The Korean War

This Christmas, I was blessed with a copy of Max Hastings' 1987 book "The Korean War". Being an avid fan of history, I was overjoyed to get a new book to read, and given the subject matter, it proved to be an informative book on that war, albeit with a narrower focus than I expected.

Max Hastings is a renowned British journalist and author whose credentials are without peer in terms of history, with a sizable chunk of his bibliography being history texts. One thing I heard even before I got the book is that Hastings takes a more personal perspective when writing history, and I found out what that means with this text.

Like many books on the Korean War (circa 1950-1953), Max Hastings does cover the broad historical background and geopolitics that prompted the conflict in the early chapters of the text. Most of it, while continuing on a linear path forward through the history of the conflict, shifts between perspectives of those who fought in the conflict. This includes British, American, South Korean, and even Chinese perspectives. This was done to give the reader a better feel for how the events of those times were seen through the experiences of the people involved in the conflict proper and do a good job giving the historical account a personal feel.

Hastings did not seek any North Koreans at any level for their take on the conflict, noting he did not believe their government would provide any information or allow any account that was remotely honest and impartial, even taking into account their natural historical bias. Given the current state of affairs between all the nations in question and North Korea today, this is entirely understandable, both at the time of publication and now.

The book covers three areas of discussion. First, the history leading up to the conflict and what made it inevitable is established. The second portion of the book covers the conflict proper until the end of active participation in the hostilities by the United Nations powers. The last part serves to flesh out how prisoners of war, propaganda, foreign allies, and other errata figured into the conflict.

The prose is very easy to understand. The text is slightly dated (being published the year I was born in fact) and this is reflected particularly in discussing the political situation of the contemporary Korean polities compared to the powers involved in the Korean War. That aside, it still contains much relevant information on the conflict, personal accounts from many who fought in it and gives a clear and concise picture of all the relevant facts of the war.

It's worth noting a few caveats and reservations. This is not a broad overview, this is a more focused narrative with a British-centric viewpoint of the conflict and spends little time on trivia adjacent to the conflict but not directly pertinent. Second, while it covers how the war was conducted and the major campaigns in reasonable detail, it's more focused on how the men on the ground felt and experienced things on a personal level in many places. Finally, the book has a thesis point that the Korean War was essentially a harbinger of even worse mistakes the United States would make in Vietnam and laments how little knowledge of those errors was retained. I do not disagree with most of the thesis, but the mileage of the reader, particularly American ones, may vary.

If the above caveats and reservations are perfectly acceptable to the prospective history student or reader, then I would recommend this text for those wishing to know more about the Korean War. It is available in Kindle, audiobook, audio CD, softcover, and hardback from Amazon.

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