"We Are There to Stay"

The main body of U.S. troops in Korea continued to fall back along the railroad leading to Pusan, from which they hoped eventually to launch a counteroffensive. This kind of delaying retreat in the face of much larger forces is one of the most difficult operations known, and one of the hardest on morale. Yet, U.S. forces, notably unaccustomed to such tactics, had handled themselves superbly. In a month of bitter fighting, they had gradually slowed up the North Korean offensive in the center of the peninsula (see map).

The obvious intent of the U.S. plan was to keep the right flank more or less stationary, and swing the rest of the line gradually south and east until the U.S. left flank came to rest safely on the southern coast near Pusan. The operation was endangered last week by a Red drive down Korea's western coast which captured Kwangju and pushed on towards Sunchon. This indicated that the Reds' main drive may not follow the U.S. retreat along the railroad into the very rough, defensible country southeast of Taejon.

General MacArthur was still confident. Said he: "We are now in Korea in force, and with God's help we are there to stay until the constitutional authority of the Republic is fully restored."

Whether the U.S. would stay there depended largely on how effectively its troops could deal with the new threat on their left flank, and how quickly U.S. strength around Pusan was being built up.

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