The Korean War, by Michael Hickey (John Murray, £14.99 in UK)

A forerunner of Vietnam, the Korean War of the early 1950s was almost the first of what has become a familiar scenario - a confrontation between the West (chiefly the US) and world communism, fought out in a far-off land where Marxism was for many people a war against colonial exploitation. (Stalin was still widely seen as a liberator). The main sufferers, of course, were the Koreans themselves, but casualties were high too among Western troops, while China's entry into the war gave it an extra and deadlier dimension. Instead of concentrating on MacArthur and his eventual dismissal by President Truman, Michael Hickey (who took part as an officer) gives us the history of the 100,000 British troops who fought in the war, along with Australians, Indians, Canadians etc. His soberly-told narrative is well illustrated.