Quick Read: 'The Battle for Korea: The Associated Press History of the Korean Conflict'

Cover of the 2000 50th Anniversary Edition. (C) 2000 Da Capo Press

On March 21, 1994, Da Capo Press published Robert J. Dvorchak's The Battle for Korea: The Associated Press History of the Korean War, a "coffee table" hardcover book about the 1950-1953 Korean War. Based primarily on reporting by AP correspondents and featuring more than 300 photographs from the venerable news service's archives, The Battle for Korea: The Associated Press History of the Korean War's first edition hit bookstores a year after the 40th anniversary of the signing of the July 1953 armistice that ended three years of combat on the divided peninsula that lies perilously close to three powerful neighbors: China, Russia, and Japan.

Long forgotten by most Americans and famously ignored by popular culture except for a handful of movies (The Hunters, The Bridges at Toko-Ri, Pork Chop Hill, and Battle Hymn)  and the long-running TV sitcom M*A*S*H, the Korean War is also a conflict that very few readers seem to be interested in, even though it was the first war in which the United Nations responded, under U.S. leadership, by sending a multinational force in a display of collective action to reverse an invasion of a country by an aggressor nation.

In the book's 300-plus pages, author Robert Dvorchak gives readers a readable summary of the events that occurred between June 25, 1950 and July 27, 1953 on the Korean Peninsula. Based mostly on on-the-spot reporting of the time, the narrative is a just-the-facts-ma'am glimpse at America's first and sobering experience with "limited war." In this conflict, which unlike World Wars I and II was an "undeclared" one, American military and political leaders found themselves fighting a war that they didn't seek, against enemies they didn't understand, and on ground that was not ideal for a modern mechanized military force.

And it was in Korea, too, that most Americans soon realized that the nation's nuclear arsenal and unparalleled control of the air and sea didn't necessarily guarantee certain victory. Indeed, the Korean War would become the template for most of America's later wars in the 20th and 21st Century - conflicts in which the objective was never total victory or the subjugation of the enemy. After Korea, even the most successful military adventures were marred because they left an enemy leader in power (Saddam Hussein after Operation Desert Storm) or did not end as well as expected (the 2003-2012 Iraq War).

 Dvorchak covers all of the major events in the Korean War timeline (North Korea's surprise invasion, the tragic chain of events that led to the battles around the Pusan Perimeter, Gen. MacArthur's last brilliant maneuver at Inchon, the UN's apparent victories that encouraged the vain  and ambitious MacArthur to exceed his orders and cross the 38th Parallel into North Korea, and the dreadful consequences of the general's hubris are all chronicled here.

Lavishly illustrated with maps and black-and-white photos from AP files, The Battle for Korea: The Associated Press History of the Korean War is not a definitive account of the "forgotten war." Its prose is readable and factual, focusing primarily on the Big Picture and every so often delving into the experiences of some of the participants. It's a fine introduction to the topic, but it's not as informative as Max Hastings' The Korean War or David Halberstam's The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War.