Here are some facts about TIME'S war coverage:
For the correspondents, the war in Korea has turned out to be as tough an assignment as any they 'have been called upon to cover. There have been six casualties among the press corps to date--the sixth being TIME'S Wilson Fielder. As we go to press, he is listed as missing in action after the evacuation of Taejon (see Press).
On the war's perimeter, in Saigon, Indo-China, another of our correspondents very nearly became the innocent victim of six hand grenades flung in his direction last week from a passing car. He was Andre Laguerre, chief of TIME'S Paris bureau, who is in IndoChina for some first-hand reporting on the situation there (see War In Asia).
Our bureaus in Berlin, Washington, Dallas and Tokyo all contributed to this issue's cover story on Walton Walker, commanding general of the Far East Command's Eighth Army. The story's opening account of one of the general's trips to the Korean front came from Frank Gibney, TIME'S Tokyo bureau chief, who went along for the ride.
"It was a tough ride," Gibney cabled. "The general's expert jeep driver treated the jeep as if it were a plane while we rocketed along the narrow, crumbling, dusty roads. Taking that jeep ride was the best way of finding out how tireless and driving a man Walker is. There were no wasted seconds--even for lunch. The general did suggest that I take time out to eat with the drivers while he was conferring at a regimental command post, but I was too interested in the conference to accept his offer.
"After returning from the jeep ride, bruised, caked with dust, and armed with a good insight into the way General Walker works, I talked with some headquarters sources and turned in. I slept on the floor of a schoolhouse, which had been turned into a correspondents' billet, and I was lucky enough to get one blanket for bedding."
At present, Gibney is momentarily bedded down in Tokyo with grippe and dysentery, two ailments familiar to Far Eastern correspondents.
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Background For War, a department heading which old-Timers will recall, returned to TIME last week in a new guise. In our May 1, 1939 issue it was introduced as a new, occasional department, dedicated to the proposition that world war was close at hand and that readers would understand it better if we reviewed the events that led up to it. Except for one later installment, it was discontinued after the war began. This time its use will be to tell about the places, the people, the weapons, etc. that form the background of this war.
In this issue, for instance, the department is devoted to pictures and descriptions of some of the main U.S. antitank weapons.
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Robert Garey, Pacific Publishing Manager for TIME-LIFE International, has sent in some Far East reactions to our War In Asia section, which began in the July 10 issue. Being interested, naturally, in knowing how we're doing, we are very happy to have them. Some of them: General MacArthur: "A good example of objective reporting." General George E. Stratemeyer, commanding the Far East Air Force: "There is some fine reporting being done here in the Far East and TIME and LIFE, to my mind, are always in there helping set the pace." Magaharu Yasuo, editor of Tokyo's Jiji press : "This week's TIME ... is a wonderful indication that the United States is definitely interested in Asia."
Cordially yours,
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