Conflict: The History of the Korean War, 1950-1953 Paperback - 1996

First line

KOREA, the place where the world's peace was broken not five years after the end of World War II, is one of those un little lands fated to be battlegrounds.

From the rear cover

In June 1950 Communist forces poured across the 38th Parallel (the arbitrary, militarily indefensible line of latitude separating the Communist North from the independent Republic of Korea) to unite the country by force. Three bloody, bitter years of fighting ensued during which the see-sawing fortunes of this frustrating war thwarted North Korea's ambitions while treating the ill-equipped, overconfident U.N. peacekeeping forces, mostly Americans, no less harshly. Conflict examines the war in all its military, political, and human dimensions: the battles at Pusan Perimeter, at Inchon, at Chosin Reservoir, at Heartbreak Ridge; significant figures like Syngman Rhee, Kim Il Sung, Ridgway, MacArthur, and Truman; controversies like the U.N.'s role, MacArthur's dismissal, the difficulties of P.O.W. exchanges, and charges of brainwashing and germ warfare; as well as penetrating analyses of the performance of the American soldier, and the war's effect on the U.S. military and our national psyche. As such, Conflict stands as an unsurpassed, vivid contribution to history.