The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War
by David Halberstam
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Book Summary Information
Author: David HalberstamEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Published)
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2007-09-25
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 736
Publisher: Hyperion
Book Reviews of The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War
Book Review: A must have book of political, diplomatic and military history
Summary: 5 Stars
Halberstam's last book, The Coldest Winter. . . is a complex telling of the history of Korea and how it has become intermixed with the histories of six nations, China, Japan, the US, Russia, North and South Korea. Maybe if things had happened a little differently 60 or 70 years ago, we wouldn't be sitting through another bout of saber rattling from North Korea.
Halberstam's focus is not the big battles and big names per se, although they play their own particular roles, rahter he concentrates on the men at the points of the arrows on the maps that is most intriguing and moving. Not the generals who, in some cases made huge and deadly mistakes which their men paid for. Rather he is looking at and into the men who were the squad leaders, platoon sergeants and company, battalion and regimental commanders. The corporals, sergeants, lieutenants, captains, majors, lieutenant colonels and colonels who had to recieve the charges of masses of North Korean and Chinese troops, fight them and in many cases die amongst them. Some of these men saw their military career end on the crest of a hill or the bank of a river whre they were wounded. Others survived to fight in future wars. Major Hal Moore who surived to fight at the Ia Drang in Vietnam 15 years later. Colonel Harold Johnson, who survived captivity as a POW in Japan and survived Korea, went on to become the Army Chief of Staff as America built up forces in Vietnam to suppport a creaking and resented government. It is the snapshots of these men that makes the book such a superb history. Decisions made in Washington, Beijing, Tokyo and Moscow have an effect that is seen through the actions of these and other men on the ground.
There are also dramatic scenes of senior officers who failed the test of combat as it found them in their leadership positions. A divison commander is essentially fired for loosing control of his division while a regimental commander is publicly dismissed from his command by the assistant division commander.
Halberstam goes into great detail to examine the leadership style and situation of the Eighth Army Commander, Lt Gen Walton Walker. It turned out he was fighting battles both in Korea and Tokyo and while holding his own in Korea was rapidly loosing the battle between himself and General MacArthur. General Walker's contribution to stemming the rout in Korea and preventing a bigger disaster than had already occurred has been buried in history and Halberstam does him a great service by bringing forth his actions which helped save the Republic of South Korea at its most desperate hour.
Halberstam examines the military leaders of the North Korean and Chinese forces - especially the later who were sent into Korea to bail out the routed North Korean forces. One US general(in a very senior position in Korea) referred to the Chinese soldiers as "laundrymen" and by doing so hazarded the lives of the soldiers, Marines and Sailors under his command. If he had paid greater attention to who he was fighing, his subsequent retreat from the Chosin Resevoir might have been a very different story. It is especially ironic to see what became of the senior Chinese general in Korea later in his career and during the reign of terror of the "Red Guards" during the cultural revolution.
Halberstam also, in great detail describes the political situation in the US - the changes and upheavals in domestic politics which impacted various people in government, Marshall, Acheson, Truman, Bradley, MacArthur and many others who made up the political-military echelon of US government. He also goes into the complex relationships between , Syngman Rhee, Chang Kai Chek, Kim Il Sung, Mao Tse Tung and Josef Stalin as they are drawn into the complex peninsula known as Korea.
This book has been reviewed at length by many others. Some critics focus on Halberstam's mistakes in nomenclature or weapons or points on the map. While valid, they in no way should obscure the fact that this is a book that is talking about people and their experiences and we need to hear what they are saying. We need to see what was happening when men in Washington who knew better allowed the theater commander, Generla Douglas MacArthur to dictate military policy on his own terms. Matthew Ridgeway, a lieutenant general and just a little bit below the highest level asks one of the Joint Chiefs of Staff why they allowed MacArthur to dictate to them. The "Chief" replies that there was nothing they could do". When General Ridgway says "you could have fired him", the "Chief" just looked stunned.
The story of the relief of General MacArthur is a small drama in itself and one that would be good of PBS to air. Truman in this moment certainly epitomises his belief that "the buck stops here". It was suggested at one point that the message be sent that it was a joint decision between the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the President. Truman shuts the plan down and insists that he make the announcement as his and only his decision to relieve General MacArthur.
If there is one take home lesson from this book - it is know your enemy. We see the consequences when this precept is ignored or minimized. Unfortunately it is a lesson that has seemed to have been lost on executive leadership in Washington over the last half century and is only relearned at the expense of troops on the ground.
I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in Korea, Asia and American policies there and also how this same type of thinking is leading us as we try to salvage something out of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Fortunately there have been no battles equivilant to Koto-ri or evacuations of the Chosen Resevoir in either country but the effects of decisions in Washington on military men and women and civilians in these two countries show similarities that are disturbing.
I highly recommend this outstanding book.
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