In this brilliant narrative of America’s first limited war, John Toland shows yet again why, for over two decades, he has been one of this country’s most respected and popular military historians. Toland lets both the events and the participants speak for themselves, employing scrupulous archival research and interviews as the bases for the drama and accuracy of his writing. In Mortal Combat reveals Mao’s prediction of the date and place of MacArthur’s Inchon landing, Russia’s indifference to the war, Mao’s secret leadership of the North Korean military, and the true nature of both sides’ treatment and repatriation of POWs.
In addition to being the first Westerner to gain access to Chinese records and combatants, Toland interviewed numerous North and South Korean veterans and over two hundred members of the American military, many of whom had never been approached before. The result is a signal work of compelling readability and lasting importance.
John Toland (1912–2004) was an award-winning American author and one of the most widely read military historians of the twentieth century. His most well-known work is perhaps The Rising Sun, winner of the 1971 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction and the first book in English to tell the story of the Pacific War from the Japanese perspective. Although primarily an author of historical nonfiction, he also wrote novels, plays, and short stories. Among his published books were four New York Times bestsellers: But Not in Shame, The Last Hundred Days, Adolf Hitler, and Infamy.
Grover Gardner has recorded more than 650 audiobooks since beginning his career in 1981. He's been named one of the "Best Voices of the Century" as well as a "Golden Voice" by AudioFile magazine. Gardner has garnered over 20 AudioFile Earphones Awards and is the recipient of an Audio Publishers Association Audie Award, as well as a three-time finalist. In 2005, Publishers Weekly deemed him "Audiobook Narrator of the Year." Gardner has also narrated hundreds of audiobooks under the names Tom Parker and Alexander Adams. Among his many titles are Marcus Sakey's At the City's Edge, as well as Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and John Irving's The Cider House Rules. Gardner studied Theater and Art History at Rollins College and received a Master's degree in Acting from George Washington University. He lives in Oregon with his significant other and daughter.