Korean War

[PaulHogan]

[Putting this here as most of the military experts hang in this forum]

My knowledge of the Korean War is woeful and based almost entirely on M*A*S*H. What books do you recommend to give a good overview of why and what the war was about, how it was conducted, concluded and the aftermath?

Thanks in advance.

[valiant1]

Max Hastings wrote an excellent book called 'The Korean War' funnily enough.

A brilliant read superbly written. Focuses mainly on the actual conflict and as such is a little bit light on the pre-cursors to war and life afterwards. Also he doesn't ignore the war from the N.Korean/Chinese prespective which adds valuable insight.

Often called the forgotten war, at times it was as every bit barbaric as any from WWII.

ETA - less than £8 from amazon now - well worth the money!

Edited by valiant1 on Wednesday 26th October 21:48

[Eric Mc]

MASH has very little to do with the Korean War. Even though it was set in that war, it is very much a 60s/70s take on the US military and much more a comment on the Vietnam conflict.

There was a very good TV series on BBC or Channel 4 a few years ago.

[GrahamG]

Another vote here for the Max hastings book - learnt more about the Korean War than I had in the previous 40 years from reading it!

[muppetdave]

I'll have to look that book out. My Nan's other half fought in Korea and spoke very little about it, but I understand it was pretty hideous (what he saw anyway). I know he was also quite bitter that there was very little acknowledgement of the war.