The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War | David Halberstam

The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War | David Halberstam | Excellent

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The Coldest Winter...

	The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War David Halberstam Hyperion, 2007 - 736 pages average customer review:based on 133 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Halberstam's Last Masterpiece

David Halberstam tragically died in a car accident mere days after completing the finishing touches on "The Coldest Winter," his mammoth analysis of the Korean War. He left us with an important book that sheds light on a forgotten conflict that should have taught America lessons that would have served us well during the decision to go to war in Iraq.

"The Coldest Winter" spends most of its time analyzing the reasons for the Korean conflict, bringing together such disparate players as Truman, MacArthur, Mao, Stalin, and Kim Il Sung into a coherent narrative. America was trying to return to normalcy after the upheaval of WWII. Uncomfortable with the empire it inherited at the end of WWII, we reduced our military strength to a shadow of its WWII heyday - even MacArthur said we had too many troops.

This drawdown in strength coincided with Mao's victory over Chiang Kai Shek in the Chinese Civil War, which enraged the China Lobby in the United States to go after Truman and the Democrats for "losing China." Halberstam carefully explains that these forces compelled Truman to "unleash" Douglas MacArthur when the North Koreans began to move south.

If you're a MacArthur fan, "The Coldest Winter" is going to be tough going, as MacArthur emerges as a vain, manipulative dinosaur who would even go so far as to manipulate intelligence to mislead Washington and get what he wanted. Accepting credit but never blame, MacArthur is an obvious parallel to the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld triumvirate that led us into so many mistakes in Iraq. Mercifully, Halberstam draws these parallels with a light touch (or else the book would be more about today than about the forgotten Korea and would lose its value as history).

Once the war breaks out, Halberstam focuses on the first winter where American/United Nations forces are completely overrun by Korean/Chinese soldiers through MacArthur's triumph at Inchon and subsequent mistakes, through the arrival of "salvation" in the form of General Ridgway. Halberstam largely skips over the WWI-esque "meat-grinder" stalemate of the last couple of years of the war, but makes insightful points regarding the aftermath of the Korean conflict.

This is an important book that should be read. This review does not do it justice, but no review really could, given the book's importance and the shocking death of its author so shortly after its completion. Any student of America and its role in the world simply must read this book - and will be glad to have done so.

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Excellent

Excellent book on the background of the Korean War. How the USA were not prepared, insight in the personal, cultural and political relations between the main players. And the lessons (not) learned.
History does repeat.

One of a kind

Great book--nested series of bios and accounts of political and military events leading up to and during the Korean War, with some treatment of how Right Wing politics then influenced Kennedy and Johnson Administrations to become involved in Vietnam. A lot of attention is devoted to the pernicious role of MacArthur, and how he got the country in trouble, and prolonged the war through his personality disorder. I learned an awful lot and enjoyed the instruction. All the people I knew as a child whined about how Truman had lost China and how great a man MacArthur was. Now we know better, but they are all dead. I kept wondering if anything would have convinced them otherwise, since their beliefs were so ill-founded. I didn't have any complaints about this book, except it got really painful reading about how disastrous Ned Almond was as a soldier and as a human being.

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A great followup to The Best and the Brightest

Very informative read that really walks you through the experiences of both soldiers on the ground and the commanders who led them.

Classic Halberstam - Remembering the Forgotten War

This book is David Halberstam doing what he did best which is reviewing the war as a political-military history, providing insights into the personalities of the leading characters and standing up for the guys who fought the war at the sharp end.

This is not a detailed campaign history of the Korean War, if that is what you are looking for then look to other works. Halberstam takes a few key battles to elucidate the main phases of the war: the North Korean attack and subsequent rout of the South Korean and U.S. forces back to Pusan; the stand of the U.N. forces in the Pusan perimeter; Inchon and the breakout and pursuit of the North Koreans to the Yalu river; and the entry of the Chinese and the subsequent stalemate.

His portraits of the leading players are colorful and he is not afraid to take a strong position on the various merits and flaws of each of these. As others of pointed out a great deal of the book concerns MacArthur, MacArthur's feud with Truman and MacArthur's key role in the disaster that befell the U.N. force after the Chinese intervention. Halberstam is not a fan of Douglas MacArthur, essentially portraying him as a deeply flawed individual.

The military history of the book is shown primarily through the recollections of the men who found in some of the nastiest battles of the "police action" including the Naktong river, Chosin, the Twin Tunnels, Chipyongni and Unsan. Halberstam clearly brings home the desperation of the fighting and the cynicism of the men, who often felt betrayed by the incompetence of their military leadership and forgotten by the American people. Sadly the average fighting man in Korea was, particularly in the early stages of the war prior to Ridgeway's arrival, poorly served by the senior officers and Halberstam is unflinching in his portrayal of their incompetance.

Overall an excellent review of the "forgotten war". Those who fought there deserve to be remembered for what they did and this book certainly reminds us of what the ordinary soldier went through in Korea. The book is easy to read and is accessible to anyone with an interest in 20th century history, not just the hard core miltary history enthusiasts. There are one or two minor flaws mainly around the maps which are sometimes in conflict with the text, but these are minor issues. Well worth reading.

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