"Anything They Can Throw"

The big war news last week was that the U.N. forces--or at least their spokesmen --had regained confidence. Army Chief of Staff J. Lawton Collins, back in Washington from Tokyo and Korea, turned in an optimistic report to Secretary Marshall and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Pentagon had its most buoyant week since November. In the field, the 3rd Division's Major General Robert H. Soule displayed a gamecock's confidence: "If they order us, we will go back and take Seoul. We can stop anything they [the Communists] can throw at us."

The Reds were reported to be suffering heavily from allied air attacks. Their famous "manback" supply system worked well enough for front-line distribution, but their human supply carriers could not tote their burdens all the way from the Manchurian border. For those hundreds of miles, the Communists used trains and road vehicles, which were vulnerable to air harassment. Air communiques reported attacks on six trains (one destroyed, four damaged); one day the allied air arms attacked road convoys totaling 425 vehicles.

It seemed quite possible that the enemy was suffering severely from casualties, supply shortages and the bitter weather, but that he was nevertheless doggedly preparing another offensive. Some U.S. officers in the front lines were braced for a blow. Said one: "All hell might break loose soon." Said another: "The Chinese will attack when they get damn good & ready."

Douglas MacArthur, perhaps chastened by recent experiences, balanced his crystal ball neatly between optimism and pessimism. On his eighth visit to the battle zone, MacArthur discounted Chinese Nationalist reports that the Chinese Communists, disgusted by the nonarrival of Soviet air support, were pulling out of Korea. Said MacArthur: "The entire military might of Communist China is available against this relatively small command." But he deplored "loose talk" to the effect that the U.N. forces might be pushed out of Korea. "No one," he said, "is going to drive us into the sea."

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