Stephen Endicott and Edward Hagerman have produced an extremely well-documented and convincing book about a controversy that may have occurred 65 years ago, but whose ramifications continue to affect world affairs to this very day. The authors, who are professional historians, were granted unique access to Chinese state archives. They also took advantage of a temporary loosening of the bands of secrecy that still keep many Korean War documents classified, even after all these many decades. The result is as close as we are likely to come to a definitive answer about whether the U.S. conducted biological warfare during the Korea War. The authors make a surprisingly strong case that this did in fact occur.
Few books in the last 20 years have been attacked as vociferously as this one. The critics, or most of them, would rather readers not think for themselves and examine all the evidence, but simply accept what they, the authorities, pronounce. The book has been boosted by the recent online posting of the 1952 International Scientific Commission report on the U.S. bacteriological warfare, a report produced by an international team of scientists led by the famous British biologist and Sinologist, Joseph Needham. (That report can be accessed in full and for free online via search.)
Some Cold War scholars purport that documents found in the former Soviet Union, and a supposed memoir by a Chinese medical scientist, constitute proof that the use of U.S. germ warfare never happened in the Korean War, and that the North Korean and Chinese charges were based on a hoax and falsified evidence. These new documents cannot be verified in any scholarly way, but that doesn't keep these scholars from maintaining that the controversy is a dead letter. While the authors have tried, post-publication, to answer these arguments, a full analysis of these documents remains to be done. I am working on that myself, and interested readers can search online for my name and an appropriate keyword(s) (like "biological warfare Korea") and see what I've written about all this.
The bottom line is that this is a very important book. The chapter on the "CIA in the Korean War" is alone worth the price of purchase. Much of our history has been suppressed, and this only accelerated after 9/11. Readers owe it to themselves to get this book. It is jam-packed with information, and you will find yourself referring back to it, and rereading it more than once. This book is an outstanding contribution to the history of the Korean War, and the history of the United States more generally.
Add Prime
to get Fast, Free delivery
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now
Customers who bought this item also bought
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
- Baseless: My Search for Secrets in the Ruins of the Freedom of Information ActHardcoverFREE ShippingOnly 1 left in stock - order soon.
