cover image The Korean War: An Oral History

The Korean War: An Oral History

Donald Knox. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P, $29.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-15-147289-5

The second and concluding volume of the late Knox's oral history of the 1950-53 war, this covers the last two and a half years with quotes from letters, diaries and interviews interspersed with brief summaries of unfolding events. Generals and colonels are heard from occasionally, but mostly these are the recollections of enlisted men and junior officers who grappled directly with North Korean and Chinese troops. The Korean War is now largely forgotten, and the cumulative effect of these reminiscences and contemporary documents (unit radio logs, for instance) distills the conflict vividly and memorably. There is a section devoted to the veterans' homecoming that poignantly dramatizes the difference between the welcome accorded the Korean vet and those who fought in Vietnam. (May)