Summary

Believing it could act with impunity in a world exhausted by war, communist North Korea decided to invade and annex Western-allied South Korea in June 1950. President Harry Truman, who feared from the beginning that Korea was "the opening round of World War III," committed U.S. troops to repulse the invaders. America's first "limited" war—and the first armed conflict of the cold war era—had begun. Three years of brutal fighting followed, leading to the deaths of more than half a million North Korean and Chinese soldiers, and more than 50,000 Americans.

Korean War, Fourth Edition recalls this momentous but largely forgotten event. It includes riveting full-color and black-and-white images and other resources.

Specifications

eBook

About the Author(s)

Maurice Isserman holds both a Ph.D. and a master's degree from the University of Rochester. He is a professor of history at Hamilton College, specializing in 20th-century U.S. history and the history of exploration. Isserman was a Fulbright distinguished lecturer at Moscow State University in 1997 and has received numerous other grants, awards, and fellowships. He has written dozens of articles, reviews, reference book entries, and book chapters. He is the author of more than a dozen books, including Facts On File's Journey to Freedom: The African-American Great Migration and two other titles in Chelsea House's America at War set.