LITTLE ROCK — If this weather is getting to you, and you’re letting your garden go to seed because you just don’t want to walk out there this week, and you rush from your doorway to your car to spend as little time as possible away from the A/C, then do we have a book for you: The Coldest Winter by the late, great David Halberstam. Mainly, it’s the story of the Chinese crossing the Yalu River after the UN seemed, and only seemed, to have won the Korean War. The Americans were so sure of success that our troops were still wearing summer uniforms when the Chinese materialized in overwhelming numbers that November of 1950. (After all, the allied troops were to be home by Christmas, right?)
This book will make you appreciate summer. And the GIs who had to put up not just with an implacable enemy, but the brass, who seemed impervious to the reality about to burst.
So grab The Coldest Winter this July. And get a hot cup of joe and a blanket.
Editorial, Pages 12 on 07/26/2010