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Jimmy's Reviews > This Kind of War: The Classic Military History of the Korean War
This Kind of War: The Classic Military History of the Korean War
by
by
Some questionable comments in the book that can be described as dated or worse.
When the North Koreans overran Seoul, information on all of the 5,000 South Koreans who worked at the American embassy was left behind. None of them survived.
It is difficult to know what happened from the Communist side. There never seems to be a lot of information about that. It is such a closed society in the North.
As with any disaster, we need to learn the need to prepare for the worst. Something we are not doing for the climate catastrophes heading our way now. Nor does it seem for just about anything else. Let us please learn the need for good governance and forget about this idea that anything goes is somehow a way to protect the future.
The author is critical of the idea of a "pampered, undisciplined, egalitarian army" that Americans "had long desired and had at last achieved. They had been raised to believe the world was without tigers, then sent to face those tigers with a stick."
The first edition was published in 1963. There are moments of racism that I find offensive. For example, here is a quote from Chapter 16:
"The Koreans, North and South, are by any standard a brave people, but they are mercurial, rising one moment to extremes of exaltation, dropping quickly back into despair. They can be martyrs on any given day, traitors the next. They have been called, not without reason, the Irish of the Orient. And in some cases, not even rigid Communist training, with its denial of basic human nature, can eradicate the nature of the Korean peasant."
Yet not long after that is some fascinating information about the war: Senior Colonel Lee Hak Ku surrendered to American soldiers and was completely cooperative. He was the highest ranking soldier to surrender. Yet in captivity, "he would do more damage to the U. N. cause than he had ever accomplished while serving with the Inmum Gun."
And I need to finish every book that I review or not give any stars.
In the end, I was not happy with the author intrusions.
When the North Koreans overran Seoul, information on all of the 5,000 South Koreans who worked at the American embassy was left behind. None of them survived.
It is difficult to know what happened from the Communist side. There never seems to be a lot of information about that. It is such a closed society in the North.
As with any disaster, we need to learn the need to prepare for the worst. Something we are not doing for the climate catastrophes heading our way now. Nor does it seem for just about anything else. Let us please learn the need for good governance and forget about this idea that anything goes is somehow a way to protect the future.
The author is critical of the idea of a "pampered, undisciplined, egalitarian army" that Americans "had long desired and had at last achieved. They had been raised to believe the world was without tigers, then sent to face those tigers with a stick."
The first edition was published in 1963. There are moments of racism that I find offensive. For example, here is a quote from Chapter 16:
"The Koreans, North and South, are by any standard a brave people, but they are mercurial, rising one moment to extremes of exaltation, dropping quickly back into despair. They can be martyrs on any given day, traitors the next. They have been called, not without reason, the Irish of the Orient. And in some cases, not even rigid Communist training, with its denial of basic human nature, can eradicate the nature of the Korean peasant."
Yet not long after that is some fascinating information about the war: Senior Colonel Lee Hak Ku surrendered to American soldiers and was completely cooperative. He was the highest ranking soldier to surrender. Yet in captivity, "he would do more damage to the U. N. cause than he had ever accomplished while serving with the Inmum Gun."
And I need to finish every book that I review or not give any stars.
In the end, I was not happy with the author intrusions.
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Reading Progress
January 5, 2021
–
Started Reading
January 5, 2021
– Shelved
January 16, 2021
– Shelved as:
war-korea
February 24, 2021
–
Finished Reading
