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

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

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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 136 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A kind of masterpiece

_The Coldest Winter_ is brilliantly written, insightful, passionately argued, vivid, moving,and illuminating. It combines incisive and penetrating character portraits with gritty field-of-battle reportage.

You might or might not like it.

_The Coldest Winter_ sets out to do a particular thing, and does it superbly. That thing may not be what you're looking for, though.

There are a good many things _The Coldest Winter_ is not. Most importantly, it's not a blow-by-blow straight military history of the Korean War. There's absolutely no attempt to give even, neutral treatment to all the battles. The successful Inchon invasion gets a few pages; the horrific Unsan ambush gets a full chapter.

It also is not a neutral piece of descriptive bio-history. Halberstam has a point to make--maybe even an axe to grind. He's unsparing in his judgements, whether he's describing the vicious brutality of Stalin and Mao or the wooden-headed obtuseness of some U.S. commanders.

What it is, is a story. This is history as narrative, complete with moral. Halberstam has a tragic villain (Douglas MacArthur), a villain's henchman (General Ned Almond, MacArthur's protege), and a sinister cabal of political intriguers (the American "China Lobby"). He has, too, a hero (General Matthew Ridgeway) and a hero's sidekick (Colonel Paul Freeman). He opens with a narrative hook (the Unsan debacle) and closes with a dramatic climax (the downfall of MacArthur). The battles he chooses to describe are those that are required to move his plot along.

This is not to say that _The Coldest Winter_ is one-dimensional or simplistic. Halberstam gives MacArthur, for instance, full marks for military brilliance and dedication, even while he documents MacArthur's egomania. Truman and Acheson take their share of hits. All of his portraits are thoroughly researched and well-documented. It's all compelling, and it's pretty damn persuasive.

Still, for all its brilliance, this book is an *argument* in favor of a particular set of positions and ideas. Halberstam, as he did in _The Best and the Brightest_, is giving an explanation for why a bunch of really smart people ended up supporting policies that ultimately failed. It's a superb piece of analysis. It convinced me. Whether it will convince anyone who comes to the table with different notions is open to question.

(Aside: The applicability of this question to current politics is obvious. In one case, Halberstam gives in to the temptation to make the connection explicitly. As usual, I think his case would be stronger if he hadn't done so.)

So if you're looking for unadorned battle history, this is not the book for you. If you're looking at a balanced, non-judgemental political history, this is not the book for you. If you're looking for a complete, exhaustive general history, this is not the book for you. And if you're a passionate admirer of Douglas MacArthur, this is *definitely* not the book for you.

Still, _The Coldest Winter_ does do one thing that all readers should applaud: it pays the soldiers of "the forgotten war" the tribute they deserve. However murky the politics of Korea, young men suffered and died there. Give Halberstam full marks for remembering them--no matter what else you may believe.

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Great read!

Well written, entertaining. This book gives a great overview of the Korean war. What went wrong and what went right. Why it all started and an in-depth look at MacArthur.

Cold

I was twelve when the war started. It was not taught in my high school, it was not taught when I was studying for the Navy, it was never taught. Truely the "Forgotten War", but David Halberstam brought it to life after fifty some years and I was in awe of the personalities. What a wonderful gift! What a sad fact that he is no longer with us to bring us more history.

Superb, Detailed Analysis of the Korean War & All the Major Personalities Involved

This book is an amazingly thorough analysis of a war which we do often have the chance to read about. Some wars, like the American Civil War, have been the subject of thousands of books; others are not nearly so well studied. The Korean War is in the latter category, but, after reading Halberstam's extraordinarily thoughtful, well-researched treatment of this subject, I, for one, feel at last that I have a far better understanding of what went on over there, starting in the year of my birth.

I have read a lot of reviews of this book and recall that Halberstam spent perhaps a decade writing it and regarded it as among his best works. Having read many of his books, I believe this one to be the finest book of his that I have read and it is truly sad that he is not around to see, hear and enjoy the well-earned praises of so many.

Each of the major personalities involved in this war is described, biographed, and analyzed thoroughly. The reader can understand far more about their disputes and conflicts in the context of their times when they arise in this superb biography of this war, if a war can have a biography like the life of a human being. The Korean War as described in this book has so many, often eerie, parallels with the later Vietnam and Iraq wars. MacArthur and Truman are well drawn and the basis for their inevitable, looming conflict is well explained with no attempts to candy-coat the failings of the legendary general.

The detail of the battles and the troop movements, plans and mistakes can only be the result of years of painstaking research and interviews with so many who survived and their often tragic stories about so many who did not. For military strategy buffs, this book should not disappoint.

All in all, this is one of the best books I have ever read to explain where we find ourselves today in the still early days of the 21st century. After reading it, and I have read a LOT of 20th Century history by any measure, I have a much better appreciation for the follies of ego, the condemnation of those ignorant of history to repeat it, and the clashes of titans and their ideologies which the Cold War produced and which go on in other forms long after the Cold War has been consigned to the history books.

I have some 350 books on my Kindle now and have my reading planned out for a long time to come (so you will be hard pressed to find a bigger Kindle-booster), but, the format on Kindle for the maps and charts in this book leaves something to be desired and I hope that succeeding generations of Kindles will cure this fuzzed out presentation of graphics which sometimes snags us early adopters. I actually also own the hard copy of this book, which pre-dates my Kindle ownership, and a comparison of the maps and charts indicates the shortcomings on the Kindle.

I would say 'run, don't walk,'to buy and read this book, but, all you have to do is hit that button, get a glass of water, and you will have it on your Kindle. Enjoy the many hours you will invest, as this book is well worth your time.

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Riveting Account of the Korean War

I'm a big fan of David Halberstam, having read The Reckoning, and The Fifties before. This book is among his best, and I learned so much about the Korean War, the Chinese, and U.S. politics and the military of the 1950s. I listened to much of it on CD while commuting, and read the rest of at home in between trips.

The fact that Halberstam died last year makes it even more of a poignant "read." He compelling wrote all his books in ways that make you feel like you are right there in those times and places. I will miss him greatly.

Aneil

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