WAR ON THE PARALLEL
AMERICAN intelligence reports of a Chinese build-up on or behind the 38th Parallel have continued to be made public for some weeks (it is one of General MacArthur's idiosyncrasies as a commander to tell his enemy what he thinks he knows about his dispositions as soon as he thinks he knows it ; this is not a practice which can be recommended to students of the art of war). Within the past few days advanced 8th Army elements have run into stiffer resistance in the region of the Parallel, but there are as yet no signs of the massive Communist reaction which Tokyo was predicting a month ago ; and a retreat has very seldom been halted by an army which cannot or does not counter-attack. It is, however, the questions of whether, why, how and wheie the United Nations advance should be halted that at the moment chiefly preoccupy the thirteen nations who have contributed to the combatant strength of the 8th Army. They are questions which have been unobtrusively but resolutely shirked on a high political level ever since they arose, and General MacArthur, who, to give him credit, has more than once pointed out that that is the only level on which they can be settled, last week had a long and rather random shot at their solution himself. He offered to meet his opposite numbers in the field to discuss the terms of a truce, but he coupled this with dire threats of the extension of the war to Chinese territory, thus for practical pur- poses invalidating the ostensible purpose of a demarche which he had in any case no authority to make.
The net result of all this has been salutary, for it has recalled attention to the simple fact that a decision about the 38th Parallel is long overdue. It is pretty clear that nobody is going to require the 8th Army to stop on the 38th Parallel except as a definite step towards the conclusion of an agreement. In war the object of a belligerent is to impose his will upon his enemy, and no war is over—or can be artificially stopped. except for a short, experimental period—until one side or the other has achieved that object. The first sign that the United Nations were in sight of achieving theirs would be an authoritative indication that the North Koreans were ready to discuss terms or that the Chinese Government (who are technically not involved at all) were pro- posing, in their own formula .of some months ago, "to take the responsibility for advisingg the volunteers to return home." Developments of this sort could lead to a pause in military operations, and might end in their cessation ; but no such developments, as far as anybody knows, are occurring, and for the present the only possible course for the United Nations is to continue to punish as severely as possible a stubborn enemy while exerting every possible effort to persuade Peking to talk peace.
