The Coldest Winter Speech Analysis

In The Coldest Winter, Halberstam outlines the destructive route to ‘victory’ the U.S. military and government officials took. With great attention to detail, Halberstam interrogates our misconceptions of General Douglas MacArthur and the events which took place on November 25th through the 26th of 1950. It was on that day, Halberstam writes, that China joined the Korean War with the purpose of annihilating U.S. forces. This event is critical to Halberstam, because MacArthur had explicitly expressed his disbelief in a Chinese intervention. To his dismay, over three-hundred thousand Chinese troops crossed the border in what would become known as ‘The Catastrophe on the Yalu.’
Halberstam continues by illustrating the critical roles of the powerful men behind the war on both fronts. From the

Including, but not limited to, President Harry S. Truman, who was succeeded by the 35th President of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower. In tandem with his political analysis of these Presidents, Halberstam explores Dean Gooderham Acheson’s speech given to the National Press Club in the early winter of 1950. It was this speech, Halberstam writes, that acted as the ‘go-ahead’ for the North to invade the South in Korea. For the speech given did not indicate any high level of U.S. commitment to the protection of its South Korean allies. Furthermore, in keeping with his theme of exploring the influence on all fronts, Halberstam recounts the military and politically strategic workings of the power figures in North Korea and China. Including, but not limited to, then leader of the Communist Party of China Mao Zedong, and then leader of North Korea Kim Il-sung. Halberstam spares no cost in elucidating the true nature of this often forgotten war, through the eyes of the men who fought it and with an incredible dedication to exposing history from all