book reviews and summaries, comments, analysis
I was not aware such a sequel existed. I checked out the first copy of this book when i spent six months in Kunsan on assignment a few years ago. I have read Knox's first book no less than twenty times. A similar fate awaits the second......
In any case, Knox's Pusan to Chosin deserves close reading by all Korean War buffs. This book is not a first person account of one part of the war, which many narrative war histories consist of. Instead, it is a roving compilation of memories and narratives of the war by scores of soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen who fought in the wars's early months. Between early summer and Christmas, 1950, the front line between the combatants surged south to the dangerously vulnerable Pusan Perimeter, north to the Yalu, and finally back below the 38th parallel in the rout caused by Chinese intervention. The despair of the early retreats from Chonan,
Pyongtaek, and Taejon stands in stark contrast to the brisk, confident advances after Inchon. Somehow Knox, while dancing around the Peninsula and across these broad tides of optimism and defeat, manages to produce not just a coherent story of the war, but a memorable one. He accomplishes this by allowing the men on the field to tell their story in parallel fashion. The reader sees the Inchon landings, the Pusan defenses, or the Chosin debacle through the eyes of dozens of infantry, officers, artillerymen, medics, or chaplains. In short, overlapping and interwoven narratives, the Korean War's earliest phases unfold briskly. Its almost like the author has the participants sitting around a table, years later, telling their stories to you directly. It is that gripping. Maps (are you listening, Mr. Rishell) make the campaigns easy to follow. Highlights