Skip to main content
Cold War, take 2
CARLOS MARTINEZ recommends a classic study of the Korean war that has striking ressemblance to US/China relations today 
Colonel Chang Chun San of the North Korean Army and Colonel James Murray Jr of the USMC initial maps showing the north and south boundaries of the demarcation zone, during the Panmunjom cease fire talks on October 11 1951 [Public Domain]

The Hidden History of the Korean War
IF Stone, Monthly Review Press, Kindle: £10.99

JULY 27 2023 marked 70 years since the signing of the armistice agreement at Panmunjom, finally bringing about a cessation of hostilities in a war that was extraordinarily destructive but which has been largely ignored.

As Bruce Cumings writes in his preface to IF Stone’s classic The Hidden History of the Korean War — first published in 1952 and recently reissued by Monthly Review Press — the Korean war is a forgotten war, “remembered mainly as an odd conflict sandwiched between the good war (World War II) and the bad war (Vietnam).”

Stone’s meticulous investigation provides abundant proof that most of the key players in the US government and military actively wanted the Korean war; that it was the right war, in the right place and the right time in terms of US imperialist interests.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
A new epoch v ‘the main stronghold of modern colonialism’
Features / 23 September 2025
23 September 2025

In a speech to the 12th Xiangshan Forum in Beijing, SEVIM DAGDELEN warns of a growing historical revisionism to whitewash Germany and Japan’s role in WWII as part of a return to a cold war strategy from the West — but multipolarity will win out

President Donald Trump answers questions from reporters after signing an executive order about the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games, in the South Court Auditorium of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus, August 5, 2025,
Features / 7 August 2025
7 August 2025

FRANCISCO DOMINGUEZ says the US’s bullying conduct in what it considers its backyard is a bid to reassert imperial primacy over a rising China — but it faces huge resistance

Prime Minister Clement Attlee addresses the West Lewisham Labour Party meeting in Forest Hill, London, January 26, 1951
Features / 19 July 2025
19 July 2025

The summer of 1950 saw Labour abandon further nationalisation while escalating Korean War spending from £2.3m to £4.7m, as the government meekly accepted capitalism’s licence and became Washington’s yes-man, writes JOHN ELLISON

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (left) speaks at a news conference with Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine at the Pentagon, June 26, 2025 in Washington
Features / 28 June 2025
28 June 2025

The US’s bid for regime change in the Islamic Republic has become more urgent as it seeks to encircle and contain a resurgent China, writes CARLOS MARTINEZ