The Korean War: Challenges in Crisis, Credibility and Command (review)

BOOK REVIEWS79 What is plain from the preceding summary is that Clough's is a quintessentially cautious approach. Anyone who is looking for bold new ideas or a blueprint for calculated risk-taking in this book will be disappointed. Given the high stakes involved, however, one cannot fault Clough for his reluctance to endorse a radical overhaul of policies that have at least helped to prevent a new war in Korea. All in all, this book is a welcome additon to the growing literature on the two Korean states. Anyone looking for a readable general survey of the Korean problem or a good textbook on Korean politics should examine it closely. B. C. Koh University of Illinois at Chicago The Korean War: Challenges in Crisis, Credibility and Command, by Burton I. Kaufman. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Temple University Press, 1986. 381 pp. Among the questions that a successful book on the Korean War must address are the following: What were the political conditions in Korea from 1945 to 1950? What was the nature of U.S. policy during that period? What were the Soviets' interests in Korea, and how did they seek to promote them? Why did the United States intervene in Korea in June of 1950, given the long-standing American view that the peninsula lay outside the U.S. defense perimeter? How and why did U.S. officials decide to cross the 38th Parallel? What were the political contexts in the United States and Europe of the key decisions on Korea? Did President Eisenhower's threat to escalate the war ultimately bring about the war's conclusion? Burton Kaufman deals with all of these issues and, for the most part, does so satisfactorily. Based largely on secondary sources and on printed documents, his book provides a useful and readable survey. Where he is strongest is in his treatment of American politics, in which he examines the periodical press as an indicator of public opinion. He also presents information about the political conditions in Europe that placed constraints on the support for American policy by friendly European states. His chapter on the recall of General MacArthur offers nothing new, but does demonstrate clearly and cogently how President Truman ultimately triumphed over General MacArthur and his supporters. Kaufman's account of conditions in Korea and the Soviet-American rivalry in the early postwar period constitutes the weakest section of his book. Syngman Rhee is the bête noire of the story, appearing constantly in Kaufman's account as a "right-winger" and a despot with no redeeming features—as though the term "right-winger" or "left-winger" had meaning in the context of Korean politics of that era. In this same chapter Kaufman also attempts to dissect the Korean Communist movement, explicating its internal factions and conflicts without referring to the two-volume work of Robert Scalapino and ChongSik Lee, Communism in Korea. For the relationship between the Soviet Union and the North Koreans in 1945 (pp. 11-12), he relies on the work of Max Beloff, published in 1953. He argues further that there is "no evidence that during the 80BOOK REVIEWS war Stalin saw any overriding strategic interest in Korea." What he intends by "overriding" is unclear, but there is certainly evidence of Soviet strategic interest in Korea during World War II. Finally, Kaufman may ascribe far more military moderation to officials in Washington than they rightly deserve. He does not adequately evaluate the policy discussions of late 1950 and early 1951 on the possible escalation of the war against China. Nor does he give attention to the development of Eisenhower's ultimatum that unless an armistice were signed the United States would use nuclear weapons in Korea. The foregoing criticisms aside, the book is an intelligent, sensible, clearly written, and judicious contribution to the body of scholarship on the Korean conflict. It should prove useful to both lay readers and students of U.S. diplomatic history. Russell D. Buhite University of Oklahoma East ofChosin, by Roy E. Appleman. College Station, Texas: Texas A & M University Press, 1987. 416 pp. $22.50. On a secluded wooded hillside in the U.S. military reservation in the southern section of Seoul stands a...