Wanted To, But Didn't

Red propagandists tirelessly charge that the South Koreans started the war. A fortnight ago, Russia's Andrei Vishinsky told the U.N.: "The leaders of the South Korean government . . . were preparing to attack North Korea; they were preparing for war. They said so . . . They were working toward it, not in secret but with the support, protection and connivance of their protectors from beyond the seas."

Last week before the U.N., South Korea's peppery little Foreign Minister, Y. T. Pyun, answered the charge quite honestly. Substance of his remarks: we would have attacked the North Koreans if we could, but we couldn't.

Pyun, a right-winger who bears no love for the U.S. State Department, explained: "I do not mean to apologize for the intentions we ought to have as a sovereign people [to reunite divided Korea. But] these honorable and legitimate intentions of ours failed . . . The United States Government did not mean to support and implement these Korean aspirations for fear it might touch off the much dreaded third World War . . . Far from supplying us with heavy artillery and battle planes making an offensive action possible, the U.S. Government took special care to keep the R.O.K. in short supply of small ammunitions even . . . It is true that we meant to recover our lost national legacy by all means, including war, but failed to carry it out simply because it was a physical impossibility."

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