“We have to act on our own”: author interview with Phil Peterson.
without knowing they were Chinese: author interview with Ray Davis.
Do you ever forgive yourself for some of the things you do in life?: author interview with Bill Richardson.
as an adviser in Vietnam: author interview with Robert Kies.
“Custer at the Little Big Horn”: Rovere, Richard, and Schlesinger, Arthur M., Jr., The General and the President, p. 136.
“something from the wreckage”: Blair, Clay, The Forgotten War, p. 391.
“SOME OF WHICH WERE CHINESE”: Ridgway, Matthew B., The Korean War, p. 59.
The drive north would continue: Ibid., p. 60.
“The most elementary caution”: Acheson, Dean, Present at the Creation, p. 466.
CHAPTER 2
“with the point of a bayonet”: Goncharov, Sergei, Lewis, John, and Xue Litai, Uncertain Partners, p. 138.
“strike the Southerners in the teeth”: Ibid., p. 135.
“Dean really blew it on that one”: author interview with Averell Harriman for The Best and the Brightest.
still much feared regionally: Goncharov et al., Uncertain Partners, pp. 136–137.
“from any direct involvement”: Ibid., p. 140.
“I am ready to help in this matter”: Weathersby, Kathryn, Cold War International History Project, Numbers 6–7, Winter 1995–96.
quietly taken out and executed: Goncharov et al., Uncertain Partners, p. 144.
met three times with Stalin: Shen Zhihua, Cold War International History Project, Winter 2003, Spring 2004.
“You have to ask Mao for all the help”: Goncharov et al., Uncertain Partners, pp. 144–145.
he had answered “arrogantly”: Chen, Jian, China’s Road to the Korean War, p. 112.
the Chinese would send troops: Shen Zhihua, Cold War International History Project.
the north-south rail lines: author interview with Jack Singlaub.
“out of the question”: Kennan, George F., Memoirs 1925–1950, p. 484.
“are hitting all along the front”: Goulden, Joseph, Korea, p. 44.
“FIFTY MILES NORTHWEST SEOUL”: Paige, Glenn D., The Korean Decision, p. 88.
“it was a very amusing picture”: Myers, Robert, Korea in the Cross Currents, p. 83.
“the great design of human freedom”: Allison, John, Ambassador from the Plains, p. 130.
specifically written for Dulles: Paige, Glenn D., The Korean Decision, p. 74.
“one arm tied behind my back”: Allison, John, Ambassador from the Plains, p. 129.
“I don’t know what G-2 in Tokyo”: Ibid., p. 131.
“what was happening in his own backyard”: Ibid., p. 135.
“such a dejected, completely forlorn”: Ibid., pp. 136–137.
“symbolic sacrifice alongside his men”: Hastings, Max, The Korean War, p. 65.
CHAPTER 3
the greater MacArthur’s role in the creation would be: author interview with Alex Gibney.
“Let them help themselves”: Leary, William (editor), MacArthur and the American Century, p. 255.
“as we would California”: Cumings, Bruce, The Origins of the Korean War, Vol. II, p. 233.
“looked like hell”: Tuchman, Barbara, Stilwell and the American Experience in China, p. 522.
“swift betterment to their condition”: Myers, Robert, Korea in the Cross Currents, p. 8.
“the same breed of cat as the Japanese”: Blair, Clay, The Forgotten War, p. 38.
“crushed in the battle of the whales”: Oliver, Robert T., Syngman Rhee: The Man Behind the Myth, p. 9.
“either elucidation or explanation”: Myers, Robert, Korea in the Cross Currents, p. 28.
“The Japs interest me and I like them”: Zimmerman, Warren, First Great Triumph, p. 465.
“peoples of the civilized world”: Ibid., p. 465.
“the Japanese imperial wolf”: Myers, Robert, Korea in the Cross Currents, p. 27.
“utterly unable to do for themselves”: Goulden, Joseph, Korea, p. 7.
“future redeemer of Korean independence”: Oliver, Robert T., Syngman Rhee: The Man Behind the Myth, p. 111.
Koreans held on to no such hopes: Myers, Robert T., Korea in the Cross Currents, pp. 36–37.
parts of the Japanese power structure: Ibid., p. 37.
“who have suffered for their faith”: Hoopes, Townsend, The Devil and John Foster Dulles, p. 78.
“much less comfortable with movements”: Hastings, Max, The Korean War, p. 33.
“corrupt, and wildly unpredictable”: Blair, Clay, The Forgotten War, p. 44.
CHAPTER 4
as he was then known in Pyongyang: Spurr, Russell, Enter the Dragon, p. 132.
“worn the people out”: Scalapino, Robert, and Chong-sik Lee, Communism in Korea, p. 314.
“more power and autonomy”: Martin, Bradley K., Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader, p. 49.
“the most among thirty million Koreans”: Armstrong, Charles, The North Korean Revolution, p. 228.
“Great Sun of democratic new Korea”: Ibid., p. 228.
CHAPTER 5
“kickbacks were commonplace”: Blair, Clay, The Forgotten War, p. 51.
“the same disaster that befell China”: Goulden, Joseph, Korea, p. 34.
“was simply inexplicable”: Blair, Clay, The Forgotten War, p. 57.
CHAPTER 6
“most probably to world war”: Allison, John, Ambassador from the Plains, p. 131.
“meet them on that basis”: Truman’s writings, the Harry S. Truman Library.
“which is of great deterrent importance”: Cumings, Bruce, The Origins of the Korean War, Vol. II, p. 48 and p. 780.
“as near like Tom Pendergast”: McCullough, David, Truman, p. 451.
“liked the little son of a bitch”: Ferrell, Robert (editor), Off the Record, p. 349.
“an innocent idealist”: Ibid., p. 452.
Truman was worthless: Ibid., p. 452.
“if we don’t put up a fight now”: papers of George Elsey, June 26, 1950, the Harry S. Truman Library.
“to let them have it!”: Donovan, Robert, The Tumultous Years, p. 197.
“No one believed that the North Koreans were as strong as they turned out to be”: Ibid., p. 199.
“I’ll handle the political affairs!” Paige, Glenn D., The Korean Decision, p. 141.
“Haven’t been so upset since”: letter from Harry Truman to Bess Truman, June 26, 1950, the Harry S. Truman Library.
“profitless and discreditable”: Isaacson, Walter, and Thomas, Evan, The Wise Men, p. 512.
arranged a dinner: Wellington Koo oral history, Columbia University Library.
wanted to concentrate on Korea: McFarland, Keith D., and Roll, David L., Louis Johnson and the Arming of America, pp. 260, 279–280.
“block headed undertaker”: Isaacson, Walter, and Thomas, Evan, The Wise Men, p. 494.
“those bandits in Korea suppressed”: George Elsey memo, June 30, 1950, the Harry S. Truman Library.
“but we can’t be sure they’ll be”: Frank Pace oral history at the Harry S. Truman Library.
“such a sense of relief and unity”: Goldman, Eric, The Crucial Decade, p. 157.
“get Herbert Hoover off the can”: D. Clayton James interview with John Chiles, the MacArthur Memorial Library, Norfolk, Virginia.
CHAPTER 7
“an ‘untouchable’”: Soffer, Jonathan, General Matthew B. Ridgway, p. 114; Blair, Clay, The Forgotten War, p. 79.
“usually chose to ignore it”: Eisenhower, Dwight D., At Ease, p. 213.
“made for lesser men”: Hastings, Max, The Korean War, p. 65.
“‘the greatest man in history’”: Swanberg, W. A., Luce and His Empire, p. 311.
“a general too long”: author interview with John Hart.
“hostile and suspicious foreign government”: Kennan, George F., Memoirs 1925–1950, p. 382.
not actually gain that medal
for another twenty-seven: Manchester, William, American Caesar, p. 15.
“within two thousand miles”: Dower, John, War without Mercy, p. 152.
“It means an imperial policy”: Karnow, Stanley, In Our Image, p. 96.
used to identify Asians: Dower, John, War without Mercy, p. 151.
“for whom Christ died”: Karnow, Stanley, In Our Image, pp. 127–128.
“The ball has begun”: Ibid., p. 140.
“is a dead one”: Dower, John, War without Mercy, p. 152.
“If old Dewey had just sailed away”: Karnow, Stanley, In Our Image, p. 106.
“any less than I do”: Zimmerman, Warren, First Great Triumph, p. 390.
“like an Asian potentate”: Ibid., p. 391.
“a comparatively short period”: James, D. Clayton, The Years of MacArthur, Vol. I, p. 39.
“like Robert E. Lee”: Manchester, William, American Caesar, p. 41.
“everything he wanted to be”: James, D. Clayton, The Years of MacArthur, Vol. I, p. 347.
CHAPTER 8
“great bad man”: Infantry magazine, Spring 2002.
“of social discipline then”: Manchester, William, American Caesar, p. 26.
“How am I doing, Dad?” James, D. Clayton, The Years of MacArthur, Vol. III, p. 183.
“selecting him as one of your Generals,” Manchester, William, American Caesar, p. 93.
“knows him quite well”: James, D. Clayton, The Years of MacArthur, Vol. I, pp. 169–171.
his armies at twenty-six: Manchester, William, American Caesar, p. 134.
CHAPTER 9
their pilots must be white: Manchester, William, American Caesar, pp. 170–171.
bottle up the Japanese fleet: Ibid., p. 186.
“it isn’t the same”: Ibid., p. 281.
“They’re my allies!”: Ibid., p. 337.
“since Darius the Great”: Gunther, John, The Riddle of MacArthur, pp. 41–42.
“and send you home”: Manchester, William, American Caesar, p. 322.
“blackmail and assault”: Ibid., pp. 149–150.
“Yes, my friend, of course”: Perret, Geoffrey, Old Soldiers Never Die, p. 157.
“I told that dumb son”: D’Este, Carlo, Eisenhower, p. 222.
“Incipient revolution is in”: Eisenhower, Dwight D., At Ease, pp. 216–217.
“would have been threatened”: Manchester, William, American Caesar, p. 152.
“the other is Douglas MacArthur”: James, D. Clayton, The Years of MacArthur, Vol. I, p. 411.
“our worst politician”: MacArthur, Douglas, Reminiscences, p. 96.
“a lie would serve him just as well”: Manchester, William, American Caesar, p. 240.
it went out as he directed: Rovere, Richard, and Schlesinger, Arthur M., Jr., The General and the President, p. 22.
“a symbol of our nation”: Lee, Clark, and Henschel, Richard, Douglas MacArthur, p. 87.
“‘can risk being first rate’”: Gunther, John, The Riddle of MacArthur, p. 23.
“‘Communists and British imperialists’”: Ibid., p. 42.
“obvious from the evidence”: Ferrell, Robert (editor), The Eisenhower Diaries, p. 22.
“of every true patriot”: Rovere, Richard, and Schlesinger, Arthur M., Jr., The General and the President, pp. 23–24; Manchester, William, American Caesar, pp. 362–363.
a MacArthur run: James, D. Clayton, The Years of MacArthur, Vol. III, p. 195.
“such skunks as”: Ibid., p. 200.
“whooping it up for MacArthur”: Manchester, William, American Caesar, p. 357.
“to which I might be called”: Gunther, John, The Riddle of MacArthur, p. 61.
“is as low as a rug”: Manchester, William, American Caesar, p. 524.
“Custers, Pattons, and MacArthurs”: Ferrell, Robert (editor), Off the Record, p. 47.
“Doug didn’t bother me”: Ibid., p. 60.
only to MacArthur were they sent out: author interview with Bill McCaffrey.
“tired of fooling around”: Ayers, Eben, Truman in the White House, edited by Robert H. Ferrell, p. 81.
first with the War Department: James, D. Clayton, The Years of MacArthur, Vol. III, p. 19.
“cannot spare the time”: Ibid., pp. 22–23.
“like to pin a medal”: Ibid., p. 22.
“Wait a minute”: Ibid., p. 19.
“up to heroic stature”: Ayers, Eben A., Truman in the White House, edited by Robert H. Ferrell, p. 360.
“you can find all the answers”: James, D. Clayton, The Years of MacArthur, Vol. III, p. 60.; Rovere, Richard, and Schlesinger, Arthur M., Jr., The General and the President, p. 92.
“whipped them just the same”: James, D. Clayton, The Years of MacArthur, Vol. III, p. 109.
“wasn’t so bad”: Leary, William (editor), MacArthur and the American Century, p. 243.
for selling out to State: Bradley, Omar, A General’s Life, p. 526.
CHAPTER 10
they visited the latrine: author interview with Colonel Jim Hinton.
for spare parts: author interview with Sam Mace.
“physically unprepared for war”: Toland, John, interview with Keyes Beech for Mortal Combat, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.
“at the end of the supply line”: Knox, Donald, The Korean War, Vol. I, p. 10.
“ill equipped and poorly trained”: Blair, Clay, The Forgotten War, p. 93.
“except to fight”: Fehrenbach, T. R., This Kind of War, p. 102.
on the rosy side: Blair, Clay, The Forgotten War, p. 88.
“no combat soldiers, just a cadre”: James, D. Clayton, The Years of MacArthur, Vol. III, p. 84.
was not contagious: Beech, Keyes, Tokyo and Points East, pp. 145–146.
“start riding down the highway”: Hastings, Max, The Korean War, pp. 95–96.
“Let the gooks kill each other”: Knox, Donald, The Korean War, Vol. I, p. 6.
quickly boarded: Ibid., p. 17.
“we’ll have no difficulty”: Fehrenbach, T. R., This Kind of War, p. 73.
“or bottom to top”: author interview with Lieutenant Colonel Fred Ladd.
so he could at least take: Knox, Donald, The Korean War, Vol. I, pp. 19–21.
“in Seoul by the weekend”: Warner, Denis, The Opening Round of the Korean War, Military History magazine, June, 2000.
“36 miles in 36 hours”: Ibid.
records would be cleaned: Knox, Donald, The Korean War, Vol. I, p. 33.
get ready for their courts-martial: author interview with William West.
“It sucked up men from everywhere”: Fehrenbach, T. R., This Kind of War, p. 122.
barely rubbed off: Appleman, Roy, South to the Naktong, North to the Yalu, pp. 214–215.
to attack his command: Blair, Clay, The Forgotten War, pp. 186–187.
“a different and more favorable”: Ibid., p. 187.
“over here looking for a job”: Ibid., p. 189. Ridgway oral history, U.S. Army War College Library.
“I couldn’t get you out”: Appleman, Roy, Ridgway Duels for Korea, p. 4.
CHAPTER 11
a two-front war: letter from Mike Lynch to Wilson Heefner, courtesy of Heefner.
“I will not be driven from the Naktong Line”: Walters, Vernon A., Silent Missions, p. 195.
released to the Eighth Army: Heefner, Wilson, Patton’s Bulldog, pp. 159–160.
talented, charismatic younger officers: author interview with Sam Wilson Walker.
skirmishes on the Mexican border: Heefner, Wilson, Patton’s Bulldog, pp. 5–13.
“fighting little son of a bitch”: author interview with Sam Walker.
from the Michelin tire advertisements: Thompson, Reginald, Cry Korea, p. 235.
“what they’re giving me to fight”: author interview with Frank Gibney.
“George Patton and Douglas MacArthur”: author interview with Sam Walker.
excessive with compliments: Blair,
Clay, The Forgotten War, p. 35.
Ridgway and “Lightning” Joe Collins: Blair, Clay, The Forgotten War, p. 35.
and no sympathy for himself: author interview with Bill McCaffrey.
Ned the Anointed: Appleman, Roy, Escaping the Trap, p. 45.
to designate one’s standing with the general: Leary, William (editor), MacArthur and the American Century, p. 241.
“instinctive knack of ingratiation”: Coleman, J. D., Wonju, p. 93.
you simply could not speak to a superior that way: author interview with Bill McCaffrey.
“on a desert island”: Blair, Clay, interview with John Chiles, U.S. Army War College.
you had to play to his entire team: author interview with Bill McCaffrey.
“Is this Almond speaking”: Mike Michaelis oral history at U.S. Army War College; author interview with Layton Tyner.
albeit in a losing war: author interview with Layton Tyner.
“we will die fighting together”: Heefner, Wilson, Patton’s Bulldog, p. 185; author interview with Layton Tyner; Hastings, Max, The Korean War, p. 84.
“a defeated Confederate General”: Goulden, Joseph, Korea, p. 201; Lem Shepherd, oral history at Marine Corps History Archive and oral history at Columbia University.
“August is the month of victory”: Shen Zhihua, Cold War International History Project, Winter 2003, Spring 2004.
CHAPTER 12
“direct lineal descendant of FDR”: Smith, Richard Norton, Thomas Dewey and His Times, p. 35.
“It is a crusade”: Oshinsky, David, A Conspiracy So Immense, pp. 49–50.
“now a Republican country”: Ibid., p. 53.
then a traditionally liberal: Ibid., p. 53.
“horses with blinders on”: Miller, Merle, Plain Speaking, p. 164.
to $6 or $7 billion a year: Ferrell, Robert (editor), Off the Record, p. 133.
hurtling over the wires: Collins, Lawton, War in Peacetime, p. 39.
“no boats, no votes”: Christensen, Thomas, Useful Adversaries, p. 39.
the rush to demobilize: Heinl, Robert, Victory at High Tide, p. 4.
“it was a rout”: Ibid., p. 4.
“out of a paper bag”: Bradley, Omar, with Blair, Clay, A General’s Life, p. 474.