Re: Book: The Dragon Strikes: China and the Korean War: June-December 1950

[Mike Davino <mdavino@yahoo.com>]

I know it was because I wrote it.  I am the Korean War
book reviewer for Infantry Magazine.  

Mike Davino

--- Mike Yared <mikeyared@hotmail.com> wrote:
> This book review was in Infantry magazine, Vol.90,
> n.1, p.49.
> January-April 2000.
> 
> The Dragon Strikes: China and the Korean War:
> June-December 1950
> 
> The Dragon Strikes: China and the Korean War:
> June-December 1950.
> By Patrick C. Roe.
> Presidio Press, 2000.
> 466 Pages. $34.95.
> Reviewed by Lieutenant Colonel Michael F. Davino,
> U.S. Army.
> 
> In late November 1950, the United Nations Command
> launched what became known 
> as the "Home for Christmas" offensive. Despite an
> earlier clash with Chinese 
> Communist Forces that had left a regiment of the Ist
> Cavalry Division 
> bloodied in the Eighth U.S. Army zone and a Marine
> regiment's defeat of a 
> Chinese division in the X Corps zone, the UN Command
> attempted a massive 
> attack to reunify the Korean peninsula. Within a
> month, the Eighth Army had 
> been defeated by the Chinese and was withdrawing
> below the 38th parallel 
> where the war began. In the X Corps zone, the Ist
> Marine Division had to 
> break out from encirclement and was evacuated by sea
> to Pusan with the rest 
> of X Corps. In the words of author Patrick Roe, the
> course of history was 
> changed. The Dragon Strikes is a close study of the
> Chinese involvement in 
> the first six months of the Korean War. It is an
> excellent account and a 
> timely one. Its publication coincides with the 50th
> anniversary of the war 
> and a time when the potential threat China poses to
> the United States is 
> under increasing scrutiny. Patrick Roe, who served
> as the intelligence 
> officer of a Marine rifle battalion in the Chosin
> Reservoir campaign, 
> examines in great detail both the Chinese actions
> against the U.S. X Corps 
> in Northeastern Korea and the defeat of the U.S.
> Eighth Army at the 
> Chongchon River. He reviews the pre-war situation
> and analyzes why the 
> Chinese chose to enter the conflict. He covers the
> deception plan of the 
> Chinese, explaining how they were able to intervene
> in such a decisive 
> manner while remaining undetected by U.S.
> intelligence services. Unlike many 
> authors who tend to hold General of the Army Douglas
> MacArthur and his G-2, 
> Major General Charles Willoughby, almost solely
> responsible for the 
> disastrous campaigns in north Korea, Roe describes
> the role of the Joint 
> Chiefs, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the
> National Security Council 
> in the debacle. He explains the complex chain of
> events that had the 
> national command authorities on the verge of panic,
> and unable to issue firm 
> orders to MacArthur. This book will give readers
> interested in the Korean 
> War an excellent understanding of how the Chinese
> were able to defeat a 
> technologically superior enemy. It is an excellent
> addition to the 
> literature available on the so-called "Forgotten
> War."
> 
> 
>
_________________________________________________________________
> Join the world’s largest e-mail service with MSN
> Hotmail. 
> http://www.hotmail.com
> 


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax
http://taxes.yahoo.com/