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A vivid and meticulous assessment of one of the most misunderstood episodes in recent history, this is a look back to the first war we could not win--not just the big picture, but also a look inside the experience of soldiers in the battle. 76 black-and-white photos.
List of contents
CONTENTSForeword
Prologue: Task Force Smith1. Origins of a Tragedy
2. Invasion
3. The West's Riposite
Washington
Tokyo
Seoul
4. Walker's War
Retreat to the Naktong
Dressing Ranks
The Pusan Perimeter
5. Inchon
6. To the Brink: MacArthur Crosses the Parallel
7. The Coming of the Chinese
8. Chosin: The Road from the Reservoir
9. The Winter of Crisis
The Big Bugout
Washington and Tokyo
The Arrival of Ridgway
10. Nemesis: The Dismissal of MacArthur
11. The Struggle on the Imjin
12. The Stony Road
Toward Stalemate
Panmunjom
The Cause
13. The Intelligence War
14. The Battle in the Air
15. The War on the Hills
16. The Prisoners
17. The Pursuit of Peace
Koje-do
"I Shall Go to Korea"
The Last Act
18. Hindsight
Chronology
Notes and References
Select Bibliography and a Note on Sources
Appendix
Acknowledgments
IndexList of Maps
Korea
The Invasion of South Korea
From Inchon to Seoul
The Chinese Intervention
Retreat from the Chosin Reservoir
The Battle of the Imjin River
About the author
Max Hastings is the author of
The Korean War,
Overlord, and
Bomber Command and the coauthor of
Battle for the Falklands. Editor of
The Daily Telegraph, he lives in London, England.
Summary
It was the first war we could not win. At no other time since World War II have two superpowers met in battle.
Now Max Hastings, preeminent military historian takes us back to the bloody bitter struggle to restore South Korean independence after the Communist invasion of June 1950. Using personal accounts from interviews with more than 200 vets—including the Chinese—Hastings follows real officers and soldiers through the battles. He brilliantly captures the Cold War crisis at home—the strategies and politics of Truman, Acheson, Marshall, MacArthur, Ridgway, and Bradley—and shows what we should have learned in the war that was the prelude to Vietnam.
