Under Fire

Amazon.com

Having wrapped up World War II with 1999's In Danger's Path, bestselling military author W.E.B. Griffin now deploys his Marines in Korea with Under Fire, the ninth volume in his Corps series. Back are familiar characters from Griffin's previous Corps books--daredevil pilot Pick Pickering, his Scotch-sipping father, Brigadier General Fleming Pickering, Capt. Ken "Killer" McCoy, and Master Gunner Ernie Zimmerman--with historical figures including President Harry Truman and General Douglas MacArthur making appearances as well. It's now 1950, and with Communist forces making their presence felt below the 38th Parallel, Griffin's plot centers on Gen. Pickering, now high up in the newly created CIA, and Ken McCoy as they work behind MacArthur's back to covertly pave the way for an invasion of North Korea.

Readers who crave nonstop battle action and excitement may find it hard to stick with Under Fire, as Griffin takes the time to detail the background leading up to one of America's least-remembered modern wars. Griffin writes for the true armed forces aficionado, filling his prose with realistic descriptions of procedure, gear, and materials, an alphabet's worth of acronyms, and an ex- soldier's ear for military dialogue. Look for more sharp, authentic writing in this series' next installment. --Benjamin Reese

Book Description

Griffin leaves WWII behind and thrusts his readers deep into the heart of the Korean War.

Customer Reviews:

My first Corps novel, (and hopefully not my last).......2007-03-17

This is the first time I've been exposed to Griffin's Corps novels. I listened to this one on tape, and I found it totally gripping! The characters are warm and very believable. Some are larger than life (ie: Major McCoy), but that's required in a novel of this type. One strong character is needed to carry the story along. I loved the inside look at one of the major battles of the Korean War (the attack on Inchon), and I liked the glimpse that we got of some real people, like General Douglas MacCarthur and President Harry Truman. I think Griffin has a really good understanding of the American Armed forces and the way that things are done there, and he tells a whopping good tale! I actually had shivers when I heard James Laughton describe the battle to take the two Korean islands that were required before the landing at Inchon could occur. And that's another thing - James Laughton does a wonderful job of reading this very exciting book. I truly enjoyed it, and am going to read or listen to other books in this series.

WARNING this is a 2-part set.......2006-08-21

WARNING! The Books-On-Tape unabridged version is a 2 part set, consisting of 18 (eighteen) cassettes in 2 (two) plastic cases. If a vendor does not specify all 18 cassettes, inquire before purchasing. Also, this is not "book 2" of anything, rather it is Book 9 of the Corps Series.

According to Amazon, reader reviews should not be used for such information, but Amazon ignores all corrections sent the way they specify for corrections.

Oh yes, this is a terrific book, and the audio version is superb.

Greeeeaaaaaat !.......2006-06-04

Don't miss reading it and "Retreat Hell". You can't miss the continuation of the story along with the excitement.

Not Great Literature but a Great Read.......2006-03-18

W.E.B. Griffin is not everyone's cup of tea, I enjoy him. This book like all of Griffin's books is a light fast good read. You know the characters and enjoy their further adventures.

If you read this book you should pick up "The Secrets of Inchon" mentioned in the author's notes. It is a truly amazing piece of first person writing.

A solid read for Griffin fans.......2005-11-12

W.E.B Griffin has carved out a niche in millitary fiction, as his large amount of book sales shows. He has perfected the blending of fictional and non-fictional characters in his various series of books. Under Fire continues his Corps series of books. Some of his major characters are back again, larger than life. These include Flem Pickering, called back into the colours, his Marine Aviator son,Pick Pickering and the former Marine raiders Ernest Zimmerman and most importantly, Major McCoy, now an intelligence specialist. Unfortunately some favourite characters are missing(Where is Jack Stecker?).

The novel starts shortly before the beginning of the Korean War with Flem Pickering , no longer a Marine General but a (very rich) businessman, who discovers on a visit to Japan that McCoy is about to be kicked out of the corps because he has written a report about North Korean millitary intentions that no one wants to see.

From this beginning the novel unfolds. We see what a shambles the beginning of the Korean War was with the U.S Army being given one of the greatest shocks in it's proud history, being pushed almost out of Korea together. The reader also sees the brilliance and madness of General MacArthur through Flem Pickerings eyes, who is fascianted and repelled by him in equal measure.

Flem Pickering also experiences some personal setbacks during the novel that make his plans to aid MacArthur in his role as CIA chief in Japan all the more difficult.

Along with some other readers I also feel slightly frustrated that the corps series has evolved into looking more at intelligence operations rather that the major campaigns of the Marine Corps. In doing so however Griffin has been able to shed light on events that are not so well known. He also probably surmised that many of these campaigns and the marines front line experences in World War Two and Korea have been already written about extensively in both fiction and non-fiction.

McCoy is still the central character of this series. In this novel he remains the pure Marine, absolutely committed to his task while still holding true to the virtues that the Marine Corps has taught him.

All in all it is a solid read for Griffin fans without quite rising to the heights of the earlier corps books or Griffins supreme achievement, The Brotherhood of War series.

This Is War!: A Photo Narrative of the Korean War

Average customer rating:

This is War!
BEING THERE THRU THE CAMERA LENS

This Is War!: A Photo Narrative of the Korean War
David Douglas Duncan
Manufacturer: Little Brown & Co (T)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Customer Reviews:

This is War!.......2000-06-28

My father, who was an artillery Captain in the Philippines during WWII, frequently pulled this book off the shelf to show me what war was like. He said that it was as close as you could get without actually being there. He died before he could see "Saving Private Ryan," but I think he would still say so even after seeing the movie.

BEING THERE THRU THE CAMERA LENS.......2000-06-26

This is THE most unforgettable view of the first days of the then called "Police Action" in Korea. Author Duncan lived with the men and portrayed all the comraderie, terror and fear that they did. His work makes an indelable image in our mind & is easy to grasp the magnatude of it. My now deceased husband was one of those young Marines and one of the walking wounded who lived in pain his whole life. He treasured this book and knew the subjects. He found it a way to bury his emotions and go on with a "normal" lifestyle. This book had to help Truman change and understand it was not a simple mop-up action....but This WAS War! Although out of print, my family is trying to get copies to pass on to their children to help us better understand their father. It is especially appropriate at this time when attention is being given the Korean Conflict's 50th anniversary. I wish they would reprint it and distribute a copy to all high school and college libraries.

Average customer rating:

The end of a great series!
'The Corps' Series
HUSBAND'S RESPONSE
I Surrendered!
hell in a handbasket

Retreat, Hell! (Corps)
W. E. B. Griffin
Manufacturer: Jove
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0515138614

Book Description

It is the fall of 1950. The Marines have made a pivotal breakthrough at Inchon, but a roller coaster awaits them. While Douglas MacArthur chomps at the bit, intent on surging across the 38th parallel, Brigadier General Fleming Pickering works desperately to mediate the escalating battle between MacArthur and President Harry Truman. And somewhere out there, his own daredevil pilot son, Pick, is lost behind enemy lines--and may be lost forever.

Customer Reviews:

The end of a great series!.......2007-07-22

The Corps series is the first series that I have read of W.E.B. Griffin, but it certainly won't be the last. Griffin is a marvellous writer who mixes actual people in with his fictional people. His stories are epics and the plots are larger than life as war so often is. This book is set around the beginning of the Korean War in the latter part of 1950. Most of the action takes place behind the lines in North Korea. Major Ken (Killer) McCoy takes a lead role in this one as he mounts a series of behind-the-lines surveillance teams. Their main job is to monitor the Chinese border to determine whether of not the Red Chinese are going to enter the war. We have a lot of the original characters from World War II such as General Fleming Pickering, Colonel Ed Banning, Major Malcom Pickering and Master Gunnery Sergeant Zimmerman, as well as some new names and people. The book is so realistic that it took my breath away. I am very sorry to reach the end of this stupendous series. I will next tackle The Badge of Honor series. If I get half as much enjoyment out of that as I did with this one, I will be happy.

'The Corps' Series.......2007-07-19

While I am enjoying Griffin's new 'Presidential' series, I just re-read his 'The Corps' series from beginning to end, and I really think that there is room for a couple of more books there. _Retreat, Hell!_ ended with the birth of the McCoy's son and the Chinese have just entered the Korean War. What happened to his characters next? What about Vietnam and the CIA in the 1950s? The 1960s?

HUSBAND'S RESPONSE.......2007-01-11

iT WAS AN ORDER FOR MY HUSBAND AND THE LAST BOOK IN THE SERIES THAT HE HAD NOT READ AND COULDN'T
FIND SO IT WAS GREAT.

I Surrendered!.......2007-01-04

Having struggled through about half of Retreat, Hell, I surrendered to the boring plot, weak character development and lack of action and gave up reading it. The jacket cover made me feel that I was going to be in for a real treat. However, I was misled and can sum my feelings up about this book in one acronym...NATO... no action, talk only. Rather than providing a good mix of action and military history, Retreat, Hell is so filled with minutiae that it overwhelms any of the very few and far between parts that are (at best) moderately exciting. Do yourself a favor and sjip this book.

hell in a handbasket.......2006-08-16

W.E.B. Griffin's novelistic account of the Korean Conflict in 1950 teaches even as it entertains. Douglas Macarthur - who is still revered as the hero his president wouldn't listen to by many South Koreans - is primed for glory, but has to deny the massive Chinese presence that awaits his troops if he's going to get there.

Enter Ken McCoy, your basic straight-talking grunt who sees clearly, shoots when he has to, and wins the day. Sort of.

Not a brilliant literary piece, if that's what you need. But a colorful introduction to the no-win drama of the Korean Conflict and some of its key players, not to mention an interesting insight into the psychology of the Corps when its civilian and military masters wander off the beaten track.

North Korean Special Forces (Naval Institute Special Warfare Series)

Average customer rating:

Good overview
Excellent resource with a few flaws...
An Important Contribution
Accurate and Informative
about it

North Korean Special Forces (Naval Institute Special Warfare Series)
Joseph S. Bermudez Jr.
Manufacturer: Naval Institute Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1557500665

Customer Reviews:

Good overview.......2006-08-10

This is a very good overview of the North Korean special forces, and is an essential building block for anyone interested in the subject. Drawn mostly from Foreign Broadcast Infornation Service translated documents, it does suffer from a minor, but disturbing, error. My 1998 edition refers to Kim Il-sung's guerrilla clique as the "Kaspen Group", after their area of operations along the North Korean/Manchurian border. The actual place name is "Gapsan" or "Kapsan", depending upon the romanization system, so the clique is the Gapsan or Kapsan group. This error is repeated throughout the book. I would have also liked an explanation as to why North Koreans adopted the term "sniper" for their SF specific units. While everyone agrees that it is an honorific dating back to Kim Il-sung's Soviet 88th Sniper Brigade, the actual Soviet designation for that unit was 88th "Strelnaya" Bde, which had likewise been translated as the 88th Independent Infantry Brigade. I am told that the Soviet term "Strelnaya" (shooter) was used for all Soviet Infantry formations. My notes give the NK term as "Jeo Gyeok", which refers to a team of rifle toting snipers.

Excellent resource with a few flaws..........2001-12-23

I really enjoyed this book. It is really the only book that authoritatively covers this topic. The book's sections on the different SF organizations in the DPRK are based on solid evidence. Some of the information seemed to me to be quite old (from the 60's), but nevertheless is convincing and still relevant considering that the DPRK seems to still operate in many of the same ways.

It is not surprising that some of the rhetoric in the book is right-of-center. For instance, Bermudez (like most other American authors on the DPRK) likes to point out atrocities committed by 'communist' guerillas while ignoring the fact that most atrocities committed during the period of 1945-1953 were committed by the Korean National Police, Army of the Republic of Korea, and right-wing youth groups. He mentions atrocities committed by communists during the Yosu-Sunchon Rebellion, but fails to mention the utter holocaust visited upon the residents of Cheju Island by the Korean Constabulary (Army), KNP, and violent right-wing youth groups; by the way, these forces were transported to the island with US assets and advised by US military advisors in the field. Bermudez doesn't seem to be interested in really addressing what motivated the guerillas of the South, but considering the scope of this book, this is just a minor detail.

Also rather annoying were the frequent and obvious spelling and grammar issues. I don't think there was much of an editing process! Check out page 22 where Bermudez says that communist partisans were to "ferment unrest". I didn't know you COULD "ferment" unrest(!) I believe the word he was looking for was "foment". These issues with his English are frequent enough to be somewhat of an annoyance, but don't really make the book any less interesting.

An Important Contribution.......2000-07-21

One is hard-pressed to find a well-researched material on North Korea's military forces, though there are some excellent research books written by military officers in "lessons learned" formats. The North Korean special operations force, according to South Korea's Defense White Paper, poses one of the most significant military threat in the region along with P'yongyang's chemical weapons and ballistic missiles. This book traces this formidable force from its inception through the present, revealing a significant facet of North Korea's overall military strategy. Despite the timeliness of this work and the depth of its research from one of the most well-known North Korea specialist, it suffers from somewhat poor readability.

Accurate and Informative.......1999-12-15

I had the privilege of interviewing Mr. Bermudez as well as reading this book while researching North Korean Special Forces. The book is highly informative and the author exceptionally knowledgeable. It would be interesting to see the latest information he has gathered considering the present economic/food situations.

At time of printing, NKSF were the best special forces in the world for their set of missions. Other special forces are better suited for different missions and have different resources available to them.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking for reliable background information on the specific topic, as well as anyone interested in the highly ideological and self sacrificial mentality instilled in these people.

about it.......1999-12-04

Talk about tough... The NKSF are probably the best in the world. Although straight on comparison is impossible, they seem to be the best. The encounters with other special forces in 1953 doesn't qualify an objective comparison considering that in 1953 North Korea was very unorganized socially and militarily. Also they were in horrible economical shape with most of it's people starving. Things are kind of different now. Their military traing and organization is upgraded and soldiers are better fed. That would make a tremendous difference. Anyways, the book's great.

The Captains: Brotherhood of War 02 (Brotherhood of War)

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One of WEB's Best
The best of a great series!
The Real Scoop
Korean War
Excellent Series

The Captains: Brotherhood of War 02 (Brotherhood of War)
W. E. B. Griffin
Manufacturer: Jove
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0515091383

Customer Reviews:

One of WEB's Best.......2005-06-05

The Captains is certainly one of the best books in any of the series Griffin has written. I served in armored cavalry and in MI and Griffin knows the army and its array of characters. He is a master of character development, dialogue and military humor. There is none of the obsequious boot-licking of the military present in Clancy's novels. Unlike Clancy, who has his lips firmly entrenched on the military's derriere, Griffin pulls no punches. I can't give Griffin a better salute than to say, GARRYOWEN, SIR!

The best of a great series!.......2005-05-17

I love the whole Brotherhood of War series, but the Captains is my favorite. Griffin is the king of ground pounder fiction! If you skip the rest of the series, read this one!

The Real Scoop.......2005-04-08

I have read the entire series more than once, and it gets better every time I read it. Mr. Griffin definately has the gift for describing the military community. I gave 20 years to my country, and I can't wait for him to talk about the Air Force.

Korean War.......2004-10-13

I finaly read "The Captains", the second "Brotherhood of War" book, and it is so far my favorite. The Korean War has started up and Cpt. Craig Lowell is called back to active duty as a tank commander. Through several misadventures, he eventually winds up a major at the age of 25 (realisticly impossable in today's Army). Meanwhile Capt. Felter is advancing nicely in his chosen feild, working as the Army's liaison to the CIA. Capt. MacMillian is being shoveled around as a great war hero, and no one wants him to get hurt, so this is very irritating to a war hungrey solider. This book is pretty solid, I read it in a brisk two nights. I love how eerything seemed to flow efforlessly, and the characterization is pretty dead on, especially brat Lowell. You may read about him and wonder how the Army tolerates people like him. Take my word for it, they just do. Being in war makes officials over look childish behavoir. If there is only one problem, it is that the succesion of rank is too improbable. I would have loved to have gone from Private First Class to a Major in six years. Oh well. Otherwise it has great action, from early tank defensives, to the Task Force Lowell, to the black ops mission at the end that puts Felter in mortal danger. I loved it.

Excellent Series.......2001-07-27

With Brotherhood of War, Griffin definitely wrote an excellent series. His candid description of people and events makes you believe that you are a part of the book as well. Once I started this series I read all eight books in record time. The Captains describes our protagonists time in Korea, as well as some very defining moments in the life of Caraig Lowell. Don't miss this one.

Lost Names: Scenes from a Korean Boyhood

Average customer rating:

Insightful and uplifting
Nonfiction bogged down by fiction
Lost Names
Korean pride triumphs
No blame, just poetry

Lost Names: Scenes from a Korean Boyhood
Richard E. Kim
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0520214242

Amazon.com

From 1932 to 1945, the Japanese occupied Korea. Organized in seven vivid scenes, Kim's fictionalized memoir tells the story of one family's experience, as told by the boy. The narrative starts in 1933 with a dramatic iced-river crossing into Manchuria, when the boy was just a year old, a story the boy knows from the many times his mother has told him the tale. Next scene and we're in 1938. The boy and his family have moved back to Korea, where the boy is the new boy in school and is learning new routines like bowing his head toward where the Japanese emperor is supposed to be in Tokyo. He does as he is told, but wonders if the emperor knows the children are bowing to him, wonders if he's asleep, or eating breakfast--or maybe even in the toilet. He pictures someone knocking on the door, saying, "Your Majesty! The children, the children! They are bowing to Your Majesty!" and him saying, "Wait a minute! I have my pants down!"

A few years later, the children are told they need new names--the Koreans must renounce their family names and take Japanese ones instead. Later, his father takes him to the cemetery to ask forgiveness from their ancestors for the humiliation of losing their names. The scenes continue as the boy grows up, mingling the experiences of childhood with the history of the occupation, seen in the small day-to-day moments that bring history alive. Richard Kim uses a simple but powerful voice to evoke painful times, a loving family, and a strong spirit of survival. Lost Names is a beautifully written tribute to the people of Korea that is subtle, moving, and hard to put down.

Book Description

In this classic tale, Richard Kim paints seven vivid scenes from a boyhood and early adolescence in Korea at the height of the Japanese occupation, 1932 to 1945. Taking its title from the grim fact that the occupiers forced the Koreans to renounce their own names and adopt Japanese names instead, the book follows one Korean family through the Japanese occupation to the surrender of the Japanese empire. Lost Names is at once a loving memory of family and a vivid portrayal of life in a time of anguish.

Customer Reviews:

Insightful and uplifting.......2007-10-10

While reading this book I got the impression that it was a memoir. It is actally not so please be aware of this when reading. Considering that it is fiction the author was surprisingly "tame" in telling the story. I was expecting another depressing memoir of a family destroyed by the Japanese occupation. In Kim's book, however, the family's suffering is more subtle and their eventual triump refreshing. It's nice to not read a book where everyone and their mothers die a painful death. This book gave a lot of insight into the lives of Koreans during the occupation. It was also nice to know that not all of the imperial Japanese soldiers were as gruesome as they were in the Rape of Nanjing.

Nonfiction bogged down by fiction.......2007-06-15

The "scenes from a Korean boyhood" in this book, which are evidently based on actual events, are very compelling and convey powerfully what life was like under the Japanese occupation of Korea. So that's the reason to read this book. Unfortunately, these scenes are set in a kind of fiction jello that connects one episode with another by means of impressionistic accounts of the Korean landscape and so on. This sort of writing is much less successful, and you'll find your eyes sliding past some of it. Kim is not as skillful at blending fiction and nonfiction as, say, Dave Eggers, and one wishes the author had related more about the father, who had been imprisoned by the Japanese, or the grandparents, or even the village, which was located in what is now North Korea. However, that would be a different book. Lost Names is not difficult reading and is certainly a good place to begin learning about what Koreans endured during World War II.

Lost Names.......2007-04-05

Imperialism is something that is often associated exclusively with the West. The histories of the British colonization of India and the Spanish colonies of Latin America abound, but many fail to notice the history of the Empire of Japan, which held Eastern Asia prior to and during the Second World War. Richard Kim writes about his childhood experience in Korea from 1932 to 1945 in his book Lost Names: Scenes from a Korean Boyhood and focuses on the situation of Japanese imperialism on the Korean peninsula, and the effects of the colonization.
Richard sees first hand how Japan influence on Korea is affecting his family life, school, and friendships. The book begins with an image of Kim's family leaving Korea for a job and being stopped by the Japanese Imperial Army. This was the first of the scenes that were told through the eyes of Richard Kim. The book goes on to depict six more stories, separated by chapters.
Japan is painted as an outside influence, which is taking over Korea in a more passive way. The narrator describes the Japanese as not bad people, but people who are distinct from the native Koreans, and collectively more powerful and all-surrendering when it comes to their Emperor. This is shown when the narrator talks about how the books gets it's name, in which the Koreans are made to give up their Korean names in exchange for a Japanese name. Showing the strong nature of his family the name chosen by his father means "Foundation of Rock."
Throughout the book, Koreans are portrayed as being in control in Korea behind the thick wall of Japanese occupation. This is largely personified in the character of Kim's college-educated father, whose firm anti-Japanese standpoints are looked-up-to by much of the local community. In spite of this, many Koreans are portrayed to be people who are indebted to the Japanese - shown by the character of Kim's teacher.
Aside from the educated people, Koreans are portrayed as being unaware of the events around the world at the time, shown by the narrator's mother's obliviousness to the unfolding of German invasions in Europe and Japanese occupations in China. These chapters's focus on day-to-day event, which make it very important to the overall understanding the reader, gets of the depth of the effects of the Japanese colonization.
Overall this book was very informative, one is able to see the true impact of the Japanese during World War II. However, not every event depicted in the story is completely true is still shows a first hand perspective in a new way, through a child eye. I would recommend the book to anyone interested in history or the impact of war. Just keep in mind this is not completely factual, but it will give you a better understanding of Korean history.

Korean pride triumphs.......2005-09-21

This was probably my favorite of the books we read in the Japanese History course I took my senior year of college. Young Richard Kim spent the majority of his childhood in his native Korea while it was under occupation by the Japanese, who were not very nice to or tolerant of his people, no matter they were the majority and the occupying Japanese were the minority. There are many hardships and much prejudice he faces growing up, from neighbors, the government, teachers, and schoolmates, but he never loses his sense of pride and Korean nationalism, constantly being reminded by his parents (who are ministers) and his grandmother to remain aware of where he comes from, his identity, the sustained hope that the Japanese won't always be in Korea, and to do well in school and set a fine example to the Japanese, since he mustn't let those Japanese boys at school think they're better than he is. When WWII comes along, everyone suffers the normal wartime deprivations, such as food shortages and bombing raids, but it is especially hard for the Koreans in the midst. Young Richard is forced, along with his classmates, to bow in the direction of the Emperor each morning, recite an ode of allegiance to the Emperor and Japanese government, and, worst of all, to even change his family name. All Koreans are forced to change their surnames to Japanese surnames, although Richard's father is clever and changes their family's name to one with the root meaning "rock," which of course is a reference to Saint Peter and the family's religious faith, a reference the Japanese won't get. It's enough to take away and try to usurp one's culture, traditions, customs, language, and way of life, but when you take away someone's name, that is in a way the ultimate erasure of their identity. Even when forced to, at least on the surface, speak a foreign language, submit to foreign leaders, and follow alien customs, there's still the comfort of knowing your base identity, your name, is still the same, but taking it away makes this prejudice and attempted usurpation of Korean culture incredibly personal and insulting.

It didn't really bother me that some of these memories and thoughts are very complex and detailed for a child as young as Richard is in the beginning. Many times memories of traumatic defining events are stronger and more vivid and real precisely because they were so awful and traumatic, leaving more impact than something as mundane as, say, eating breakfast or walking the dog. And even if some gaps in Richard's memory may have been filled in by what he imagines happened or what his family have told him happened, it doesn't lessen the emotional impact of these events in the slightest. And I like how it was told in the present tense; since discovering quite some time ago that books can be written in the present tense and there's no rule written in stone saying you must only and always write in the past tense, I've much preferred books written in the present tense. It makes the events seem more real and gripping, full of suspense and tension, like constantly wondering what's going to happen next, living right in the moment.

No blame, just poetry.......2005-08-28

A beautifully written book that places you in Korea during the second world war. Fast reading, and well paced told from the POV of a very (maybe too!) wise young boy. Only thing that got me down was knowing that it ended just before the next war again wreaked such damage and havoc, and there was no post script. Definitely worth reading.

Average customer rating:

Tense and Captivating
A Master At Work
A gem.
Salter is one of our best
Very good war novel

The Hunters: A Novel
James Salter
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0375703926
Release Date: 1999-07-27

Book Description

With his stirring, rapturous first novel--originally published in 1956 --James Salter established himself as the most electrifying prose stylist since Hemingway. Four decades later, it is clear that he also fashioned the most enduring fiction ever about aerial warfare.

Captain Cleve Connell arrives in Korea with a single goal: to become an ace, one of that elite fraternity of jet pilots who have downed five MIGs. But as his fellow airmen rack up kill after kill--sometimes under dubious circumstances--Cleve's luck runs bad. Other pilots question his guts. Cleve comes to question himself. And then in one icy instant 40,000 feet above the Yalu River, his luck changes forever. Filled with courage and despair, eerie beauty and corrosive rivalry, The Hunters is a landmark in the literature of war.

Customer Reviews:

Tense and Captivating.......2006-07-18

An outstanding war novel that remains technically accurate without losing the non-flying reader. I am a pilot and historian so following the flying terms and pilot jargon in the story was not an issue. What is outstanding is that because of the skill of the author a novice would not be left behind.

The author's use of graphic terms, words pictures and imagery puts you there and the story keeps you turning the pages.

Loved it

A Master At Work.......2006-03-26

Salter's great writing captures the society of combat pilots at war, the weather as well as the tumbling dogfights. The great fears - looking bad, running out of fuel and dying, probably in that order.

The characters and the story are awesome but what really sets this book apart is the focused quality of the writing. Highly recommended .

A gem........2006-03-17

This book had been sitting on my shelf a while and may have gone unread forever, but I checked the Amazon reviews and found it to have received only praise all across the board. Well, I just finished reading the book, and can now add my own commendation. The simple name and the comic-book-like jet fighter cover art (on my 48 year old copy) would lead one to believe this is a crude shoot 'em up Korean War adventure yarn rather than a fine piece of literature. I found it to be fine literature. All the more remarkable due to the story being imbedded in the environment of jet fighter warfare. The story is about one man's, Captain Cleve Saville's, arrival and tour of combat duty at a bleak Air Force fighter base in Korea. He enjoys a short vacation to Tokyo, with a little romance, and otherwise spends his time flying combat missions, or mostly waiting anxiously between flights. Salter writes stunning and beautiful descriptive passages. Sometimes the metaphor is almost overwhelming and leaves the reader looking for some plain syntax. But it comes along. Salter (who has been there) masterfully describes the interpersonal dynamic among men living and risking together under the various stesses. There is intricate insight into the inner ambitions and competitions among the pilots. The bravado and also the fear. The reader feels the bitter Korean winter, and the blistering heat sitting in the cockpit on a summertime runway. The all too rare flight time is magic. Clearly the cool blue sky made a tremendous impression on Salter during his combat flying days. He loved it and writes about it so we can all feel it. Most of the air mission time was boring and Salter is candid about it and spends little time with it. There are some moments in combat that are so intense that I found them almost disconcerting and had to pace myself through them. Saville endures both interpersonal and internal conflict throughout the story. I felt the tale was on the express route toward a big climax, but was not ready for what it was (and it was multiple). The reader is safe in Salter's hands. He delivers. The novel is short. Absolutely no reason not to read it. Highly recommended.

Salter is one of our best.......2006-01-17

Perhaps because he is not as prolific as other American authors, James Salter is far too often overlooked. But his writing ranks among the very best of America's 20th century authors. His prose is spare, dead-on, and shockingly beautiful. The Hunters, Salter's first book, ranks among his best. The story is simple: a Korean War fighter pilot who is failing in a game in which the only way to keep score is by the number of MIGs he downs. The hero, Cleve Connell, finds himself and his soul, however, when he ultimately gives credit for a downed enemy jet to one of his colleagues. In this particular game, there can be no more of a selfless action undertaken. And that, to Connell, makes all the difference. A beautiful book with a wonderful message. And, in the end, Salter takes no prisoners. Like the grayness of the Korean War itself, this book makes no firm conclusions, nor does it allow us a happy ending.

Very good war novel.......2005-10-21

James Salter's reputation lies in his ability as a craftsman: he writes carefully weighed, chiselled prose, Hemingwayesque in its simplicity and directness. In this early novel he writes about a jet fighter pilot (Cleve Cornell) in the Korean War and his desire to become one of the elite by shooting down at least 5 MIGs.

But the fates are against him, and every time he goes out on a mission, he encounters no enemy planes. (Some might consider this a blessing, but not Cornell.) Finally he registers a kill, but a fellow pilot is shot down at the same time, and Cornell allows the deceased pilot to get the credit for it. Still trying to achieve his goal, Cornell is essentially shot down and killed on his near-last mission. The writing is excellent, very precise and straightforward. It's easy to see why Salter is such an influential writer.

Commander in Chief: How Truman, Johnson, and Bush Turned a Presidential Power into a Threat to America's Future

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Red Hot Anger Harms Strength of Message
Excellent book
Brillant or Left Wing Propanganda ?

Commander in Chief: How Truman, Johnson, and Bush Turned a Presidential Power into a Threat to America's Future
Geoffrey Perret
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0374102171
Release Date: 2007-02-06

Book Description

This is a story of ever-expanding presidential powers in an age of unwinnable wars. Harry Truman and Korea, Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam, George W. Bush and Iraq: three presidents, three ever broader interpretations of the commander in chief clause of the Constitution, three unwinnable wars, and three presidential secrets. Award-winning presidential biographer and military historian Geoffrey Perret places these men and events in the larger context of the post-World War II world to establish their collective legacy: a presidency so powerful it undermines the checks and balances built into the Constitution, thereby creating a permanent threat to the Constitution itself.

In choosing to fight in Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq, Truman, Johnson, and Bush alike took counsel of their fears, ignored the advice of the professional military and major allies, and were influenced by facts kept from public view. Convinced that an ever-more powerful commander in chief was the key to victory, they misread the moment. Since World War II wars have become tests of stamina rather than strength, and more likely than not they sow the seeds of future wars. Yet recent American presidents have chosen to place their country in the forefront of fighting them. In the course of doing so, however, they gave away the secret of American power—for all its might, the United States can be defeated by chaos and anarchy.

Customer Reviews:

Red Hot Anger Harms Strength of Message.......2007-06-16

I've just about finished a very uneven diatribe against American presidential power called "Commander-in-Chief," by Geoffrey Perret, an historian who wrote a good bio of U. S. Grant about 10 years ago. The basic premise of the new book is that Truman, Johnson, and Bush Two extended presidential power in unconstitutional ways to pursue wrongheaded wars, and they had help from Nixon, Reagan, Clinton and Bush One. JFK, Ford, and Carter get somewhat of a pass, but not JFK's advisors, and certainly not his generals.
Much of Perret's prose is so vitrolic and sarcastic that it takes away from the strength of the arguments he's trying to put forward. His footnoting of his research is also uneven; a claim that a Kuwaiti diplomat's daughter gave perjured testimony to the U.S. Congress about butchered babies in the Iraqi attack on Kuwait, and that this testimony helped persuade Congress to vote for war powers to attack Iraq in Gulf One, is unsupported by any footnotes. The hell of it is that he's basically on the money in his assessments.
I'm too old and fixed in habit to stop reading and listening to historical and political pundits, but I would solemnly advise you not to bother to do so, and just simply vote against any politician (such as Rudi Giuliani) who suggests that going to war is going to solve our problems. As Perret points out, the U.S. must reassess the limits of its power, find alernative energy sources other than in the Mideast, and stop parading around as the toughest guy on the block. Otherwise, the chaos and anarchy created by our unwise actions will ultimately combine to make us defeat ourselves.

Excellent book.......2007-05-29

Perret does a fine job of showing how the war powers of congress have been gradually eroded to the point where the president may take the country to war at whim and not be held accountable. He shows how the trend actually began with Truman and continued with a the series of our "smaller" wars. Overall, a very good analysis. No one else has summed up this material quite as well.

Brillant or Left Wing Propanganda ?.......2007-03-31

If you believe that the result of the Korean,Vietnam and current war in Iraq have permanetly harmed this nation and benfitted China then this book is for you. Perret trace the origins of the cold war and although condems Stalin's brutalty chareterizes the reponse of the Soviet Union and Mao as reasonable.

Perret traces the cold war to Gerald Ford and manages to only praise Kennedy's handing. He calls Nixon a mad man but the sub title doesn't mention him. He barely mentions Carter or Reagen which is suprising considering how even liberal historians give Reagen some credit for ending the cold war.

The last one third of the book descends into an anti Bush diatribe. Any pretension about being an even handed historian from a liberal bent are disgarded and every emotional /charge is made agaisnt GW Bush from calling him an action figure to a draft dodger drug user.He details Bush's alleged evil deeds such as signing statemnts. There appears to be factual errors in this part of the book but to detail them is beyond my responsibilty (much like the writer's I suppose). Perret inadvertedly makes Bush's arguments that the jihadists will follow us back to the US. Isn't it the Republican argument that it is better to fight them in Bagdad than in the streets of New York ?

It is said that those who do not learn the mistakes of the past are doomed to relieve them. However Perret stands this on its end by weaving history to fit his conclusions about the present.

I gave this three stars for the insignt one gets from the first half of the book but the second part should have been written twenty years form now when emotions cool .

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To Begin Again: A Novel of Love And War
Terence T. Finn
Manufacturer: Pentland Press (NC)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1571974628

Book Description

In June of 1950, North Korean troops swept across the 38th Parallel defeating both American and South Korean troops, but failing to drive them into the sea. An amphibious landing at Inchon reversed the tide, and led to U.S. forces moving into North Korea soon reaching the border of Manchuria. Whereupon Chinese armies crushed the American Eighth Army, pushing it back to the Parallel. Two years of battle ensued with the Americans enjoying some success though, ultimately, the armistice resulted in the two sides in positions they had occupied at the beginning of the conflict.

Key to AmericaÂ's ability to match Chinese and North Korean forces was control of the sky. And key to this airpower was the F-86 Sabre which, with well-trained pilots, controlled the airspace above the Korean peninsula taking on, and defeating, Russian-built MiG-15s flown by North Korean, Chinese, and Soviet pilots. To Begin Again tells the story of one of these aviators. Colonel Benjamin McGrath, a Georgetown University history professor, is recalled to the Air Force and goes to Korea, commanding a special detachment of F-86s to engage the MiGs at 30,000 feet above the Yalu River. The novel relates his combat experiences, his romance with one of his students, his friendship with a Jesuit colleague at Georgetown, and his involvement with a young American schoolteacher in Japan.

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Still looking for Proud Legions

An Insightful Study

Superb History

The Classic Military History of the Korean War

Must-read for citizens

This Kind of War: The Classic Korean War History - Fiftieth Anniversary Edition
T.R. Fehrenbach
Manufacturer: Potomac Books Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Hell in a Very Small Place: The Siege of Dien Bien Phu

Breakout: The Chosin Reservoir Campaign, Korea 1950

Korean War

The Village

Attacks: ROMMEL

ASIN: 1574883348

Book Description

Updated with maps, photographs, and battlefield diagrams, this special fiftieth anniversary edition of the classic history of the Korean War is a dramatic and hard-hitting account of the conflict written from the perspective of those who fought it. Partly drawn from official records, operations journals, and histories, it is based largely on the compelling personal narratives of the small-unit commanders and their troops. Unlike any other work on the Korean War, it provides both a clear panoramic overview and a sharply drawn "you were there" account of American troops in fierce combat against the North Korean and Chinese communist invaders. As Americans and North Koreans continue to face each other across the 38th Parallel, This Kind of War commemorates the past and offers vital lessons for the future.

Customer Reviews:

Still looking for Proud Legions.......2007-10-11

There aren't many "classics" of history or literature addressing the Korean War. T.R. Fehrenbach's "This Kind of War", first published in the early 1960s, is probably the closest thing we have to a Korean War history by an American that has endured.

Make no mistake, this book shows its age. To begin with, the Japanese are "Japs", Asians are "Orientals" and the African-American troops who served in Korea (often quite poorly, the author stresses) are "Colored." Beyond the superficial shock of the use of non-PC terms is the questionable legacy of Harry Truman, especially his commitment to achieving status quo ante bellum on the Korean peninsula from late 1951 onward in the face of North Korean and Chinese attack and weakness, are vigorously questioned. Heading into the US presidential election of 2008, TIME Magazine ran a cover story asking which candidate of either party had the mettle and virtues of Harry Truman. One gets the sense in reading "This Kind of War" that the 2008 TIME cover is like asking contemporary Americans to imagine a 2060 magazine cover asking "who has what it takes to be the next George W. Bush?"

Signs of age aside, Fehrenbach pays special attention to two issues that are essentially tangential to the main story of the Korean War. First, the author is clearly disgusted at what happened to the US Army in the years after the Second World War. He sees an army that had gone soft and pours forth bile at the post-war Doolittle Commission that smoothed out the rough edges of the Army and strove to make the Army a more livable occupation for the typical American. Fehrenbach addresses the issue specifically in chapter 25, titled "Proud Legions." He argues that the US needs a tough core of professional soldiers if it is to play a leading role in the world, not an Army of citizen-soldiers who are apt to complain, not take orders and to look longingly to their return home.

This quote captures Fehrenbach's sentiment and his central argument in the book: "...some American mothers had given their sons everything in the world, except a belief in themselves, their culture, and their manhood. They had, some of them, sent their sons out into a world with tigers without telling them that there were tigers, and with no moral armament."

Second, and somewhat related, is the issue of American performance and treatment in the prisoner war camps of the north. Fehrenbach frequently comments on the fragility of US servicemen in northern POW camps and how quickly and easily they broke compared to other Allied POWs, such as the Turks, none of whom died or collaborated while in captivity. Meanwhile, the author argues, the US was pushed around by a sorry collection of communist POWs on Koje-do Island in the south.

Some final comments are worthwhile. It was surprising to read how the communist forces "owned the night" during the entire conflict. The most spectacular and decisive actions by the enemy occurred in near pitch darkness and the US forces clearly feared the night. Today, and really since the 1960s, US forces rely heavily on their technical superiority in night-vision and infra-red and have thus successfully taken back the night.

Next, the author argues that the typical reference to Chinese hordes by American press was a propaganda tool, pure-and-simple, to make Americans back home feel better about the horrendous defeats suffered by their sons and husbands in Korea against an ethnic group many saw as mere "laundry men." Fehrenbach stresses continually that the UN forces actually held a numerical edge for most of the war - at least from the time of the Pusan perimeter in early 1950. Reference to communist "hordes" was really a fabrication meant to make Americans feel better about the unprecedented defeats of the US Army.

A final point - the US administration of Harry Truman, today seen as a paragon of sage statesmanship, was willing to endure upwards of 30,000 casualties a year to convince the communists that it was committed to maintain the status quo ante bellum on the Korean Peninsula. How many American casualties will the next US president endure to establish Western commitment to not see Iraq descend into genocidal civil war or come under the grips of an intractable Sunni or Shiite government?

An Insightful Study.......2007-10-09

This excellent book provides a view of the "forgotten" Korean War. It goes into the background and into the causes of the total lack of readiness exhibited by the US. This insight is particularly useful in that it shows a direct path to actions in the recent past such as Bill Clinton wasting large numbers of expensive cruise missiles blowing up insignificant targets but studiously avoiding putting in ground troops.

Superb History.......2007-03-03

This is probably the best book on the Korean war ever written.

Mr. Fehrenbach was a teacher of history when the war broke out. He was also in the Army's reserve component. When his unit was mobilized, he went with it. He served throughout the war in positions that gave him excellent, first hand, experience.

When the war ended and his unit was demobilized, he went back to his civilian profession of teaching history. He also started writing this book.

While I was attending the Infantry Officer Advance Course (IOAC) in '79-80, ever general officer who came to address the assembled classes at, what we affectionately called, Benning School for Boys told us READ THIS BOOK. And they were RIGHT!

It covers the gamet of aspects relating to modern warfare from the perspective of the simple soldier to the generals to the national leaders. From the poigant anecdotes of paratroopers gone AWOL so they could get to the fighting, to the making of disasters, e.g., Task Force SMITH and the retreat of the 2d Infantry Division during the Chinese Intervention.

It is a MUST read for everyone who is a military officer and anyone who has an abiding interest in military history.

Regards,

Chuck Pelto

The Classic Military History of the Korean War.......2006-09-15

T.R. Fehrenbach's "This Kind of War" is the classic military history of the Korean War. Fehrenbach addresses the strategic and operational aspects of the conflict, but much of his focus is on the tactical experience of U.S. units. His book is a searing indictment of the U.S. military and of the United States for having failed to maintain combat-ready forces less than five years removed from the end of the Second World War.

The U.S. Army and Marine Corps elements thrust into sudden conflict in June 1950 following the communust invasion of the Republic of Korea had to relearn, the hard way, all the old and hard lessons of warfare. Young soldiers who had been coddled by peacetime occupation duty in Japan found the battlefield to be a merciless place of death for those who were unprepared. In Fehrenbach's words "They were learning, in the hardest school there was, that it is a soldier's lot to suffer and that his destiny may be to die."

Fehrenbach's prose is blunt and straightforward; the narrative sketches the ancient truths of combat and their modern realities and pulls no punches with respect to the shortcomings of both the military and the political leadership. Aging General Douglas McArthur ran great risks during the Battle of the Pusan Perimeter in August 1950 to husband forces for the spectacular September counterstroke at Inchon that turned the tide of combat, only to underestimate the risk of Chinese intervention and suffer an humiliating defeat inside North Korea in November. In parallel manner, the Truman Administration made the hard political decision to intervene in June 1950, then failed to think through the likely implications of going north to the Chinese border in October 1950.

Fehrenbach dispenses credit where due. The U.S. Eighth Army pulled itself together after its initial defeats to successfully defend South Korea, then reconstituted itself a second time after its defeat by the Chinese near the Yalu River. It would persevere to the armistice in 1953. Thousands of individual soldiers, NCO's, and officers overcame the shock of combat to become highly effective fighters, ultimately fighting far larger formations of Chinese and North Korean communists to a bloody standstill in the nation's first modern and rather unhappy experience with limited war.

This book is highly recommended to the student of the military art and of the Korean War. Fehrenback's narrative provides a vivid reminder that we live in a world of tigers.

Must-read for citizens.......2006-03-04

Fehrenbach's bang-up history of the Korean War is a terrific view of the conflict, written by one who was there. It is not, however, a matter of personal reminiscence.

Fehrenbach provides us both the high strategy of the war, the big picture, and the foxhole-to-foxhole fighting. He pays much more attention to other UN forces than later books.

But if it were only a great history of the war--including the years leading up to it--it would still be mandatory for a citizen.

However, Fehrenbach discusses the place of an army in a liberal society. The Korean War is his example, his subject matter. I would argue that the history of the war itself is secondary to its function as a source for his primary issue which seems to be war, violence, armies, in a liberal society which itself is in a world of nuclear catastrophe.

He makes the case that it is difficult to expect citizen-soldiers to fight and die to straighten out a bit of border here, or replace a government there. For that, we need legions who will fight for their colors, iron-hard and willing to die in the mud.
Citizen soldiers will fight when the trumpet calls jihad--an eerie use of the word forty years before the rest of us were interested--and want to see the victory.
The problem, Fehrenbach tells us, and we ought to know it, is that, if one side or the other is backed into a corner, nuclear war ensues.
The world could be considered, then, a chessboard, whose squares are not square and whose shape is irregular. If we let ourselves give up too many pawns, and too many squares ("what's an island in the middle of nowhere?), we would eventually find ourselves in check, with mate coming. Our only courses then would be complete surrender or to kick over the board with nuclear weapons.
No one square makes the difference, but after accumulating enough, the other side might decide to take their best shot. Whether they win or not will hardly be relevant. Better, TRF says, to make sure the other side never thinks it has a chance. And that requires policing the borders.

TRF calls for legions, and refers to Marines as opposed to the soft Army with which we began the Korean War. At one point, he refers to Marine units which, although drawn from garrison and reserves, were prepared because their officers were sufficiently hard-nosed. Sufficiently hard-nosed officers will, in peacetime, generate congressional inquiries. This, TRF more than implies, tells us about the forces in a liberal society which inevitably tend toward soft and unprepared forces. Legions, the legions of the damned, manned by expendable lower class men and officered by landless younger sons, succeeded for centuries, in part because society was tougher then. Just living as a civilian in England in, say, 1850 would be considered something like a refugee in extremis today. But primarily nobody particularly cared what went on in the regiments. So they were left alone to train as their officers thought they should be trained.

The performance of US troops in Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom, and in Iraq shows the mental and physical toughness, the discipline and the courage, the training and the equipment that TRF called for. Whether he would think of our forces today as the legions he envisioned is an interesting question.

I recall, as a grunt in the late Sixties, seeing others in my uniform in airports. I remarked not too long ago that they all looked as if they needed their hand patted. I suppose I did, too. I contrasted that with going through DFW in 2004, noticing the troops who all had their game faces on. I had no interest in patting anybody's hand, although buying a drink or two seemed reasonable.

Perhaps we've reached the equilibrium. The problem is to insist on staying there. The forces that would soften the military remain, uneducated by the blood they have shed so many times in the past. But, it was never their blood, anyway.

So, citizens need to read this book. And they need to pay attention to more than the history of the Korean War so ably presented.

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