BATTLE OF KOREA: Man on the Job

Last week Douglas MacArthur appointed stocky, tough-minded Lieut. General Walton H. Walker as ground commander in Korea, with the title of commanding general of the Far East Command’s Eighth Army. “Johnnie” Walker, 60, replaced Major General William F. Dean, who reverted to his old job as commander of the 24th Division, which has borne the brunt of the U.S. fighting in Korea.

General Walker has a reputation as a crack tactician and a canny trainer of green troops. In World War II he commanded the famed XX Corps, which spearheaded the late George Patton’s Third Army across Western Europe. The Korean situation was as different from that as a model-T Ford is from a 30-ton truck. In Korea, Walker would need every scrap of his tactician’s ingenuity; hardly ever before in history had a U.S. general taken on such a tough job.