PDF Alexander Hamilton; American by Richard Brookhiser in History

Description

As pungent and concise as his short histories of both world wars; Stokesbury's survey of "the half war" takes a broad view and seems to leave nothing out but the details. The first third covers the North Korean invasion of June 1950; the Pusan perimeter crisis; MacArthur's master stroke at Inchon and the intervention by Chinese forces that November. At this point; other popular histories of the war reach the three-quarter mark; ending often with a cursory summary of the comparatively undramatic three-and-a-half years required to bring the war to its ambiguous conclusion on July 27; 1953. Stokesbury renders the latter period as interesting as the operational fireworks of the first six months: the Truman-MacArthur controversy; the political limitations on U.S. air power; the need for the Americans to fight the war as cheaply as possible; due to NATO commitments; the prolonged negotiations at Panmunjom over the prisoner-exchange issue; and the effect of the war on the home front. Whether the United States could have/should have stayed out of the war in the first place comes under discussion: "no" on both counts; according to the author.