UNANSWERED QUESTIONS HAUNT KILLING FIELD
Many ask: What really
happened at Nogun-ri?
The Associated
Press
Old soldiers have spoken out after a half-century, corroborating the Korean accounts of refugee killings at Nogun-ri. But for U.S. Army investigators, many questions still hang in the air over the South Korean killing field—and in the corridors of the Pentagon itself.
What American
officer gave the ultimate order to fire on the people packed beneath the Nogun-ri railroad bridge?
Did the hundreds of civilians pose any threat? How high in the ranks did knowledge of Nogun-ri extend?
The Army
investigation announced Thursday will seek more detail from veterans about those
harrowing hours early in the Korean War.
But there’s one question that only the Pentagon itself can answer: Why didn’t it uncover the basic facts of Nogun-ri before?
After months of
research and interviews, The Associated Press reported Wednesday that a dozen
ex-GIs, supporting Korean survivors’ accounts, said their battalion of the 7th
Cavalry Regiment machine-gunned a large number of civilians at the hamlet of Nogun-ri in late July 1950. The Koreans say 400 South Korean refugees
were killed at the bridge and in a preceding air attack.
The U.S.
troops, in only their third day at the warfront, feared enemy North Korean
soldiers were hidden among the refugees as they fled south with retreating U.S.
and South Korean forces.
Several 7th
Cavalry veterans told the AP their company commander, Capt. Melbourne
Whoever ordered
the refugees shot probably felt authorized by blanket "kill" orders passed down
the chain of command.
In the 1st
Cavalry Division, standing orders told troops to fire on anyone, including
refugees, trying to cross their lines.
In a neighboring division, a general ordered that civilians be
considered "enemy." Military lawyers
today call such orders patently illegal.
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