Professor Richard C. Thornton's books is a political history of the contentious American-Soviet-Chinese interaction during 1949 and 1950 that precipitated the Korean War and altered the shape of global politics from then to now. ODD MAN OUT is based on recently declassifed and previously unavailable documents from Soviet, Chinese, and U.S. archives. Thornton contends that the war was primarily the result of the machinations and and miscalculations of Stalin, Truman, Mao, and their respective advisors. Thus, the strife between North Koreans and South Koreans was secondary, and the was itself was avoidable.
Of particular interest is Thornton's documented contention that Stalin intended for North Korea's war plan to fail. Stalin did so in order that China would enter the war, thus halting Mao's efforts to end China's isolation, to establish relations with the United States, and to cease being subordinate to the Soviet Union. Mao fell for Stalin's ruse--and became the odd man out.
The Korean War was a painful debacle for every nation involved, but the war also had far-reaching and long-term consequences beyond the casualty lists. The Cold War became more intense, producing numerous other military conflicts, freuqent superpower crises, and an arms race that lasted for four decades.
The korean War also made the Cold War a truly global contest between East and West. Perhaps most significantly, the Uited States embraced its role as a superpower, and Communist China, emerging from years of internal division caused by civil war, demonstrated that it was a force to be reckoned with.
ODD MAN OUT puts the reader inside the American, Soviet, and Chinese decision-making processes during earth-shaking events that have been misinterpreted for decades. The new documentation available since the end of the Cold War, and the fitieth anniversary of the Korean War, make this a particularly useful reassessment.
