Book Review: The Coldest Winter by David Haberstam

I was a private first class in June of 1950 and planning to attend Seattle University.
At the time I was living in a "temporary" wooden barracks at Fort Lewis, Washington where the 2nd Division was based.
The 4th Regimental Combat Team, of which I was a member was attached to the 2nd Division. On June 25, the North Korans crossed the 38th parallel and invaded South Korea. I would not be discharged in September, as I had planned.
But because I had only a few months left in my enlistment when the 2nd Division was sent to Korea, I was one of the lucky ones. My enlistment would be extended by a year, but it would be after the division left the states. I would not be with many of my buddies, most of whom would die in Korea.
But because I am a fan of David Halberstam's writing and because I wanted to learn more about the battles in which the 2nd Division participated, I read Halberstam's book.
I found that fully half the book is devoted to the politics of the war, not only in the U.S., but in Korea and China, as well. Informative and revealing yes, but I was looking for a fuller account of the fighting.
And I found one mistake, which was glaring in my eyes. Halberstam writes that funds to the military were so curtailed as the war began that soldiers at Fort Lewis were ordered to use only two sheets of toilet paper when they did their business in the latrines. I know on no such order and I was there.
He is right, however, about the overconfidence of the army officers at the war's beginning. I recall a lecture to the troops in which we were told the war would be over in three months. "These are peasants we'll be fighting. When their tank drivers, when their artillerymen are killed, there won't be anyone trained to replace them."
How wrong they were and little our military knew of the disasters which awaited the troops. They are extensively detained in the book.