BEHIND THE LINES
Flight Journal: Having authored other books about the Korean War, what inspired you to write MiG Alley? Is there something specific that spoke to you about the Korean War?
Thomas McKelvey Cleaver: Having written The Frozen Chosen and Holding the Line,
I wanted to cover the other side of the air war. During my research for those two books, I discovered that the vast majority of “facts” about the Korean War are nothing more than unquestioned wartime propaganda that has hardened over the years into “fact,” most of which is fantasy. We Americans know nothing about the “forgotten war,” while the North Koreans have never forgotten anything, and until we come to terms with what we did, there will never be any settlement there. Writing these books is my attempt to do that in a way that will attract people to read on and discover the truth.
FJ: As the author, what’s the best part of the story and why?
TMC: I once heard Michael Connelly, one of my favorite fiction writers, say that “nonfiction authors have the power to bring the dead back to life.” It turns out, that’s true. Finding what really happened, as much as possible in the words of those it happened to, and bringing them back from the forgotten shadows, is why I sit down to work every morning.
FJ: With the more current issues dealing with North Korea and our political talks today, is there something readers can take away from reading your book?
TMC: Yes, they can. We ran a bombing campaign for three years against North Korea that knocked down every building larger than an outhouse, then bounced the rubble, then went after the outhouses, and in the process we killed around ten percent of the civilian population, made the rest homeless, and accomplished exactly nothing. As Admiral J.J. Clark, commander of the Seventh Fleet then said, “The interdiction campaign didn’t interdict,” and that’s despite the fact we dropped more bombs on North Korea than we dropped on Germany in all of World War II. Most Americans at the time didn’t know that, and in the 70 years since, Korea has truly become “the forgotten war” here in America. Every North Korean knows the story of their mothers and fathers and grandmothers and grandfathers and aunts and uncles who were killed then, or who survived, and they haven’t forgiven us for that. So long as this is the situation, with we Americans in our typical “Why are you angry at us?” wayward innocent role, there will never be any solution to that situation, no matter how many times Donald Trump sends love letters to Kim Jong Un. When we recognize what we did, and act from that knowledge, all those nuclear weapons will cease to be a threat. I hope people will understand that after they read my books.