The North Korean Revolution: 1945-1950

Military Review,  March-April, 2004  by Jeffrey J. Kuebler

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THE NORTH KOREAN REVOLUTION: 1945-1950 (Studies of the East Asian Institute, Columbia University), Charles K. Armstrong, Cornell University Press, NY, 2004, 265 pages, $39.95.

In The North Korean Revolution: 1945-1950, Associate Professor of History and Director of the Center for Korean Research at Columbia University Charles K. Armstrong examines North Korea's formative period between World War II and the Korean war, when Kim Il Sung and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea rose to power.

Armstrong's book is extensively researched and replete with footnotes to Korean, U.S. military, and Soviet source documentation. Arm-strong reviewed over 1.6 million pages of documents that U.S. forces captured during the Korean war. The book is not easy to read, but it provides a wealth of factual information and historical background that increases the persistent reader's understanding of North Korea's communist history and present idiosyncrasies.

Armstrong attempts to dispel the traditional Western view that communist North Korea is the creation and puppet regime of the Soviets. He delineates an important, yet limited, Soviet role in the early years of North Korea's communist government. In Armstrong's view, the Soviet and North Korean relationship is better defined as the "Koreanization" of Soviet communism, rather than the "Sovietization" of North Korea. While Armstrong acknowledges Soviet and Chinese influences in the formation and early development of communist North Korea, he argues that there was an independent and uniquely Korean adaptation of Japanese, Soviet, and Chinese influences that resulted in the complete transformation of North Korean society between 1945 and 1950.

Armstrong devotes substantial attention to other important facets of North Korea's history, including the cult of Kim Il Sung; the role of film, literature, and education in shaping the North Korean people to a communist model; the Korean participation in Chinese guerrilla activities in Manchuria against Japanese occupation forces; and the communists' effective use of land reform and other programs to garner party support from the lower societal classes.

The book is probably more appealing as a reference or a serious reading assignment for avid political science or Korean history enthusiasts than it is to military historians or soldiers. However, while the average reader might not want to read the entire book, he will find that Armstrong has divided the book into logical chapters that make specific aspects of North Korean history readily accessible.

CPT Jeffrey J. Kuebler, USA,

Lexington, Kentucky

COPYRIGHT 2004 U.S. Army CGSC
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning