Witness to War: Korea - Softcover

Rod Paschall is a military history instructor at West Point.

Paschall's history of the Korean War is of modest dimensions (and, therefore, selective coverage) but of high quality. Paschall of necessity views the conflict from the perspective of the half-century since its end. That half-century included the end of the cold war, an event which allows him to place the "forgotten war" in Korea in context as an early and necessary victory for the opponents of Communism. Paschall's narrative is straightforward, and his analyses of such issues as those involving the POWs of both sides and that of the role of MacArthur (who emerges as a superb strategist who lacked any political judgment worth mentioning) are brief but sound. On the whole, Paschall provides one of the best introductions to the Korean War in quite a while. His effort definitely deserves to be in any modern history or military history collection. Roland Green