The Korean War of 1950‐53, as the author points out, is often referred to as “The forgotten war”. That may be so in the USA (which did not erect a national memorial to it until 1995) and even more so in the other countries which contributed smaller numbers of troops (down to 44 for Luxembourg), but is not so in Korea, where it is believed that two million civilians were killed (a total which far exceeds that of military deaths on both sides) and large parts of the country, North and South, were devastated. Nor has it been forgotten by the author, who actually fought in it, a circumstance which gives him a perspective on the war not usually possessed by those who write reference books. It should also be noted that this reviewer also covered a bibliography on the “forgotten” Korean conflict in the previous issue of this journal (McFarland, 2010) (RR 2010/394).
The structure of the book follows the now well‐worn path of the Scarecrow Press historical dictionaries, with 1,100 entries on people, organizations, units, weapons, battles, conferences and agreements important to the war. It appears that the number of entries is somewhat greater, and their average length rather less, than is usual in the series: some are as short as 20 words and few exceed 500. This is the second edition; the first was published in 2002, but it is not clear how much information is new to this one.
The supplementary material also follows the usual lines, with an introduction explaining the significance of the war (which was considerable, as it was the first major military conflict of the Cold War period); a list of abbreviations and acronyms; a chronology from 1945 to 2009; appendices giving casualty figures, lists of senior commanders on both sides, and the texts of relevant UN resolutions; and a classified bibliography of about 1,200 books and articles, all in English: in a critical introduction to this, the author refers to the difficulty of finding sufficient source material for the Communist side. There are several photographs and maps; the latter are on rather a small scale, and oddly enough fail to mark the present political boundary, which lies not on the 38th Parallel famous in my boyhood, but on a more defensible line.
The number and content of entries demonstrates the author's extensive knowledge of his subject, enhanced as it is by personal experience; not many writers would have remembered to include an article on the importance of adequate boots (a lesson which the British Army had to learn again in the Falklands). Proportionate space is given to the significant contributions of nations other than the USA – few would now be aware, for instance, that a battalion from Ethiopia had been highly valued. Occasionally, the author is let down by his proof‐readers, as when an article refers to the Supermarine Seafire fighter as the “Submarine Seafire”, and I cannot believe that he intended to say, as the current wording appears to do, that Kim Il Sung had commanded a division at Stalingrad. Where relevant, the text includes references to post‐war controversies, such as the dispute over maritime boundaries, not covered by the cease‐fire agreement, which gave rise to a major crisis shortly before this review was written. That crisis reminded the world that there has never been a peace treaty and that Korea is still a theatre of acute military tension, facts which should justify many libraries in purchasing this useful dictionary.
