The President got up in the morning, did his usual routine, then went down into the briefing room. One wall now showed a map of North Korea. The troops were to begin landing at eleven p.m. Korean time. Everyone should be asleep by then and it would give the troops as much time as possible to consolidate their positions before first light.
Anxiously The President waited. An officer sat monitoring the signals coming in to operations headquarters in South Korea. "Mr. President," he finally snapped, "Amphibious One is hitting the beaches there, unopposed." A few minutes later he announced Amphibious 2 was landing. "Pathfinder Unit One reports," he continued, "landing zone secure. Pathfinder 2 is down. Slight resistance, but area is clear. Pathfinder 3. The bombers missed a mine field. They lost half their contingent, but no enemy resistance. They are performing their mission.
Pathfinder 4 down without resistance, position secure. Pathfinder 5 down and secure. Pathfinder 6 down and secure. Pathfinder 7 light resistance but down and secure. All Pathfinder units in position. Drop one underway. Drop 2 underway. Drop 3 underway. Drop 4 underway. Drop 5 began taking anti-aircraft fire. Had to abort first run. Fighters suppressing fire. Drop 6 underway. Drop 7 going in. 5 reports anti aircraft fire neutralized. They're going in!"
One by one each unit reported they were down and secure. The worst casualties in the drop had been the Italian Pathfinders. Within hours The Americans had THEIR air port secure. Then the French and the Germans had theirs. The landings on the coast were so unopposed that the heavy equipment was running inland virtually without effort!
By the time the sun came up the entire northern border of North Korea was sealed by alliance troops, and a great deal of territory was in their hands.
The local militias were putting up token resistence, making a show of it, but when The Alliance Forces really got close the white flags came up. The Chinese, unable to infiltrate supplies across the border any more moved their troops to the north, getting them away from the border so there would be no chance of accidental engagements. They had done all they could for The North Koreans. Major Smith came in all smiles.
"The operation was an overwhelming success, Mr. President!" he announced. "The plans worked perfectly. The enemy withdrew his forces to protect his capitol. Now they're trapped down there. The Commanders are meeting little resistance. They ask permission to move south."
"With caution," The President agreed, "with caution!"
By the end of the second day the forces in the west were as far south as Chongjy and Pakchon. But there they were being held with serious resistence. The forces higher up had gotten to Unsan and Huichon-si.
In the east things had gone just as well. They had gotten down the coast as far as Orang, and inland they had reached Honggul and Pungsan. But here they, too, were meeting fierce resistance.
"That's enough for now!" The President ordered, "Let's not get too carried away up there! Continue to reinforce them, but let's begin Operation Sweet Pickle! And tell General Hayes I think it's time to put out the enemy's command centers. They should be hit about hte time the way is being cleared for Sweet Pickle.
The pilots of the planes assigned to guide in the B52's bombs have been complaining that they're being kept out of the fighting. Let's give them something to do!"
The General was more than wiling to oblidge. At midnight Korean time, The North Korean side of the DMZ along a 25 mile front exploded into a fire storm for two horrendous hours it was pounded with artillery. Then, the Alliance forces poured thorugh. The enemy fought valiantly but they were simply swept away. The Alliance Forces seemed unstoppable! As fast as their vehicles would roll they sped north. In five hours they reached Wonsan, the cities along the way crumbling under their assault, while troops sped east clearing out the pocket, others began a dash up the coast, while those already there began to push down towards them.
The North Korean Army was resisting, but it was beginning to crumble. Most of their heavy weapons were gone, and they were running out of the shoulder fired anti aircraft rockets and anti tank rockets. The President waited for the reports on the B52 strikes. An aide finally took a pointer and went to the map.
"Command posts one and two," he announced, "destroyed. People can be seen fleeing them on foot. Three is burning furiously. We don't know what they had down there, but it's not going to leave much. Four is being abandoned by vehicles. Five is burning. Six is being abandoned. They're bringing in bulldozers to Seven and other digging equipment. Eight is not being abandoned but there is no activity there. We think we may have wiped everybody out."

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