Abstract

Gloom in Washington

For the past forty-eight hours the U.S. capital has been gripped by as bad a case of war jitters as just before Pearl Harbor. In private, State Department and Defense officials have bluntly discussed the imminent threat of World War III. This is not a time for guessing about the future, but it may be worthwhile to analyze some of the critical problems created by the intervention of the Chinese Communists in Korea. As yet no one pretends to know the scope of Chinese intentions. The President and Secretary announced that they would not abandon Korea to communist aggression. But Defense Department officials have always recognized that if the Chinese committed unlimited forces against Korean and United Nations troops they might hurl people into the sea.