high seas, and the lead elements—the 5th and 8th Cavalry—are scheduled to debark here at Pohang-dong on the eighteenth.”
He put the bullet-tip of his pointer on a small port on the west coast of the peninsula, and looked at Pickering to make sure that Pickering was following him.
“Delaying the enemy until we can achieve something like equal strength in the South is only part of the plan, Fleming,” MacArthur said. “The other part, the part that will turn what some might consider a rout into a very bloody nose for the enemy, is not yet quite fixed in my mind, but essentially, what I plan to do—another of the reasons I asked for the Marines—is to strike somewhere far up the peninsula with an amphibious landing that will permit us to cut off the enemy’s supply lines and then batter his forces to bits. They have to be made to pay for this invasion.”
“Up the peninsula?” Pickering asked. “Where?”
“There are a number of possibilities,” MacArthur said, using the pointer. “On the east coast of the peninsula we have suitable beaches in the Kunsan-Komie area, here. And farther north, at Taechon, Anhung, and Inchon.”
Christ, Inchon is the port for Seoul. And I was in there only once, years ago, but I still have a memory of thirty-foot tides and mudflats. Inchon’s not some gentle South Pacific beach, and the others are probably no better. Is he dreaming?
“Of all these,” MacArthur went on, “I prefer Inchon, but I’m frankly a bit hesitant to say so. I don’t want to be premature with this, as you can well understand.”
What is he doing? Ever so subtly suggesting that I don’t put this invade-behind-their-lines idea of his in my report to the President?
Of course, he is.
“And on the West Coast, working northward,” MacArthur went on, using the pointer, “we have Yangdok, Kangwung, and ultimately Wonsan.”
Wonsan is in North Korea!
“Wonsan—although it would be tactically ideal to cut the peninsula—is out of the question at this time, as I am under orders to push the enemy out of South Korea, not invade his homeland.”
Is he reading my mind?
Both the Russians and the Chinese would take an American invasion of North Korea as an excuse to intervene in this war. Doesn’t he know that?
Slow down, Pickering.
This is Douglas MacArthur talking, if not the greatest military mind of our era, then right at the top of that list.
He not only knows as much about amphibious invasions as anyone else, probably more than anyone else, but is also probably as astute a judge of Soviet and Chinese intentions as anyone in the government.
Because we misjudged Russian ambitions, a quarter of Germany is a Russian zone from which we are barred, and Berlin and Vienna are similarly divided. We had to have the Berlin Airlift to keep the Russians from forcing us out.
Because MacArthur knew what they were up to, he stood up to them.
There are no Russians in Japan, period.
“You seem lost in thought, Fleming,” MacArthur said, smiling.
“This is a lot to take in at once,” Pickering said.
“What we have to do is to strike decisively,” MacArthur said. “Not to have to fight our way inch by inch back up the peninsula. The question is where to do so. At the least possible cost in American lives. As we’re already learning, the loss of life is not a high priority for the other side.”
That’s another good side of him. He does try to keep losses at a minimum. I saw that time and time again in World War II.
“A moment ago, I might have seemed to be suggesting that you not get into the details of my initial thinking when you report to the President,” MacArthur said. “I was.”
Pickering looked at him but didn’t reply.
“My thinking there, Fleming, is that there is certainly going to be a hunger in Washington for any action that will turn the situation around. From my standpoint, it would be better if one of my ideas were not seized upon—or the flip side of the coin, strongly objected to—until I can firm up what I think we should do, and then present a plan to the President for his approval. Or disapproval. I am not asking you to do anything that would, in any way, violate your duty to report to the President anything you believe he should hear.”
You’re doing exactly that, of course. I was sent here to be a reporter, not a judge. But you’re right—as usual. There will be a frenzy in