, Enter the Dragon, p. 158; Blair, Clay, The Forgotten War, p. 188.

  “honestly believes he’s a patriot”: New York World-Telegram, April 8, 1964.

  “how completely oblivious”: author interview with Matthew B. Ridgway.

  “obedient, dutiful, childlike, and quick”: Cumings, Bruce, The Origins of the Korean War, Vol. II, p. 97.

  was the Chinese commander: Weintraub, Stanley, MacArthur’s War, p. 291.

  “some old war horse similar to”: Cumings, Bruce, The Origins of the Korean War, Vol. II, p. 103.

  fixed, immobile Japanese: Collins, J. Lawton, War in Peacetime, p. 215.

  “know your enemy”: Mike Lynch interview, Toland papers, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.

  to events he did not like: Perret, Geoffrey, Old Soldiers Never Die, p. 551.

  for his official file explaining: Morris, Carol Petillo, Douglas MacArthur: The Philippine Years, pp. 204–213.

  “An arrogant enemy,” he added: Chen Jian, China’s Road to the Korean War, p. 148.

  “nothing again should ever hurt him”: Lee, Clark, and Henschel, Richard, Douglas MacArthur, p. 166.

  “You have a court”: Acheson, Dean, Present at the Creation, p. 424.

  “sycophancy was what tripped him up”: Weintraub, Stanley, MacArthur’s War, p. 161.

  “the dreamworld of self worship”: Stueck, William, Rethinking the Korean War, p. 113.

  and arrogant was he: author interview with Carleton West.

  “too much of a Prussian accent?”: D. Clayton James interview with Roger Egeberg, MacArthur Memorial Library.

  “all ideology”: author interview with Frank Wisner, Jr.

  “give England to the Germans”: Naval Historical Center Colloquium on Contemporary History, June 20, 1990.

  “a friend of the United States”: Kluckhohn, Frank, the Reporter, August 19, 1952.

  “than the people at the Dai Ichi”: author interview with Frank Gibney.

  “and headed towards Washington”: Ibid.

  “the faceless mob driven by”: Cumings, Bruce, The Origins of the Korean War, Vol. II, p. 106.

  “of Communism would trump mine”: author interview with Joseph Fromm.

  “that headquarters to deal with reality”: Ibid.

  “subjugation of the Western world”: Cumings, Bruce, The Origins of the Korean War, Vol. II, p. 112.

  eventually passed on to McCarthy: Ibid.

  “had been so outspoken about him”: author interview with Bill McCaffrey.

  “Willoughby falsified the intelligence”: Blair, Clay, The Forgotten War, p. 377.

  “where it would have to be acted on”: author interview with Bill Train.

  had not been so deadly serious: author interview with Carleton Swift.

  “that he had made up his mind on”: Ibid.

  anyone higher up about the intelligence: author interview with Robert Myers.

  “the enormous power that Willoughby had”: author interview with Bill Train.

  “to a low point of effectiveness”: Heefner, Wilson, Patton’s Bulldog, p. 264.

  indicate a serious Chinese presence: Ibid., p. 272.

  “was very much under his shadow”: author interview with Bill Train.

  “was unduly influenced by Willoughby”: Blair, Clay, The Forgotten War, p. 379.

  “but not the full armies themselves”: Heefner, Wilson, Patton’s Bulldog, p. 272.

  “moving into that awful goddamn trap”: author interview with Bill Train.

  “a lot of Mexicans in Los Angeles”: Tom Lambert interview, Toland papers, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.

  CHAPTER 26

  “know Karl Marx from Groucho Marx”: Bayley, Edwin, Joe McCarthy and the Press, p. 68.

  “you’ve got to be a Communist”: Ibid., p. 73.

  “pig in a minefield”: author interview with Murray Kempton for The Fifties.

  “only a mucker can muck”: Oshinsky, David, A Conspiracy So Immense, p. 174.

  “should proceed with another”: Patterson, James, Mr. Republican, p. 455.

  “the most nefarious campaign”: Oshinsky, David, A Conspiracy So Immense, pp. 168–169.

  “how things had changed”: Ibid., p. 178.

  “without gaining that of the Chinese”: Blair, Clay, The Forgotten War, p. 400.

  his virtual disobedience: Ridgway, Matthew B., The Korean War, p. 65.

  “they will get Christmas dinner at home”: Toland, John, In Mortal Combat, p. 281.

  he simply said, “Bullshit”: Ibid., p. 282.

  “the first time he smells Chinese chow”: Ibid., Heefner, Wilson, Patton’s Bulldog, pp. 281–282; author interview with Layton Tyner; Tyner interviews with Toland, Toland papers, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.

  “hit the jackpot”: Weintraub, Stanley, MacArthur’s War, p. 221.

  “like Custer at the Little Big Horn”: Ridgway, Matthew B., The Korean War, p. 63.

  “the most fitting conclusion”: Perret, Geoffrey, Old Soldiers Never Die, p. 548.

  CHAPTER 27

  a friendly little tank-shove: author interview with Jim Hinton.

  “to be disappearing into the vast”: Ibid.

  from the very face of the earth: author interview with Paul O’Dowd.

  “less able to support us each day”: author interview with John Carley.

  “couldn’t get anyone to act on it”: author interview with Malcolm MacDonald.

  the time was not quite right to attack: author interview with Sam Mace.

  no one seemed very interested: author interviews with John Eisenhower and Dick Gruenther.

  “a phantom which cast no shadow”: Marshall, S. L. A., The River and the Gauntlet, p. 1.

  The next day the Chinese hit: author interview with John Eisenhower.

  CHAPTER 28

  bandaged up and wrapped in blankets: author interview with Sherman Pratt; Pratt, Sherman, Decisive Battles of the Korean War, pp. 15–20.

  “From here I just don’t see a solution”: letters of Paul Freeman courtesy of Anne Sewell Freeman McLeod and Roy McLeod.

  CHAPTER 29

  beyond their comprehension: author interview with Alan Jones.

  disgrace the Takahashi name: author interview with Gene Takahashi.

  could dry their clothes: Ibid.

  retreating to a higher point on the mountain: author interview with Dick Raybould.

  in a moment of total cowardice: author interview with Bruce Ritter.

  and got both Smith and White out: author interviews with John Ritter, Billie Tinkle, and John Yates.

  a huge pile of enemy bodies: author interview with Sam Mace.

  “knowing a Chinaman when I see one”: author interview with Charley Heath.

  the fear in the air: author interview with Sam Mace.

  in conversation, the Big Ego: Ibid.; Spurr, Russell, Enter the Dragon, p. 193.

  CHAPTER 30

  just as endangered: Paul Freeman oral history, U.S. Army War College Library.

  “because we were set up to fail”: author interview with Dick Raybould.

  “MacArthur could do no wrong”: Appleman, Roy, Escaping the Trap, p. 47.

  “Ned was aggressive”: Blair, Clay, The Forgotten War, p. 32.

  “can those things float?”: Victor Krulak oral history, U.S. Marine Corps History Division.

  “always lengthy shitlist”: Russ, Martin, Breakout, p. 17.

  “enough to form an additional regiment”: Hoffman, Jon T., Chest
y, pp. 370–371.

  the Congressional Medal of Honor: author interview with James Lawrence.

  “if only he would put on a little weight”: Russ, Martin, Breakout, p. 186.

  “It might take only two”: Sloan, Bill, Brotherhood of Heroes, p. 58.

  the ten thousand Japanese soldiers: Ibid., p. 310.

  “may have saved the Marine Division”: Alpha Bowser oral history, U.S. Marine Corps History Division.

  had mounted in Europe: Ibid.

  “Even Genghis Khan wouldn’t”: Russ, Martin, Breakout, p. 64.

  “he got away with it at Inchon”: D. Clayton James interview with Oliver P. Smith, MacArthur Memorial Library.

  or the last time he would use it: Hoffman, Jon T., Chesty, p. 378.

  not part of any massive Chinese: author interview with Bill McCaffrey.

  and received the Navy Cross: author interview with James Lawrence.

  “selected dumps along the way”: Russ, Martin, Breakout, p. 52.

  Chinese forces on the eastern front: Lawrence, James, paper on the Chosin fighting he prepared for U.S. Marine Corps Symposium; author interview with James Lawrence.

  “still far from our preselected killing zones”: Simmons, Edwin, Frozen Chosin, U.S. Marine Corps Korean War Commemorative Series, 2002, p. 34.

  in case the Chinese struck: Russ, Martin, Breakout, p. 71.

  “of sick and wounded” Ibid., p. 72.

  “we took 4500 casualties out”: Frank, Benis, The Epic of Chosin, U.S. Marine Corps History Division.

  “and a chasm on the other”: Ridgway, Matthew B., The Korean War, p. 65.

  “with much the same scenario”: author interview with James Lawrence. Russ, Martin, Breakout, p. 82.

  “on where you wanted to measure”: Russ, Martin, Breakout, p. 82.

  “and that’s what we started to do”: Simmons, Edwin, Frozen Chosin, p. 49.

  “an insane plan”: Blair, Clay, The Forgotten War, p. 456.

  “the most ill-advised and unfortunate”: Ibid.

  “was the Tenth Corps commander”: author interview with James Lawrence.

  would have tragic consequences: Blair, Clay, The Forgotten War, p. 418.

  “What did the general say?”: Gugeler, Russell, Combat Operations in Korea, p. 62.

 

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