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Buy the Book
A Revisionist’s Korean War
How persuasive is historian Bruce Cumings?
(Page 2 of 2)
While neither Kim Il-sung nor Kim Jong-il might equal Stalin or Mao, measured over time the first two probably killed a larger proportion of their own people. Kim Il-sung is responsible for starting a full-scale war which resulted in millions of casualties. His son presided over hundreds of thousands or even millions of preventable deaths from famine, which Cumings acknowledges (he is no fan of the Kim dynasty). And today abundant “labor” camps are full of the politically unreliable and execution is a common penalty for individual disobedience.
Cumings’ search for the hidden story even causes him to posit that Joseph Stalin may have maintained the Soviet boycott of the United Nations Security Council because he “hoped to facilitate the entry of U.S. forces into a peripheral area, thus to waste blood and treasure.” Yet Stalin only reluctantly backed Kim Il-sung’s invasion plans and resisted Kim’s and Mao Zedong’s entreaties for aid after Washington intervened. Such a plan seems too clever by half even for Stalin, who, though a moral monster, feared a direct confrontation with America.
The consequences of the Korean War remain with us today. Bruce Cumings ably challenges us to rethink our assumptions. An easy and worthwhile read, The Korean War nevertheless should be consumed with the same air of skepticism which Cumings demands that we apply to conventional accounts of the Korean conflict.
About the Author
Doug Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. A former Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan, he is the author and editor of several books, including The Politics of Plunder: Misgovernment in Washington (Transaction).
Letter to the Editor View all comments (23) | Leave a comment
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Cris Worth| 11.1.10 @ 9:26AM
Truman's mistake was when he decided to intervene he did not go to Congress and receive a declaration of war instead he declared a police action receiving UN help. With a declaration of war maximum force including dropping nuclear bombs on Pyongyang killing the NK dictator leaving MacArthur the mopping up roll of NK forces in the South. Truman dropped nuclear bombs before with success why the change? Now we are faced with a lunatic offspring and his offspring fully armed with nuclear bombs ready to use against us. That is the legacy of the Korean War.
Alan Brooks| 11.1.10 @ 8:58PM
The legacy of the war was Alan Alda making a stream of unending drinky/horny jokeys.
HAWKEYE: "[snicker] Frank! you and [blonde mistressy] are drunk as skunks... Radar, fer crissakes, don't spill the martinis!"
COLONEL POTTER: "Suffering sheepdip!"
HAWKEYE: '[snicker, snicker] slurp. T & A.
slurp slurp. refwill my class, Radar, you wittle wimpie. Hee Hee! Oh, Hi, nursie-poo! What big tatas you have! Ho Ho. Slurp. HaHa.
slurp, slurp [snicker]..."
Alan Brooks| 11.1.10 @ 9:07PM
...Klinger The Transvestite From Toledo Makes Yet Another Crack About The Latest Dress That Inexplicably Might Help Him Get An Honorable Discharge [cue in Laff Trak].
Slurp, (Nurse-sex-joke #381)
Jacobite| 11.5.10 @ 8:28PM
Whatever you think about Joe McCarthy, Truman's govt was overflowing with Soviet agents-of-influence. Harry was an uneducated political hack, but they couldn't just convince him to become an ally of Good Old Joe. But they sure managed to short-circuit every serious move that ran counter to the USSR's interests. Sure, we could have a Berlin Airlift, but why didn't we air- lift some nukes to East Germany? Or send a B-52 to turn Peking into Chop Suey when China invaded Korea? It's a great lesson in the fact that 'moderate' policies are seen as non-threatening by our enemies, and by our enemies' fifth-columnists in the USA, who advocate them.
canuckistani| 11.1.10 @ 10:30AM
My only issue with ROK is the continued hegemony of the family oligarchs: notably Samsung, Hyundai and LG. They possess enormous influence on the conduct of affairs in the country, and have ostensibly affected the affairs of US interests.
Our naivete stems from the expectation that corporate oligarchs are bounded by simple commercial endeavor, not true.
We would be smart to continue to exploit the Korean business and be patient with the North's transitions. The South knows it is a difficult road ahead, and we should let them lead the march.
Charie| 11.4.10 @ 4:26PM
We have diplomats there and have an embassy just to prevent us from being naive about the motives of NK. Do you really think these diplomats don't know about the corporate oligarchs? If they don't, they should be hauled home and a new batch of more canny diplomats sent there. And perhaps a few more spies would do the trick.
WilliamInWien| 11.1.10 @ 12:56PM
Some thing I keep in mind: One of my history professor s used to write on the chalk board...."History books that contain no lies are extremely tedious".
Bruce| 11.1.10 @ 1:17PM
All I know is that after winning 4 man to man gunfights, receiving 27 medals as a police officer & fighting off gay sexual temptations my whole life, that I should be in charge.
Seek| 11.1.10 @ 4:34PM
This is fascinating. Really. It takes guts to do this and come out alive. You may be "Dirty Harry" in real life.
Tim*| 11.1.10 @ 6:21PM
Uh Oh !The Recovering Village People Dude is over here now.
Bert| 11.1.10 @ 3:49PM
Bruce Cumings and his writings demonstrate heis a sycophantic toady for the North Korean regime. He should move to Pyongyang and become the regime's Goebbels.
CalMark| 11.1.10 @ 8:43PM
All the learned types grant moral equivalence to massacring "communist sympathizers" and "other opposition."
Destroying Communist sympathizers may not be pretty, but it's the only thing that works. Look at Eastern Europe, where everyone played nicely with the Old Commies. Now they're in charge again, under a "new" system.
Communists are terrorists and must be destroyed. If the only thing that works is massacre--so be it.
Anthony| 11.1.10 @ 9:04PM
North Korea is not a country, it is a prison camp, its people tortured, raped and beaten continuously. It is a disgrace that the wardens of this territory are allowed to continue their terrorism. Truman's decision to fire MacArthur and fight a limited war is one of the biggest blunders in American military history.
Humphrey Dumfries| 11.4.10 @ 3:12PM
ob·strep·er·ous /əbˈstrepərəs/
Adjective: Noisy and difficult to control
Strider| 11.7.10 @ 2:35AM
Why is Bandow so skeptical of the notion that Stalin allowed the UN to intervene in order to weaken the US? It's a perfectly logical, if Machiavellian, tactic -- if your enemy wants to cripple himself, step aside and let him. I made the same point awhile back at Antiwar.com and got several agreements.
Nor is it strange that the USSR stayed out of the war. The nation had been ravaged in WW2, with millions of people killed, and was therefore in no condition to help NK. Staying neutral and rebuilding while one's adversaries squandered blood and treasure was both clever and logical. Again, Machiavelli would have approved.
uchu | 11.10.10 @ 9:15PM
History books that contain no lies are extremely tedious
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