--- title: 'MacArthur to the Commander-in-Chief, North Korean forces: atrocities against prisoners' url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/unc-macarthur-letter-to-kpa-commander-1950/ description: A typed letter on General Headquarters, United Nations Command letterhead, dated 20 August 1950 and signed by General Douglas MacArthur, addressed to the… section: Collection --- [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/) [![MacArthur to the Commander-in-Chief, North Korean forces: atrocities against prisoners](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/unc-macarthur-letter-to-kpa-commander-1950.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/unc-macarthur-letter-to-kpa-commander-1950.jpg) # MacArthur to the Commander-in-Chief, North Korean forces: atrocities against prisoners A typed letter on General Headquarters, United Nations Command letterhead, dated 20 August 1950 and signed by General Douglas MacArthur, addressed to the Commander-in-Chief of the North Korean armed forces. It charges that UN prisoners of war have been murdered while disarmed and bound, and warns that failing to order a stop will be treated as condoning the killings, for which MacArthur says he will hold the commander and his subordinates criminally accountable. The tell: a threat of personal legal liability, addressed to a named rank, on top of a documented accusation. ## Text on the object Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked ``` GENERAL HEADQUARTERS UNITED NATIONS COMMAND OFFICE OF THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 20 August 1950 TO : THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF ARMED FORCES OF NORTH KOREA. On July 4th I proclaimed it to be the firm purpose of the United Nations Command to extend to all members of the invading North Korean forces who fall into the hands of the forces of the United Nations the full measure of protection provided by the rules of civilized warfare, and I called upon you in turn to take proper action to insure that the same protection be accorded members of the United Nations Command who fall into the hands of the North Korean Forces. The United Nations Command has faithfully fulfilled its corresponding obligations but uncontrovertible evidence has disclosed a series of revolting atrocities committed by North Korean forces upon United Nations prisoners of war. There is documented proof of many instances in which such prisoners, disarmed and bound, have been brutally murdered by your officers and men holding custodial responsibility for their safety. These are crimes not only against the victims themselves but against all humanity as well. They are crimes which could be avoided by the simple expedient of an order by you to your corps and division commanders in such terms as to make unmistakably clear your determination to stop such atrocities. Inertia on your part and on the part of your senior field commanders in the discharge of this grave and universally recognized command responsibility may only be construed as a condonation and encouragement of such outrages, for which if not promptly corrected I shall hold you and your commanders criminally accountable under the rules and precedents of war. DOUGLAS MacARTHUR. ``` Read from the 499 x 800 px Commons image; spelling ('uncontrovertible', 'civilized') is as typed. The signature is a facsimile signature above the typed name. [← "Siemens-Plania grüßt die Vorhut der internat. Arbeiterklasse": factory delegation at the Soviet memorial, Treptow](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gdr-siemens-plania-banner-soviet-memorial-1950/) ['Deutscher, hilf den Frieden erhalten' (German, help preserve peace): banner on a state farm, Petkus, East Germany →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/deutscher-hilf-den-frieden-erhalten-petkus-1950/) ## Using the same techniques - [Miniature of Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, Les Passages d'outremer (BnF Fr. 5594, fol. 19r)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passages-doutremer-council-of-clermont-colombe-1474/) (France · 1474 · Testimonial, Fear appeal). Content note: Medieval religious imagery and a French text describing alleged killings and captivity of eastern Christians, as used to argue for the First Crusade; the text is shown as written. - [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers. - [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (Holy Roman Empire · 1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal) - [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling) - [Proclamation de Sonthonax en créole, Cap-Français (Proclamation of Commissioner Sonthonax in Creole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sonthonax-proclamation-creole-1793/) (France · Aug 29, 1793 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating). Content note: Colonial-era proclamation on slavery and emancipation in Saint-Domingue; speaks of slaves, whips and 'Nègues' in period terms. - [Gazette of the United States, "The Jeffersoniad" no. VIII, 14 August 1800](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gazette-us-jeffersoniad-1800/) (United States · Aug 14, 1800 · Name-calling, Fear appeal) - [Tyrants Prostrate, Liberty Triumphant (pro-Polk cartoon on Dorr), 1844](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/tyrants-prostrate-liberty-triumphant-polk-1844/) (United States · 1844 · Name-calling, Fear appeal). Content note: Speech balloons contain anti-Catholic and nativist wording ('the ruins of Popery') in the mouths of the Whig figures, written by a Democratic cartoonist and shown unaltered. - [Brolej Žemajčiaj! (Brothers Samogitians!): hand-painted broken-cross poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/brolej-zemajciaj-broken-cross-1862/) (Russian Empire · 1862 · Fear appeal, Transfer)