The Korean War

Both World War II and the Vietnam War have a significant hold on the American psyche, but, for most people, the Korean War really is the "Forgotten War". In his examination of the war in this volume, Max Hastings looks at the causes of the conflict--1950 was only one year after China fell to communism, and East Asia was viewed by the West as a strategic location where freedom had to be preserved. Hastings takes the reader through the major events of the war, including the initial retreat, the landing at Inchon and subsequent drive to the Yalu, the entry of the Chinese into the war, and the bloody stalemate that led to the armistice and a permanently divided Korea. Hastings asserts that the war resulted in crippling costs for China, but also examines the effect of the war on the West, and demonstrates that aspects of the Vietnam War such as war weariness at home and breakdown of authority in military ranks were seen in the Korean War 15 years earlier. The author tells why some at the time thought that the possibility of a decisive outcome in the war was not possible. There is also a chapter on prisoners of war that examines the differences in how British and American soldiers responded to being POWs. This solid one-volume history of the Korean conflict closes with a chapter called "Hindsight", in which the author concludes that the West was right to fight in Korea.

A smoothly readable, nicely paced overview of the Korean war. Hastings is one of the best at narrative history.

The Korean War took the world by surprise when, in the morning of June 25 1950, thousands of North Korean troops came crashing across the 38th parallel separating the two Koreas. The ensuing war would come to pit the American -led United Nations against North Korea and communist China . In this well researched work, Max Hastings looks not only at the conflict itself but also its origins and its often forgotten lessons. Hastings writes of a United States that was thoroughly unprepared for a war of this type, with near disasterous results. In the end, the consequences of the mistakes on both sides would prolong the conflict , cost millions of lives and left the Korean peninsula devastated. However the conclusion drawn from the book is one that the American effort in Korea, though flawed, was indeed very necessary and ultimately not in vain.

First, let me clear a reader's confusions. The Chinese Army fights with not only American Army but also UN Troops. If you can include the casualty of ROK, British, Turkish and some other country's armies, I am quite sure you can draw a different conclusion. Second, the Chinese Army didn't get too many US weapons formerly owned by Chiang Kai-shek. Most of them used .31-caliber rifle, which was used by Japanese in 1930's and totally out of date. You can find this information from a lot of photographs on both sides. Korean War is a forgotten war in USA and some kind of forgotten by younger generation in China. There are a lot of books and photographs introducing this war on both sides. So far, this book is the best book I have seen about Korean War from the West. The writer is objective, unbiased to describe the cause of the war, the battle in the war and the prisoner on both sides. He incorporates American soldiers, Chinese soldiers and British Soldiers into his book, which gives readers a vivid image of War. His clear writing, objective and informative narrative of the war make his work the best book of Korean War for almost twenty years. This is a classic book deserve to read and keep, if you are big fan of Korean War. If you just want to browse the history, I strongly recommend a website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_war, which can give you objective, unbiased information.

It has always been a bit surprising to me that of the war's America has been involved in over the last century, it seems that the Korean War has always gotten so little attention. After all, two superpowers met in battle, it was the communists against us in a very hot war. Nuclear war was a very real possibility and the violence of the conflict was far higher then any other conflict except World War Two. We were responding to an invasion of a free and democratic country. Yet it gets little to no mention in our history books and public discourse. There are a lot of very interesting and one would say dramatic military events that took place in this war. The brutal winter losses at Chosin, the Inchon landing, the drive to Yalu, all of which are recounted in the book in a very engaging way. Not only does the author give you the facts and overview of the battles, but he also does a good job at retelling the stories of the common soldier. He seemed to have talked to people on all sides of the conflict in order to gain a unique view into what it was like for them as well as us. Overall I enjoyed the book. It gave me a very easy to read overview of the war. He covered big picture items well and really got into the battle details to make the book exciting at times.