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Cry Korea: The Korean War: A Reporter’s Notebook

From the back cover:

“Now in the twentieth century as it moves towards sanity or mad despair the slayer needs merely touch a button and death is on the wing, blindly, blotting out the remote, the unknown people.”

From September 1950 Reginald Thompson reported from the frontline during the four months in which the Korean War was ‘won’ and ‘lost’. After the Inchon landings, he followed UN forces up to the Chinese border and back, witnessing scenes of appalling brutality.

Reporting the war in Korea was not easy. General MacArthur was quick to expel those who wrote things he did not wish to see in print. Few journalists dared to write the exact truth. Cry Korea is Thompson’s attempt to set the record straight.

No newcomer to war, Thompson was sickened by the carnage left in the wake of America’s military machine, and horrified by the implications of this new form of warfare. Cry Korea is not only a powerful piece of reportage, but a cry for us all to examine the resonant issues of modern conflict and intervention.

LKL says:

Outspoken and full of observations with import still today, Cry Korea is a must-read for anyone interested in war reporting and in the realities of the Korean conflict in which 60,000 British servicemen and women served, and helps us to comprehend the little-understood situation in Korea. Reportage Press have done a public service by making available again this rare and valuable account.

LKL rating: score-2score-2score-2score-2score-0. Read our review of this book here.

Entry on Goodreads.com here.

* Where the book is available from a number of sources, they are prioritised as follows: (1) Amazon UK site, or Bookshop.org for the more recent uploads (2) Amazon US site (3) Other sites in US or Europe, including second-hand outlets (4) LTI Korea, where the title is advertised as available from there (5) Onlines stores in Korea. Links to Bookshop.org and Amazon UK site contain an affiliate code which, should you make a purchase, gives a small commission to LKL at no additional cost to you.