The Korean War was a pivotal event in China's modern military
history. The fighting in Korea constituted an important experience
for the newly formed People's Liberation Army Air Force
(PLAAF), not only as a test case for this fledgling service but also
in the later development of Chinese air power.
	
    Xiaoming Zhang fills the gaps in the history of this conflict by
basing his research on recently declassified Chinese and Russian
archival materials and interviews with Chinese participants in the
air war over Korea. Zhang's findings challenge conventional
wisdom as he compares kill ratios and performance by all sides
involved in the war.

    Zhang also addresses the broader issues of the Korean War, such
as how air power affected Beijing's decision to intervene. He
touches on ground operations and truce negotiations during the
conflict. Chinese leaders, he concludes, placed great emphasis on
the supremacy of human will over modern weaponry, but they were
far from oblivious to the advantages of the latter and to China's
technological limitations.

    Developments in China's own air power were critical during this
era. Zhang offers considerable materials on the training of Chinese
aviators and the Soviet role in that training, on Soviet and Chinese
air operations in Korea, and on diplomatic exchanges over Soviet
military assistance to China. He probes the impact of the war on
China's conception of the role of air power, arguing that it was not
until the Gulf War of the early 1990s that Chinese leaders engaged
in a broad reassessment of the strategy they adopted during the
Korean War.

    Military historians and scholars interested in aviation and
foreign affairs will find this volume of special interest. As a unique
work that presents the Chinese point of view, it stands as both a
complement and a corrective to previous accounts of the conflict.

_________________________________________________________

The Journal of Military History has twice selected XIAOMING ZHANG
to receive the Moncado Prize for excellence in the writing of
military history. Zhang currently resides in Montgomery, Alabama,
where he teaches at the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base.


Number Eighty: Texas A&M University Military History Series


What people are saying about this book


". . . Red Wings over the Yalu fills an important void about the air war 
over Korea. . . . Zhang asks the most relevant questions since the 
implementation of the new proactive Bush doctrine."—Armor

"Readers interested in Cold War politics, the air war over Korea, and 
the roots of China's air power will find great value in this well-written 
and richly researched book."—Air & Space Power Journal

". . . an excellent and important book. Anyone wanting a fresh, well-
researched, and balanced view of this subject will welcome this
study. We can only hope that Zhang will continue his work and
others will be encouraged to follow his impressive lead."—Kenneth P.
Werrell, Journal of Military History

"Zhang's study is masterful in placing the Chinese air war in Korea
in the context of China's development in the twentieth century."
—William Stueck, author, The Korean War: An International
History and Rethinking the Korean War: A New Diplomatic and
Strategic History