COMMAND: Education of a General

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He appraised as urgent the need for resuming pressure on the enemy. He advised his senior delegate at Panmunjom, Major General William Harrison, to take three-day recesses when the Communists started repeating themselves, and these little walkouts have caused the enemy some obvious pain, perhaps some misgivings. The last time Harrison, taking his four teammates with him, started to walk out, North Korea's Nam II rose and stretched out his arm, as if pleading. When it became clear that Nam had nothing new to say, Harrison walked out.

This was pressure with a toothpick. For pressure with a sledgehammer, Clark looked over the air target data and spotted the enemy's great power plants on the Yalu. He reported to Washington that the plants were supplying current for munitions factories, which were feeding arms into North Korea, and asked for the go-ahead to bomb them. Washington gave it. U.N. bombers smashed the plants last fortnight (TIME, June 30) and again last week. The value of the raids, lessened though they have been by the failure to forewarn the U.N. allies (see FOREIGN NEWS), has already been registered in the form of shrill Red complaints at the truce table.

If Clark can find more vulnerable spots, and get the necessary green lights for more pressure, he may get an improvement in the situation from which further improvements can be planned. If the enemy again finds himself at a Clausewitzian disadvantage. Mark Clark might even, just possibly, force a truce.