Yalu: À Beira Da 3ª Guerra Mundial

by Jörg Friedrich

Passados apenas cinco anos do término da Segunda Guerra Mundial, os vencedores de 1945 se tornaram inimigos mortais, estocando armas nucleares capazes de devastar o globo terrestre. Estrategistas dos EUA vislumbraram cenários que previam a morte de 60 milhões de civis na Rússia. Stálin, porém, arrastou as potências ocidentais para uma guerra contra a China comunista e o local escolhido para servir de palco ao conflito foi a Coréia.

Os dramáticos episódios vividos durante os dez anos (de 1945 a 1955), em que Rússia e Estados Unidos se prepararam para uma guerra de extermínio. Na guerra da Coréia, o comandante-em-chefe das forças norte-americanas, MacArthur, exigiu o lançamento de sessenta bombas atômicas sobre cidades chinesas habitadas por milhões de pessoas, enquanto a Europa temia a retaliação de Stalin.

Jörg Friedrich nos transporta ao eletrizante cenário dos acontecimentos às margens do Yalu, o rio que demarca a fronteira da China com a Coreia do Norte, onde se decidiu o destino da civilização.

560 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2011

About the author

Jörg Friedrich is a German author and historian. Friedrich is best known for his publication Der Brand (2002), in which he portrays the Allied bombing of civilian targets during World War II as systematic and in many ways pointless mass murder. An English translation, The Fire, was published in 2006 by Columbia University Press and met with widespread critical approval. For example, the New York Times said it "describes in stark, unrelenting and very literary detail what happened in city after city as the Allies dropped 80 million incendiary bombs on Germany..... There is... an edginess to Friedrich's writing and commentary, an emotional power."

Friedrich was formerly considered a left-wing antiwar activist and described as a student Trotskyist. His books have sold hundreds of thousands of copies in Germany, and some have also been translated into English, Dutch, French and many other languages. He is well connected in German political and military circles and is a friend of former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. He has published interviews with Rudolf Bahro and Raul Hilberg when their books were published. His new book "14/18 Der Weg nach Versailles" focuses on the First World War.

For his work The Law of War: The German Army in Russia Friedrich has been awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

Reviews

[Oliver-Flow · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sehr sehr ärgerlich! Ein irres Stück Weltgeschichte, wahnsinnig spannend, wenig bekannt, daher gibt es auch nur wenig Literatur zum Thema. Gut also, dass Jörg Friedrich uns mit seinem Buch beglückt? Nein! Er weiß ohne Zweifel Bescheid, aber sein Schreibstil ist grausam (wie bei allen seinen Büchern). Das Buch zu lesen ist eine Tortur, ich habe mich hindurchgequält um die Fakten aus dem Geschreibsel herauszufischen. Friedrich gefällt sich selbst ganz offensichtlich als toller Schreiber. Da wird er nicht viel Gesellschaft haben.
Was für ein tolles Buch es hätte sein können.