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REFIGHTING THE LAST WAR: Command and Crisis in Korea, 1950-1953. By D. Clayton James. Free Press, New York, 282 pp., $24.95. (Member $22.45)
Experience gained as a history of warfare professor at an Ivy League university, and as a veteran of Inchon-Seoul, Chosin, and Central Korea shows me that this book is of great importance to students of warfare, as well as to veterans of Korea.
Author D. Clayton James, of The Years of MacArthur fame, explains in detail the main factors of all wars: the commanders, the crises they handled, and how.
From President Harry S Truman through the Army's MacArthur, Ridgway, and Clark to the Navy's Joy, he shows how each commander did his part in these grim 3 years in south, north, and finally the central region of Korea.
Then he traces the six key command decisions made, and what they portend for the conduct of future limited wars by our country. We learn how and why Truman decided to send Americans to fight in Korea (without asking Congress): "It was the right thing to do." Then,...