Mr Linkagain has posted another screed which is worthy of correction:
He stated:
Apparently Mr. Linkagain does not have access to either a Map of Korea, or Google Earth. To marchSend the Marines cross country to the eastern (sic) of Korea..link with
Walter (sic) Walker forces to cut off the enemies (sic) retreat then liberte (sic) Seoul
the Marines across the Korean Peninsula to meet up with WALTON Walker, would mean marching
hundreds of miles on one lane dirt roads, with hampered supply and logistics, and then, when you
got to the East Coast of Korea, more marching north to try to cut off the PRKA. The Marines would
have arrived footsore and exhausted, and then been forced to start fighting. This is a formula for
disaster. Only a fool would do it.
Instead, MacArthur, who had used Amphibious Envelopments again and again in New Guinea and
the Philippines, moved his troops at a steady 10 knots of speed ( thats 240 miles per day ! ) around
the Korean Peninsula, giving the Marines a chance to rest and recuperate on shipboard, and then
landed them exactly where he wanted them. Their landings were virtually un-opposed, and the
Marines were immediately able to start moving north against the North Korean forces.
The PRKA continued to flee northward, and MacArthur's plan had the U.N. Forces essentially
taking both coast lines of North Korea and driving the PRKA into the mountainous central regions of
North Korea where, without logistical support, food, or fuel, their army would have ' Died on the Vine
- which was exactly what MacArthur had done to the Japanese on New Guinea and the Philippines.
The North Korean Army was, by that time, a broken force, and allowing thousands of hungry, ragged,
dispirited refugee soldiers to retreat into the hinterlands of North Korea, where they would have
eventually deteriorated into bands of terrorist looters who would have discredited the Communist
cause, making the U.N.s job of wiping them out all the easier.
The only two people who snatched Defeat from the Jaws of Victory in Korea were Harry the Habberdasher
Truman and Omar Bradley. The first couldn't see beyond the end of his own prepuce, and the second
couldn't see anything in the world outside of Europe.
Respectfully :
Paul R. Ward