I finished this book last weekend, but haven’t really had the time to review it. Both my wife and son are taking a nap, and I’m in the middle of Hurricane Matthew, so I figured now is as good a time as any.
The Korean War isn’t called “The Forgotten War” for nothing. I’ve been a history buff as long as I can remember, and I don’t think I’ve ever read a book or seen a documentary about it. Other than M*A*S*H*, I don’t think I’ve seen any movies or TV shows about it (and, growing up, I always thought that show was about Vietnam). I’m vaguely familiar that the South Korean’s were overwhelmed, and the US military was ill-prepared to fight another so quickly following the draw down of our armed forces following WWII. Douglas MacArthur was possibly deranged, and wanted to nuke China, and ended up crossing the Chinese border, thereby making this a US-Chinese war, which ultimately led to the stalemate that still exists.
So I’ve got a broad outline.
And then I read Hill 488, which briefly talks about the Korean conflict. So I looked for some memoirs to give me a better idea of what the war was like.
And….I don’t know. This book didn’t really do it for me. I felt like half the narrative was Joe Owen talking about training his men and dealing with his fellow officers (some of whom he didn’t seem to like all that much). Which is fine, every memoir of this kind tends to follow a similar line: the writer joined the military, goes through boot camp, gets sent to some foreign land, is sorta eager for combat, sees combat and is scared out of their mind, goes through hell, comes out the other side changed, and then ends after briefly recapping what happened to his buddies. I don’t say this to trivialize what these men go through – but the template is familiar. The process is familiar. These men all have personal stories to tell, but they’re built around a framework that is common to all these conflicts.
In many ways, Colder Than Hell is no different – except…..I never really felt like I grasped what was going on. I never built a picture of the Chosin Reservoir, and the larger Korean conflict was left largely untouched. He men Owen served with didn’t stand out to me, so when some of them are killed, my reaction was fairly clinical. Most of this was a fairly dry recitation of training, followed by a torrent of bullets, bombs, and mortars and lots and lots of cold weather.
It seems like it was an unimaginable experience. But the book itself didn’t do much to increase my knowledge of the war. I wouldn’t go so far as to advise anyone to skip this book, but maybe use this to help enrich an already developed understanding of the battle.
3.5 stars.
I too thought M.A.S.H. was about the Vietnam War when I was growing up. I suspect that’s because while it was written about the Korean War, it was commenting on the Vietnam War. Also, I think Don Drapper is supposed to be a Korean War vet in Mad Men. And that’s the sum total of my knowledge of that particular one.
It took an embarrasingly long time for me to realize MASH wasn’t about Vietnam. Like, I was so old I’d prefer not to even tell people.
You guys aren’t the only ones to have confused Korea and Vietnam with regard to MASH for longer than is probably acceptable.