Fought on what to Westerners was a remote peninsula in northeast Asia,
the Korean War was a defining moment of the Cold War. It militarized a
conflict that previously had been largely political and economic. And it
solidified a series of divisions--of Korea into North and South, of
Germany and Europe into East and West, and of China into the mainland
and Taiwan--which were to persist for at least two generations. Two of
these divisions continue to the present, marking two of the most
dangerous political hotspots in the post-Cold War world. The Korean War
grew out of the Cold War, it exacerbated the Cold War, and its impact
transcended the Cold War.
William Stueck presents a fresh analysis of the Korean War's major
diplomatic and strategic issues. Drawing on a cache of newly available
information from archives in the United States, China, and the former
Soviet Union, he provides an interpretive synthesis for scholars and
general readers alike. Beginning with the decision to divide Korea in
1945, he analyzes first the origins and then the course of the conflict.
He takes into account the balance between the international and internal
factors that led to the war and examines the difficulty in containing
and eventually ending the fighting. This discussion covers the
progression toward Chinese intervention as well as factors that both
prolonged the war and prevented it from expanding beyond Korea. Stueck
goes on to address the impact of the war on Korean-American relations
and evaluates the performance and durability of an American political
culture confronting a challenge from authoritarianism abroad.
Stueck's crisp yet in-depth analysis combines insightful treatment of
past events with a suggestive appraisal of their significance for
present and future.
