I tried to do that for the dialog the author offers for the famous 23 August 1950 showdown meeting regarding the Inchon landing. Parts comport with published accounts and participants recollections, but some of it I have never seen before. Perhaps it came from sources unnamed, but without notes one cannot be certain. Notes are not a luxury or, to use Weintraub s word, an intrusion. The author must know that.
Notes are at the heart of rigorous scholarly research.
Research is a social process, and its linchpin is the ability of other scholars to check the validity of reported findings. Ultimately, MacArthur s War contributes little to our understanding of the Korean War. It is so fraught with errors that it cannot be taken seriously. It is a regrettable book.