WAR WATCH WEDNESDAYS
KOREAN
WAR
Cumings, Bruce. The Korean War: A History. Random House, 2010. This is the author’s
one-volume condensation of his 2-vol. history, The Origins of the Korean War. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/35571/the-korean-war-by-bruce-cumings/
Cumings is chair of the history
department at the U. of
Publisher’s
description
A BRACING ACCOUNT OF A WAR
THAT IS EITHER MISUNDERSTOOD, FORGOTTEN, OR WILLFULLY IGNORED
For Americans, it was a discrete conflict
lasting from 1950 to 1953. But for the Asian world the Korean War was a
generations-long struggle that still haunts contemporary events. With access to
new evidence and secret materials from both here and abroad, including an
archive of captured North Korean documents, Bruce Cumings reveals the war as it
was actually fought. He describes its origin as a civil war, preordained long
before the first shots were fired in June 1950 by lingering fury over Japan’s
occupation of Korea from 1910 to 1945. Cumings then shares the neglected
history of America’s post–World War II occupation of Korea, reveals untold
stories of bloody insurgencies and rebellions, and tells of the United States
officially entering the action on the side of the South, exposing as never
before the appalling massacres and atrocities committed on all sides.
Elegantly written and blisteringly honest, The
Korean War is, like the war it illuminates, brief, devastating, and
essential.
Rev. Z Magazine
(Sept. 2010): “the Korean War was among
the most misguided, unjust, and murderous wars fought by the United States in
its history, displaying many of the features of the Vietnam War that aroused
mass public protest.” “the war began
not in 1950, but during the period of U.S. military occupation of the South
from 1945-1948, which was a product of America’s imperial ambitions in the
Asia-Pacific.”
Tim Beal. “The Continuing Korean War in the Murderous History of Bombing.”
mronline.org (January 5,
2021).
Publisher’s selection
The Korean War, which broke out on June 25,
1950, can be considered the epicenter of bombing as an instrument of war. For
one, it was the first—and, so far, the last—time since 1945 that the United
States seriously considered using atomic weapons during the course of an
imperial war. It was the first war that the United States did not win. It ended
in a stalemate—an armistice—that continues until today. Kinetic fighting was
suspended, but the war continues (though only by one side) by what is
conveniently but simplistically called sanctions. | more…
The article covers wide-ranging topics; for example,
comparing the bombing of Hiroshima & Nagasaki with the bombing of
Dresden. But its importance is its
emphasis upon the unique US cruelty of the Korean War, which he describes as
genocidal, “in terms of percentage of the population, the deadliest in
history.” Beal cites Governing from the Skies: A Global History
of Aerial Bombing by Thomas Hippler , History
of Bombing by Sven Lindqvist, I.F. Stone’s Hidden History of the Korean War.
Scholarship on the subject is extensive.
See my Air War and N. Korea newsletters. –Dick
A.B. Abrams’ Immovable
Object: North Korea’s 70 Years at War with American Power (Clarity Press, 2020), shows that the common perceptions in the U.S. of North Korea
are mostly wrong.
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A. B. Abrams. Immovable Object: North Korea's
70 Years At War with American Power. 1,099 pages
Publisher’s Description
North
Korea and the United States have been officially at war for over 70 years, one
of the longest lasting and most unbalanced conflicts in world history, in which
a small East Asian state has held its own against a Western superpower for over
three generations. With the Western world increasingly pivoting its attention
towards Northeast Asia, and the region likely to play a more central role in
the global economy, North Korea’s importance as a strategically located
country, potential economic powerhouse and major opponent of Western regional
hegemony will only grow over the coming decades. This work is the first fully
comprehensive study of the ongoing war between the two parties, and covers the
history of the conflict from the first American clashes with Korea’s
nationalist movement in 1945 and imposition of its military rule over southern
Korea to North Korea’s nuclear deterrence program and ongoing tensions with the
U.S. today. The nature of the antagonism between the two states, one profoundly
influenced by both decolonisation and wartime memory, and the other
uncompromising in its attempts to globally impose its leadership and ideology,
is covered in detail.
Northern Korea is one of very few inhabited parts of the world never to have
been placed under Western rule, and its fiercely nationalist identity as a
deeply Confucian civilization state has made it considerably more difficult to
tackle than almost any other American adversary. This work elucidates the
conflicting ideologies and the discordant designs for the Korean nation which
have fueled the war, and explores emerging fields of conflict which have become
increasingly central in recent years such as economic and information warfare.
Prevailing trends in the conflict and its global implications, including the
multiple wars that have been waged by proxy, are also examined in detail. An
in-depth assessment of the past provides context key to understanding the
future trajectories this relationship could take, and how a continuing shift in
global order away from Western unipolarity is likely to influence its future.
"To understand where the Korean Peninsula might go in the rest of the 21st
century, Abrams’ telling of the story of how the two countries got to where
they are today is essential.” – ANKIT PANDA, senior editor, The Diplomat
"...even those who find his conclusions unpalatable will be forced to
weigh them carefully.”– JOHN EVERARD, former British Ambassador to North Korea
MONTHLY DEMONSTRATIONS
AGAINST NUCLEAR WEAPONS
The OMNI Center’s monthly protest to Stop the University of Arkansas Nuclear Weapons Program was yesterday, February 23rd, at 12:30 P.M. at the entrance to the U of A, at the intersection of M.L.K. Blvd & Razorback Rd (1417 W. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Fayetteville). Watch for next month’s. Contact Abel to enlarge the demonstration: signs, publicity, LTE, venues.
Once again, we
are receiving great media coverage of our budding campaign from KNWA News, UATV, KPSQ radio (link unavailable), in-depth
coverage in Covert Magazine, and now the in-depth interview on KUAF (NPR affiliate) radio is
available. Also, my personal Letter to the Editor was published in the Arkansas Democrat
Gazette. Please write a letter too; the guidelines and submission form is here.
We hope to see you
next month.
Toward Peace,
Abel Tomlinson
OMNI Peace Action
Committee, Chair
Arkansas Nonviolence Alliance, Founder
(479)283-5762
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