The Bigger Question

As the Communist buildup of battle strength continued--in Korea and beyond Korea--the prospect of a massive Red strike against the U.N. forces became constantly more imminent. Allied intelligence had tracked three Chinese armies--100,-ooo men, more or less--up from South China to Manchuria, and from Manchuria to Korea. The number of enemy troops in Korea had increased to an estimated 600,000. Of these, the number immediately in front of Ridgway's units had dwindled from 150,000 to 115,000--indicating the classic Communist pullback for regrouping before an offensive.

High-flying U.S. reconnaissance planes, equipped with the newest horizon-to-horizon cameras, swept a band of Manchuria more than 50 miles wide, disclosed that new enemy airfields, capable of handling bombers as well as fighters, were being constructed rapidly. A report got around that 3,000 Soviet airplanes were in the area. The Pentagon called this estimate exaggerated, but military men were gravely concerned with the prospect that the enemy might be getting set, at last, to challenge U.N. supremacy in the air.

In the matter of the air threat, at least, the U.S. State Department seemed resigned to forthright action--if it was forced upon Ridgway. Assistant Secretary Dean Rusk said that if Soviet planes intervene in large force, the U.S. will attack their bases in Manchuria. In contrast to previous State Department attitudes, this was somewhat startling.

Some U.S. military men indicated last week that they expected the Communist attack in the last two weeks of April. There was no chance, this time, that the U.N. forces would be caught by surprise. In the light of foreknowledge, what could the U.N. commanders do about the enemy's intentions?

Said General Ridgway: "[If the enemy] wants to exercise his advantages by virtue of his superior numbers and his complete disregard for the value of human life, he may make a considerable penetration. But it doesn't give me any serious concern whatever. I am quite sure that everybody in the Eighth Army believes that if he gets a penetration we will check it and destroy it."

A bigger question (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS) was what the U.N. forces could do after they had destroyed or blunted the next Red attack.

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