The A to Z of the Korean War (review)

This "A to Z" guide to the Korean War by Paul M. Edwards is the paperback revision of The Korean War: A Historical Dictionary (2003) aimed at students and lay readers. In addition to short dictionary-style entries, the book contains a chronology, a brief introduction to Korea and the conflict, and a fairly robust bibliography of the well-known and more obscure works on the subject.

The chronology is a good start for new students. It quickly reveals that American interest in Korea did not begin in June 1950, but in the latter part of the nineteenth century (1882) with the Korean-American Treaty of Friendship and Commerce. The bibliography is also useful, though dated in that it only cites works published up through 2002.

Another strength of this concise book is its emphasis on the international flavor of the conflict. The reader is exposed to the usual actors—Americans, Chinese, and Koreans from both sides—but also to other historically obscure, but no less important ones, such as Indians, Mexicans, Colombians, and other United Nations members.

The introductory historical sketch of the Korean land, its history, and the events leading up to the war is beneficial as well. Edwards also profitably devotes entries to Korean (North and South) personalities, places, and battles. Too often Americans can forget that it really was a Korean war.

Opposite these strengths are a number of deficiencies detracting from its scholarly value. While dictionaries ought to prize "conciseness," Edwards takes this to the extreme, often over-simplifying that which is most interesting. For example, the U.S. Eighth Army gets but nine lines. The drama of the Eighth Army—its narrow escapes from disaster on no less than three occasions in twelve months certainly merits more coverage. By comparison, British Prime Minister Anthony Eden gets twelve lines of text. Little space is devoted to explaining the unique tactical aspects of the war, such as the advent of jet aircraft, artillery techniques, naval power, and the challenge of combined arms operations in the hostile Korean geographic and climatic environment. Each of these is a story in itself that ought to inspire further inquiry. Instead, these sparse entries come across as drab and uninteresting tidbits of a "Forgotten War."

Most distracting are the numerous factual and editorial errors: a map depicting the "DMZ" actually shows the 38th parallel (p. 75), Lieutenant General John R. Hodge appears twice—Major General William F. Hoge is meant for the second entry—(pp. 112–13), the siege [naval blockade?] of Hungnam is dated as April 1950 instead of 1951 (p. 118), Seoul is reported as recaptured after Inchon in October 1950 instead of September (p. 119), and the Battle of the Punchbowl is reportedly fought in August 1950 instead of 1951 (p. 208). Misspellings of proper names and places, or misidentified dates, ranks, units, and individuals occur on pages 6, 9, 49, 150, 189, 191, and 208. The entry for the U.S. Ninth Corps has no fewer than five errors regarding names and ranks of its commanders (p. 178).

A book like this ought to be a welcome addition to the expanding body of literature about the Korean War. However, the serious student/researcher would be best served consulting (or purchasing) one of the other good published references on this misunderstood war, such as Spencer C. Tucker's paperback Encyclopedia of the Korean War.