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Also by David Halberstam:

The Coldest Winter, October 2007
Hardcover
Breaking News, June 2007
Hardcover
Summer of '49, May 2006
Paperback (reprint)
The Education of a Coach, November 2005
Hardcover
The Powers That Be, October 2004
Trade Size (reprint)
The Teammates, May 2004
Paperback
Firehouse, May 2003
Paperback (reprint)
War in a Time of Peace, April 2003
Paperback
Playing for Keeps, February 2000
Paperback (reprint)
October 1964, April 1995
Paperback
The Fifties, May 1994
Paperback (reprint)
The Best and the Brightest, November 1993
Trade Size (reprint)

The Coldest Winter
David Halberstam

America and the Korean War

Hyperion
October 2007
On Sale: September 25, 2007
736 pages
ISBN: 1401300529
EAN: 9781401300524
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction

David Halberstam’s magisterial and thrilling The Best and the Brightest was the defining book for the Vietnam War. More than three decades later, Halberstam used his unrivalled research and formidable journalistic skills to shed light on another dark corner in our history: the Korean War. The Coldest Winter is a successor to The Best and the Brightest, even though in historical terms it precedes it. Halberstam considered The Coldest Winter the best book he ever wrote, the culmination of forty-five years of writing about America’s postwar foreign policy.

Up until now, the Korean War has been the black hole of modern American history. The Coldest Winter changes that. Halberstam gives us a masterful narrative of the political decisions and miscalculations on both sides. He charts the disastrous path that led to the massive entry of Chinese forces near the Yalu, and that caught Douglas MacArthur and his soldiers by surprise. He provides astonishingly vivid and nuanced portraits of all the major figures -- Eisenhower, Truman, Acheson, Kim, and Mao, and Generals MacArthur, Almond, and Ridgway. At the same time, Halberstam provides us with his trademark highly evocative narrative journalism, chronicling the crucial battles with reportage of the highest order.

At the heart of the book are the individual stories of the soldiers on the front lines who were left to deal with the consequences of the dangerous misjudgements and competing agendas of powerful men. We meet them, follow them, and see some of the most dreadful battles in history through their eyes. As ever, Halberstam was concerned with the extraordinary courage and resolve of people asked to bear an extraordinary burden.

The Coldest Winter is contemporary history in its most literary and luminescent form, and provides crucial perspective on the Vietnam War and the events of today. It was a book that Halberstam first decided to write more than thirty years ago and that took him nearly ten years to write. It stands as a lasting testament to one of the greatest journalists and historians of our time, and to the fighting men whose heroism it chronicles.

Includes an Afterword by Russell Baker

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