THE COLDEST WAR: A MEMOIR OF KOREA

NEW copy. Hardcover with dust jacket. Orion Books, 1990. Map, photographs, index, 248 pp.

"America's 'forgotten war' lasted just thirty-seven months, yet 54,246 Americans died in that time ~ nearly as many as died in ten years in Vietnam. On the 40th anniversary of this devastating conflict, James Brady tells the story of his life as a young marine lieutenant in Korea. In 1947, seeking a way out of the draft, eighteen-year-old James Brady volunteered for a Marine Corps program that made him a lieutenant in the reserves on the day he graduated college. He didn't plan to find himself in command of a combat platoon three years later facing a real enemy, but that is exactly what happened after the Chinese turned a so-called police action into a war. THE COLDEST WAR vividly describes Brady's rapid education in the realities of war and the pressures of command. Opportunities for bold offensives sink in the miasma of trench warfare; death comes in fits and starts as too-accurate artillery on both sides freezes men in their bunkers; constant alertness is crucial for survival, while brutal cold and seductive silence conspire to lull soldiers into an often fatal stupor."

Originally published at $19.95, now OUT OF PRINT.

$25.00