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BEFORE THE FALL: CHIANG KAI-SHEK
AND STAFF IN 1949
CHINA
1/31/49
RED DOMINION
*
Defeated and helpless, Chiang
Kai-shek, for 22 years the dominant figure in
China, stepped down last week. His retirement
symbolized one of the great shifts in the 20th
century's turbulent history: some 460 million
Chinese, a quarter of the human race, were passing
under the domination of Communism. From Bering
Strait to the Gulf of Tonkin, Communism was now the
major force. Not since Hitler stood on the French
coast looking west across the Atlantic had the
danger been so
great.
KOREA
8/3/53
AT LAST
*
Truce came to Korea in a stark,
deliberately underplayed ceremony. Into a bleak,
new truce building, hastily and especially erected
by the Reds, entered the two chief actors. Lieut.
General William K. Harrison, the U.N. senior
delegate, sat down at a table, methodically began
to sign for the U.N. with his own 10-year-old
fountain pen. North Korea's starchy little Nam Il
took his seat at another table, signing for the
enemy.
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CHINA
10/8/51
NEW WAY TO LEARN
*
China's Red masters have a
special word for thought control: hsueh
hsi,
or "the practice of
learning."
China's plain people use a
more telling expression: hsi nao, or "washing the
brain."
"Incorrect" thoughts in Red China may be punished
by anything up to death. "Correct" thoughts can
often be the sure path to success. This probably
explains why millions of mainland Chinese are
engaged in hsueh hsi and and why a zealous youth is
ready to believe that black is white and to die for
that warped belief. Writers, actors, entertainers
and journalists are not allowed to work without
having passed their hsueh hsi. All army personnel,
government employees and trade unionists, as well
as Communist Party workers, must attend
indoctrination lectures. Most pupils need at least
a year's brainwashing. Once enrolled, there is no
getting out.
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When they had finished,
the two men rose and departed without a
word to each other or even a nod or a
handshake.
Thus, 37 months and two days after the
Russian-trained North Koreans attacked
across the 38th parallel, the Korean War
-- a devastating struggle, laced from the
start with glory, agony, triumph,
frustration -- came to a halt. The war had
cost the U.S. more than 140,000 casualties
and $22 billion.
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