TRUCE TALKS: The Standpatter

The U.N. was trapped between an enemy who was willing to settle and a principal ally who saw the settlement as ruinous. At Panmunjom, the Communists were presumably all set to sign an armistice. But in Seoul, stubborn old Syngman Rhee postponed a cease-fire indefinitely by setting free 27,000 North Korean war prisoners that the U.N. had promised to turn over to a neutral commission (see below). By his act, Syngman Rhee all but solved the problem of forced repatriation so far as North Koreans were concerned. He certainly proved that they did...