The Coldest War, by James Brady

The Coldest War: A Memoir of Korea, by James Brady
Orion Books, 1990, 242 pages, 8 pages of b&w photos, plus index

Front Matter
America's "forgotten war" lasted just 37 months, yet 54,246 Americas died in that time-nearly as many as died in ten years in Vietnam. On the fortieth anniversary of this devastating conflict, James Brady tells the story of his life as a young marine lieutenant in Korea.

In 1947, seeking a way out of the draft, eighteen-year-old James Brady volunteered for a Marine Corps program that made him a lieutenant in the reserves on the day he graduated college. He didn't plan to find himself in command of a combat platoon three years later facing a real enemy, but that is exactly what happened after the Chinese turned a so-called police action into a war.

The Coldest War vividly describes Brady's rapid education in the realities of war and the pressures of command. Opportunities for bold offensives sink in the miasma of trench warfare, death comes in fits and starts as too-accurate artillery on both sides freezes men in their bunkers; constant alertness is crucial for survival, while brutal cold and a seductive silence conspire to lull soldiers into an often fatal stupor.

The Korean War affected the lives of all Americans, yet is little known beyond the antics of M*A*S*H. Here is the inside story that deserves to be told, and James Brady is a powerful witness to a vital chapter in our history.

Table of Contents
36 chapters, no chapter titles given.

Photos
--Two views of mountains, including one of "2,000 meter hill"
--Dog Company: Capt John Chafee, Red Philips, unidentified soldiers
--Main line of resistance, the MLR, winter of 1951-1952
--Two South Korean children, one named Chang, the other unidentified
--Soyang-gang stream
--Reverse slope of Hill 880
--Lt Maurice J. (Mack) Allen of Lynchburg, VA
--unidentified Marine, slope of Hill 880
--James Brady February 1952
--Dog Company command post on Hill 880
--Reverse slope of Hill 880, Feb 1952
--an unidentified member of the Korean Service Corps
--Reverse slope of Hill 880
--Casualty evacuated by chopper
--Dog Company: Capt Charley Logan, Mack Allen and James Brady
--5 unidentified marines of Dog Company
--James Brady with cigar
--James Brady in flak jacket
--9 unidentified Marines posing for photo