So, what about Max Hastings’ book? How good is it? There is good news and bad news. Maybe a sophisticated version, but still very similar to this. So I was worried that a history of the war by an American or British historian would be a version of this. That is why we have a democratic, free South Korea today, which is one of the biggest Asian economies, while totalitarian North Korea is poor and primitive.” This is the kind of history which is peddled by the international press, and media, and this is the history which most of us are aware of. In a furious war waged between the armies of the free world and of the communist totalitarians, the noble armies of the free world triumphed. The heroic American army intervened with the help of friends and helped the South Korean people. For example, a typical British or American version of the Korean War could go like this – “The army of the evil Chinese empire, joined together with the North Koreans and tried to take over the whole of Korea. Of course, historians try to be neutral, and try to provide the relevant facts, with objective analysis, but the bias always creeps in. (There are lots of books on Indian history in English by Indian historians and writers, but that is a unique case, and so I’m going to ignore that for the purposes of our discussion.) So, because of this, a typical history book in English is going to have a British or American bias. Occasionally, we might find a French or German book in English translation, but otherwise this is it. Most history books which are available in English today are written by American or British historians. One of the problems I had while choosing to read a particular history of the Korean War was this. So I thought it will be a good idea to read this book and find out how it all started.
But though the Vietnam War has passed on to history and legend today, with the country filled with bustling cities with tall skyscrapers like any other East Asian city, the fires of the Korean War are still smoldering today, with North Korea and South Korea being two separate, distinct countries, with tension brewing in between. It is not as famous as the Vietnam War, and it is mostly forgotten today. The Korean War was probably the first war in the Cold War era when Western and communist forces clashed on the battlefield. So I read Max Hastings‘ book on the Korean War. I wanted to start this month by reading some history.
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