The Reluctant Communist, Charles Robert Jenkins
The Reluctant Communist, Charles Robert Jenkins
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The Reluctant Communist
My Desertion, Court-Martial, and Forty-Year Imprisonment in North Korea

Author: Charles Robert Jenkins, Jim Frederick

Narrator: John McLain

Unabridged: 7 hr

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 03/13/2018

Synopsis

In January of 1965, twenty-four-year-old U.S. Army sergeant Charles Robert Jenkins abandoned his post in South Korea, walked across the DMZ, and surrendered to communist North Korean soldiers standing sentry along the world's most heavily militarized border. He believed his action would get him back to the States and a short jail sentence. Instead he found himself in another sort of prison, where for forty years he suffered under one of the most brutal and repressive regimes the world has known. This fast-paced, harrowing tale, told plainly and simply by Jenkins (with journalist Jim Frederick), takes the listener behind the North Korean curtain and reveals the inner workings of its isolated society while offering a powerful testament to the human spirit.

About Charles Robert Jenkins

Charles Robert Jenkins (1940-2017) was a United States Army soldier who lived in North Korea from 1965 to 2004.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Frieda on October 07, 2015

I so enjoyed this book. I think Jim Frederick, the journalist who wrote the memoir for the soldier Charles R Jenkins, deserves a lot of the credit. It is a sixty year story of one giant mistake and lots of strange and real events. An average person, an American soldier, decided in a moment of coward......more

Goodreads review by Michael on July 17, 2011

Charles Robert Jenkins's The Reluctant Communist is the story of the defection to, virtual imprisonment in, and return from North Korea. As a young Sergeant in the US Army, Jenkins crossed in mid-1950s the demilitarized zone (DMZ) that separated US-friendly South Korea from the Communist North Korea......more

Goodreads review by Cav on June 17, 2024

"My first thought, I remember clearly, was: “This can’t be happening.” Once I registered that it was indeed happening, my second thought was simple: “I’m toast.” The Reluctant Communist was a great telling of an incredible real-life saga. The author drops the quote above early on. Author Charles Rober......more

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