– CBS Radio – Edward R. Murrow And The News – Sept. 11, 1950 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
Sixty-five years ago, on September 11th it was about another war; the war in Korea. The Police Action. The border dispute. The Domino.
Allied infantry and Communist troops trading fire north of Daegu. American officers predicting an enemy offensive at any hour. South Korean President Singman Rhee predicting an all-out allied offensive “very soon”. And another war gets rolling.
Meanwhile, back home. A collision and derailment between a passenger train and a troop train, carrying members of the Pennsylvania National Guard 28th Division, bound for Camp Atterbury in Indiana, left between 27 and 32 dead and some 65 soldiers injured. The troop train, stalled due to a broken air hose near Lafayette Ohio was struck from behind by the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Spirit Of St. Louis, smashing its last two cars and came to a stop against a third car. An immediate investigation was ordered.
At The United Nations Security Council, the Russians lost their bid to have the Chinese Communists invited to a hearing, regarding the Chinese charge that an American plane strafed a Manchurian village.
A Big Three meeting was scheduled to begin the following day between Secretary of State Dean Acheson, French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman and Aneurin Bevan of Great Britain, ahead of the United Nations opening in the coming week.
South African leader Jan Christian Smuts died on this day of a heart ailment at age 80. Smuts originated the British Commonwealth of Nations idea and was the author of the preamble to the United Nations charter.
George Bernard Shaw took a fall in his garden and fractured his left thigh bone. He was rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery. At 94, his doctors said his condition was satisfactory, considering.
On Capitol Hill: The Senate ended its debate on what kind of Communist Control Bill it was going to adopt. The choices were The McCarran Bill; which called for the registration of Communists and Communist Front organizations, denying federal jobs and passports to Communists, among other things. The other bill; The Kilgore bill, which called for the internment of all Communists in the event of war or national emergency. Backers of both bills claimed each others bill was unconstitutional. However, the McCarran bill was expected to pass the vote.
And that’s a small slice of what happened this November 11th in 1950 as reported by the legendary Edward R. Murrow.
