Allan R. Millett, the General Raymond E. Mason Jr. Professor of Military History Emeritus, received the 2012 Truman Book Award for The War for Korea, 1950-1951: They Came from the North.

The Harry S. Truman Book Award, given by the Harry S. Truman Library Institute for National and International Affairs, recognizes the best book published within a two-year period that deals with some aspect of the life or career of Harry S. Truman or the history of the United States during his presidency.

The Book Award committee said Millett’s book was the standout among a field of twenty-eight entries and believes Millett’s work on the Korean War—The War for Korea is the second part of a trilogy—“will become the standard by which other studies of the conflict are measured and a key resource for students of the war for many years to come.”

Millett is a specialist in the history of American military policy and twentieth century wars and military institutions.

In the past decade, Millett has acquired international stature as an expert on the history of the Korean War. He began his work on the war as a Fulbright Distinguished Professor, Korean National Defense University in 1991, and was a fellow of the Korea Foundation in 1996.

In addition to his own original work, Millett served as an editorial consultant for the Ministry of Defense, Republic of Korea, for the revised and translated Korean official history, The Korean War, 3 vols. (1998-1999) for which he arranged an American edition (2000-2001).

He then served as co-editor of Mao’s Generals Remember Korea (2001) in collaboration with Professor Yi Xiaoping and Yu Bin.

Millett has published twenty-seven essays, articles, encyclopedia entries and commentaries on the Korean War; he was instrumental in the Department of Defense’s revision of the American death statistics (all causes) from 54,246 to 36,574.

He is the author of seven books:

The Politics of Intervention: The Military Occupation of Cuba, 1906-1909 (1968)

The General: Robert L. Bullard and Officership in the United States Army, 1881-1925 (1975)

Semper Fidelis: The History of the United States Marine Corps (1980, revised edition, 1991)

In Many a Strife: General Gerald C. Thomas and the United Stated Marine Corps, 1917-1956 (1993)

Their War for Korea (2002)

The War for Korea, 1945-1950: A House Burning (2005)

The War for Korea, 1950-1951: They Came from the North (2010)

He co-authored, with Williamson Murray, the internationally-acclaimed history of World War II, A War to Be Won: Fighting the Second World War (2000).

Millett is professor emeritus of history and an associate at Ohio State’s Mershon Center for International Security Studies. He is the Ambrose Professor of History and Director of the Eisenhower Center for American Studies at the University of New Orleans. He is senior military advisor at National World War II Musuem.