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"HIDDEN HISTORY OF THE KOREAN WAR, THE" (I.F. STONE).   Term Paper ID:22763 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Critical review of work arguing that war was started & continued by U.S. officials seeking confrontation with communist forces.... More...

6 Pages / 1350 Words 1 sources, 13 Citations, TURABIAN Format $24.00 Return to List of Papers

Paper Abstract: Critical review of work arguing that war was started & continued by U.S. officials seeking confrontation with communist forces. Paper Introduction: I.F. Stone, author of The Hidden History of the Korean War, became a professional journalist at the age of fourteen, and has worked for a number of prestigious periodicals. He is a "man of the independent Left" (xiv), and has been often critical of the government, which suggests that his examination of the Korean War will reveal that that war was not grounded in the best of intentions. This is, indeed, what we find. Stone wrote the book to expose what one observer calls "the greatest swindle in the whole of military history" (xv). Specifically, Stone argues that the Korean War was a cruel fraud from its inception. When peace was at hand, it was sabotaged by forces which wanted the war to continue. Stone himself declares that his book has three basic purposes: Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. I.F. Finally, this book is what it purports to be, not "inside stuff" or keyhole revelations but the hidden history of the Korean War (xxii). Still, this part of the book ismore dependent on speculation than the later sections on the sabotage ofpeace talks. Had peace been achievedinstead, China would far more quickly been made a part of the world ofnations. He alsoindicts the Japanese, whose agenda coincided with the Americans in terms ofhostility toward the Communists. The Cold Warriors, includingMacArthur, wanted to do everything they could to keep China on thedefensive and out of the United Nations., MacArthur was also opposedvehemently to the swallowing up of Formosa by the Chinese Communists. New York: MonthlyReview Press, 1971.----------------------- 6 We must keep in mind that these eventsoccurred only six years after the bombing of Japan by the United States.The United States controlled Japan at that time, and it was highly unlikelythat Japanese leaders were about to do or say anything that was notapproved by the United States and its occupying forces: "American policystrove to force Japanese recognition of Chiang Kai-shek, a step which wouldput Japan into hostile relations with Communist China" (3 2). Stone's book should be a starting point for other historianswho want to substantiate, or further expose the shortcomings, of Stone'sconclusions. As Stone concludes, there is little evidence that theAmericans wanted peace in 1951: "The mood was hardly one of earnestsearches for peace" (298). . . REVEALS REDS KILLED 55 G.I. The official air, saysStone, reeked of the expectation of failure, with such spokesmen as SenatorRussell making declarations which indicated that failure would bepreferable, along with the MacArthur hearings, because together they would"result in the war being waged much more vigorously in Korea by the UnitedNations" (298). The build-up on the side of the North seems to indicate theintention to wage war, with or without aggressive moves from the South.Perhaps Stone shows some naivete in seeming to suggest that all theAmericans---or South Koreans or Japanese---had to do was to publicly andloudly expose the North's military build-up in order to stop the war frombreaking out. Stone's arguments that MacArthur wanted Chinese intervention---or atleast a continuation of the war rather than an outbreak of peace---seemstronger than his speculations about who started the war in the firstplace. Clearly, Stone is saying that the South and theAmericans had the most obvious pro-war agenda and therefore should be thefirst suspects as to who started the war. Stone himself declares that his book has threebasic purposes: It is a case study in the cold war. The sources of the American government, however, are strangelyambivalent. Stone argues that the public discussion of atrocities and treatmentof prisoners of war played into the hands of American Cold Warriors whowanted to sabotage the negotiations for peace, or at least a cease-fire.Again Stone looks at the sources and concludes that the Cold Warriors werealways looking for some reason to undermine peace talks and continue and/orescalate the war. The military danger was the possibility of a clash on the frontier between troops of the great powers. . The Hidden History of the Korean Power. Clearly, he has uncovered sourceswhich indicate that the intentions of the Americans from the beginning werehardly admirable. Specifically, Stone argues that the Korean War was a cruel fraud fromits inception. On the other hand, the North, the Chinese, and the Russians, saysStone, were strategically and tactically disadvantaged by such an outbreakof hostilities (43). "U.S. Stone bases his findings on "material which could not be challengedby those who accept the official American government point of view,"including official documents of the United States and the United Nations,and "respected American and British newspaper sources" (xxi). There seems to have been a deliberate attempt on the Americanside to ignore this build-up toward war on the side of the North. Inother words, the Japanese can be seen as nothing more than an Asianmouthpiece for the Americans during this crucial period of negotiations. Stone fixes responsibility for the delays in negotiations in thesummer and fall of 1951 squarely on the shoulders of the Americans. Even the soldiers themselves began to yearn for a cease-fire. "This was the state of affairs," as the New York Times summarized it, "when the issue of Communist atrocities was suddenly interjected into the situation. Then the introduction of atrocities was made in order to forestallthe drive toward peace: Something had to be done and done quickly. The political danger---for some people---was that no such clash would occur (151). Stone wrote the book to expose whatone observer calls "the greatest swindle in the whole of military history"(xv). In anycase, the author suggests that we look at who benefitted from the war, andhe concludes that those on the anti-Communist who wanted the Cold Warintensified were nothing but thrilled at the war. His book is strongest in detailing evidence of Americanrecalcitrance with respect to peace talks. . On the other hand, it seems that his evidence is shaky at best withrespect to his claims that the North Koreans were provoked by the SouthKoreans. Perhaps Stone is naive in believing that such a simple step couldhave stopped the war, but he goes on to suggest that the South actuallyprovoked the war, and that in any case the outcome of the war starting wasgood for the Americans and South Korea, and bad for the North: Whether on June 25 the North attacked without provocation or went over to the offensive after an attack from the South, the attempt to pick that tempting plum solved many political problems on the anti-Communist side (43). When peace was at hand, it was sabotaged by forces whichwanted the war to continue. Stone isemphatic in stating that he did not seriously consider the propagandasources of either the American or North Korean side. Nothing in the sources from the American side indicate that theAmericans took the 1951 peace talks seriously. Stone's book should be read as a preliminary investigation into theorigins and evolution of the Korean War. As Stonewrites, the continuation of the Korean War "made Japan a prisoner ofAmerican policy. Stone concludes convincingly that the stories ofatrocities committed by the soldiers of the North against Americans wereinvented in order to sabotage the cease-fire talks and to continue andescalate the war. The atrocity hysteria, says Stone, was created to affect bothpolitics at home and the men on the front line: "Troop dissatisfaction overthe delay in the truce talks was to be countered with an injection of hate"(324). Stone clearly believes that the military and political forceson the American side which wanted the Cold War to heat up were the oneswith the strongest pro-war agenda, rather than those on the Communist side.It is up to the reader to analyze this speculation and decide for himselfor herself. CAPTIVES IN KOREA," said the headlines the next day (324). . . BibliographyStone, I.F. He is a "man of the independent Left" (xiv),and has been often critical of the government, which suggests that hisexamination of the Korean War will reveal that that war was not grounded inthe best of intentions. Stone, author of The Hidden History of the Korean War, became aprofessional journalist at the age of fourteen, and has worked for a numberof prestigious periodicals. Something was. He agrees that there was a tremendous amount ofpreparation for war on the side of the North prior to the outbreak ofhostilities, and he points out that it would have been impossible for theSouth, and the Americans, not to have concluded that war was imminent. Stone examines communiques and other reliable sources to come to theconclusion that MacArthur---representing the United States' Cold Warinterests and passions---pushed the Chinese into a confrontation whichalmost guaranteed Chinese intervention: There were two dangers in the approach of MacArthur's troops to the Manchurian frontiers. Anoutbreak of war between American and Chinese troops over Korea would havepleased MacArthur and his fellow Cold Warriors. Stone does not come right out and declare his belief with respect towho started the war. Stone seems to give much credence to the declaration from the Norththat the South had provoked the war with incursions over the border. However, as these atrocity stories were investigated further, theydid not hold up. One was military, the other political. This is, indeed, what we find. What Stone goes on to suggest is that the primary American concern atthat time was not North Korea, but China. It is also a study in wart propaganda, in how to read newspapers and official documents in wartime. Peace in Korea threatened to loose the bonds" (3 2). Clearly, then, from Stone's point of view, it was MacArthur'sintention to do everything he could to force the Chinese into the war, inorder to intensify and heat up the Cold War. Stone'sargument is that had the Americans known, and they certainly had to haveknown, all they would have had to do was to publicly warn the North againstsuch a war. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.