On June 28, 1950, five U.S. airmen died when their aircraft were shot down over Korea. They became the first U.S. casualties in a war that started three days earlier, when the North Korean People's Army crossed the 38th parallel and invaded the Republic of South Korea. The losses of U.S. military personnel that began with those five airmen would continue for 37 months and would ultimately total 33,985 American fatalities and more than 100,000 other American casualties. This is a history of U.S. involvement in the Korean War as told through those casualties--by the dates they occurred, their causes, their numbers and the units in which they served--and through all Medal of Honor citations (given in full). The work is subdivided into three units: The Peninsular War, Active Defense and The War of the Hills.

The Korean War was a significant turning point in the Cold War. This book explains how the conflict in a small peninsula in East Asia had a tremendous impact on the entire international system and the balance of power between the two superpowers, America and Russia. Through the conflict, the West demonstrated its resolve to thwart Communist aggression and the armed forces of China, the Soviet Union and the United States came into direct combat for the only time during the Cold War.

Americans think of the Korean War as death and hardship in the bitter hills of Korea. It was certainly this, and for those who fought this is what they generally saw. Yet every foot of the struggles forward, every step of the retreats, the overwhelming victories, the withdrawals and last ditch stands had their seagoing support and overtones. The spectacular ones depended wholly on amphibious power -- the capability of the twentieth century scientific Navy to overwhelm land-bound forces at the point of contact. Yet the all pervading influence of the sea was present even when no major landing or retirement or reinforcement highlighted its effect. When navies clash in gigantic battle or hurl troops ashore under irresistible concentration of ship-borne guns and planes, nations understand that sea power is working. It is not so easy to understand that this tremendous force may effect its will silently, steadily, irresistibly even though no battles occur. No clearer example exists of this truth in wars dark record than in Korea. Communist-controlled North Korea had slight power at sea except for Soviet mines. So beyond this strong underwater phase the United States Navy and allies had little opposition on the water. It is, therefore, easy to fail to recognize the decisive role navies played in this war fought without large naval battles.

Battle at the 38th Parallel is a first-hand account of the war experiences of a U.S. Army rifle company--Company E, 17th Regiment, 7th Infantry Division--during the closing months of the war. Their story has been meticulously recreated through research conducted at the National Archives, extensive interviews and the personal recollections of the author.

Presents a comprehensive reference to American involvement in the Korean War, including a chronology of major events, biographical sketches, related articles and a collection of maps.

Using historical files kept by each of the armed services and nations involved in the Korean War, Rottman provides information on unit backgrounds, organization, manning, periods of service, insignia, weapons, casualties, and major commands including the Western, North Korean, Communist Chinese, and USSR forces. The United Nation's first military action and America's first major Cold War action, the Korean War, frequently called the forgotten war, is well documented in studies and reports of specific actions and phases of the war. These sources, however, provide little order of battle information on most of the belligerents, particularly the non-U.S./UN and South Korean forces. Using the historical files kept by each armed service and each nation, Gordon Rottman provides information on combat units and major commands, including both Western forces and North Korean, Communist Chinese, and USSR forces. He has done an invaluable service for scholars and military buffs. Filling a void that would not likely have been filled otherwise, the book provides information on unit backgrounds, organization, manning, periods of service, insignia, weapons, and casualties. The book will be a primary source for anyone, scholar or layman, interested in researching the Korean War.

A BRACING ACCOUNT OF A WAR THAT IS EITHER MISUNDERSTOOD, FORGOTTEN, OR WILLFULLY IGNORED For Americans, it was a discrete conflict lasting from 1950 to 1953. But for the Asian world the Korean War was a generations-long struggle that still haunts contemporary events. With access to new evidence and secret materials from both here and abroad, including an archive of captured North Korean documents, Bruce Cumings reveals the war as it was actually fought. He describes its origin as a civil war, preordained long before the first shots were fired in June 1950 by lingering fury over Japan’s occupation of Korea from 1910 to 1945. Cumings then shares the neglected history of America’s post–World War II occupation of Korea, reveals untold stories of bloody insurgencies and rebellions, and tells of the United States officially entering the action on the side of the South, exposing as never before the appalling massacres and atrocities committed on all sides. Elegantly written and blisteringly honest, The Korean War is, like the war it illuminates, brief, devastating, and essential.