The Next Round in Korea
General Ridgway's headquarters believe that the Chinese are about to resume the offensive in Korea. They are likely, "if they do. to deris;e some advantage from the spring rains, which have lust started, and will hamper air operations and the movements of mechanical transport ; and Tokyo is sensitive to the threat of intervention by the fairly considerable Russian air forces which, from bases in Manchuria, have hitherto con- fined their activities to intercepting, or trying to intercept, forma- tions of the 5th Air Force operating well north of the battle zone. But the feeling in the 8th Army is confident, and there have been hints that the enemy, if he attacks, may run into even worse troublp than he has met hitherto. There would cer- tainly seem to be little future in his strategy. His advantages lie in numbers, in endurance and in the kind of blind courage which stems from fanaticism or fatalism or both. These are useful assets, and will always bring him limited territorial gains. But these gains cost a great deal and are worth nothing, and all the time, as the organisation and experience of the 8th Army improves, the odds against its opponents in terms of fire-power are lengthening. Where is, therefore, a certain air of bankruptcy about the strategy of the Communist high command, while our own, though at present outwardly negative, holds out at least the hope of victory through attrition. It would be a mistake, too, to overlook the fact—and its implications—that we have an undisputed command of the sea on both sides of the Korean peninsula.
