I bought this book because I wanted an unbiased view of the conflict. I did not want to read about only the positive aspects of the war from an American perspective. The American military, as well as the Truman Administration, made some pretty big blunders during this war and should be rightfully criticized. That said, I was surprised (and a little annoyed) to read how Mr. Hastings portrayed the American role. If one did not have much prior knowledge of the Korean War, they would walk away with the impression that the Americans were a bunch of blundering fools after reading this book. The British and Commonwealth troops are held high on a pedestal, marvelling at how incompetent their American conterparts are. The Commonwealth and other U.N. troops should be praised for their contribution to the war effort. The British & Belgian stand at the Imjim is of legend. Unfortunately, Mr. Hastings does this at the expense of the American contribution. I was hoping for an unbiased version of the war but did not receive it in this book.

This book treats the war as military history, from the power struggle on the penninsula following the end of WWII to the final Armistice. The Korean War is a complicated conflict (you wouldn't know it from watching MASH though) which saw both sides surge north and south, with new belligerents getting involved in the war at different points and with a mix of WWII technology on the ground and Cold War technology in the skies. Max Hastings does an excellent job of putting the conflict together not just in terms of the "big picture" but also in the eyes of those who fought it.

A good solid one volume account of the Korean war that gives the general reader a good insight into the war although I would prefer a work from an American perspective. Well worth the pricing on Amazon.

The Korean War took the world by surprise when, in the morning of June 25 1950, thousands of North Korean troops came crashing across the 38th parallel separating the two Koreas. The ensuing war would come to pit the American -led United Nations against North Korea and communist China . In this well researched work, Max Hastings looks not only at the conflict itself but also its origins and its often forgotten lessons. Hastings writes of a United States that was thoroughly unprepared for a war of this type, with near disasterous results. In the end, the consequences of the mistakes on both sides would prolong the conflict , cost millions of lives and left the Korean peninsula devastated. However the conclusion drawn from the book is one that the American effort in Korea, though flawed, was indeed very necessary and ultimately not in vain.

An excellent one-volume treatment of the 'forgotten war'. Hastings tells the story of the bitter battles at close range on impossible terrain in brutal weather. Some 42,000 US soldiers died in just three years' fighting. The US attack into North Korea brought the Chinese into the war and caused serious consideration to be given to the use of The Bomb. Hastings' use of interviews with some two hundred veterans, from both sides, including Chinese, gives his work its veracity. He also covers the political battles at home, including the big one between Truman and the deluded megalomaniac MacArthur.

An excellent addition to your history bookshelf.

The US provided Chiang with many weapons to fight both Japanese and Communists. When Mao Zedong took mainland China he inherited a huge arsenal of american-made weapons (like Khomeini did from the ousted Shah in Iran in 1979). Go to search engines and put in in quotes Li-Fujen: Kuomintang Faces Doom (1949). This is for more on Chiang's defecting-to-Mao soldiers having american weapons.

These american-made weapons definitely helped the Red Chinese cause. This book is definitely too flattering to Red China. And the US was 97% of the UN fighting force in Korea. Americans had 5,764,143 men in combat in Korea. The rest of the UN contributed a small 156,000. The US was way more efficient than Red China in this war case closed.

First, let me clear a reader's confusions. The Chinese Army fights with not only American Army but also UN Troops. If you can include the casualty of ROK, British, Turkish and some other country's armies, I am quite sure you can draw a different conclusion. Second, the Chinese Army didn't get too many US weapons formerly owned by Chiang Kai-shek. Most of them used .31-caliber rifle, which was used by Japanese in 1930's and totally out of date. You can find this information from a lot of photographs on both sides.
Korean War is a forgotten war in USA and some kind of forgotten by younger generation in China. There are a lot of books and photographs introducing this war on both sides. So far, this book is the best book I have seen about Korean War from the West. The writer is objective, unbiased to describe the cause of the war, the battle in the war and the prisoner on both sides. He incorporates American soldiers, Chinese soldiers and British Soldiers into his book, which gives readers a vivid image of War. His clear writing, objective and informative narrative of the war make his work the best book of Korean War for almost twenty years. This is a classic book deserve to read and keep, if you are big fan of Korean War. If you just want to browse the history, I strongly recommend a website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_war, which can give you objective, unbiased information.

Author Max Hastings does an excellent job of providing an overall military and political history of the Korean War. His writing is clear and informative and the reader comes away with a strong understanding of the events that shaped this conflict. Hastings is more objective than many historians and presents an unbiased account of the decisions and mistakes that shaped the conflict. This book is highly recommended for anyone trying to understand this "Forgotten War."

There are far too few single volume accounts of the Korean War and fewer still that are as engaging to read as this one. Max Hastings' writing style keeps the book interesting and the accounts of the earliest days of the conflict as American troops retreated to Pusan are some the most compelling in the book. Most of us (those with a desire to know) are familiar with Inchon, the drive to the Yalu, and Chosin, but not much has been written about the intial North Korean drive and the bruatlity of the conflict at that time. Hastings gives good attention to the plight of American Infantry regiments struggling to maintain unit cohesiveness as they are battered into the Pusan Perimeter. Many readers will find paralells to the experiences of American infantry during the first days of the Battle of the Bulge. Reading these accounts will make you proud of American servicemen and women. No doubt about it.

Hastings at the end pays the United States quite a compliment in simply stating that American involvement in Korea was and continues to be the right thing to do. Nice to hear from a European writer.