Behind Korea
Baker, John A.
Behind Korea The Korea Story, by John C. Caldwell and Lesley Frost. Reg-nery. 180 pp. $3. Verdict in Korea, by Robert T. Oliver. Bald Eagle Press. 207 pp. $4. The Hidden History of the Korean...
...It is doubtful if such men could have had the time to contrive events to the extent attributed to them...
...Research, equally as exhaustive as Stone's and Oliver's, must examine the same chronology of events with several additional alternative theories before the true history of the Korean war will be known...
...Oliver's main thesis is that the attainment of Rhee's aspirations coincide completely with the moral principles and long-term best interests of the American people...
...Even with its many inaccuracies and partial truths, The Korea Story leaves a broadly correct general impression of the foibles, frustrations, and failures of our government's foreign missions since 1945...
...The Hidden History simply does not sound plausible...
...In those incidents and situations of which I have personal observation or knowledge, I find his accounts to be largely accurate...
...Verdict in Korea is a Korean view of the war years, written by an American, Robert T. Oliver, a personal friend and top adviser to President Syngman Rhee...
...It is in his discussion of controversial policy issues and interpretation of the aspirations of the South Korean administration that Oliver's biases frankly show through...
...The Hidden History of the Korean War, by I. F. Stone...
...Stone's Hidden History is a monumental attempt to use officially reported facts to build a case for the theory that everybody connected with the Korean War in an official capacity was wrong...
...Neither has made a convincing case...
...Oliver tries to prove that everybody but Rhee was wrong most of the time...
...All three authors are critical of the actions and motives of Truman, Acheson, MacArthur, and the Pentagon, often for different reasons...
...it attributes so many bad motives to so many extremely busy men...
...The facts reported in The Korea Story relate to the propaganda and economic cooperation efforts of the United States in Korea between 1945 and the beginning of war in June 1950...
...All three authors "grind an ax," although the nature of Caldwell's ax is not entirely clear...
...The book is largely an encyclopedia of available information concerning the effect of the war on Korea and Koreans...
...Verdict in Korea attempts to give a society-wide picture of the recent war years in a long-term historical setting...
...As far as I have been able to determine, the information is as accurate as possible under the circumstances...
...Reviewed by John A. Baker THESE books tell you what to think about the Korean War, the Cold War, and the World Problem...
...If you want your conclusions in a neat ready-to-wear package, you'll have to pick just one of the three and discard the other two...
...364 pp...
...Caldwell is at his best when telling what he saw, heard, and felt in" Korea between the wars...
...Stone's account also attributes a much greater coordination between Truman, Dulles, Marshall, former Defense" Secretary Johnson, Rhee, Chiang, Pentagon generals, including Bradley, employes in the State Department, MacArthur, and many others than in actuality could have existed...
...Monthly Review Press...
...To find it, you must exercise a sharp sense of discrimination to distinguish fact from opinion, evidence from theory...
...While the Stone "revision" seems to hang together, closer examination reveals the whole tale to be too farfetched to be credible...
...The Korea Story tells simply and forthrightly, though with many detailed inaccuracies, of the amateurish blunderings of U.S...
...Moreover, this excellence of detail need not be lost by a discriminating reader even though it is rendered less plausible by being interlarded with somewhat naive and often only partially true generalizations concerning international political and economic considerations...
...The Hidden History is concerned with the buildup and conduct of the Korean war and peace efforts from 1950 to 1952...
...All three report, and marshal, an imposing, body of data skilfully and subtly subverted by a most persuasive facade...
...If you prefer to think out your own conclusions, you can find some of the information you need in all three...
...foreign operations, specifically in Korea...
...Only by identifying the facade, and getting behind it, can one begin to benefit from the facts reported...
Vol. 17 • April 1953 • No. 4
