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The only other reviewer complained that this book did not detail the whole of the Korean war. There are plenty of those extant, so many that one can almost have a daily log of what transpired in the war itself.
The real value of this book is its detailing of the people involved in the start and conduct of the war; the political scene and that of the high military command.
This was a war dominated by a fool at the military leadership who brought a few other incompetents with him such that they caused the needless deaths of thousands of the UN fighting force. Truly the first rule of war is that young men die, but if we accept that at times there is no choice we at least should be spared those lost because the top commander was an egotisitic fool who , though he thought he did because of his long service in Asia never really understood the Chinese. MacArthur never could imagine that the Chinese and Koreans were like all men, able to fight valiantly and ferociously for something in which they believed, whether it be a man, an idea, or a country. His chief commander in the field, Gen. Almond was an out and out racist and so he could only think of the Chinese as 'laundrymen'. Fortunately we had serving underneath these two fools many fine commanders, as Marine General O.P.Smith whose tactics saved the Marines at the Chosin reservoir and Col. Paul Freeman who followed his instincts and saved his 23rd Infantry regiment from having to run and be slaughtered going through the Gauntlet, the Chinese Army ambush of the 8th Army.
Halberstam also details the political leaders of both sides, Mao, Kim Il Sung, President Truman, terribly underrated in his time, and all the other players in the U.S.; politicians, columnists, publishers, and members of congress both good and bad.
Korea was also my war, though in only a peripheral way. I was a serving USAF officer in a little known army camp , Camp Detrick in Maryland, serving with Army, Navy , Air Force personnel and civilians. My lab contained about 5 civilians, two army enlisted men, an army Lt. and me; all of us doing the same type of work. One of the army enlisted used to complain to me that everyone got paid so much more and we all worked the same type of job. I had to remind him that being here was better than being in Korea.( we met again about 15 years later when we worked together in a company in California)
This book, and many others, tells any reader why Korea was bad; even as wars go it was bad.
For all those for whom history is just 20 or 30 years ago, this book is a look at some of our history that has been forgotten by most. The majority of people in the U.S. know there was WW II, though they may know little about what it was all about, but very few know of Korea and the honor of the UN in actually fighting for its principles. The U.S. was part of that.
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eglazier, July 20, 2008
The only other reviewer complained that this book did not detail the whole of the Korean war. There are plenty of those extant, so many that one can almost have a daily log of what transpired in the war itself.The real value of this book is its detailing of the people involved in the start and conduct of the war; the political scene and that of the high military command.
This was a war dominated by a fool at the military leadership who brought a few other incompetents with him such that they caused the needless deaths of thousands of the UN fighting force. Truly the first rule of war is that young men die, but if we accept that at times there is no choice we at least should be spared those lost because the top commander was an egotisitic fool who , though he thought he did because of his long service in Asia never really understood the Chinese. MacArthur never could imagine that the Chinese and Koreans were like all men, able to fight valiantly and ferociously for something in which they believed, whether it be a man, an idea, or a country. His chief commander in the field, Gen. Almond was an out and out racist and so he could only think of the Chinese as 'laundrymen'. Fortunately we had serving underneath these two fools many fine commanders, as Marine General O.P.Smith whose tactics saved the Marines at the Chosin reservoir and Col. Paul Freeman who followed his instincts and saved his 23rd Infantry regiment from having to run and be slaughtered going through the Gauntlet, the Chinese Army ambush of the 8th Army.
Halberstam also details the political leaders of both sides, Mao, Kim Il Sung, President Truman, terribly underrated in his time, and all the other players in the U.S.; politicians, columnists, publishers, and members of congress both good and bad.
Korea was also my war, though in only a peripheral way. I was a serving USAF officer in a little known army camp , Camp Detrick in Maryland, serving with Army, Navy , Air Force personnel and civilians. My lab contained about 5 civilians, two army enlisted men, an army Lt. and me; all of us doing the same type of work. One of the army enlisted used to complain to me that everyone got paid so much more and we all worked the same type of job. I had to remind him that being here was better than being in Korea.( we met again about 15 years later when we worked together in a company in California)
This book, and many others, tells any reader why Korea was bad; even as wars go it was bad.
For all those for whom history is just 20 or 30 years ago, this book is a look at some of our history that has been forgotten by most. The majority of people in the U.S. know there was WW II, though they may know little about what it was all about, but very few know of Korea and the honor of the UN in actually fighting for its principles. The U.S. was part of that.
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- Copyrighted material
- Commercial solicitations
By posting your comments you are granting the good people of Powells.com the right (but not the obligation) to make your comments available to others over the Internet, and to copy and distribute your comments via other media, in each case on a royalty free basis. These terms govern the rights and obligations of the person posting comments and Powells.com; there are no intended third party beneficiaries of these terms. Posted comments are subject to monitoring, editing, and removal at any time. Please see our Terms of Use for our complete terms and conditions.Children's Online Privacy Protection Act
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