The Coldest Winter, by David Halberstam

The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War, by David Halberstam
Hyperion, 2007
657 pages plus Author's Note, Afterword, Notes, Bibliography and Index. No photos
Library: 951.9042 HAL


Description
David Halberstam's magisterial and thrilling The Best and the Brightest was the defining book for the Vietnam War. More than three decades later, Halberstam used his unrivaled research and formidable journalistic skills to shed light on another dark corner in our history: the Korean War. The Coldest War is a succesor to The Best and the Brightest, even though in historical terms it precedes it. Halberstam considered The Coldest Winter his best work, the culmination of a career spent examining the defining issues of the last half century.

Up until now, the Korean War has been the black hole of modern American history. The Coldest Winter changes that. Halberstam gives us a masterful narrative of the political decisions and miscalculations on both sides.

He charges the disastrous path that led to the massive entry of Chinese forces near the Yalu River, and that caught Douglas MacArthur and his soldiers by surprise. He provides astonishingly vivid and nuanced portraits of all the major figures: including Truman and Eisenhower, Kim il Sung and Mao Zedong, and General MacArthur. At the same time, Halberstam provides us with his trademark highly evocative narrative journalism, chronicling the crucial battles with report age of the highest order.

At the heart of the book are the individual stories of the soldiers on the front lines who were left to deal with the condequences of the dangerous misjudgments and competing agendas of powerful men. We meet them, follow them, and see some of the most dreadful battles in history through their eyes. As ever, Halberstam was concerned with the extraordinary courage and resolve of people asked to bear an extraordinary burden.

The Coldest Winter is contemporary history in its most literary and luminescent form, and it provides crucial perspective on the Vietnam WAr and the events of today. It is a book that Halberstam first decided to write more than thirty years and that took him nearly ten years to complete. It stands as a lasting testament to one of the greatst journalists and historians of our time, and to the fighting men whose heroism it chricles.

Tables of Contents
Glossary of Military Terms
List of Maps
Note on Military Map Symbols
Introduction

Part 1: A Warning at Unsan
Part Two: Bleak DAys: The In Min Gun Drives South
Part Three: Washington Goes to War
Part Four: The Politics of Two Continents
Part Five: The Last Roll of the Dice: The North Koreans Push to Pusam
Part Six: MacArthur Turns the Tide: The Inchon Landing
Part Seven: Crossing the Parallel and Heading North
Part Eight: The Chinese Strike
Part Nine: Learning to Fight the Chinese: Twin Tunnels, Wonju and Chipyongni
Part Ten: The General and the President
Part Eleven: The Consequences

Epilogue
Author's Notes
Acknowledgments
Afterword by Russell Baker
Notes
Bibliography
Index