This increasingly popular series provides a unique perspective on the Cold War, with this new addition to the series adding further depth. The invasion of South Korea by a dictatorship, supported by totalitarian regimes, naturally caught the democracies on the hop. This new book provides an account of what happened and how the US-led alliance fought back. – Highly Recommended
NAME: Cold War 1945-1991, North Korean Onslaught, UN Stand At The Pusan Perimeter August-September 1950 FILE: R2821 AUTHOR: Gerry Van Tonder PUBLISHER: Pen & Sword BINDING: soft back PAGES: 127 PRICE: £14.99 GENRE: Non Fiction SUBJECT: Cold Warm surrogate war, Korean partition, UN warfare, allies, US, North Korea, South Korea, China, Soviet Union, Britain
ISBN: 1-52672-833-8
IMAGE: B2821.jpg BUYNOW: tinyurl.com/y2r4bkyw LINKS: DESCRIPTION: This increasingly popular series provides a unique perspective on the Cold War, with this new addition to the series adding further depth. The invasion of South Korea by a dictatorship, supported by totalitarian regimes, naturally caught the democracies on the hop. This new book provides an account of what happened and how the US-led alliance fought back. - Highly Recommended The Korean War started badly for South Korea and the US, as a Communist invader launched a blitz krieg assault. To the Communists, the South Korean State looked like an easy target in much the same way that Hitler and Japan had only recently thought of Europe and North America, only to find out the hard way that democracies may start soft but rapidly rise to the challenge of a new threat and win. The US could have counter attacked with British support but took the more creative approach of invoking the newly created United Nations as an umbrella for a multi- national alliance, fighting despots on behalf of the World. The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait was responded to in a similar manner, and was quickly successful, but the UN is much more a talking shop and unlikely to provide similar good service against future aggressors. This new book is a first volume in the series on the Korean War and it is debatable if the Korean War has really ended. It will only be a certainty if North Korean disposes of its nuclear weapons program and enters into a completely new relationship with the rest of the World. The author presents a well-researched review of the opening stages in 1950. As is to be expected of books in this series, there are many images, mostly in black and white and photographic, that run through the body of the text. In the opening moves, the North Korean forces swept South very quickly, sweeping aside South Korean and US troops. Victory looked to be assured but the US forces reformed and made a stand at the Pusan Perimeter, being steadily reinforced by troops, and warships standing offshore, under the UN banner. General Douglas MacArthur rallied his troops and withstood very heavy casualties in a successful holding of the strategically vital points along the Pusan Perimeter. The Allies were lucky that the Royal Navy and US Navy had not yet been run down after WWII and were able to send an impressive fleet of battleships, cruisers and aircraft carriers which were able to operate outside the reach of the North Koreans. Japan also became a concrete aircraft carrier and the war was to see a new situation where US warplanes were flown from Japan to target, leaving to waves from wives, children and girlfriends, fighting hard and returning a few hours later to a greeting from friends and families.