Here’s another deep look at history through the graphic novel lens of Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales (is it really the 11th book?), and Cold War Correspondent brings us right into the terrible heart of the Korean War (probably one of the least understood military campaigns in modern times).
What’s most fascinating (for me, at least, as a former newspaper reporter) is the lens here, as it is told through the eyes of Marguerite Higgins, a female journalist who embedded herself with troops in some of the more brutal skirmishes of the Korean War of the 1950s. Higgins was an award winning reporter for New York Herald Tribune, and constantly had to argue her place in the war with generals and admirals and others who could not believe a woman should be allowed on boats and in barracks with me.
She persisted.
And the stories Higgins told of soldiers and the battle front made headline news and won her prestige and respect, and her work opened a lot of doors for many other women who were also fighting gender discrimination in the field of journalism.
As with other books in this series, the historical period is told with seriousness and humor, making use of the panels on the page (although some pages are crammed a bit too much with information at times). This graphic novel would be a good fit for a military- or history-obsessed high schooler or advanced middle school reader. There’s a high level of violence and death, as it is war, after all.
Cold War Correspondent sheds light on the Korean War, and how close the United States and its allies in South Korea were to losing the Korean continent to the Soviet Union-backed North Korea in one of the Proxy Wars that unfolded in the aftermath of World War 2.
Peace (now more than ever),
Kevin