Review Part One: MacArthur's War

MacArthur's War: Korea and the Undoing of An American Hero
Touchstone (2000) (Review Part One)

The Korean War is a fairly relevant topic for anyone who lives in Korea. So reading this book was on my list of things to do this summer but for some reason I left it on the shelf until last night. When I picked it up I thought, "Oh no, what another boring, pointless, waste of time." Who really needs history anyway? It will be a bland, useless topic of outdated information. I thought, "maybe I will just glaze through it and see if there are any interesting things."

The first thing to convince me that taking the time to read this book might be a valuable task was having read the story of Escape from Korea by John Fischer (Salado Press) immediately prior to beginning MacArthur's War. In that text, Fischer describes the harrowing events leading up to and during his crash landing in North Korea in a small fighter plane. His story fairly lept off the page.

That is really something I admire in good writers. They are engaging enough to grab my complete attention often at the cost of many other potential tasks and if I was a Mexican the taking of siesta would be a cherished pursuit. I would sneak a little time off with my sombrero and hide a book under it. In this I would allow as many Chileans as possible perhaps to take the opportunity to chill out, hurry up, and wait.

What jumped off of Weintraub's page? Revelation! Thirty-five thousand Americans died in Korea in three years compared to fifty-five thousand dead American soldiers in twelve years in Vietnam. Perhaps it was the speed of events, as Fischer described in his closing statements which explains perhaps why few Americans know where Korea even is or in that case even Vietnam.

Are Americans perhaps always in such a hurry to forget the last war and race to start the next one? In the case of MacArthur I think the answer remains definitely: foolishly, yes!