Episode 220
The Korean War with Robert Lyman


Early in the morning of 25th June 1950 the Korean People’s Army – the North Koreans – crossed the 38th parallel and the Korean War had begun. It was a particularly brutal conflict, with up to 3 million civilian deaths, a million South Koreans and 1.5million North Koreans left dead.
But why did it begin, and why, after the near cataclysmic invasion had been repulsed, did the Americans overreach thus bringing China into the war?
Historian Rob Lyman joins to discuss this forgotten confrontation, one that began less than five years after the end of the Second World War. Rob is the author, along with the former head of the British Army Richard Dannatt, of Korea: War without end.
General Lord Dannatt & Robert Lyman Links
Ollie Links
Contact Ollie: history@aspectsofhistory.com