July 19, 1951 – Edward R. Murrow News With Don Hollenbeck – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
July 19, 1951 – In Korea, more talks of truce talks – more bending, negotiating, compromising – the nature of getting two sides to sit down at one table. It was looking like the possibility for a day of decision; the protracted preliminary Truce discussion of the 8th meeting of the United Nations and North Korea. A day which could go either way; continuing discussions or suspending them. An unresolved point concerned the withdrawal of foreign troops from Korea; the United Nations insisted that a discussion of that matter was not within the provence of the current negotiations. The Communists insisted that it was. Earlier, during this broadcast, Secretary Of State Acheson restated the American position, reinforcing the stand of the Allied team at Kasan that, if there was an effective armistice, a United Nations force was to stay in Korea until a genuine peace had been firmly established and the Korean people had assurance that they could work out their future, free from aggression.
Meanwhile, word was being circulated among military officers that a buildup of anywheres upward to a half-million Communist troops were amassing at the North/South Korea border. And that a new full-scale attack could take place as early as July 20th or 21st. To reiterate that sentiment, reports of stepped-up activity all along the front lines.
Some progress on another front – Iranian government officials agreed to re-open negotiations with the British in the oil dispute. But they insisted they intend to make no retreat on the principle of nationalization. The announcement of was made following a long conference among members of the oil commission meeting with Averell Harriman. He was told the commission was ready to discuss the sale of the oil fields, but only under the nationalization law. British reaction had not yet been reported at news time.
And that’s a very small slice of what happened, this July 19, 1951 as reported by Don Hollenbeck, substituting for Edward R. Murrow and The News.
