The Coldest War

As a new Marine second lieutenant, Brady, one-time publisher of Women's Wear Daily , joined Dog Company on the front line in Korea on Thanksgiving Day 1951 and departed the following Fourth of July with his hide intact. During that time he learned how to lead an infantry platoon in combat and later served as executive and intelligence officer of the company. The action sequences--patrols, ambushes, prisoner-snatching raids--are vivid and memorable, conveying the unique flavor of the second year of the ``peculiar war.'' Giving the memoir distinction, however, are the author's comments on those he served with, the prickly relations between Marine officers and enlisted men, and the differences between Marine and Army troops. Brady's ingenuous account of how he learned to lead men in combat while he was scared to death is appealing. Photos. (June)