Review 41: Coldest Winter, The: America and the Korean War (David Halberstam)

Awesome and awe-full. Awesome in scope, style, and clear vision of history. Awe-full, in that, this work is successful in producing fear. Fear, though, of the good kind.

Character sketches of all the major players (Truman, MaCarthur, etc) are interwoven with personal stories from the war and a brief history of the war. This book is not really a historical sketch of the Korean War, but rather an exploration of the men who shaped and fought the war. The most tragic figure of the book is MaCarthur; the consequences of his megalomania should serve as a warning to all leaders.

Let me quote an excellent review from Roger Miller, from The Star Tribune:

David Halberstam's "The Coldest Winter" is not so much about the Korean War as it is about everything behind the war. Chiefly it is about the American who was behind it for its first nine months, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, and the tale is not a pretty one... Not that Halberstam is the first to make a case against MacArthur. Historian Stanley Weintraub did a tightly focused job of that seven years ago in "MacArthur's War: Korea and the Undoing of an American Hero." And not that he ignores MacArthur's positive qualities and accomplishments, both before and after North Korea invaded South Korea June 25, 1950, most notably his decision to make an amphibious landing at Inchon three months into the war. Perceived by his military advisers as completely unworkable, it turned out to be a masterstroke. The list of indictments against MacArthur, however, is seemingly endless, all stemming from his megalomaniac desire to carry the war into China and his overweening arrogance and sense of destiny. Perhaps wickedest of all is that his intelligence people, deliberately and with MacArthur's knowledge, falsified intelligence reports to reflect what they knew their boss wanted to hear.