The Korean War [Paperback]

Max Hastings (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 067166834X | ISBN-13: 978-0671668341 | Publication Date: October 15, 1988

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The Korean War has been misunderstood and neglected. Hastings had the unique opportunity of interviewing Chinese and North Korean veterans, a source denied to most Western historians. He shows how Korea served as a prelude to Vietnam and why Americans were making the same mistakes 15 years later. One minor criticism: Hastings devotes much space to the operations of the British Commonwealth Division. The Commonwealth never had more than 20,000 men in Korea; the United States had well over 500,000. Recommended for most academic and public libraries; for a more extensive history buy Edwin P. Hoyt's trilogy, Pusan Perimeter, On to the Yalu, and Bloody Road to Panmunjon . BOMC and History Book Club alternates.Stanley Itkin, Hillside P.L., New Hyde Park, N.Y.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Hugh Sidey Time A top-drawer book by a splendid historian.

Drew Middleton The New York Times Admirable...penetrating.

Stephen E. Ambrose author of Eisenhower: The President and Nixon: The Education of a Politician Rings true and will surely stand the test of time....Max Hastings has no peer as a writer of battlefield history.

Richard M. Nixon Must reading for any American who wants to understand one of the watershed events of the post-World War II period.

Alistair Horne author of The Price of Glory Fair and immensely readable...a major contribution to more than just military history....Max Hastings is among the ablest of the younger generation of British military historians....He now illuminates the struggle that changed all perceptions of the post-1945 world.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 389 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (October 15, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067166834X
• ISBN-13: 978-0671668341
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #98,488 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #18 in Books > History > Military > Korean War
  • #47 in Books > History > Asia > Korea

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Korean War Readers: Advance Cautiously, February 13, 2000

By 

Capt Keith Kopets, USMC - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Korean War (Paperback)

The interpretations of the Korean War are varied and numberalmost as many as the pages that have been devoted to the conflict'shistory. The Korean War is an attempt by the British author MaxHastings to paint a portrait of the war, focusing upon some human and military aspects less familiar to readers on both sides of the Atlantic. From the outset, Hastings does not purport to give a comprehensive account of the war and cites the works of David Rees (Korea: The Limited War, New York, 1964) and Bruce Cumings (Origins of the Korean War, New Jersey, 1981) as the best in these categories. The author also professes his belief in the rightness of the American commitment to Korea in 1950. One of the more interesting passages in the Korean War is the author's coverage of the Inchon operation. Hastings defends the decision of General MacArthur to maintain X Corps as a separate tactical unit from Eighth Army: ... there was an entirely legitimate case for placing the conduct of the Inchon landing in hands other than those of General Walton Walker. MacArthur well knew the low morale that existed in Eighth Army headquarters.... [Although] Walker had conducted a stubborn defense of Pusan.... there was grave reason to doubt his ability now to lead the sort of imaginative and dynamic operation MacArthur planned. MacArthur considered, and rejected, the possibility of relieving him [Walker] of his command.... MacArthur's compromise was to entrust the amphibious operation to Almond. The author's argument is plausible, but he fails to cite his references. One of the strong points of the Korean War is the author's analysis ofthe Chinese and their intervention in the war. Hastings visited Peking while researching this book and incorporates the oral histories gained from interviewing veterans of the People's Liberation Army. He succeeds in using this material (although his journalistic, vice scholarly use of oral history gives the book a spurious creditability) in supporting his main thrust regarding the Chinese; that patriotism, not Communism, drove their intervention. The Chinese viewed the naval blockade of Formosa as a threat to their sovereignty; the Chinese sought the liberation of Taiwan and now equated the attainment of this goal with the defeat of the United States. Additionally, the Chinese refused to remain idle with the approach of foreign troops towards their border: Throughout the Korean War, Washington persistently sought the communist ideological logic behind Chinese actions. It might have been more profitable to consider instead historic Chinese nationalistic logic. Korea had provided the springboard for the Japanese invasion of Manchuria only a generation before. As the Americans drove north after smashing Kim Il Sung's armies in September 1950, Peking was appalled by the imminent prospect of an American imperialist army on the Yalu. (p. 134) Hastings also refutes the belief by the United States that the Chinese were acting in concert with the Soviet Union. The Russians regretted the North Korean's invasion and wished to distance themselves from Korea; thus, the Chinese acted unilaterally Hastings, to his credit, also gives ample analysis of the misjudgments of the Communists. The Chinese, after their initial success in late 1950, were led into the same trap as the United States after Inchon: they allowed their military success to change their original political goals. However limited the war aims of the Chinese in November 1950, there is no doubt that their early triumphs opened up, in the eyes of Peking, illusory visions of absolute military victory in Korea, of an all-embracing Communist success. Hastings argues correctly that the Chinese would have greatly boosted their own prestige had they sought a negotiated end to the struggle after the winter of 1950. Nevertheless, his argument that China lost a prime opportunity to gain a seat in the United Nations by not negotiating a truce after 1950 is a weak one. Although the United States wished to downplay their support of Chiang and Nationalist China, they were far from formally recognizing the Communists. Another area receiving little attention elsewhere is the intelligence-gathering operations in Korea. Hastings boldly asserts that "the Korean War put the CIA on the map". The United States already possessed a growing hunger for information on their chief enemies; the Communists. They were prepared to seize upon any means in which to gain more knowledge and Korea provided an ideal opportunity. The author chronicles the buildup of the Central Intelligence Agency, beginning with the appointment of Bedell Smith as its first director. The CIA launched numerous operations in attempt to learn more of the Communists and their intentions in Korea. Hastings concludes, "it is difficult to judge that its [the CIA's] operations remotely justified the scale of resources it eventually deployed or the lives that were squandered in its name." Hastings does add that the initial errors made by the CIA in Korea resulted in a better intelligence gathering effort in Vietnam. The author makes sparing use of maps, but does provide a sufficient number to keep the reader oriented. Hastings also includes a helpful chronology of the war and a listing of the military assistance provided by each member of the United Nations in the appendix. Although Hastings may draw criticism for devoting an inordinate amount of attention to Britain's involvement in Korea, his argument that a "British officer's or private soldier's recollection of the experience of fighting the Chinese in Korea is no less valid ... than that of an American" is legitimate. To his credit, Hastings gives fair treatment to all parties by incorporating interviews with Americans, Chinese, South Koreans, and soldiers from other participating UN armies. Overall Hastings presents some valid arguments and his writing style is good. As the editor of the Daily Telegraph in London, Hastings writes with a more journalistic than scholarly style and sometimes lacks the in-depth analysis to carry some of his arguments to completion. Nevertheless, his work still has value among the sociopolitical literature on the war. I would recommend this book as supplemental reading to those already possessing a solid understanding of the war.

26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good overview, August 3, 2000

By 

Brian D. Rubendall (Oakton, VA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Korean War (Paperback)

British Historian Max Hasting's gives the "forgotten war" the kind of good overall one volume treatment that it deserves. For some reason, Korea has just never registered with Americans the way World War Two or Vietnam has. But the stakes were high as America rushed its untrained Pacific army from Japan to the Korean peninsula in a desperate attempt to forestall a communist takeover of the South in 1950. The heroism of those first soldiers cannot be understated. Hastings captures the whole saga of the war as a horrible tragedy and as the first test of the West's determination to literally fight the spread of communism. Ultimately, as Hastings points out, the sacrifice of the allied troops was not in vain. That democracy exists today in South Korea is a testement to those who fought and died to preserve the country's freedom.

29 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lost In History, June 19, 2005

By 

John G. Hilliard (Toronto Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Korean War (Paperback)

It has always been a bit surprising to me that of the war's America has been involved in over the last century, it seems that the Korean War has always gotten so little attention. After all, two superpowers met in battle, it was the communists against us in a very hot war. Nuclear war was a very real possibility and the violence of the conflict was far higher then any other conflict except World War Two. We were responding to an invasion of a free and democratic country. Yet it gets little to no mention in our history books and public discourse.

There are a lot of very interesting and one would say dramatic military events that took place in this war. The brutal winter losses at Chosin, the Inchon landing, the drive to Yalu, all of which are recounted in the book in a very engaging way. Not only does the author give you the facts and overview of the battles, but he also does a good job at retelling the stories of the common soldier. He seemed to have talked to people on all sides of the conflict in order to gain a unique view into what it was like for them as well as us. Overall I enjoyed the book. It gave me a very easy to read overview of the war. He covered big picture items well and really got into the battle details to make the book exciting at times.