THE SECRETS OF INCHON

Rip-roaring first-person narrative of an espionage mission that may well have saved 100,000 American lives during the Korean War.

Driven to a salient on the southern coast of Korea following a 1950 invasion of Communist forces from the north, Douglas MacArthur’s army was in imminent danger of encirclement and annihilation. MacArthur proposed a daring campaign by which American forces would land at Inchon, a coastal city west of Seoul, and relieve the captured capital. When his generals protested that the chances for success were appallingly small, MacArthur calmly replied that if the Americans thought it was impossible, so would the North Koreans. “That gave us the key element in any attack, large or small—surprise,” writes Clark, who in 1950 was a naval lieutenant. Problem was, very little was known about the tides, islands, and underwater obstacles of the thin channel that led to the projected landing zone. It was up to Clark and a team of Korean intelligence experts to infiltrate the area, gather this information, and convey it to MacArthur. So they did, against all odds and with thousands of North Koreans breathing down their necks. Having recruited the support of the locals, they were even able to employ a lighthouse to show the American armada the way. The military-memoir genre is often overstuffed with poorly written, self-serving accounts, but Clark’s is neither; he tells his story exceedingly well and with uncommon modesty, reserving praise for his comrades. Clark, who died in 1998, wrote this account for his family, and the unpublished manuscript lay in a safe-deposit box for half a century until it came to the attention of historian Thomas Fleming, who shepherded it to publication and provides an introduction.

A solid work of military history by an authentic hero who illuminates the opening days of a now little-remembered conflict.