RIDGWAY, Matthew B. : The Korean War (fülszöveg)
One of the most respected military leaders of the century tells for the first time how the Korean War was fought and won; why MacArthur had to be dismissed; what lessons of that war should be applied today in Southeast Asia; and why future wars must be fought for clear and limited objectives.
In December 1950 General Matthew B. Ridgway replaced General Walton Walker as commander of the Eighth Army, and in April 1951 he succeeded Douglas MacArthur as Supreme Commander of the United Nations forces in Korea and Supreme Commander of the United States Far East Command. In this well-organized and challenging book, General Ridgway tells his own story of the way in which he took over a bewildered and dispirited army, rebuilding it in a few short months during intensive hostilities into a spirited and victorious force – an army that drove the Chinese and North Korean forces back over the 38th parallel and never again knew defeat. His frank appraisal of the state in which he found the Eighth Army, and of the quality of its field leadership, contains invaluable lessons for every citizen concerned with maintaining our defenses on a combat-ready level of alertness.
General Ridgway also offers an outspoken critique of MacArthur, demolishes the myth of victory through air-power, and relates how only the stubborn good sense of two fighting generals who resisted MacArthur saved the Eighth Army and the X Corps from unparalleled disaster. He gives his own version of the prisoner-of-war uprisings, which nearly torpedoed the truce talks. And in lively detail he recounts his own experiences at the battle front and offers the reader a fighting soldier's appreciation of the magnificent accomplishments of the embattled units that drove back the massive armies of China and North Korea.
The brilliance and daring of the Inchon Landing, as well as the blunders MacArthur made in his impatient bid for victory, are analyzed with cool and informed impartiality. Finally, General Ridgway takes great care in relating the lessons of the Korean War to the problems now facing us in Southeast Asia. Above all, he emphasizes one of Korea's major lessons – that we should not involve ourselves in self-escalating warfare without a specific and attainable goal.
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| KATALÓGUS | TARTALOM |
