The Korean War: An Encyclopedia

Book Overview

First major clash with a communist army The Korean War was America's first ideological conflict and the first large-scale clash between U.S./UN forces and a Communist army. More than any other event, it signaled the beginning of Cold War mobilization for the U.S. and NATO, and even though the specter of international communism had since faded away, the animosities of The Forgotten War threaten to flare up even today. Focuses on military topics The Korean War contains articles of varying lengths on key topics that range from the origins of the conflict, ground, naval and air operations, and tactical planning to the Truman-MacArthur face-off, the POW issue, and armistice negotiations. The bulk of the Encyclopedia focuses on such military topics as the use of artillery, the pioneering concept of helicopter evacuation of wounded, new infantry tactics dictated by Communist POW riots, civil affairs, larger military units, and communications. There are also articles on civilian and military leaders, including President Eisenhower, General Ridgeway, Kim Il Sung, Chou En lai, Syngman Rhee, and others. Special features *Articles written by experts in the field *Useful to librarians, scholars, researchers and students alike *Includes 48 maps and photographs *Covers an extraordinary range of key topics *A chronology, extensive bibliography, and a subject index are included

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0824044452
• ISBN13: 9780824044459
• Release Date: November 1995
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 470 Pages
• Weight: 2.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 7.2" x 10.2"

Customer Reviews

Great refernce text as well as easy reading

Wow! Exactly what the name implies. An encyclopaedia about the korean war, chock full of useful essays and lengthy exposes. A good place to start research, or even better, to supplement your knowledge about Korean War events with timely, crisp additions. All of them are concise, informative and well referenced, if not necessarily well cross referenced (see below). There are many chronologies but the most useful are the articles about weapons (armor, artillery air support, etc...) regiments, aircraft, and the diverse countries (Greece, Turkey, Ethiopia...) that lent a hand to the effort. Also informative are the discussions of isses (biological warfare, POWs, conscientious objectors, etc). The numerous articles placing the war into a larger world context (home front, press coverage, United Nations, etc...) also are helpful. Biographies of US, South Korean, and a smattering of NKPA, Russian and Chinese figures add a personal dimension to the conflict. Conflicts between national interest and cold war politics wove a complex net of intrigue between the UN forces (America, France, Britain, Canada..etc) as well as amidst the nonaligned states (such as India) and the belligerents (China, Russia, North Korea). In fact, the best way to enjoy this encyclopedia is to read just as you would a book...from beginning to end. Don't be surprised if you end up reading it several times. This reference text is a collection of essays by individual authors. A risk of doing an encyclopedia this way is, without proper overall editing, the articles will be somewhat disjoint at one moment and repetitive at others. Sanders' text does suffer this flaw. In addition there are glaring oversights in some of the essays: the articles on the CIA or Intelligence, for example, never mention the crucial role played by Hans Tofte. Numerous articles use Goulden's Korea: The Untold Story of the War, but Tofte's chicanery with the Norwegian hospital ship (prominently described in Goulden) goes unnoticed. Still....I stand by my original opinion in this review...I loved this encyclopedia, and still have it from the library after nearly 3 weeks of reading. Do any of the articles add significant insights not discussed in other books? I can think of two. The book, without making excuses for the Army's poor training and performance in the early weeks of the War, does make it clear that it was the lack of available facilities on the Japanese Islands (only Gotemba, a small area near the base of Mt. fuji still in use today) that made training impossible above the battalion level. (the Japanese used to train their forces in Manchuria!) The lengthy essay on the Navy makes it clear that branch confined the conflic by patrolling the waters of China, the Yellow sea, and the Taiwan strait. The Air force also receives kudos for its sweeping the skies and combat support. The authors point out that Marine/Navy combat support was better overall, but that the US Air force mission was broader in scope