CompleteMartialArts.com - This Kind of War: The Classic Korean War History - Fiftieth Anniversary Edition
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List Price: $24.95
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Manufacturer: Potomac Books Inc.
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 900
EAN: 9781574883343
ISBN: 1574883348
Label: Potomac Books Inc.
Manufacturer: Potomac Books Inc.
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 512
Publication Date: 2001-03
Publisher: Potomac Books Inc.
Studio: Potomac Books Inc.
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Editorial Reviews:
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The authoritative, highly acclaimed classic history of the Korean War, THIS KIND OF WAR, is a dramatic and hard-hitting account of the conflict written from the perspective of those who fought it. The 50th anniversary of the Korean War, which began in June 1950, makes this an appropriate time to revisit this monumental study. Successive generations of U.S. military officers have considered this book an indipensable part of their education. To commemortae the anniversary, this special edition has been updated with battlefield maps, vivid photographs, and a foreword by Gen. Gordon Sullivan, USA (Ret.), former U.S. army chief of staff. T.R. Fehrenbach's narrative brings to life the harrowing and bloody battles that were fought up and down the Korean Peninsula. Partly drawn from official records, operations journals, and histories, it is based largely on the compelling personal narratives of the small-unit commanders and their troops. Unlike any other work on the Korean War, it provides a clear, panoramic view, sharp insight into the successes and failures of U.S. forces, and a riveting account of fierce clashes between UNited Nationa troops and the North Korean and Chinese communist invaders. The lessons that Colonel Fehrenbach identifies still resonate. Severe peacetime budget cuts after World War II left the U.S. military a shadow of its former self. The terrible lesson of Korea was that to send into action troops trained for nothing but "serving a hitch" in some quiet billet was an almost criminal act. Throwing these ill-trained and poorly equipped troops into the heat of battle resulted in the war's early routs. The United States was simply unprepared for war. As we enter a new century with Americans and North Koreans continuing to face each other across the 38th parallel, we would do well to remember the price we paid during the Korean War.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Best book I ever read!
Comment: I am a 70 year old bookworm. I have never read a better book. The insights and sensitivities of the author are amazing. Wonderful book!
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Lessons Relearned
Comment: THIS KIND OF WAR was the first book I undertook to read about the Korean War. The first time I encountered the book was as one of a batch of paperbacks shipped to 3rd Phantom Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized) in Iraq immediately following the OPERATION DESERT STORM cease fire. Even though my father was an 7th Infantry veteran of that war I knew very little about the conflict.
In the first few chapters I was enlightened to the fact that the United States, one of the great military powers after World War Two, had seemingly forgotten the lessons so painfully learned five years earlier. Although the North Korean army was amply supplied and trained by the Soviets, the southern Republic of Korea forces were woefully equipped by United States. Worse yet was that the initially deployed US forces fought against advancing North Korean T-34/85 tanks with anti-tank weapons and ammunition that were long since proven ineffective against post 1940 armor. It was not until the North Koreans had almost overrun all of South Korea did the "Empire strike back" and temporarily push the enemy back to the Yalu.
One of the single greatest American political misunderstandings was that the Soviets and Chinese initiated the conflict as a proxy war. Certainly the Soviet Union bankrolled the North Korean army, but quickly abandoned its support after the Inchon landing. For the Chinese the concern was one of the United Nations forces crossing the Yalu and taking possession of industrial Manchuria. Once Stalin made it clear he was not going to invest good rubels after bad the Chinese, technically neutral in the conflict, sent hundreds of thousands of volunteer forces across the Yalu. Thus began two years of additional see-saw battles ending up back near the 38th parallel.
Overall THIS KIND OF WAR describes how quickly a superpower forgets the lessons learned from the last great war, and just as quickly adapts under pressure to a new kind of limited conflict.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Still looking for Proud Legions
Comment: There aren't many "classics" of history or literature addressing the Korean War. T.R. Fehrenbach's "This Kind of War", first published in the early 1960s, is probably the closest thing we have to a Korean War history by an American that has endured.
Make no mistake, this book shows its age. To begin with, the Japanese are "Japs", Asians are "Orientals" and the African-American troops who served in Korea (often quite poorly, the author stresses) are "Colored." Beyond the superficial shock of the use of non-PC terms is the questionable legacy of Harry Truman, especially his commitment to achieving status quo ante bellum on the Korean peninsula from late 1951 onward in the face of North Korean and Chinese attack and weakness, are vigorously questioned. Heading into the US presidential election of 2008, TIME Magazine ran a cover story asking which candidate of either party had the mettle and virtues of Harry Truman. One gets the sense in reading "This Kind of War" that the 2008 TIME cover is like asking contemporary Americans to imagine a 2060 magazine cover asking "who has what it takes to be the next George W. Bush?"
Signs of age aside, Fehrenbach pays special attention to two issues that are essentially tangential to the main story of the Korean War. First, the author is clearly disgusted at what happened to the US Army in the years after the Second World War. He sees an army that had gone soft and pours forth bile at the post-war Doolittle Commission that smoothed out the rough edges of the Army and strove to make the Army a more livable occupation for the typical American. Fehrenbach addresses the issue specifically in chapter 25, titled "Proud Legions." He argues that the US needs a tough core of professional soldiers if it is to play a leading role in the world, not an Army of citizen-soldiers who are apt to complain, not take orders and to look longingly to their return home.
This quote captures Fehrenbach's sentiment and his central argument in the book: "...some American mothers had given their sons everything in the world, except a belief in themselves, their culture, and their manhood. They had, some of them, sent their sons out into a world with tigers without telling them that there were tigers, and with no moral armament."
Second, and somewhat related, is the issue of American performance and treatment in the prisoner war camps of the north. Fehrenbach frequently comments on the fragility of US servicemen in northern POW camps and how quickly and easily they broke compared to other Allied POWs, such as the Turks, none of whom died or collaborated while in captivity. Meanwhile, the author argues, the US was pushed around by a sorry collection of communist POWs on Koje-do Island in the south.
Some final comments are worthwhile. It was surprising to read how the communist forces "owned the night" during the entire conflict. The most spectacular and decisive actions by the enemy occurred in near pitch darkness and the US forces clearly feared the night. Today, and really since the 1960s, US forces rely heavily on their technical superiority in night-vision and infra-red and have thus successfully taken back the night.
Next, the author argues that the typical reference to Chinese hordes by American press was a propaganda tool, pure-and-simple, to make Americans back home feel better about the horrendous defeats suffered by their sons and husbands in Korea against an ethnic group many saw as mere "laundry men." Fehrenbach stresses continually that the UN forces actually held a numerical edge for most of the war - at least from the time of the Pusan perimeter in early 1950. Reference to communist "hordes" was really a fabrication meant to make Americans feel better about the unprecedented defeats of the US Army.
A final point - the US administration of Harry Truman, today seen as a paragon of sage statesmanship, was willing to endure upwards of 30,000 casualties a year to convince the communists that it was committed to maintain the status quo ante bellum on the Korean Peninsula. How many American casualties will the next US president endure to establish Western commitment to not see Iraq descend into genocidal civil war or come under the grips of an intractable Sunni or Shiite government?
Customer Rating:
Summary: An Insightful Study
Comment: This excellent book provides a view of the "forgotten" Korean War. It goes into the background and into the causes of the total lack of readiness exhibited by the US. This insight is particularly useful in that it shows a direct path to actions in the recent past such as Bill Clinton wasting large numbers of expensive cruise missiles blowing up insignificant targets but studiously avoiding putting in ground troops.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Superb History
Comment: This is probably the best book on the Korean war ever written.
Mr. Fehrenbach was a teacher of history when the war broke out. He was also in the Army's reserve component. When his unit was mobilized, he went with it. He served throughout the war in positions that gave him excellent, first hand, experience.
When the war ended and his unit was demobilized, he went back to his civilian profession of teaching history. He also started writing this book.
While I was attending the Infantry Officer Advance Course (IOAC) in '79-80, ever general officer who came to address the assembled classes at, what we affectionately called, Benning School for Boys told us READ THIS BOOK. And they were RIGHT!
It covers the gamet of aspects relating to modern warfare from the perspective of the simple soldier to the generals to the national leaders. From the poigant anecdotes of paratroopers gone AWOL so they could get to the fighting, to the making of disasters, e.g., Task Force SMITH and the retreat of the 2d Infantry Division during the Chinese Intervention.
It is a MUST read for everyone who is a military officer and anyone who has an abiding interest in military history.
Regards,
Chuck Pelto
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