The Secrets of Inchon: The Untold Story of the Most Daring Covert Mission of the Korean War - Hardcover

Clark, Eugene Franklin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 039914871X ISBN 13: 9780399148712

Publisher: Putnam Adult, 2002

Synopsis

An account based on the experiences of a naval lieutenant who witnessed a covert Korean War mission firsthand discusses his two-week assignment to obtain vital intelligence in the wake of firefights, night raids, hand-to-hand combat, and a small naval battle. 50,000 first printing.

About this title

Review:

If Korea is America's forgotten war, Eugene Franklin Clark is certainly one of that war's least-known heroes. The Secrets of Inchon is his first-person account--written in 1953 and long forgotten in a safety deposit box--of his terrifying fortnight on a small island in North Korean-occupied Inchon harbor. Douglas MacArthur's planned invasion was as fraught with peril as it was daring. The port, with 29-foot tides, was, at their ebb, protected by a mud-flat moat 6,000 yards wide in places. Without elaborate, accurate, first-hand information--which Clark was ordered to supply--about mines, fortifications, sea floor gradients, troop distribution, and other matters large and small, the operation (Clark likens it to a "fly deliberately planning to invade a spider's web") could easily have become "an American Dunkerque." Clark's reconnaissance included hand-to-hand gunfights, rugged interrogations, night forays in small junks, constant vigilance, exhaustingly long hours, and the cooperation of anti-Communist Koreans. The Secrets of Inchon is a commendable tale of an unfathomably obscure and daring military episode. --H. O'Billovich

About the Author:

Eugene Clark died in 1998, after retiring from the Navy in 1966 with the rank of commander. For his role in the invasion, he won the Silver Star. Later missions added an oak leaf cluster and the Navy Cross.

Thomas Fleming is the author of forty books, including The New Dealers' War, Duel, Liberty! The American Revolution, and the bestselling novel The Officers' Wives.

About this edition

• Publisher: Putnam Adult
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 039914871X
• ISBN 13: 9780399148712
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352