More than a dress rehearsal
John Hackett
THE KOREAN WAR by Max Hastings Michael Joseph, f14.95
The Korean War, so much oversha- dowed by the even greater, and on the home front so much more intimately shared, tragedy of Vietnam, to which the War in Korea was in important respects a precursor and rehearsal, has up to now received less than the attention it deserves. This book by Max Hastings, a further important addition to so much of import- ance he has already written about warfare in our century, including Bomber Com- mand, Overlord, Victory in Europe and (with Simon Jenkins) The Battle for the Falklands, does much to put the record about Korea straight. It concerns itself more with the battle, and the tensions, hardships and miseries it generated, than with the high political infighting happening elsewhere. It pays a good deal of attention, as might be expected from a British pen, to the British contribution to the war, which is excusable when the quality of what Britain did is seen to be so much higher than what was put in by vastly superior forces from elsewhere. It reinforces the rightness of the use made by the United States of the opportunity afforded by Soviet misjudgment in the Security Council to intervene and emphasises the enormous progress made in the years since then by a non-Communist independent South Korea in comparison with that of the North, which is today 'one of the most wretched, ruthless, restrictive, impenitent Stalinist societies in the world'.
The outline of events in this war is well known. In the summer of 1950 Communist North Koreans invaded the non- Communist South. American troops, sur- prised, ill-prepared and enfeebled by long occupation of Japan, were flown in and brushed aside. The US 24th Division col- lapsed, but by August 1950 Walker's 8th Army, with the US 25th Division and South Korean troops, always of doubtful value, had stabilised a position round Puran on the south-east corner of the peninsula. The First US Marine division was already in operation there and Allied troops, from Britain and elsewhere, were beginning to arrive.Macarthur, as Supreme Allied Commander, Pacific, but seeing himself as almost divinely appointed to save the free world from Communism, achieved with his Inchon landing a bold reversal of misfortune, leading to a rapid advance by UN troops (for by far the most part American) into North Korea, but massive intervention by the Chinese brought about a general and often dis- orderly retreat of UN forces to the south. The 'big bug' was a disaster leading to events as dissimilar, but in their own way as significant, as the dismissal by the President of General Macarthur and the immortal stands of the British 29th Bri- gade, with the sacrificial action of the Gloucesters, on the Imjin. British troops looked on in wonder as Americans threw down their weapons and ran away. My'own regiment, the 8th Hussars, was there. A panic-stricken American convoy stormed down the road. 'Get out', they shouted, `the Chinese are coming!' Move your truck on, chum' was the reply. 'It's stand- ing over our football'.
That great fighting officer, Henry Huth, commanding troops (in my own biased view) without parallel, in the 8th Hussars Squadron we both at one time or another belonged to, told me after the war: 'If they'd only sent all the Americans home and left it to C Squadron and the Turkish Brigade we'd have finished it'. Such was the morale of many on the UN side, British and other members of the Commonwealth Division, in particular, and of great fight- ing men like the US Marines.
One of the most dangerous aspects of the Korean War was the by no means insignificant body of opinion in the United States which saw it as the opening gambit in the Third World War and urged the use against China, and if necessary against the USSR, of nuclear weapons. Mankind is much in President Truman's debt for his far-sighted refusal to give way to pressure orchestrated around (and in some part by) General Macarthur to that end. The re- moval of this overmighty subject could with advantage have been brought about a good deal earlier. It says much for the strength of purpose and good sense of a President who has probably not yet re- ceived all the credit he deserves that it ever happened at all. Macarthur's return to the United States was met with a hero's welcome at home and undisguised relief abroad. In the capable hands of his succes- sor Ridgway the position was now stabil- ised. Nevertheless two more years of sav- age warfare were to ensue in atrocious conditions, with summers of intense heat followed by winters of truly ferocious cold. Vastly stronger though the Chinese were in infantry, far superior to their UN oppo- nents, American fire power and above all airpower prevailed, until stalemate was recognised in the spring of 1953 and an armistice declared.
Max Hastings's treatment of the air war, the battle for intelligence and, above all, the case of the prisoners on both sides deserves special attention. Few in the Western world knew of the savage treat- ment of our own prisoners in Communist hands. Fewer still heard anything of the often violent disturbances in the camps for Communist POW, overcrowded, under- staffed, ill-managed and rebellious, on the island of Koje Do.
Korea is widely recognised as a rehearsal for Vietnam. It is mortifying to see how little was learned and sad how greatly the US Army suffered from its experience in both of these wars. It is now cause for satisfaction that calm and sensible military leadership has done so much in the United States since then to recreate an army of which the country can be proud.
This book, as might be expected, is an impressive assembly of effective reportage and good writing. It is quite outstanding in the painstaking use of evidence from indi- viduals. What the men who fought in the war on either side have to say about it, even given the limited opportunity of Communists for free expression, makes a fresh and thought-provoking approach to the reporting of warfare. It should be read with care' for what it can teach us about a situation which, mutatis mutandis, might in one form or another occur yet again.
General Sir John Hackett's most recent book was The Profession of Arms.
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