Britain's Korean War: Cold War diplomacy, strategy and security 1950-53

by Thomas Hennessey

Overview

The book assesses the strains within the ‘Special Relationship’ between London and Washington and offers a new perspective on the limits and successes of British influence. The interaction between the main personalities on the British side – Attlee, Bevan, Morrison, Churchill and Eden – and their American counterparts – Truman, Acheson, Eisenhower and Dulles – are chronicled. By the end of the war the British were concerned that it was the Americans, rather than the Soviets, who were the greater threat to world peace. British fears concerning the Korean War were not limited to the diplomatic and military fronts – these extended to the ‘Manchurian Candidate’ threat posed by returning prisoners of war who had been exposed to communist indoctrination. The book is essential reading for those interested in British and US foreign policy and military strategy during the Cold War.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780719088599
Publisher:	Manchester University Press
Publication date:	11/30/2013
Edition description:	UK ed.
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	11.30(w) x 7.60(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Thomas Hennessey is Professor of Modern British and Irish History at Canterbury Christ Church University

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. Invasion
2. To cross or not to cross: the 38th parallel
3. Enter the Dragon: China’s first intervention
4. Attlee in Washington
5. Divisions: January 1951
6. MacArthur goes
7. The long war
8. Breakthrough
Epilogue: Bermuda
Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

Hennessey ends with a fascinating chapter on the government’s
‘screening’ of released British POWs—aptly entitled ‘Manchurian candidates’—and an epilogue on the Bermuda Conference of December 1953.

From the Publisher