Publisher's Synopsis
This book is about the failed diplomacy that led to the Korean conflict in 1950-1953, which disrupted the lives of 30 million people. It was the delayed and last campaign of World War II in the Asian Theater, even though we have been calling it something else. This unfinished business of the big war was but a continuation of the policy and diplomacy and missteps that began with the first Roosevelt administration in 1933, with the Korean people caught up in a catastrophe that was not of their making. They wanted nothing more than to celebrate the end of thirty-five years of Japanese forced occupation in 1945, and to rule their own country; and to rebuild their nation to take its rightful place in the world community. The conflict was the same struggle that is the history of the world; the need for survival, security and acceptance. It was about controlling natural resources, which now stands as the reason that it hasn't ended. We have a second chance now to get it right, so let's hope that we do.