On Fri, Aug 6, 2010 at 11:21 AM, raghu <[email protected]> wrote: > Any comments about this book? > > http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/12/using-lasers-to-zap-mosquitoes/ > --------------------------------------------snip > Americans need to get past the idea, Mr. Cumings says, that the Korean > War was a “discrete, encapsulated” story that began in 1950, when the > United States intervened to help push the Communist north out of the > south of Korea, and ended in 1953, after the war bogged down in a > stalemate. The United States succeeded in containment, establishing > the 2.5-mile-wide demilitarized zone that still runs through Korea’s > middle, but failed miserably at the war for the north, an attempt at > Communist rollback. > > Mr. Cumings argues that the Korean War was a civil war with long, > tangled historical roots, one in which America had little business > meddling. He notes how “appallingly dirty” the war was. In terms of > civilian slaughter, he declares, “our ostensibly democratic ally was > the worst offender, contrary to the American image of the North > Koreans as fiendish terrorists.” > > Mr. Cumings likens the indiscriminate American bombing of North Korea > to genocide. He writes that American soldiers took part in, or > observed, civilian atrocities not dissimilar to those at My Lai. An > official inquiry is needed into some of these events, he writes, for > any kind of healing to begin. (He also writes that this war, during > which nearly 37,000 American soldiers died, deserves a memorial as > potent and serious as Maya Lin’s Vietnam memorial.) >
Have not read this. But a classic on the subject is I.F. Stones "The hidden history of the Korean War", which like most hidden histories was based completely on public documents. A point for what Carrol has said in the past about "open secrets". Be curious to compare the two books. No doubt Cumings has access to documents I.F. Stone didn't. > > > > -raghu. > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > -- Facebook: Gar Lipow Twitter: GarLipow Grist Blog: http://www.grist.org/member/1598 Static page: http://www.nohairshirts.com _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
