Who Censored President Eisenhower's Korean Armistice Speech? 1953.07.27, Korean War Armistice скачать в хорошем качестве

Who Censored President Eisenhower's Korean Armistice Speech? 1953.07.27, Korean War Armistice

From the White House, at 10 p.m., July 26, 1953, Washington time/11 a.m., July 27, 1953, Korea Time, President Dwight D. Eisenhower made a radio and television address to the American people announcing the Signing of the Korean Armistice. After paying tribute to the dead and wounded American soldiers, he said, "Our thoughts turn also to those other Americans wearied by many months of imprisonment behind the enemy lines. The swift return of all of them will bring joy to thousands of families. It will be evidence of good faith on the part of those with whom we have signed this armistice." In his original draft speech, he should move on to discuss enemy POWs: "We think, too, of the enemy prisoners of in our hands. We have steadfastly sustained their right to choose their own future, to live in freedom if they wish." But in his actual speech, this paragraph was deleted. Who censored President Eisenhower's speech? Most likely, Eisenhower was advised to delete any reference to enemy prisoners that might lead the American public to perceive voluntary repatriation as an “exchange of Chinese lives for American lives,” or worse, "an exchange of Chinese freedom for American lives." Unfortunately, that very exchange is precisely what happened. In the last two years of the 3-year war, a period of negotiating while fighting, 12,300 American soldiers, at least 90,000 Chinese troops, at least 140,000 North Koreans, were killed. Yet, the main outcome of the second half of the Korean War was the "defection" of 14,000+ Chinese POWs to Taiwan. To secure one Chinese prisoner’s “freedom” not to return home but to go to Taiwan, nearly one American GI lost his life. On the other side, to deny such a “right” to one Chinese POW, more than six Chinese soldiers, ten North Koreans were killed. This is the true nature of the Korean War The first half was fought over Korean territory The second half was fought over Chinese POWs A fact that none of the belligerent governments want their people to know. This is why the Korean War became "The Forgotten War. " David Cheng Chang, The Hijacked War: The Story of Chinese POWs in the Korean War (Stanford University Press, 2020), pp. 8-9.