A Korean Conflict: The Tensions between Britain and America

Description

In 1950, just five years after the end of World War II, Britain and America again went to war--this time to try and combat the spread of communism in East Asia following the invasion of South Korea by communist forces from the North. This book charts the course of the UK-US 'special relationship' from the journey to war beginning in 1947 to the fall of the Labour government in 1951. Ian McLaine casts fresh light on relations between Truman and Attlee and their officials, diplomats and advisors, including Acheson and MacArthur. He shows how Britain was persuaded to join a war it could ill afford and was forced to rearm at great cost to the economy. The decision to participate in the war caused great strain to the Labour party--provoking the Bevan-Gaitskell split which was to keep the party out of office for the next decade. McLaine's revisionist study shows how disastrous the war was for the British--and for the Labour party in particular. It sheds important new light on UK-US relations during a key era in diplomatic and Cold War history.

Ian McLaine taught History and the Philosophy of History at the University of Wollongong. He held a DPhil from Oxford University and was the author of Ministry of Morale: Home Front Morale and the Ministry of Information in World War II.

This is an extremely well-written and important book on a major episode in international relations. Given the problems that most of America's friends and allies have had in working with different administrations during the Cold War and more recently, it is valuable and stimulating to study this penetrating and accurate examination of the British-US relationship during the first year of the Korean War. The book gives a salutary picture of how difficult it is for any of the US's allies to have any real influence over US military policies, so they tend to be dragged into conflicts that they would rather not have been involved in, and often have to tolerate measures and means that they feel to be inappropriate or even counter-productive. The differences between the United States and Britain, its major ally, during the first year of the Korean War are perfect cases in point. -Robert O'Neill, former Chichele Professor of the History of War, University of Oxford, and official historian for Australia's role in the Korean War--Robert O'Neill, former Chichele Professor of the History of War, University of Oxford, and official historian for Australia's role in the Korean War