| To all: I just got a copy of this book in from East View Publications. It is fairly interesting, but I doubt I'll have time to translate it. For those of you who speak and read Russian, it's a worthwhile one to pick up. Here is the table of contents: * * * "War in Korea 1950-1953: Views After 50 Years" (In Russian) Joint Product of the Oriental Institute of the Russian Academy of Science, the Institute of Military History, and the "1st of March" Regional Societal Organization; Based on the presentations at an International Conference held in Moscow on 23 June 2000; General Editor o. Yu. Kuznetsov; Editors Yu. V. Vanin, G. I. Korotkov, Lee U Ho, Lee Heng Kin, An Sing Kwan; ROO "1st of March", Moscow 2001; 347 pp. with illustrations and maps; ISBN 5-8125-0168-8 Table of Contents Forewords Lee Hen Kin; "The Unhealing Wound of the Korean" Zolotarev, V. A.; "Truth is Revealed in War: A Word to The Reader" Vanin, Yu. V.; Preface Reports from the Conference Participants Vanin, Yu. V.; "Some Questions of the Prehistory and Beginning of the Korean War" Yang En Cho; "Armed Forces of South and North Korea at the Start of the War: Comparative Characteristics" Lee U Ho; "Politics of the Superpowers (USA, USSR, and PRC) In the Korean War" Korotkov, G. I.; "I. V. Stalin and the Korean War" Timorin, A. A.; "The Korean Peoples' Army in the War 1950-1953 and Postwar (History and Improvement)" Suporvets, A. I.; "The War in the Skies of Korea" Popov, I. M.; "As to the Question of the Entry of China into the War in Korea" Zimonin, V. P.; "The Korean War: The Japanese Factor" Krivoruchko, A. R.; "The Military Partnership of the Soviet Union and The Korean Peoples Democratic Republic" Yu Ben Yong; "Great Britain, the USA and USSR on the Path to A Ceasefire in the Korean War (Secret Negotiations by the Powers)" Gryaznov, G. V.: "The KPDR: The Heavy Social-Economic Consequences of the Korean War" Dorokhov, N. I.; "As to the Results and Lessons of the War in Korea" Savel'yev, R. V.; "Research by Soviet and Russian Academics on the Korean War 1950-1953" Lee U Ho; "Documentary Historical Chronicle of the Korean War (Instead of a Conclusion)" Appendices Chubak, N. N.; "The Pendulum of War (Observations on Combat Operations on the Korean Peninsula)" Volokova, A. A.; "The Historical Lessons of Panmunjon" Vashurina, Z. P.; "Battle for the Mind (Information Warfare During the War in Korea)" Morgachev, V. N.; "Myths and 'Blank Spots' (What is Not Known About the War in Korea)" Shardakov, V. S.; "The Nuclear Mushroom (Pyongyang Could Have Become a New Hiroshima)" Material from an interview with Admiral of the Fleet of the USSR V. M. Grishanov; "Strike from the Sea (Use of Naval Forces in the Korean War)" Material from an interview with Major General (Retired) I. V. Selivanov; "Bacteria as a Combat Weapon" Russian Archives Used in Research * * * Zolotarev is the head of the Military History Institute (IVI) and a pretty straight shooter, and his foreword does provide a word of caution in accepting the reports at face value. The Russians are all historians, but no idea on the Koreans. I think from the comments in text they are mostly Southerns or expatriots and not Northerners. (Also note that the Russians really hammer Korean names in transliteration -- no idea how close they really are!) Some are pretty good -- the two Russians looking at the start indicate that you'd have to be a complete idiot to believe that the ROK started the war as they knew the DRPK was twice as big and had offensive weapons which they did not. Also most ROKA forces were not well positioned for an offensive and had no logistics capability whatsoever. One figures the "cause" and "invasion of the North" was caused by a company sized raiding party on the Onjin Peninsula on 24-25 June. The raiders were stopped about 1-2 km inside the north, and then the DPRK turned its army loose to head south as a "counteroffensive". The section on bacteriological warfare is nearly completely useless, as the general swears the US dropped bacteriological weapons in special containers, including rats infected with bubonic plague fleas. (Amazing that none were ever presented to a world court or for world opinion, as they did with the pieces of the U-2 in May 1960.) He glosses over the rampant presence of cholera, plague, malaria, typhus, typhoid, and every other kind of nasty disease in the north as "cover" for US experiments. Nothing is given on DPRK sanitation, albeit some comments do cover USAF bombing of industrial areas and the impact it had on civil infrastructure. Pretty selective memory if you ask me... Cookie Sewell AMPS |