The Hidden History of the Korean War, 1950-1951

If we accept the premise that the U.S. government had theoretically declared war against Russia in 1917 when the Russian army decided to walk off the battlefields of Europe and establish a "worker" state. And then add the point of view that it was the Free World Capitalists from the U.S. and elsewhere who financed Adolf Hitler with the intent of using Hitler and his Nazi State to attack and destroy Russia. And then we view the post war Marshall Plan and the establishment of NATO as further steps in isolating Russia as an enemy. And follow all this logic with the "Cold War" strategy to box Russia in militarily and economically, we have the foundations for this journalistic indictment. This entire attitude stems from the American Capitalist government's strong aversion to the rights or advancement of labor organizations at home and abroad. It has become clear to me from my research of the American and world labor movement that from this country's beginnings it has been at war with "workers" and the working man mentality. When and if one takes all of this into consideration the goals and intent of both MacArthur and Truman as pointed out elaborately and in detail in this book become more than understandable. I feel that this book is accurate in all of its details with only one small flaw. As Mr. Ambrose also points out, North Korea did not really need to be "tricked" or lured into a belligerent attitude. Current day events point out clearly that North Korea has always had its problems when it comes to aggression. But that one point made, I don't think that fact diminishes the exceptional fact finding report conducted in this book by Mr. Stone. General MacArthur comes off very, very bad in my estimation. He was not frightened of nuclear power, since the U.S. had the command of it at that moment. The idea that MacArthur was inciting the easily excitable North Koreans so that he could then suck in the Chinese followed by the Russians for a lopsided nuclear World War III seems truly frightening. Mr. Stone makes it very clear that it was MacArthur intention to eventually nuke China and Russia. Truman did not want to nuke anybody but he did encourage MacArthur and a crisis. Truman used the Korean conflict in order to promote his domestic and foreign policy political objectives according to Stone. Truman wanted the Marshall Plan and NATO defenses for Europe and continued wartime military investment at home to keep America out of a post war recession that could possibly give the Russians the upper hand economically and in the ideological battle for the hearts and minds of capitalists and communist everywhere, according to Stone. I have just ordered two more of Mr. Stone's works. I. F. Stone was a journalist recording, with super insights and amazing perspective, the news of his day. Today these works can be considered history - and great history at that. Mr. Stone was a radical. He calls himself a non-conformist. If I. F. Stone is a radical, we need

A must read. Published during the war, I.F. Stone exposes US military communiques on the criminal bombing of North Korea which killed 2 million civilians, one-quarter of the population, as well as the use of millions of gallons of napalm on the civilian population.

The previous reviewer's reference to soybeans and what-not is not actually part of I.F. Stone's work, but from the introduction written by Bruce Cumings. Cumings was trying to make the case that the South and the Americans had actually started the war (which he later had to acknowledge was false), and I think it is unfortunate that such an agenda-driven piece was attached to Stone's book. It's been several years since I read Hidden History, but I do remember it as a book that made the case that a lot of the information coming out of the US military command was trumped up or false. If anything, Stone makes the case that the US-led UN forces unnecessarily retreated in the face of what was, at first, a phantom menace trumped up by MacArthur as a pretext for removing the communists from China as well. I don't recall that Stone was making the case that the US or South Korea's military efforts were unjustified. For anyone interested in the Korean War, Hidden History would be a worthwhile read, if for no other reason than to see a certain view of the war (whether correct or incorrect) at the time the war was being fought.

I.f Stone presents a very well documented case much of what most people know about the Korean War is false. A must read.