13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Must Read on the Korean Conflict, October 10, 2008
This review is from: The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War (Paperback)
This is a thoroughly researched and overall well written book on the first winter of the Korean War by the late author Halberstam. He worked on this book for well over a decade, and it shows. The focus of the book is on the winter of 1950-1951, with a considerable part about the fall of 1950, as the author notes, it is the most interesting part of the war (the remainder was so stagnant it reminds historians of WWI), the book gives a complete explanation of WHY this war dragged on. Fans of McArthur might want to skip this book, along with those who think Truman was the worst president ever. Some officers shine, while others are considerably less lustrous. Halberstam does a nice job looking at the war from all the ranks, from private first class up to the commanders.
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15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
David Halberstam's Best Work, November 25, 2008
This review is from: The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War (Paperback)
Memories are the building blocks of identity, and psychologists have long known that, more than recollections of the past, memories are narratives that have built into them clear lessons consistent with an individual's worldview. What individuals do naturally for themselves historians do for society: write narratives from known facts and events to help bulid a national identity. And that is what David Halberstam does superbly in his masterwork "The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War."
In "The Powers that Be" and earlier works David Halberstam writes in a folksy and plain-speaking manner that comes across as pretentious and arrogant but in his last work this same style has rendered stories and heroes awesome and memorable. Mr. Halberstam is a wonderful storyteller, and he seamlessly weaves from the macro of the political times to the micro of village battles. And as a wonderful storyteller he has rendered the main players fascinating and knowable and the events relevant and immediate.
In Mr. Halberstam's narrative the Korean War was both tragically inevitable and shamelessly avoidable. A war eventually had to be fought between the newly victorious Communist Party of China and the United States, sponsor of the CCP's adversary the Kuomintang. Moreover, the Soviet Union's North Korean puppet leader Kim Il Sung was just as reckless and uncontrollable as America's South Korean puppet Rhee Syngman. Both sought to manipulate their sponsors to grant them Korean unity.
And while war was inevitable the type of war was determined by the stupidity and vainglory of the book's chief villians: Kim Il Sung, Mao Zedong, and ultimately General Douglas MacArthur. Douglas MacArthur may have been responding to a North Korean invasion but by pursuing the North Koreans so far north he forced the Chinese into the war; here his arrogance (that he was the greatest general ever) was supplemented by his racism (that the Chinese were peasant cowards, and wouldn't dare risk a fight) to make a severe miscalculation that would cost thousands of American lives when the Chinese army trapped America's 8th Army near the Chinese border, forcing an embarrassing and deadly retreat. And even though McArthur's advance forced Mao to enter the war no one forced Mao to believe in the indomitable will of his troops, and to hurl tens of thousands of good Chinese infantry against superior American technology and weaponry. For Mao a just ideal is worth more than hundreds of thousands of good soldiers.
The Korean War was forced upon the Americans by the grandiose imperial ambitions of three great dictators (Kim Il-Jung, Mao Zedong, and Douglas McArthur), and was deeply unpopular at home. Worse the Korean War was unwinnable because for the Americans to advance into China would trap them, like the Japanese before, in an enemy country with a seemingly infinite number of enemies. And a Chinese defeat would bring the Soviet Union into the war.
So the Americans led by General Matt Ridgway chose to fight a limited war to inflict the maximum number of casualties against the Chinese, and it was at the fierce seige of Chipyongni that the Americans finally proved to the Chinese superior tactics and technology could defeat their devastating numbers. And by humbling the Chinese without devastating them Matt Ridgway deterred future Sino-American clashes, an important Cold War achievement if not a total victory.
In the end Douglas McArthur was recalled, and even though Mao Zedong cost China the lives of hundreds of thousands of good men he would live another twenty years to kill tens of millions of Chinese. The only winner seemed to have been Joseph Stalin who goaded on the Chinese and whose death finally permitted the Chinese to sign a truce with the Americans.
"The Coldest Winter" is historical journalism and story-telling at its very best but there are two main problems with the book: the first is that it's written by a great journalist, and the second is that it's written by a great story-teller. Journalists are tremendously adept at researching and reconstructing events but they are not intellectuals, and David Halberstam may be a great journalist but he is still a journalist. Towards the end Mr. Halberstam writes about the historical significance of the Korean War, and the final section feels weak and thin and not at all convincing.
The second problem is more perturbing. The blatant arrogance and flagrant stupidity of the book's villians are too tragically real so it seems as though Mr. Halberstam needs to compensate by diefying the book's heroes: Harry Truman, General Matt Ridgway, the Chinese General Peng Dehuai, and the dozens of American soldiers and officers who fought so bravely and selflessly. If Mr. Halberstam is right about Ridgway then the general was omnipresent and omniscient -- and while Ridgway may be good it's hard to believe he's God.
David Halberstam's "The Coldest Winter" is a book about the classic battle between good and stupidity, and while historians will question his narrative there's no question that Mr. Halberstam's clear and simple narrative is consistent and coherent with America's larger vision of itself as a good and simple nation sometimes thrown into the nastiest of nightmares and always responding with upmost honor and bravery. That is how Americans want to remember the Korean War, and that is how the Korean War will be remembered.
"The Coldest Winter" will be the definitive history of the Korean War, and it is the late David Halberstam's proudest achievement.
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15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A look at a forgotten and brutal War, September 28, 2008
This review is from: The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War (Paperback)
David Halberstam's last book is a true classic detail of the start of the Korean War through its first cruel and brutal Winter.
One thing Halberstam always does is that he gets the view of history from the men who were on the ground when it happened. He just doesn't get the enlisted man's viewpoint, he also gets the perspectives of the junior officers and junior staff who saw first hand the decisions of senior officers, and how they effected the troops on the ground.
In reading some of the reviews of this book, I saw critical remarks about this book not being what it was claimed to be. For some strange reason these reviewers were looking for the ultimate read on the entire Korean War. If that's what you are looking for this is not your book.
However if you want to learn about the origins of this War and how the United States reacted to these preemptive attacks then this is indeed the book you want to read.
This is the definitive Cold War showdown. The High Noon of the Cold War. Russia nudges Red China to back this attack. North Korea attacks South Korea. The United States in all its unpreparedness enters the conflict. The fight of the Pusan Perimeter and the exploits of Task Force Smith are all fully described in a flowing and gripping narrative by Halberstam.
Enter Douglas MacArthur and in his last magnificent grand strategy is able to pull off a successful landing at Inchon to cut off the North Korean supply lines and send the enemy reeling to the North.
Halberstam guides us in MacArthur's march to the North. He shows the lack of MacArthur's intelligence and also the committing of the mortal sin of separating 8th Army and X Corps. The Author depicts a rather inept Douglas MacAuthur who subjects American Troops in harms way needlessly. Indeed he never suspected that 300,000 Red Chinese Troops were waiting at the Yalu River.
What happened at Kanuri and the Chosin Reservoir should not have happened at all. When President Truman fired MacArthur the whole nation was enraged. In fact from that time forward Truman's approval rating tumbled. From early 1951 on, Truman knew he couldn't run for President again, even though he was eligible to campaign. The sad fact of it all is that in retrospect Truman was right and MacArthur was wrong. Dead wrong!
Halberstam does a great job in showing us what General Matt Ridgeway had to contend with and sort out when he took command of the UN Troops. We see a soldier's General who would relieve his own brother of command if that person couldn't do the job.
This is a classic look into the origins and first months of this forgotten conflict. Put this down as a must read!
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