Pathfinder Magazine – Page 16 – Old Magazine Articles

The March from Chosin to the Sea
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1950)

This is an eyewitness account of the fortitude and endurance exhibited by the freezing members of the 1st Marine Division as they executed their highly disciplined 100 mile march from the Chosin Reservoir to the Korean coastline – inflicting (and taking) casualties all the while. The account is simply composed of a series of diary entries – seldom more than eight sentences in length recalling that famous fighting retreat in the frozen Hell that was Korea. The journalist’s last entry points out that the number of Marine dead was so high, we need never think of the Battle of Tarawa as the bloodiest engagement in Marine history.

The Proxy Wars
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1950)

On June 24 [1950] Soviet Russia dug deep into her bag of tricks and came up with a new one – war by proxy. Today, still sadly unprepared for satellite warfare, the US may yet profit by tragic experiences – so that even possible defeat in Korea will not be totally without gain. What has been learned and how this knowledge might be used in future satellite wars is discussed here.

Truman’s China Policy for 1951
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1951)

This is a single column that clearly lays out the Truman Administration’s diplomatic policies concerning Mao’s China – the summary is reduced to five bullet points.

The Five Wealthiest Counties
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

During the summer of 1937 the U.S. Census Bureau released the data that was compiled by it’s business department concerning the payrolls dolled out by the nation’s wealthiest industries in 1935. The information gleaned from these payrolls indicated which were the five richest counties in the country based on personal income. These small municipalities could be found in two Eastern states, two Mid-Western states and one Western state.

Jump ahead to our own time and you’ll learn how much the game has changed: today the top five wealthiest counties in the United States are all located in the Maryland and Virginia Suburbs that lie just outside the District of Columbia!

‘Noses, Eyes, Chins”
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

Practicing throughout the Thirties and Forties, fashion photographer Arthur O’Neil took time out from his glamorous day to explain to an inquiring journalist what his requirements are when looking for a fashion model:

The prettiest girls, according to O’Neil, are between 16 and 28 and come mostly from the Middle West…

Smellivision Arrives
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1946)

Technology blogs on the net have users who frequently post the question When will T.V. be able to ‘broadcast’ smells?: the ability existed as early as 1946 – but there was no interest – or so this article has lead us to believe:

Optimistic scientists visualized the day when television sets would come equipped with 200 to 300 different smells. (Aromas are automatically concocted by chemicals in the set, mixed by radio-remote-control from the studio.) Faint nostrils quavered at the thought of several odors on the same program…

25 Years of Women Voting
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1946)

Attached herein are two articles that tell the history of an organization that is still with us today: The League of Women Voters. At its birth, in 1869, it was a bi-partisan organization composed of women who made no stand as to which of the two political parties was superior – preferring instead to simply remind all ambitious candidates that American women were voiceless in all matters political and that this injustice had deprived them of a vibrant demographic group. Since women began voting in 1920, the League of Women Voters began promoting candidates from the Democratic party almost exclusively, while continuing to promote themselves with their pre-suffrage bi-partisan street hustle. No doubt, the League of Women Voters is an interesting group worthy of the news but it hasn’t been bi-partisan in over seventy years.

Federal Housing
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

At present the Federal Housing Administration is sponsoring the building of more than 1,000 small demonstration houses in as many cities, with the cost to range from $2,500 to $3,500. It is the belief of the belief of the FHA that 71.2 percent of American families have incomes permitting the purchase of homes costing less than $5,000.

Yet, regardless of the degradation of the Great Depression, the United States was still an enormously wealthy nation…

Are College Degrees Needed In Such A Bad Economy?
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1932)

There is sharply divided sentiment on [the subject of education]. One faction holds that a costly ‘overproduction of brains’ has contributed to our [economic] plight, while the opposition reasons that any curtailment in educational expenditure would be ‘false economy’ and that only from the best minds will come our economic salvation.

The Growth of the Deficit
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1932)

This short column refers to the growth of the U.S. deficit that was bloated during the Hoover Administration (1929 – 1933) – which up to that time was the largest ever incurred during peace time. When FDR assumed the mantel of the Presidency, it would grow considerably larger.

Click here to read an article about 1930s government spending.

Yet, despite the growing deficits, the United States was still an enormously wealthy nation…

A Pox on Both Your Houses…
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1950)

Washington’s growing impatience and distrust with both Chiang Kai-shek’s island nation and the communist thugs on the mainland was reaching the high-water mark during the earliest days of 1950 when President Truman’s Secretary of State Dean Acheson (1893 – 1971) presented that administration’s China policy:

No official military aid for Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek’s Chinese Nationalist government, either on the island of Formosa [Taiwan] or anywhere else. No hasty recognition of the Communist Chinese government of Mao Zedong. No attempt to stop further Russian advances in Asia except through ‘friendly encouragement’ to India, French Indo-China, Siam, Burma and the new United States of Indonesia…

A Rift in the Containment Policy
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1950)

Washington’s growing distaste for the Chinese Nationalist dictator Chiang Kai-shek was reaching fever-pitch that last week in January, 1950, when President Truman’s Secretary of State Dean Acheson (1893 – 1971) presented the administration’s Asia policy:

No official military aid for Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek’s Chinese Nationalist government, either on the island of Formosa [Taiwan] or anywhere else.

‘The Prospective First Lady”
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1932)

Besides teaching American history and English literature three days a week as vice principal in the Todhunter School in New York (having to commute from Albany), Mrs Roosevelt runs the Val Kill furniture factory where reproductions of early American furniture are made to give work to the unemployed on the environs of the big Roosevelt estate at Hyde Park, N.Y. She belongs to several women’s clubs but never neglects her duties as mistress of a governor’s mansion…

The First 365 Days of the Korean War
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1951)

When the Korean War began during the summer of 1950 many Americans were wondering aloud Is this the beginning of W.W. III? One year later they were relieved to find that it was not a world war, but the butcher’s bill stood at 70,000 U.S. casualties and still there was no end in sight. This article examines these first 365 days of combat, taking into account all losses and gains.

The First 365 Days of the Korean War
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1951)

The North Korean Winter Offensive
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1951)

On December 31, 1950, the Communist Armies fighting in Korea launched a campaign that was intended to drive the UN Forces further south away from the 38th Parallel. Costing much in both blood and treasure, the Red Push was easily contained and whatever ground had been gained was easily re-taken when the UN launched a counter-offensive of their own on February 21, 1951.

Click here to read how Japan, still smarting from their defeat just six years earlier, had found a new identity and resolve as a result of the Cold War, and the war in Korea in particular.

The Patton Tank
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1950)

As is made clear on this website, numerous tanks were fielded by the U.N. Forces during the Korean War, and one of the most effective ones was the Patton Tank (in all it’s variations).

The Air War in Korea
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1950)

Five days after China entered the Korean War, three U.S. Air Force F-80 Shooting Star fighter jets duked it out with three Soviet-made MIG-15s 20,000 feet above the the Korean/Manchurian border. Lieutenant Russell Brown of Southern California fired the decisive shot that sent one MIG down in flames. While engaged with the other two F-80s, the remaining MIGs were dispatched in a similar manner (although other sources had reported that these two fighters had actually been able to return to their bases badly damaged). In the entire sordid history of warfare, this engagement was the first contest to result in one jet shooting down another.