The Coldest War

The author and Korean War veteran vividly describes his time on the frontlines in this military memoir: "war reporting at its best . . . reads like a novel" (Walter Cronkite). In 1947, seeking to avoid the draft, nineteen-year-old Jim Brady volunteered for a Marine Corps program that made him a lieutenant in the reserves on the day he graduated college. He didn't expect to be sent overseas three years later to lead a rifle platoon against a deadly enemy. But in Korea, he received a rapid education in the realities of war and the pressures of command.  In The Coldest War, Brady vividly describes the miasma of trench warfare; how death comes in fits and starts as artillery from both sides seeks out men in their bunkers; and how constant alertness is crucial for survival, while brutal cold and a seductive silence can lull soldiers into a fatal stupor. The Korean War affected the lives of all Americans, yet is little known about this "Forgotten War." Here is the inside story as it deserves to be told.