The Secrets of Inchon

Book excerpt: “A classic first-person account of heroism, resolve, and ultimate triumph that will touch every American.”—Stephen Coonts Retrieved from a safe-deposit box, this stunning first-hand account of a crucial, but little-known covert mission of the Korean War offers an honest, revealing, and remarkable story of wartime courage—from the very man who led the mission. According to his colleagues, Commander Eugene Franklin Clark had “the nerves of a burglar and the flair of a Barbary Coast Pirate.” And in August of 1950, when General Douglas MacArthur made the unpopular decision to invade Inchon—a move considered by many to be tactical suicide—he sent in Clark to find out what they needed to know. Discovered by North Koreans, he soon found his intelligence gathering interrupted by firefights, air raids, hand to hand combat, and even a small-scale naval battle. Culminating in the night of the invasion, Clark’s account, informed by a growing brotherhood with his newfound allies, is rich in both adventure and humanity. “What an adventure it describes! There is no reason to disbelieve any of it, but if only a tenth of it were true, it would rival anything Hollywood could cook up.”—Chicago Sun-Times