Wayne Barrett's Reviews > The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War

3.5

I would really love to rate this book higher. If not for the honor and memory it brings to those who served in Korea then for the details about the war that I learned. I would love to, but I won't because yes, I learned a lot, but the dry style in which this book was written made it a task to trudge through.

The Korean War has been called "the forgotten war" and it was for that reason I sought out a book on the subject. I was talking with a cousin recently about an uncle of ours who had passed and he reminded me that he had served in the Korean War. As much as I think I know about other American wars, I realized I know next to nothing about the Korean War.

The soldiers who served in that conflict coined the phrase "die for a tie" and that's probably the perception that most have about the outcome of the war. We didn't lose, but we didn't win. As for my opinion, as well as others I've heard and read, I think it depends on your perspective of the outcome. No, we didn't conquer Korea and have their leaders surrender to us, but then again, taking over North Korea was never our objective to begin with. North Korea invaded our ally, South Korea with intent to possess it and we prevented that from happening, so they failed, we succeeded.

I feel for those who served there because now that I have learned more about this war, I believe there was some of the most brutal battles, conditions, and valiant acts by our soldiers than almost any other war. We don't know about them because there was no great victory parades, accolades, and televised media did not take off until the Vietnam War. Most Americans knew nothing about the details of the war and probably didn't want to.

If you don't believe the Korean War, 1950-1953, was a forgotten war, ask yourself this; how many movies about the war can you name. I can help you with that because if you don't count the TV series "Mash" there are zero. I'm sure there's no interest in portraying how absolutely negligent and irresponsible our command leadership was during that war. Especially when it involved a WWII hero, General MacArthur, who turned out to be a self serving egomaniac.

So, anyway, now I know. I really did learn a ton more than I ever knew, I just wish the story had been served with a little more heart.