Korea -- 50 years ago this week, Feb. 13-19
Baseball star Ted Williams escapes crashed jet
by Jim Caldwell
Capt. Ted Williams, a Boston Red Sox baseball star and serving Marine fighter pilot, escaped from his crashed jet without serious injury, 50 years ago this week in Korea.
Feb. 13, 1953 -- Secretary of State John Foster Dulles tells the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's subcommittee on the Far East that the Eisenhower Administration will take no actions that could lead to World War III without first consulting Congress and allies.
Afterward, he holds his first news conference since taking office. He said the administration is seeking ways to bar trade from reaching China. Studies of ways to "interrupt or minimize" strategic goods reaching China have been underway "pretty continuously" in the State Department since the Chinese entered the Korean War, but the subject was now "under perhaps more intensive scrutiny."
Two solutions are a naval blockade and a U.N. embargo on trade with China. They top the list of "a whole series of measures of varying kinds which could be adopted." But Dulles says he will not take action regarding China to the U.N. General Assembly when it reconvenes Feb. 24.
At Panmunjom, Communist liaison officers hand their U.N. counterparts a message from their command demanding that the United Nations decide if the truce talks are to be permanently called off.
Feb. 15 -- Lt. Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor, Eighth Army commanding general, tells reporters that adding Nationalist China troops to his command would be welcome. He would not have a say on policy concerning their employment.
The question arises because of recent statements by Nationalist China's Generalissimo Chiang Kai Shek that Formosa must invade mainland China now, even though his forces aren't completely ready. An invasion would pull Chinese troops from Korea, he said.
Taylor also says he asks "nothing better" than for the communists to try another offensive. He says the Eighth Army is more than ready to take them on.
After aerial reconnaissance showed the Reds were trying to rebuild the power plant on Suiho Reservoir, allied aircraft destroy it again. The reservoir power plan, first knocked out last June, is across the Yalu River from Manchuria.
Feb. 16 -- About 200 allied tactical fighters attack a troop assembly and supply center southwest of Pyongyang.
Capt. Ted Williams, a Marine Corps jet fighter pilot and a Boston Red Sox star outfielder, escapes from a Panther jet that crashes at an airfield in Korea. He was returning from his third combat mission over North Korea.
The Air Force reports that two American fighters fired at two Soviet-style aircraft over northern Japan today. They damaged both and chased them back to the Kurile Islands.
Feb. 17 -- The Air Force reports that F-86 Sabrejet pilots have shot down 11 MiGs, probably destroyed another six and damaged 11 in dogfights since Feb. 1.
The second largest all-jet tactical fighter raid of the war hits a tank and infantry training center west of Pyongyang Feb. 18. A force of 389 Air Force and Marine fighters reportedly destroys 139 buildings.
Feb. 18 -- The Defense Department releases the list of American casualties in Korea as of Feb. 9. The overall count of 130,093 includes 22,948 dead.
Prime Minister Jawaharal Nehru tells India's lower house of parliament that talks in America of blockading China are not messages "that can lead to peace."
Baseball star Ted Williams escapes crashed jet
by Jim Caldwell
Capt. Ted Williams, a Boston Red Sox baseball star and serving Marine fighter pilot, escaped from his crashed jet without serious injury, 50 years ago this week in Korea.
Feb. 13, 1953 -- Secretary of State John Foster Dulles tells the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's subcommittee on the Far East that the Eisenhower Administration will take no actions that could lead to World War III without first consulting Congress and allies.
Afterward, he holds his first news conference since taking office. He said the administration is seeking ways to bar trade from reaching China. Studies of ways to "interrupt or minimize" strategic goods reaching China have been underway "pretty continuously" in the State Department since the Chinese entered the Korean War, but the subject was now "under perhaps more intensive scrutiny."
Two solutions are a naval blockade and a U.N. embargo on trade with China. They top the list of "a whole series of measures of varying kinds which could be adopted." But Dulles says he will not take action regarding China to the U.N. General Assembly when it reconvenes Feb. 24.
At Panmunjom, Communist liaison officers hand their U.N. counterparts a message from their command demanding that the United Nations decide if the truce talks are to be permanently called off.
Feb. 15 -- Lt. Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor, Eighth Army commanding general, tells reporters that adding Nationalist China troops to his command would be welcome. He would not have a say on policy concerning their employment.
The question arises because of recent statements by Nationalist China's Generalissimo Chiang Kai Shek that Formosa must invade mainland China now, even though his forces aren't completely ready. An invasion would pull Chinese troops from Korea, he said.
Taylor also says he asks "nothing better" than for the communists to try another offensive. He says the Eighth Army is more than ready to take them on.
After aerial reconnaissance showed the Reds were trying to rebuild the power plant on Suiho Reservoir, allied aircraft destroy it again. The reservoir power plan, first knocked out last June, is across the Yalu River from Manchuria.
Feb. 16 -- About 200 allied tactical fighters attack a troop assembly and supply center southwest of Pyongyang.
Capt. Ted Williams, a Marine Corps jet fighter pilot and a Boston Red Sox star outfielder, escapes from a Panther jet that crashes at an airfield in Korea. He was returning from his third combat mission over North Korea.
The Air Force reports that two American fighters fired at two Soviet-style aircraft over northern Japan today. They damaged both and chased them back to the Kurile Islands.
Feb. 17 -- The Air Force reports that F-86 Sabrejet pilots have shot down 11 MiGs, probably destroyed another six and damaged 11 in dogfights since Feb. 1.
The second largest all-jet tactical fighter raid of the war hits a tank and infantry training center west of Pyongyang Feb. 18. A force of 389 Air Force and Marine fighters reportedly destroys 139 buildings.
Feb. 18 -- The Defense Department releases the list of American casualties in Korea as of Feb. 9. The overall count of 130,093 includes 22,948 dead.
Prime Minister Jawaharal Nehru tells India's lower house of parliament that talks in America of blockading China are not messages "that can lead to peace."
