welty@lewis.crd.ge.com (richard welty) (07/08/89)
From: welty@lewis.crd.ge.com (richard welty)
In article <7780@cbnews.ATT.COM>, Chesley Reyburn writes:
*In article <7594@cbnews.ATT.COM> somebody wrote:
*>In the Korean war, during the first assault by the North Koreans, both
*>captured US soldiers and South Korean citizens was massacred on several
*>occations. This seems now to have been a knowingly preformed deed, planned
*I.F. Stone alleged that Dugout Doug was responsible for these deaths.
*[mod.note: I'll probably regret posting this... anyway, let's keep
*the flames in email. 8-) - Bill ]
no flames here ...
I. F. Stone (_The Hidden History of the Korean War_, currently back in
print) needs to be read carefully. the book in question was written
entirely from journalistic sources, published before the armistice
was signed, and was never revised afterwards. it is a fascinating
thing to read, but should only be used in conjunction with other sources.
i don't recall that Stone alleged that MacArthur killed, or ordered the
deaths of, any soldiers at all. please tell me where Stone said this.
Stone did allege that atrocity figures were grossly inflated (by roughly
an order of magnitude) during the armistice negotiations, and he was
probably correct about that. The important thing about Stone is that
he asked a number of very good questions, some of which have *never*
recieved satisfactory answers.
there were a number of documented cases of murder of US and South Korean
prisoners during the initial assault. the total number of such deaths
was probably in the low-to-mid 3 figures.
i am currently preparing a review/essay of several histories of
Korea, and a new biography of MacArthur. when i'm done, i'll send it
to Bill for this group.
richard
--
richard welty welty@lewis.crd.ge.com
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