The Coldest Winter

Odin & Aesop

North Korea tried to unify the peninsula by invading South Korea in June 1950. Initially the North Koreans had great success. They quickly advanced south while the United States tried to get forces onto the peninsula to stop them. This soon became a United Nations’ mission, and the North Koreans were stopped right around the southern port of Pusan. Then the United States landed in the rear of the North Koreans at the port of Inchon next to Seoul on South Korea’s west coast. The North Koreans started to collapse and the United Nations force pushed back up the Korean peninsula. They pushed north of the 38th parallel into North Korea and headed towards the Chinese border on the Yalu river. As the U.S. advanced during late October and November they got higher into the mountains and the weather got much colder. While this was going on there was the question of what, if anything, the Chinese Communists were planning to do. Would the Chinese go to war to keep U.S. forces away from their border? The U.S. commander General MacArthur didn’t think so. He was wrong. The cold, desolate hillsides were crawling with over three hundred thousand tough and committed soldiers of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. David Halberstam’s “The Coldest Winter” tells the story of what happened when the Chinese sprung their trap.