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The Korean War | 
 enlarge | Author: Max Hastings
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
Buy Used: $0.47
You Save: $15.53 (97%)
New (28) Collectible (4) from $8.48
Avg. Customer Rating:  29 reviews
Sales Rank: 54614
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 389
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.1 x 1.1
ISBN: 067166834X
Dewey Decimal Number: 951.9042
EAN: 9780671668341
ASIN: 067166834X
Publication Date: October 15, 1988
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Condition: highlighting on pages
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Product Description
It was the first war we could not win. At no other time since World War II have two superpowers met in battle. Now Max Hastings, preeminent military historian takes us back to the bloody bitter struggle to restore South Korean independence after the Communist invasion of June 1950. Using personal accounts from interviews with more than 200 vets -- including the Chinese -- Hastings follows real officers and soldiers through the battles. He brilliantly captures the Cold War crisis at home -- the strategies and politics of Truman, Acheson, Marshall, MacArthur, Ridgway, and Bradley -- and shows what we should have learned in the war that was the prelude to Vietnam.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 24 more reviews...
 Not a bad book, but weak in some areas October 1, 2008
I think this book is a good purchase for those wanting to better understand this conflict. It is easy to read, and provides enough detail to get a really vivid picture of many aspects of the situation.
However, the book is now quite dated. He concludes that while life in the south under fascism (let's stop avoiding labelling it for what it was) was terrible. people soon realised it was a worse option than life under the communists. New research into masacres and other gashtly incidents shows us both sides were equally nasty.
Another weakness with the book is that it doesn't get into why communism in north korea was so succesfull. This would be a very interesting chapter, particularly if he made a bigger effort to see things from the side of ordinary people.
Not a bad book, and I'm glad I have it, but I will have to pick up another to get a more balanced view of events.
 Great Overview July 7, 2008
A smoothly readable, nicely paced overview of the Korean war. Hastings is one of the best at narrative history.
Interesting read but biased June 14, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I bought this book because I wanted an unbiased view of the conflict. I did not want to read about only the positive aspects of the war from an American perspective. The American military, as well as the Truman Administration, made some pretty big blunders during this war and should be rightfully criticized. That said, I was surprised (and a little annoyed) to read how Mr. Hastings portrayed the American role. If one did not have much prior knowledge of the Korean War, they would walk away with the impression that the Americans were a bunch of blundering fools after reading this book. The British and Commonwealth troops are held high on a pedestal, marvelling at how incompetent their American conterparts are. The Commonwealth and other U.N. troops should be praised for their contribution to the war effort. The British & Belgian stand at the Imjim is of legend. Unfortunately, Mr. Hastings does this at the expense of the American contribution. I was hoping for an unbiased version of the war but did not receive it in this book.
This should be considered the classic of the Korean War March 13, 2008
This book treats the war as military history, from the power struggle on the penninsula following the end of WWII to the final Armistice. The Korean War is a complicated conflict (you wouldn't know it from watching MASH though) which saw both sides surge north and south, with new belligerents getting involved in the war at different points and with a mix of WWII technology on the ground and Cold War technology in the skies. Max Hastings does an excellent job of putting the conflict together not just in terms of the "big picture" but also in the eyes of those who fought it.
A solid one volume account of the Korean War October 8, 2007
A good solid one volume account of the Korean war that gives the general reader a good insight into the war although I would prefer a work from an American perspective. Well worth the pricing on Amazon.
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