Medford mail tribune., April 18, 1963, Image 29

Company Commander Writes Book on Korean Conflict
munjon (the peace talk sites), trained professional army
When they were ordered to ready to fight in limited wars
defend a hill or to take one, without asking "Why." But
they knew the action was a he concludes:
limited one, and they knew I "Men are not ciphers, and
in their heart, whatever brave : human hearts are not pota
words were said, that such ac- j toes, and if a nation is going
tion probably would not af- to send men out to die in lim
fect the outcome of the war ! ited wars, it had better first
asking, who will fight a phan- in the midst of Incredible Sceptered Britain to Demo-
torn foe in jungle and moun- hardship, without complaint, cratic America,
tain range, without counting, is still what he has always "He is the stuff of which le-
and who will suffer and die been, from Imperial Rome to giona are made."
Medford
Tribune
at all
condition them for it.
"The man who will go
where his colors go, without
Fehrcnbach said the war
proved the need for a highly
SECTION D
MEDFORD. OREGON. THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 1963
PAGES 1 to 8
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A
HEAD PRAYERS Exhausted Marines snatch a moment's
rest, behind wall in streets of Seoul, and Army Chaplain
Capt. A. M. Knier of Kiel, Wis., reads final prayers over
bodies of some 3fi American soldiers whose hands were
tied behind their backs and then shot to death. (UPI)
(Editor's note - In Junt,
I9S0, a contingent of Ameri
can soldiers air-hopped into
Korea to defend the Repub
lic in the South from Com
munist invaders from the
North. American interven
tion, it was hoped, would end
the conflict quickly. But Com
munist China also intervened
and the small - scale "pblice
action" blossomed into a
three year war that cost 33,
000 American battle deaths.
Now, with the perspective of
10 years. Korea can be re
garded as the forerunner of
an era of "brushfire wars.")
By GERALD S. SNYDER
United Press International
Through a sweeping mon
Foon rain 13 years ago, a
group of American infantry
men newly arrived in Korea
watched as a long, black col
umn of Communist tanks
rumbled toward them.
Alter seven hours of hell,
the first battle involving
American troops in Korea was
over. Nearly 150 U.S. soldiers
were dead and the North Ko
rean Peoples Army was roll
ing unhindered to the South.
The "police action" Americans
hoped to stop with a quick
Bhow of strength was destined
to continue for three bloody,
frustrating years before end
ing without a clear-cut deci
sion. Why did America get in
volved'.' What lessons have
been learned from that in
glorious conflict? Why was
the Korean War never de
clared and never "won"
one of the most controversial
and frustrating in American
history?
t T? Fahrenbach was a
platoon leader, company com
mander and battalion staff
officer with the U.S. 2nd in
fantry division in Korea. Now,
in the 10th year since the
cease - fire, the San Antonio
author has written the most
comprehensive report of the
Korean War to date.
His big (689 pages) opus ex
amines the limited, bloody
conflict on the level of the
f rontline soldier and from the
perspective of military and
political grand strategy. The
dialogue throughout is frank
in the context of the total in
ternational situation, includ
ing the possibility of a So
viet countcrmove in Europe.
The book, "This Kind of War"
(MacMillan) is aptly subtitled
"A Study in Unpreparcdness.
"People ' day still do not
understand the war," Fehren
bach said in an interview.
Americans, he said, sprung
from generations conditioned
to avoid political war. But
they responaea wun
cd furv, stopping not short
of total' victory, when pushed
to the limit of tolerability by
a Kaiser or a Hitler. These
were wars of morality, cru
sades against evil ... the
wars of 1917 and 1941.
Korea was a war different
from any other in our his
tory, except possibly the In
dian campaigns o( the Old
West, he said. It was a war
nf containment in which the
United State?, under the Unit
ed Nations banner, acted to
turn hack the aggression with
out trying to stamp out its
source. To have used all its
power, the U.S. fleet might
have prompted global war.
possibly involving the whole
of Red China and the Soviet
Union.
The Korean war was a war
with a limited objective in
line with the U.S. foreign pot-
icy of containing Communism,
he said.
"To take no action against
the Communists would have
meant suffering an extreme
political defeat. But we want
ed to prevent a third world
war," Fehrenbach said.
"So the United States de
cided to play the enemy at
his own chess game ... to
check his gambit. Millions of
Americans say you don't play
this way," he said. "That we
should have turned over the
table and gone for broke."
The U.S. decided to play
the game and the stakes were
high. Korean combat maimed
and killed thousands of men
on each side and made house
hold words out of Mig Alley,
Heartbreak Ridge and Pork
Chop Hill. It spurred con
science-searching questions of
prison conduct and "brain
washing,'' and dissolved into
near - endless Panmunjon
peace talks that finally made
permanent the stalemate at
the 38th parallel. Korea, cost
ly and Inglorious, has become
"the most forgotten war in
American history," Fahren-
Don't Look
Because Americans cannot
look back on all of this with
any sense of satisfaction, Feh
renbach believes, they prefer
not to look back at all.
"Not until long after the
battle was over was it even
dignified by the name of war;
it was the 'Korean conflict,' "
he said. "There was little in
it, from near-disastrous be
ginning to honorable but frus
trating end, that appealed to
American sensibilities."
Yet Korea was the begin
ning of an age of "brushfire"
wars, he said.
"The end nf the war did
not mark the end of an era
but merely marked a fork
in the road the world is still
travelling." Viet Nam and
Cuba are other "forks," he
said.
Korea taught Americans
that ill-trained and poorly dis
ciplined troops will come
apart under pressure.
In 1950, he asserted, the
American people were psy
chologically unprepared for
war, especially war on the
ground. They had heard a
lot about atomic weapons and
subconsciously regarded in
fantry warfare as obsolete.
New Break
"Some people were saying
we really didn't need an
army," Fehrenbach said. "And
the troops were a new breed
who had insisted, with some
public support, that the army
be made as much like civilian
life and home as possible."
"They were like American
youth everywhere," he said.
"They believed the things
their society had taught them
to believe. They were cool.
and confident, and figured
that the world was no sweat
"It was not their fault that
no one had told them that
the real function of any army
is to fight and that a soldier's
destiny which few escape
is to suffer, and if need
be, to die."
Fehrenbach. 38, now a lieu
tenant colonel in the Army
Reserve, believes that today's
professional Army is better
prepared in terms of equip
ment but especially in attitude
and discipline.
His narration tells the sto
ry of the prison camps, the
riots by Communist POWs
interned at Kojedo, the In
chon landings, Truman's dis
missal of MacArthur, and the
peace talk stalemate the Reds
used to buld up their amage.
("As long as Ohina could
hold a UN Army at bay, she
stood to gain enormous pres
tige in Asia," Fehrenbach
said.)
The author explains the
confusion at home: "It (the
U.S.) had masive forces in
the field, killing, being killed,
but life went on much as be
fore. Men were being called
from factory and field, but
there was still 'peace.' There
was war, obviously, but still
there was not war as Ameri
cans had come to understand
it."
In retrospect, Fehrenbach
believes the biggest shortcom
ing of the national administra
tion, was its failure to explain
to the public the nature, of
the war in Korea and why
we had chosen to fight it as
we did. This failure, he con
eluded, resulted in a confused.
angry nation which at times
questioned the wisdom, even
the patriotism and integrity
of its leaders.
Troops Not Told
And no one told the troops
why they were summoned to
fight and die as the truce
talks dragged on for months.
"Hoping for the war to end
at any moment, they kept
one eye on Kacson or on Pan-
HALF PENNY MYSTERY
mind computer engineer A1
mind computer eigineer Al
bert Rainier paying a S5.60
line with British half pennies
but thev did object to finding
he was a half penny short.
Rainier. 29. told a judge Wed
ncsdav he had sent 960 coins
to the police and had no idea
how the missing half penny
got lost. The judge dismissed
a police summons demanding
Rainier pay in full.
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