Cast of Characters

The Korean war turned the news spotlight on some little-known Americans and Koreans:

Major General Doyle O. Mickey, 59, deputy chief of staff of the Far East Command, is handling hour-to-hour operations of MacArthur's headquarters in Tokyo. Doyle Hickey has to cope with an enemy whose greatest combat advantage lies in superior armor--an ironic twist for the general who during World War II had fought with and eventually commanded the famed 3rd Armored Division, spearhead of the First U.S. Army from St. Lo to the Elbe.

Major General William F. Dean, 51, field commander of U.S. ground forces in Korea, went back last week to defend the land which, as U.S. military governor, he had ruled from October 1947 to January 1948. Burly, blond Bill Dean, commissioned in the Regular Army in 1923 after Reserve training while at the University of California, became a crack tactician in World War II, commanded the 44th Infantry Division in its sweep through Germany and Austria.

Brigadier General Edward A. Craig, 54, assistant commander of the ist Marine Division, will soon be en route to the Far East from San Diego. Craig, who will lead the Marine ground units last week placed under MacArthur's command, served ably in the Bougainville, Guam and Marianas campaigns during World War II, was decorated for capturing Mount Suribachi, the "roof of Iwo Jima."

Lieut. General George E. Stratemeyer, 60, is running the Far East Air Force in smooth cooperation with the Army. Top-ranking air officer in the China-Burma-India Theater during the last war, West Pointer "Strat" directed the 1944 Tenth Air Force offensive against the Japanese in Burma. At the same time he organized an airlift which supplied Allied ground troops in Burma with an average of 2,000 tons of food and equipment a day even during the monsoon season.. Calm and considerate, West Pointer Stratemeyer has something of the air of a jolly college professor, manages to get the best out of his juniors without raising his voice.

Major General Emmett O'Donnell Jr., 44, last week left California for the Far East, where two B-29 groups of his 15th Air Force are being placed at Stratemeyer's disposal for use in Korea. A halfback on West Point's 1927 football team, O'Donnell began his World War II career with a bitter delaying action, in which he and a handful of other U.S. airmen fought and fell back from the Philippines to Java to India. He became operations officer of the Tenth Air Force in India and later leader of the Twentieth Air Force's first B-29 raid on Tokyo.

Vice Admiral Charles T. Joy, 55, commander of U.S. naval forces in the Far East, has the cruiser Juneau and four destroyers. Tall, quiet Charles Joy is a gunnery expert who practiced the technique of shore bombardment at Guadalcanal, the Aleutians and Attu.

Vice Admiral Arthur D. Struble, 56, Joy's top subordinate and commander of the Seventh Fleet, an "amphib man," in World War II directed landings in Normandy and the Philippines. Preparing for an attack on Corregidor in 1945, short, twinkle-eyed Arthur Struble was told that the cruisers needed to silence Jap guns on "The Rock" would be late. He said, "Let's go ahead without 'em," and did.

Syngman Rhee, President of the Republic of Korea, has been working for Korean freedom ever since 1894. His single-minded struggle has led the dapper, 75-year-old Rhee into conflict with Korean kings, Japanese tyrants and Soviet agents. Years of imprisonment (1897-1904) in an unheated jail left him with the habit of blowing on his fingers when he is excited. Thirty-three years of exile (1912 to 1945), during which he vainly tried to interest the great powers in Korean independence, have long since given him the nagging tone of a neglected conscience.

U.S.-educated (George Washington University, Harvard and Princeton), Rhee was particularly bitter over U.S. indifference to Korea before World War II, and outraged by U.S. acceptance of the postwar partition of his country. Last week Rhee wrote to the U.N. Security Council: "Almost all the civilized world has rallied to support the Republic of Korea, knowing if the Communists could conquer here, there was no place where they would not try to conquer."

Brigadier General Chung II Kwon took over as chief of staff of the battered South Korean army when his predecessor, General Choi Pyung Duk, proved unable to stem the North Korean invasion. Rated a "first class officer" by U.S. military men, 36-year-old General Chung was trained in the rough-spoken Japanese army, but has long been noted in Korea for his polite, unsoldierly speech. Says earnest, spectacled General Chung: "There are two types of army people: one is the fighter, the excitable, rough type. The other is the planner. It is the planner's duty to remain calm."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.