Defender Retreats from Combat vs Emergency Evacuation Reaction Move

[Alan Eshelman]

Looking at the v4 manual here, and I'm unclear on how these rules work together. (I posted this on BGG but didn't get any responses so trying here.)

8.12 Reaction Movement

When an Active Player’s Naval unit(s) enter an OZ where the Non-Active Player has one or more Aircraft Carriers that are on their Ready side (NOT Ops Complete), the Non-Active Player may conduct Reaction Movement.
If the Active Japanese Player moves Naval unit(s) into an OZ where the Non-Active Allied Player has at least one LBA unit present, the Allied Player may conduct Reaction Movement.

8.10.1 Emergency Evacuation

All units belonging to the Non-Active Player in an OZ, including LBA, can immediately retreat if their owner decides to do so (9.5). If the Active Player’s Naval units still have MPs available, they could then keep moving and pursue, if desired.

9.5.1 Defender Retreats

If the Defender chooses to not participate in combat, before a Combat Round begins, he may choose to retreat from the OZ.
If the Defender participates in combat and decides to retreat at some point (9.1.1 or 9.1.2), he may choose to retreat from the OZ.

I read this as:
- The defender may retreat ONLY if they qualify for a Reaction Move. i.e. they must have a Carrier (or Carrier/LBA in the Allies case) in the OZ to be eligible for a reaction move and thus retreat before combat. Otherwise they must face Airstrike Combat before they have a chance to flee the attack.

Can anyone confirm? The reason I ask, is 9.5.1 is worded in a very absolute way, as if it were separate from the emergency evac Reaction Move.