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165976489
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Copy of General Douglas MacArthur's Special Communique on Chinese Communist Intervention, from the New York Times
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doc
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document
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1
Source metadata
id
165976489
contentType
document
title
Copy of General Douglas MacArthur's Special Communique on Chinese Communist Intervention, from the New York Times
collections
President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration)
General Files
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1
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yes
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165976489
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item
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day
6
logicalDate
1950-11-06
month
11
year
1950
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description
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nara-archive
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9671d2d72419c0dc
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RECOWDS General MacArthur's Special Communique on Chinese Communist Intervention, November 6, 1950 The military position of the United Nations forces in the western sector of North Korea is now sufficiently stabilized and information on enemy unit identifications adequately evaluated to permit me to put the situation growing out of the last few days' operations in proper per- spective. The Korean war was brought to a practical end with the closing of the trap on enemy elements north of Pyongyang and seizure of the east coastal area, resulting in raising the number of enemy prisoners of war in our hands to well over 135,000, which, with other losses amounting to over 200,000, brought casualties to 335,000, representing a fair estimate of North Korean total military strength. The defeat of the North Koreans and destruction of their armies was thereby decisive. In the face of this victory of United Nations arms the Communists committed one of the most offensive acts of international law- lessness of historic record by moving without any notice of belligerency elements of alien Communist forces across the Yalu River into North Korea and massing a grent concentration of possible reinforcing divisions with adequate supply behind the privileged sanctuar / of the adjacent Manchurian border. A possible trap was thereby surreptitiously laid, calculated to en- compass the destruction of the United Nations forces engaged in restoring order and the processes of civil government in the North Korean border area. This potential danger was avoided with minimum losses only by the timely detection and skillful maneuvering of the United Nations commonder responsible for that sector who, with great perspicacity and skill, com- pletely revised the movement of his forces in order to achieve the greater integration of tactical power necessitated by the new situation, and avert any possibility of a great military reverse. The present situation, therefore, is this: While the North Korean forces with which we were initially engaged have been destroved or rendered impotent for military action, a new and fresh amy now faces us, backed up by a possibility of large alien reserves and adequate supply within easy reach to the enemy but beyond the limits of our present sphere of military action. whether and to what extent these reserves will be moved forward to reinforce units now committed remains to be seen and is a motter of the gravest international significance. Our present mission is limited to the destruction of those forces now arrayed against us in North Korea, with a view to achieving the United Nations ? objective to bring unity and peace to the Korean nation and people. -- The New York Times, November 6, 1950