Enter the Drago -OSI

Spurr covered the last 14 months of the Korean War for the London Daily Express and later served as chief correspondent for the Far East Economic Review. Here he describes the first six months of the war from the Chinese political, diplomatic and military perspective, balanced against American and British views of events. There's a wealth of new material that will be of interest to students of the so-called Forgotten War, including revelations about Peng Dehuai, commander of Chinese forces and later the most prominent military victim of the Cultural Revolution, the motives behind the Chinese intervention, the Hate America campaign, tactics in the field. Unfortunately, the author provides vague information on sources, and there are no footnotes. This, along with his lavish use of popular-historical ``atmospheric detail'' calls into question the credibility of the text. Illustrations. (June)