Korean Battle Chronology

On June 28, 1950, five U.S. airmen died when their aircraft were shot down over Korea. They became the first U.S. casualties in a war that started three days earlier, when the North Korean People's Army crossed the 38th parallel and invaded the Republic of South Korea. The losses of U.S. military personnel that began with those five airmen would continue for 37 months and would ultimately total 33,985 American fatalities and more than 100,000 other American casualties. This is a history of U.S. involvement in the Korean War as told through those casualties--by the dates they occurred, their causes, their numbers and the units in which they served--and through all Medal of Honor citations (given in full). The work is subdivided into three units: The Peninsular War, Active Defense and The War of the Hills.

This reference work is the definitive chronology of the Korean War. It covers in-depth the day-by-day events, major and minor, of all combatants, including the United States, Great Britain, South Korea and other U.N. allies; North Korea; China; and the Soviet Union. Truly comprehensive, it details the war in the air, at sea and on land, with the actions of participating units, commanders and civilian leaders. Sixteen appendices provide significant statistics and supplemental information, including Medal of Honor recipients, U.S. naval vessels, units and commanders of each American military branch, carrier deployments, casualty figures and aces. There are 464 photographs accompanying the text.

“A great journalist” raises troubling questions about the forgotten war in this courageous, controversial book—with a new introduction by Bruce Cumings (The Baltimore Sun). “Much about the Korean War is still hidden, and much will long remain hidden. I believe I have succeeded in throwing new light on its origins.” —From the author’s preface In 1945 US troops arrived in Korea for what would become America’s longest-lasting conflict. While history books claim without equivocation that the war lasted from 1950 to 1953, those who have actually served there know better. By closely analyzing US intelligence before June 25, 1950 (the war’s official start), and the actions of key players like John Foster Dulles, General Douglas MacArthur, and Chiang Kai-shek, the great investigative reporter I. F. Stone demolishes the official story of America’s “forgotten war” by shedding new light on the tangled sequence of events that led to it. The Hidden History of the Korean War was first published in 1952—during the Korean War—and then republished during the Vietnam War. In the 1990s, documents from the former Soviet archives became available, further illuminating this controversial period in history.

The Korean War, which began in 1950 and ended in 1953, is not considered one of the major wars of the twentieth century. However, in reality, it was profoundly impactful on global history. As an early crisis of the Cold War, it set important precedents for how conflicts would be handled during this era. But also, it has shaped Korea’s history for more than half a century. Inside you will read about... ✓ Korea before World War II ✓ The End of World War II and the Cold War Context ✓ The Korean War Begins ✓ The United States Enters the Korean War ✓ The Korean War Escalates ✓ Stalemate at the 38th Parallel ✓ After the War It was destructive, and brought many atrocities on both sides. What is more, still to this day, Korea remains divided along the 38th parallel, and the people of North and South Korea live very different lives.

An enlightening account of America's first military manifestation of the cold war. War having never been declared, the mission was merely called a "peace action", though it eventually involved 19 member countries of the United Nations and more than 250,000 U.S. troops. 7 maps.

A BRACING ACCOUNT OF A WAR THAT IS EITHER MISUNDERSTOOD, FORGOTTEN, OR WILLFULLY IGNORED For Americans, it was a discrete conflict lasting from 1950 to 1953. But for the Asian world the Korean War was a generations-long struggle that still haunts contemporary events. With access to new evidence and secret materials from both here and abroad, including an archive of captured North Korean documents, Bruce Cumings reveals the war as it was actually fought. He describes its origin as a civil war, preordained long before the first shots were fired in June 1950 by lingering fury over Japan’s occupation of Korea from 1910 to 1945. Cumings then shares the neglected history of America’s post–World War II occupation of Korea, reveals untold stories of bloody insurgencies and rebellions, and tells of the United States officially entering the action on the side of the South, exposing as never before the appalling massacres and atrocities committed on all sides. Elegantly written and blisteringly honest, The Korean War is, like the war it illuminates, brief, devastating, and essential.

The Korean War (1950-53) began as a conflict between North Korea and South Korea and eventually involved the United States and nineteen other nations. An estimated three million people lost their lives during the war. For Americans who think that only GIs and their United Nations contingent comrades fought effectively, The Korean War will be a surprising introduction to the valor and sacrifice of the South Korean army. This comprehensive view of the war from the South Korean perspective has not been previously available in English translation. "The Korean War" comprises three volumes. Volume one examines the background of the war and sketches its development up to the intervention by Communist China. It carefully analyzes North Korean war planning, South Korea's early defensive efforts, and the collective security measures taken by the United Nations. The volume summarizes subsequent military operations, the defense along the Naktong Line, and the counteroffensive carried out in conjunction with the United Nations forces. "The Korean War" considers recently declassified documents as well as primary accounts by veterans.