I was in Bad Tolz when General Singlaub ran afoul of the Carter Administration over their plans for Korea in 1977 and shortly thereafter went into retirement. Here's an excerpt from
Time in May 1977:
In an interview with the Washington Post last week, Major General John K. Singlaub, 55, flatly declared that Jimmy Carter's proposed withdrawal of the 31,700 U.S. ground troops in South Korea over a four- or five-year period "will lead to war." Singlaub, third-ranking U.S. general in South Korea, insisted that the pullout would encourage North Korea to launch a second invasion.
Angry Reaction. Though Singlaub went on to say that he would nevertheless "execute such a withdrawal with enthusiasm and a high level of professional skill," that scarcely took the sting out of his criticism. Carter and Defense Secretary Harold Brown were furious. The President immediately summoned Singlaub to Washington for a face-to-face meeting in the Oval Office last weekend. Afterward, Secretary Brown announced that General Singlaub had been relieved of his Korean command because his public statements "inconsistent with announced national security policy have made it difficult for him to carry out" his Korean duties.
The general's error was not in what he said but how he said it—publicly. Other U.S. military men have confined their own intense criticism of the withdrawal to private conversations or testimony before congressional committees. At a time when the U.S. is conducting delicate SALT negotiations with the Soviet Union, any indication that American military men are in any way out of control could upset the talks.
The Carter Administration is convinced that South Korean independence can be maintained with U.S. air and logistical support, but without U.S. ground forces. The North and South Korean armies are roughly comparable; about 600,000 troops on each side. The North has superior firepower both in the air and on the ground, but the U.S. plans to keep its 7,100 airmen in the South.
More is at stake than just Korea, however, as important as it is to Asian stability. The prospect of a U.S. withdrawal alarms Japan, which fears instability in the Korean peninsula, the traditional invasion route to the Japanese home islands. China fears that too precipitate a U.S. retreat from Asia would encourage aggressive Russian moves. The general's warning can only add to these apprehensions.
We all thought a lot of General Singlaub's willingness to put his career on the line and say something that needed to be said to an administration that was hell bent on giving the free world away to the communists at that time.
General Singlaub was asked to speak because he was an OSS Jedburgh team leader in France in WW2 and also operated in the Far East, conducting a famous POW raid on Tinian Island. As an SF Officer, he also was COMUSMACVSOG 1966-1968.
I belong to the OSS Society's discussion board and they put out a push to get as many OSS vets to the ceremony at the ASOM as possible. Were there many there?
Richard
OSS Memorial Stone
Linear Mode
