The Korean War: Pusan to Chosin: An Oral History [Paperback]

Donald Knox (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 10, 1987

This book brings to life one of the most bitter and inglorious conflicts in american history. Drawing on his interviews with hundreds of veterans of Korea, Knox masterfully weaves personal stories with military records to create a vivid, day-by-day chronicle of the war’s first savage months of fighting. Index; photographs and maps.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Donald Knox (1936-1986) was an award winning producer and director of television documentaries. He is also the author of Death March: The Survivors of Bataan and The Korean War: Uncertain Victory (with Alfred Coppel).

Product Details

• Paperback: 720 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books; First edition (April 10, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156472007
• ISBN-13: 978-0156472005
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #522,203 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Knox's Book Shows the Agony of War Through Many Eyes..., July 17, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Korean War: Pusan to Chosin: An Oral History (Paperback)

Knox, Donald The Korean War: Pusan to Chosin
An Oral History

The joys of doing book reviews of this sort, and the dogged research necessary to prepare them, is a path fraught with unexpected pain and pleasure. So it was with this book. I was looking in my local library (Amherst, Massachusetts) for this copy of Knox's book when I found, to my shock, chagrin and unbounded pleasure, that a sequel exists. The sequel will be reviewed in a few days.
I was not aware such a sequel existed. I checked out the first copy of this book when I spent six months in Kunsan on assignment a few years ago. I have read Knox's first book no less than twenty times. A similar fate awaits the second......

In any case, Knox's Pusan to Chosin deserves close reading by all Korean War buffs. This book is not a first person account of one part of the war, which many narrative war histories consist of. Instead, it is a roving compilation of memories and narratives of the war by scores of soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen who fought in the wars's early months. Between early summer and Christmas, 1950, the front line between the combatants surged south to the dangerously vulnerable Pusan Perimeter, north to the Yalu, and finally back below the 38th parallel in the rout caused by Chinese intervention. The despair of the early retreats from Chonan, Pyongtaek, and Taejon stands in stark contrast to the brisk, confident advances after Inchon. Somehow Knox, while dancing around the Peninsula and across these broad tides of optimism and defeat, manages to produce not just a coherent story of the war, but a memorable one. He accomplishes this by allowing the men on the field to tell their story in parallel fashion. The reader sees the Inchon landings, the Pusan defenses, or the Chosin debacle through the eyes of dozens of infantry, officers, artillerymen, medics, or chaplains. In short, overlapping and interwoven narratives, the Korean War's earliest phases unfold briskly. Its almost like the author has the participants sitting around a table, years later, telling their stories to you directly. It is that gripping. Maps make the campaigns easy to follow.

Highlights Include:
-Captain Norman Allen's narratives about ITEM company north of the Naktong in central South Korea is excellent; with good sketches of the terrain (not just maps!), discussion of the uses and limits of artillery support, and the agonies that come from being a leader of men in war.
-Marine Lieutenant Frank Meutzel chewing out a supply officer in order to make sure he gets a new pair of combat boots. In a country where lieutenants used photocopied maps from the Japanese occupation, supplies were hard to find. Meutzel made the supply officer understand climbing those hills in Korea did a job on the soul and the sole.
-James Ransone's description of the tragedy suffered by task force Faith east of the Chosin reservoir. The Army brass does not make a good show for itself in these pages. Even given the circumstances that plagued task force Faith, the Army's collapse at Chosin is a stark contrast to the valour and orderly retreat of the USMC. </li>

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As Close As You'll Get, March 19, 2000

By 

R. Dilworth (Galisteo, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Korean War: Pusan to Chosin: An Oral History (Paperback)

This is the best military oral history I've ever read, and it's as close as you will get to having been there. Although there are interviews and statements from all ranks, the concentration at the company level made this book especially compelling in giving a sense of the daily combat for those hundreds of nameless hills in korea. It gave a real feeling of life and death to the thousands of men who were wounded and killed. The interviews on the first month of the war on being overrun and then forming the Pusan perimeter are particularly vivid. For anyone who is reads military history this is a must read.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Like being there., January 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Korean War: Pusan to Chosin: An Oral History (Paperback)

I first met Frank Muetzel at my father's funeral. My father had been Muetzel's battalion executive officer. He recommended this book to me. I have read it many times since. I have read much military history -- am currently reading Ambrose's D-Day -- but nothing has come close to this book's ability to give the sense of being there -- the horror, the unremarked heroics, the irony, and the humor. It does far better than even recently released movies in putting one there.