-
8. A Mixed Army
- University of Pennsylvania Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
C h a p t e r 8 A Mixed Army Although black soldiers achieved the first victory in Yech’on, the situation of the UN troops in Korea remained unstable. American troops and their allies continued to struggle in Korea’s rugged terrain against the North Korean fighting ability and high stamina. In early September 1950, the loss of Battle Mountain, a hill the opposing sides had long fought over, made the front pages. North Korean troops had broken through American lines. All units on the battlefront were struggling and the North Korean troops again proved superior to Americans, white and black alike.1 Yet it was, once more, black soldiers who came under particular scrutiny and were publicly blamed for general failures and the commanding officers’ weak strategy. With the retreat from Battle Mountain, questions whether blacks made good enough soldiers to fight reemerged.2 With every negative report, the prospect that the recognition of black soldiers’ valiant military service would finally help expand civil rights of African Americans faded. The army contemplated breaking up the famed all-black 24th Infantry Regiment following black soldiers’ allegedly abysmal failure, and even considered converting it from a combat to a labor unit.3 This possible downgrade and exclusion from combat was considered an ‘‘embarrassment’’ to black soldiers.4 The change would have meant that ‘‘the right to fight’’ of African Americans in the most renowned all-black outfit, a right for which they had struggled for so long, would be renounced. The Pittsburgh Courier, among many others, read it as an ‘‘attempt afoot to discredit the marvelous fighting record compiled by the unit during the forty-five terrifying, bloody days of bitter battle.’’5 The charges against black soldiers and their performance in the defense of their positions at Battle Mountain were grave: according to many army reports and the white press, African American 196 Chapter 8 soldiers ran from the scene, froze, and generally did not act like soldiers, like real men. Major General William Kean, commander of the 25th Infantry Division, contended that the 24th Infantry Regiment, the African American community’s pride and joy, had proved itself to be ‘‘untrustworthy and incapable of carrying out mission expected of an infantry regiment’’ and ultimately jeopardized the United States War effort in Korea.6 Assessments like these often shaped white ideas of black performance.7 The African American press felt obliged to forcefully counter these allegations , and told a different story of combat on Battle Mountain. Numerous articles and editorials contested that the all-black unit had fled from the enemy. No doubt, black outfits had shown serious weaknesses, a fact most commentators did not deny,8 but it was the way military leaders and the press represented blacks’ troubles that incensed black commentators the most. An editorial in the Courier maintained that while black troops were publicly criticized for allegedly ‘‘bugging out,’’ the same move was referred to as a regular ‘‘retreat’’ when it involved whites. War correspondent Frank Whisonant maintained that white troops’ inability to hold off the North Korean troops was an enemy ‘‘infiltration,’’ while in the case of blacks it was a ‘‘breakthrough,’’ borne out of weakness and lack of effort on the part of black soldiers. African American soldiers suspected that they were intentionally left undermanned and underequipped for the sake of putting them under strain and blaming them for military failures.9 Indeed, few black commentators failed to notice this and argued that black soldiers were thus blamed for white officers’ inefficiency and fear in battle. This treatment, they claimed, undermined the morale of black soldiers and weakened their dedication to the cause of the war.10 For many African Americans, this made blacks a scapegoat for failure, a setup that discredited all-black units in light of their previous success, which, they believed, had unmistakably proved their equality and was grounds enough for integration and full citizenship. Many whites, on the other hand, seemed to be willing to go to great lengths to prevent integration by demeaning blacks and attempting ‘‘to cover up their [own] weaknesses.’’11 Blacks suspected that the prevention of integration was as much an aim of such criticism as was the dissolution of black combat outfits whose solid war record could most effectively raise doubts over white superiority and the rightfulness of white supremacy. Three months into the war, the outlook of UN troops under American leadership became more promising. On...