Includes bibliographical references and index.

Thus it began: Korea, the hermit kingdom ; Korean nationalists -- The Lee family under Japanese occupation: out of the frying pan, into the fire, World War II --The Russians are coming: Kim Il Sung makes an entrance -- Americans in South Korea -- North Koreans discover communism -- Chaos in South Korea: MacArthur in Japan -- Prelude to a hot war -- On a rainy Sunday across the 38th parallel: reactions of Washington -- The ROK army on the brink of disintegration: MacArthur in Suwon ; Tactical errors all around -- An ugly war -- The first hundred days -- Mao's thought in Beijing -- The Inchon landing and its aftermath -- Chinese traps -- A brand new ball game --Refugee stories: the plight of refugees and massacres of innocent civilians -- An old soldier just fades away, a new one steps in -- The way we survived the war -- A talking war -- The tortuous path to armistice agreement -- South Korea after the ceasefire: two schoolgirls -- North Korea now -- Old war, new crisis: the nuclear weapons developement program ; the sunshine policy ; military provocations ; what next.

Electronic reproduction. Palo Alto, Calif. : ebrary, 2013. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ebrary affiliated libraries.