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A review by skitch41
The Korean War: A History by Bruce Cumings
3.0
The Korean War is often, and rightfully, called "the forgotten war." Bracketed by World War II and the Vietnam War in American history, few Americans know anything about this war in which 3 million Koreans several thousand Americans died. Often what they do know is pretty basic: the North invaded the South, America and its UN allies intervened and pushed the North Koreans back across the 38th parallel all the way to the Yalu River, until communist China intervened and pushed the war back into a stalemate along the 38th parallel. However, in this revisionist work, Bruce Cumings puts more flesh and bones on this otherwise bare bones tale and emphasizes both its importance in American history why it has never really ended, and how it was just as dirty as the war dirty war in Indochina that would succeed it.
For those of you looking for a straight historical narrative of the Korean War, this book probably won't tickle that itch. The first chapter gives the standard story of the war, with a few relatively unknown details thrown in to flesh things out a little, but then hops around different topics for the rest of this book. This allows Mr. Cumings to talk about the darker side of this war that rarely makes it into America's headlines: how the roots of the war go back to, and are much more deeply intertwined with, the Japanese occupation of Korea, not the immediate Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States; how the South Korean regime of dictator Syngman Rhee was just as brutal, and possibly more so, than communist North Korea; how American forces too often stood by as South Korean forces massacred real and suspected communists; and just how the American air war was to the North Korean people and economy. It is a sobering look at a part of our history that is too easily swept under the rug simply because South Korea eventually developed into a vibrant democracy, because we didn't lose the Korean War (though we didn't necessarily win it either), and because the Vietnam War looms so much larger in the American psyche than the Korean War does. Mr. Cumings makes a passionate and nuanced plea for remembering and understanding this war.
And yet, I can't help but feel that, like the war it brings to light, will do nothing more than to create a stalemate in the American reader's mind. While many of the facts and figures Mr. Cumings brings to light may be revelatory, even damning, to many Americans, because this book forgoes a chronological structure, it fails to successfully mesh the unknown dark side of the war with what Americans already do know about the war. A more straightforward analysis of the war, similar to other standard military histories out there, with all of the revelations Mr. Cumings brings to light, would've had a much greater impact. Instead, like many other revisionist histories, this book lists off a litany of wrongs that Americans should feel bad about, forcing the reader to either assume a knee-jerk defensive position or not. For a book that begs for understanding and nuance regarding the war, the baseball bat approach this book takes does not lend itself to such an understanding of the ar.
Despite that, this book is an important work about a forgotten war. While it may be nothing more than a supplemental read to other histories of the war, such as [b:The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War|448135|The Coldest Winter America and the Korean War|David Halberstam|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1326474263l/448135._SY75_.jpg|2171159] by [a:David Halberstam|42850|David Halberstam|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1553099794p2/42850.jpg], it is a necessary supplemental read that all American history buffs should read.
For those of you looking for a straight historical narrative of the Korean War, this book probably won't tickle that itch. The first chapter gives the standard story of the war, with a few relatively unknown details thrown in to flesh things out a little, but then hops around different topics for the rest of this book. This allows Mr. Cumings to talk about the darker side of this war that rarely makes it into America's headlines: how the roots of the war go back to, and are much more deeply intertwined with, the Japanese occupation of Korea, not the immediate Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States; how the South Korean regime of dictator Syngman Rhee was just as brutal, and possibly more so, than communist North Korea; how American forces too often stood by as South Korean forces massacred real and suspected communists; and just how the American air war was to the North Korean people and economy. It is a sobering look at a part of our history that is too easily swept under the rug simply because South Korea eventually developed into a vibrant democracy, because we didn't lose the Korean War (though we didn't necessarily win it either), and because the Vietnam War looms so much larger in the American psyche than the Korean War does. Mr. Cumings makes a passionate and nuanced plea for remembering and understanding this war.
And yet, I can't help but feel that, like the war it brings to light, will do nothing more than to create a stalemate in the American reader's mind. While many of the facts and figures Mr. Cumings brings to light may be revelatory, even damning, to many Americans, because this book forgoes a chronological structure, it fails to successfully mesh the unknown dark side of the war with what Americans already do know about the war. A more straightforward analysis of the war, similar to other standard military histories out there, with all of the revelations Mr. Cumings brings to light, would've had a much greater impact. Instead, like many other revisionist histories, this book lists off a litany of wrongs that Americans should feel bad about, forcing the reader to either assume a knee-jerk defensive position or not. For a book that begs for understanding and nuance regarding the war, the baseball bat approach this book takes does not lend itself to such an understanding of the ar.
Despite that, this book is an important work about a forgotten war. While it may be nothing more than a supplemental read to other histories of the war, such as [b:The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War|448135|The Coldest Winter America and the Korean War|David Halberstam|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1326474263l/448135._SY75_.jpg|2171159] by [a:David Halberstam|42850|David Halberstam|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1553099794p2/42850.jpg], it is a necessary supplemental read that all American history buffs should read.