‘Infernal Jelly’ Turned Koreans Into Potato Chips: Lewis Lapham

During the Korean War, Pfc. James Ransome’s unit was accidentally hit by American napalm. Burned skin rolled off the men like “fried potato chips,” and in unbearable agony, the soldiers begged to be shot.

The use of napalm during the Vietnam War became the target of protests in the U.S., but the American military loved the “infernal jelly.” Oceans of it were dropped on North Korean civilians, whose bodies became “covered with a hard, black crust sprinkled with yellow pus.”