From Pusan to Panmunjom /

General Paik, acknowledged by most military specialists as the finest South Korean commander in the 1950-53 conflict, has written the first account of this war from the perspective of the nation that provided the most manpower and suffered the greatest casualties. Rising from division commander to commander-in-chief to representative at the peace talks, Paik provided the leadership largely responsible for the transformation of the South Korean Army into a formidable ally. He presents revealing insights into allied strategy, which he feels was wrong, and allied leaders--he dubs Van Fleet and Ridgeway competent, MacArthur vain and weak. His book offers a different perspective on a war that caused as many allied casualties as the longer Vietnam conflict. For all Korean War collections.-- Richard Nowicki, Emerson Vocational H.S., Buffalo, N.Y. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Engrossing wartime memoirs from South Korea's first four-star general. Paik was a 29-year-old colonel in command of the 1st ROK Division when Communist forces rolled across the provisional boundary partitioning Korea in mid-1950. Though outgunned, Paik's ill-equipped, poorly trained men performed valiantly, halting the enemy's sneak assault on the South for a precious three days. Having helped create a defensive perimeter north of Pusan around the Naktong River, the author's South Korean troops then went on the attack. In the murderous period following Chinese intervention, Paik's prowess on battlegrounds up and down the peninsula earned him promotion to chief of staff of the ROK Army. In addition to overseeing its expansion and deployment under fire, he represented his country's interests in armistice negotiations, first at Kaesong and later at Panmunjom. Beyond its harrowing accounts of front-line engagement--in which quarter was neither asked nor given--the author's narrative goes a long way toward setting the record straight on such issues as the cruel myth that ROK units did not pull their weight in combat. While no match for their foe at the outset, his soldiers, Paik documents, fought in subsequent campaigns even though they were the preferred targets of Communist offensives (owing mainly to their relative lack of firepower). The author also conveys the immense difficulties involved in building, equipping, and training an army during a vicious conflict and while almost wholly dependent upon the resources of allies with variant agendas. Much has been written of the Korean War's geopolitical and military significance. While scanting neither, Paik reminds an often forgetful world of the country that, in a struggle for its very survival, provided the most manpower and sustained the greatest casualties. Impressive and instructive. The vivid, perceptive text has maps (not seen).