The Korean war

the long version

"This volume investigates how this war occurred, the form it assumed, and how developments in the Korean peninsula have been shaped since 1953 by the preceding conflict. Attention is focused particularly on the motives, aims, calculations and blunders of each of the states principally engaged in the war. Serious errors were made by the leaders of each Korean state as well as by Soviet, American and Chinese leaders. Nobody wanted a conflict of significant proportions to erupt in Korea, and all involved were embarrassed at its prolongation." "Emphasis is placed on the discrete interests of each state and on the manipulation of the United Nations by the United States. The controversial role played by General Douglas MacArthur is discussed - with due acknowledgement made of the shared aims of the president, Harry S. Truman, and MacArthur in the early stages of the war, as well as the more famous disagreement between the two men culminating in Truman's dismissal of MacArthur. The reasons why the armistice negotiations extended over a two-year period are assessed, together with discussion of the failure to secure a full peace settlement, following the signing of an armistice in July 1953"--Jacket.