Caramel has read and reviewed several books in Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales, the historical graphic novel series by Nathan Hale. Today he is talking to Sprinkles about the eleventh book in the series, Cold War Correspondent, published first in 2021.
Sprinkles: Here we are, with another Nathan Hale book.
Caramels: Yes, we are! And this one is about the Cold War, brr.
S: That’s funny! The Cold War is called the Cold War not because it is really cold temperature-wise though.
C: Well, I know of course. It is cold in the sense that it is not hot, like armies are not openly fighting, there is no open fire of one army attacking another. So no fire. So Cold.
S: You know so much Caramel! Here is how Wikipedia defines it:
The Cold War was a period of international geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which began in the aftermath of the Second World War[A] and ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The term cold war is used because there was no direct fighting between the two superpowers, though each supported opposing sides in regional conflicts known as proxy wars.
C: Actually the book is about a hot war which was a part of the Cold War. To be specific, the Korean War. One of those proxy wars I suppose, but the United States did have soldiers fighting in it, just not directly against the Soviet Union.
S: Oh, that makes sense. And I am assuming there is a journalist involved somehow, the correspondent in the title.
C: Yeah, the book is specifically about Marguerite Higgins. She was a war correspondent, a journalist who wrote about World War 2 and many other smaller wars, for the New York Herald Tribune.
S: That is so interesting, Caramel. I of course know about the Korean War, but I had not heard of Higgins. She seems to have been a very brave woman. So the story in the book is the story of the Korean War through Higgins’ eyes?
C: Yes, she is the narrator for this book, and she pops up from the hanging tree, or more so down from the tree.
S: The tree of Nathan Hale, you mean? So do we not see Nathan Hale in this one?
C: No, we do, but he’s not the main narrator this time, more so of a commentary.
S: That is different from the other books, right?
C: Yes, it is. In most of the other books, he is not a commenter, he is the narrator, or at least the main narrator.
S: I guess it just worked best this way for this book then. Okay, so did you learn some new things from this book? Did you know about the Korean War or the Cold War or Marguerite Higgins before?
C: Yeah, of course, I knew about the Cold War, and I knew a bit about the Korean War, but not about Higgins. This was a good perspective change.
S: In what way?
C: This showed how badly prepared the South Koreans and the US were. They expected an attack and were preparing for it, but not effectively enough. They had no tanks, planes, artillery, or even armor-piercing bazooka rounds that worked, and among the things they had, many were duds. Meanwhile the North Koreans had almost a full air force and 150 Soviet T-34 tanks, the tanks that let the Soviets take Berlin in the Second World War.
S: I did not know any of these details either, Caramel. So of course the South would suffer dramatically given such a disparity.
C: Yes, so the United States called for the United Nations to help. And about fifteen to twenty nations joined in with the United States to defend South Korea. And that war lasted a few years.
S: And the book is about all that?
C: No, it’s mostly about Higgins and her experiences in Korea, not all of the war.
S: I guess the author decided to include a snapshot from the Cold War in his series. That makes sense to me.
C: Yeah, this is the only book about the Cold War so far. The next one will be about World War 1.
S: So you are all ready to move to the next one! But wait, wasn’t there another Nathan Hale book about World War 1?
C: Yes! It is the second book I reviewed from the series: Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales #2: Treaties, Trenches, Mud, and Blood.
S: And you are ready for more?
C: Yup.
S: Okay, so this is probably a good place to wrap this up then.
C: Sure.
S: What do you want to tell our readers?
C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews!
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