Customer Reviews

The Last Parallel: A Marine's War Journal

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is the third first-person account of the Korean War I have reviewed here during the last year (the others were James Brady, The Coldest War : A Memoir of Korea, review date May 27, 2000, and James R. Owen, Colder Than Hell : A Marine Rifle Company at Chosin Reservoir. review date December 8, 2000), and I have enjoyed all three. No war is pretty, but the Korean War was especially ugly: Most of the fighting took place over cold and barren ground from World War I-style trenches; the enemy, North Koreans and Chinese, was tough and relentless; and the conflict ended in a cruel stalemate that essentially persists to this day. The author of this memoir, Corporal (later Sergeant) Martin Russ describes Seoul, the capital of South Korea, as "a huge trash heap," and the countryside as "a frozen patchwork of fields and rice paddies."

By the time Russ arrived in Korea in December 1952, the war had been in progress for two and one-half years. Although Russ was trained to be a small-arms mechanic, he informs us that all marines underwent advanced infantry training before being sent to Korea, and he spent most of his time as a rifleman in trenches. Five days after he arrived in at his post in the field in January 1953, he wrote: "I consider it an honor to be here." It was, however, a hard life. An occasional chocolate chip cookie is balanced by "an obscene putrescence in one of the cans which is labeled `Ham and Eggs.'" According to Russ: "It is impossible to keep anything clean; showers of dirt fall each time an incoming shell lands anywhere nearby." At one point, Russ describes himself and his fellows as "bearded, filthy, and stinking." As a result, Russ writes: "The portable showers [were] a real luxury."

The trenches of the Chinese forces were no more than 200 yards away, and firefights occurred every night. The fighting often lasted only for a few minutes (in one instance, Russ writes: "The fire fight lasted for at least five minutes - a hell of a prolonged encounter for this type of situation"), but it could be terrifying. Even when they weren't fighting, the marines were almost continuously exposed to danger. They often patrolled through heavily-mined rice paddies, looking for "line jumpers,...Korean or Chinese spies that had gotten through" the Allies' main line of resistance. The possibility of imminent combat was so great that it was, according to Russ, "mandatory to carry one's weapon when outside" at all times. On one occasion, a Chinese mortar round lands in the middle of a group of marines, and Russ reports that another marines described the scene as a "slaughterhouse." On another occasion, after "heavy assaults" by the Chinese on several successive nights, Russ characterizes the marine casualties as "appalling." Russ's crude drawings and diagrams help to illustrate the points he is making.

Russ writes revealingly about his peers: "As a marine, one almost feels obliged to conceal any emotion except anger;" and "The average marine...hates sailors, is not averse to beating up homosexuals, and loathes civilians." It probably was inevitable that some marines would turn that anger inward, and Ross reports: "Suicide is not a rare occurrence in the Corps." According to Russ, "the men of the Corps are the most skillful killers in the world." Russ describes one instance in which a marine is killed while hunting for souvenirs, and this is the verdict of one of his peers: "He was a fool. I don't feel sorry for him; only for his folks."

Russ's writing often is colorful, and he clearly has a gift for observation. However, like the Brady and Owen books, his account makes few references to the geopolitical struggle at the heart of the Korean War. And readers wanting to learn about the big picture of the early Cold War also must look elsewhere. But I now believe that there is considerable value in reading about the individual infantryman's experience in this or any other conflict, and Russ's battlefield memoir is one of the best from the Korean War. Thanks to Brady, Owen, and Russ, this is no longer the "forgotten war."

For people who want to get a good idea on what it's like to be a Marine, I think that this is a great book. The book takes the reader through not only the excitement in war, but also the mundane parts of it. Very few books that I've read do this, and I was pleased to find one that did.

The Last Parallel is one of the great combat memoirs; Russ provides the reader with a "you-are-there" experience, thoroughly illustrating the constricted, bottom-up view of the Marine infantryman. The unique, static environment of the Korean War at the time of his participation, and the intense, dangerous, night-time patrolling activity that occupied much of his time is well detailed. The book contains reproductions of numerous sketches and drawings he made in his journal, illustrating particular features, locations and incidents. While very simple, they add considerably to the context and are a unique element, further drawing the reader in. If you are at all interested in the Korean War, or the experience of the foot solider, then The Last Parallel is worth your time. Finally, it is, in moments, extremely funny. The source of the humor is often self-deprecating, or drawing on the absurd human circumstances that accompany war. Of course, war is not funny, but people, and soldiers, can be, and Russ has a talent for illustrating those moments.

This book reads very well. The author makes you actually feel as you are in Korea with him. I equate it to a book form - real life "Private Ryan". When I finished the book, I felt a sense of loss. It was like a close friend was leaving. I found it hard to set down.

I bought this book in 1955. I served a combat tour just previous to the author's tour of duty. I knew the USMC's mission during this maelstrom; more so, I read this book with a very scutinizing eye. Martin Russ presented an absolutely true and literary picture of the grunt Marine--in trench warfare.The heated fire-fights, the quick/short ones and the boredom of waiting, plus the side trips to tedium too.Not to forget the mental burden the mud Marines had to endure under a new trend of ... positional warfare, implemented by a tired and harassed President, running the war from the Oval office.Russ demonstrates ever so clearly, how war by committee, is sheer folly and madness to the combatants, whom must do the bleeding and dying. I was especially elated about his visionary acumen about how the, Japanese girl of that era, was defined by by this man of letters. Russ penned a perfect projection about R+R in Japan. Sad to say,to most of us,R+R was a nonpareil experience never to be repeated. I'm very glad this is a re-print to when I purchased the original released in 1955. Martin Russ knows his [USMC] War in Korea. This tome is about the mud/Marine in Korea..buy it !! Lock-n-Load and Semper Fidelis.

This diary hits close to home as it relates to the tedium of defensive warfare and the adrenaline rush of combat. Russ tells it like it is, not ashamed of his feelings of wanting to get in on the action.

This book caught me off guard,I was not expecting it in journal form. However, the storytelling was magnificant and I soon felt like I couldnt wait for the next page or the next chapter to begin. If you buy this book do not be put off by it's diary approach, push on to the end for long before you get there you will be hooked.

Russ hits the nail on the head when it comes to the boredom and then instant terror of war. The smells, sounds and foolishness of what we went through is already being glossed over by the liberal revisionists of our history. I was there, a good 11 months before Russ, and we had just come from Chosin and 1st Mar Div units were sectoring to the west. God (and a Navy Corpsman) kept me alive to at least read this narrative and comment on it. From where Russ begins his story he is right on, as scores of Marines I've talked to who were there in '52-'53 corroborate his view. We lost as many dead and wounded during his period as the Inchon to Seoul to the Yalu and back to Pusan period. As the "notebook" diary he kept was a no-no, at least he can quote times and places that I have long since refused to remember. A must-read book, along with Brady's "The Coldest War" narrated from an officer's perspective. Both books tell it as it was. In case anybody wants to store a trivia fact,
there is no such label as an "ex-Marine". Semper Fi---

I first read this book when I was nineteen, I am now 55. I must have read it at least twenty times since that first time. What draws me in every time is that this author is very similar to me. We both have an approach to life that wavers between the philosophical and to finding humor in all situations. It's like you are always standing outside any situation you are in, observing it. The approach is similar to Appocalypse Now, where Martin Sheen is exposed to a bewildering array of experiences, that astound, fascinate, repel and induce deep thought trying to comprehend. Humor is the salve that prevents implosion. Standing on top of a pillbox, with the possibility of getting shot, and yelling "What, after all, is art?" is the type of goofy thing I did, and still do. When they go out on patrol, in the middle of the night, in no man's land, it is like entering dream/nightmare world. I was pleased to find an article about Martin Russ, in the "celebrity" section last page of Parade magazine, that magazine included in the Sunday paper, maybe seven years ago. Very satisfying was the revelation that Stanley Kubrick the director had optioned the book, and had spent six months working with Russ on a script. Sadly never produced. Perhaps it's better there are no-one else's big-screen visions that don't match my inner screen's take. This book has it's share of the exciting shooting stuff, but it is not the main focus. The part when they are in no-mans land, in the middle of a confused nighttime firefight, and the young liutenant is dying, in a muddy field, asking for his mother in delerium, well, that gets to me. The true essence of war. I highly recommend this book.

Sgt. Russ gave a very interesting and realistic account of the static situation we faced during the approximate two years it occurred, but I felt he wandered a lot. While I have every confidence that the events were accurate, they varied little from each other. Perhaps the lack of actual advances and redrawals of any significance made it seem repetitive.