War: Gloom Again

The number of Communist troops in Korea, according to allied intelligence, rose in one week from 600,000 to 700,000. General Omar Bradley, briefing the National Security Council in Washington, said that a million Red troops were assembled in Manchuria. That made a total of 1,700,000 men available for immediate or eventual use against the comparatively slender (275,000) U.N. forces.

As ominous as the buildup of enemy ground forces was an aggressive show of Red air strength. In the biggest aerial combats of the war, Communist planes struck tellingly at U.N. raids on Red supply lines (see The Air War). Would enemy aircraft next be thrown against U.N. ground forces, or strike at U.N. airfields? The possibility plainly worried U.N. commanders. The dismissal of Douglas MacArthur had not dismissed the ugly fact that across the Yalu the air-power nests were safe from punishment.

The volatile Pentagon, which had been cheerful a few weeks ago, suffered its deepest gloom since December. The black mood had nothing to do with MacArthur’s dismissal; there was no lack of confidence in Ridgway or in the morale and fighting caliber of the Eighth Army. Before he was boosted into MacArthur’s jobs, Ridgway had expressed confidence that the Communist offensive could be contained and beaten back. But in the light of the Red buildup which the Air Force seemed unable to smash, military Washington was beginning to wonder.