Leach Foresees No Korean Dunkirk, Shows Role of Tactical Air Force

U.N. forces will not be pushed off Korea, Brig. General W. Barton Lesch, Story Professor of Law, told a packed main lounge in Harkness Commons yesterday afternoon.

"The question is whether the drain on our resources has any relationship to the strategic values of our remaining in Korea," Leach said. He is special consultant to the Secretary of the Air Force. "It costs us 15,000 men a month to continue the Korean operation."

Leach commenced his discussion of air-ground operations and strategy in the Koran War by stressing the rapid conversion from troops on paper to fighting forces that the invasion of June 25 necessitated. "It quickly became apparent that the R.O.K. forces were insufficient to oppose the North Koreans . . . the bulk of the burden was placed in the Air Force," Leach continued.

Leach outlined the three functions of a tactical air force besides the interception of enemy planes. The first job, air supremacy, he called "keeping a hostile air force off the necks of the ground troops," while the second came under the heading of interdiction or "keeping enemy forces from being supplied and reinforced."

"Close support of ground troops as a flying artillery" is the third function. "When the press was raging at the Air Force for not stopping the enemy . . . the fliers wanted to attack communication targets, but until August 3 they hadn't permission to get off close support missions," Leach declared.

He also described the tactics of Chinese troops who expect 50 percent casualties, since the unarmed third wave picks up arms dropped by those in the previous two attacking waves.