Ben Malcomb Luncheon

Ben Malcomb, Army Special Forces During Korean and Vietnam Wars, Speaks at Chapter July 2007 Luncheon

Our guest speaker for the July Luncheon was Ben Malcom who was in the special forces during the Korean and Vietnam wars. He authored a book about his year behind enemy lines in North Korea titled “White Tigers: My Secret War in North Korea”. (Amazon.com has it!)

The book is the untold story of the U.S. Army's role in unconventional warfare in the Korean War. An Army first Lieutenant, Ben Malcom was handpicked to go behind enemy lines to recruit, train and lead North Korean partisans in their war against Chinese and North Korean forces. He recounts how he won the guerrillas' trust and, with a minimum of support from Far East Command, mounted a series of operations that combined sabotage with intelligence-gathering. (His 4th Partisan Infantry Battalion provided the framework for establishing the Army's Special Forces in 1952.)

Ben’s presentation at the luncheon included charts and maps and a plethora of information and statistics that he recalled from memory faster than I could possibly take notes! None-the-less, I did my best, and here’s what I was able to capture.

He described his topic as special forces and CIA operations. He said that hundreds of agents were dropped into North Korea during the war. His “White Tiger” group had about 800 at the beginning. That group’s operations and others were classified top secret back then. In 1990 his group’s operations were unclassified, allowing him to author his book and speak on his experiences. He was actually behind enemy lines in 1952 for a 12-month period. During 1950 to 1953 about 36,500 U.S. troops were killed in action in North Korea. He compared that to the approximately 58,000 that were killed in action in Vietnam from 1955 to 1975. Actually, the U.S. entered Vietnam as early as 1952 to support the French.

One particularly amusing story about the partisan forces that he was training was the attempted use of homing pigeons to deliver messages. The gave the men the pigeons in cages with instructions to write messages on small slips of paper and put them in the little tubes attached to the pigeon’s legs. Ben said that none of the pigeons ever made it back with a message! He later came to find out the reason was that the partisans cooked and ate the birds!

A key strategic piece of land for the U.S. was Paengnyong-Do Island, which was only 120 miles off the coast and just below the 38^th parallel, which later marked the DMZ (demilitarized zone). The island had very hard sandy ground that allowed some of our planes to land and take off. We still have control of that island today.

In recent years there have been four major tunnels found dug under the DMZ by North Korean forces. They were found and collapsed. Over the years there have been over 50 other digging sites discovered!

Ben reviewed with us the CIA’s clandestine airline operations back in those years. There was a need for pilots and planes to deliver troops and supplies to support the special forces operations during those wars. As such, the CIA founded and funded over 30 corporations to do just that, many of which were airline companies. At the peak of their operations they had over 400 planes and 20,000 pilots and other support personnel. About 262 pilots and passengers were shot down! By 1973 all of those airlines were phased out. The most famous of these was probably Air-America, about which movies have been made. On a local note, Southern Air, right here in Atlanta was a CIA funded and operated airline!

Ben mentioned a disturbing fact about those who served our country in this capacity. None of them ever got any sort of government benefits for their service. One man in particular that Ben mentioned was Jack Stiles. He flew for Civil Air Transport (a CIA airline) for over 20 years. He served for a total of 28 years and has never received a single benefit for that service.

Korea was ultimately divided with Russian placed in charge of North Korea and the U.S. placed in charge of South Korea. Russia installed a dictatorship that survives still today.

In 1990, Russia stopped supporting North Korea with food and supplies. From 1990 to 1993 an estimated 2 million North Koreans starved to death. China now supports North Korea. Ben said that this is most likely because if North Korea fell to South Korea, they (China) would have a bordering state with a Democratic government, something they would like to avoid at all costs.

The U.S. still has over 8,000 troops MIA in North Korea. Ben outlined some of the deals that have been made to go back in and try to find and recover more of them.

Regarding current problems with nuclear proliferation in North Korea, Ben mentioned that our best and most effective bargaining tool to date has been banking sanctions. An inside Korean man (forgot his name - sorry) has been providing intelligence for us on a number of fronts. He provided all of the banking information that has allowed us to freeze many of North Korea’s financial assets. This is the main reason that we have been able to force them back into negotiations.

After Ben’s presentation during a Q&A session, a question was asked about the condition of the North Korean army. Ben said that at nearly 4 million strong it was the fourth largest in the world. However, it was poorly trained and equipped with WWII weapons. North Korea, on the other hand, has an approximately 800,000 man military force that is very well trained and equipped. It could easily defeat the North Korean army in his estimation.

Ben still teaches at the Special Forces School in Fort Bragg and consults with the U.S. military on special operations. You can tell by listening to him that what he shared with us today is just the tip of the iceberg of his knowledge and experience in this field.

Many thanks to Colonel Malcom for taking time to share his experiences with the Atlanta Chapter.

Click on a thumbnail image to view a full sized picture.

Ben Malcom starts his presentation.

Mitch assists with visual aids!

Chapter President Mitch Rowland '71 presents Ben with a personalized USNA apron.

Ben signs books for Chapter alumni.