M*A*S*H and the American living room
How the television series and motion picture mediated the wartime experience of
American veterans
Roxanne Elt 3509125
Master Thesis Cultural History
Content
1. Introduction
3.
2. Mediating collective memory and selective amnesia
7.
2.1 Reflecting social mentality
3. Korea’s absence in American commemorative culture
9.
15.
3.1 How Korea feminized the American soldier
15.
3.2 Raising paranoia
17.
3.3 The war before Vietnam
19.
4. Mediating wartime experience
21.
4.1 From the pages to the silver screen
22.
4.2 M*A*S*H the television series
24.
4.3 Repressing individuality
24.
4.4 The impact of war on individuals
27.
4.5 Discriminatory actions
33.
4.6 Goodbye, Farewell and Amen
36.
5. Conclusion
39.
6. Bibliography
41.
2
1. Introduction
The absence of the Korean War form the American commemorative culture has been vast and
consistent between the start of the war in 1950 and the early nineteen eighties. However, this
mainly implicates the absence of official commemorative initiatives backed by the government. Jay
Winter refers to the late twentieth century as a period in which a memory boom took place. During
this period there was an increasing recognition for the effort of veterans and to account for victims
of war.1 This void in America’s commemorative culture that preceded this memory boom is also
addressed by Judith Keene in her article Lost to Public Commemoration: American Veterans of the
“Forgotten” Korean War. She attempts to explain this absence and directly relates it to the veterans
and their ‘homecoming’ experience. Far from being a victorious war, it is this very experience of
not winning which seemed to change people’s perception of the American soldier. Also, the Korean
War was part of a much bigger and global threat, in the eyes of the American people. Cold War
fears seemed to be fueled by the idea that communism had infiltrated not just on an international
scale, but within America itself. Communism was almost considered to be contagious, therefore the
soldiers who came in direct contact with communist through imprisonment were considered to be
potential communist sympathizers.2 According to Keene, this perception of the American soldiers
who had lost the war, as well as the idea that many had fallen victim to the enemy and their
communist ideology, vastly effected the war’s exclusion in America’s commemorative culture:
There is no doubt that the prisoner of war is, in general, a problematic figure in military discourse
and in the popular perception of soldierly behavior in wartime. The POW is the antithesis of the
fighting man: he is defeated, weak, emaciated and dependent on the enemy for survival. Entering
captivity can be regarded as a feminizing process.3
As for its place within America’s commemorative culture, Keene seems to locate the war
within the general commemorative culture dedicated to soldiers who were Prisoners Of War (POW)
and Missing In Action (MIA). Also, initiatives which fought for the recognition of Vietnam
Veterans seemed to have inspired Korean War veterans to claim attention. It was not until 1995
when under president Bill Clinton a memorial was erected which specifically and solely represented
the veterans of the Korean War.4 However, there have been initiatives from the Korean veterans
Jay Winter ‘Notes on the Memory Boom. War, Remembrance and Uses of the Past’ in: Duncan Bell ed. Memory,
Trauma and World Politics. Reflections on the Relationship Between Past and Present, (London 2006), 54-73, 54.
2
Judith Keene, ‘Lost to Public Commemoration: American Veterans of the “Forgotten” Korean War’ in: Journal of
Social History, vol. 44 no. 4 (summer 2011) 1095-1113, 1098.
3
Ibidem, 1099.
4
Ibidem, 1107.
1
3
themselves, one of which resulted in the formation of the Korean War Veterans Association in
1985, as well as the launch of the Korean Veterans magazine Graybeards.5 This organization
consisted of veterans who wanted to encourage other veterans like them to raise their voice. The
first issue of the magazine, which was released in 1985, indicates they were aware of the silence
among Korea veterans, as well as their reluctance to let themselves and their experiences be heard.
This first issue is filled with words of thanks towards specific individuals from several branches of
service that had contributed to the Korean War effort.
Regardless of the fact that a marginal group of veterans decided to form an organization and
issue a magazine to accompany it, the main impression is that America did not feel the need to
remember the Korean War. This veterans organization emerged halfway through the nineteen
eighties, more than three decades after the end of the military conflict in Korea. However, this
conclusion is mainly based on the absence of official commemorative initiatives. The fact that the
country lacked official initiative to remember does not mean that the issue of the Korean War failed
to be addressed in other forms. In this research, I will analyze the motion picture and television
series M*A*S*H. These sources provided the American people with a representation of the Korean
war and wartime experiences in general during a period when active commemoration of this
military conflict was non-existent. The historiography on this subject shows that historians have
been reluctant to include these visual representations. The focus of this research will be on the main
messages and representations which were being mediated to the American people through these two
sources.
In order to achieve such an analysis I have organized my thesis in three levels. I will first
elaborate the theoretical framework on which my analysis is based. My approach has been inspired
by theories which have been put forward by Jay Winter, who has conducted extensive research
within the field of memory studies, and war remembrance in particular. He states that national
remembrance of wars is constantly affected by new military conflicts. In other words, the way in
which the First World War is remembered in England has been altered by the experience of other
wars and military conflicts that followed it. Therefore, according to Winter, commemorative culture
is always in flux. Winter not only poses interesting ideas when it comes to collective memory and
remembrance, he also illustrates that film and television are one of the most significant cultural
practices through which collective memory is mediated.6 This theory is of particular significance to
this research, as I will attempt to illustrate whether M*A*S*H could have functioned as a mediator
for America’s collective memory. However, it would be naive to conclude that these case studies
were primarily created to fill the void in America’s commemorative culture. In order to analyze my
5
http://www.kwva.org/graybeards/graybeards_history.htm (12-05-’13).
Jay Winter, Remembering War. The Great War Between Memory and History in the Twentieth Century (London
2006), 185.
6
4
case studies I have formulated an analytical framework based on Chris Vos’ theoretical overview
on the use of audiovisual sources in historical research. He advocates that film and television series
should be used in a broader context, as a historical source of the time of production. M*A*S*H is
set in Korea, but the storyline is severely influenced by the creators and their social-political
context.
With the theory explained in full detail, the thesis will continue with historiographical
context. Vos stresses the importance of understanding of the social-historiographical context when
analyzing film and television series.7 This section addresses both the historiography of America’s
commemorative culture with reference to the Korean War and the social-political context in which
the movie and the television series were created. In order to analyze my case study, it is important
to understand what the commemorative culture of the Korean War consists of and how it was
formed, as well as why its formation was virtually non-existent for three decades. Therefore, I will
look at the few initiatives which were set up through the years as well as the lack of wider ranging
initiatives and the reason for this attitude of selective amnesia. The second part of this chapter will
deal with the social, political and military conditions in which the movie and television series were
created and produced. The main point here is that I want to counter claims which eliminate the
relevance of M*A*S*H, because it allegedly represents the military situation in Vietnam instead of
Korea. Undoubtedly it is important to consider the influence the Vietnam War could have, however,
the claim that the movie and the show simply used Korea as a safe option to criticize the Vietnam
War is not supported by convincing arguments.
The third and final part of this thesis will consist of an analysis of my case studies, which
includes the movie as well as the television series M*A*S*H. In order to create a clear overview of
the main representations in the television series I have organized my analysis in the three themes
which are central to the storyline. Using the theoretical framework and historiographical context, I
will be able to analyze the importance of M*A*S*H as a mediator for collective memory. This
thesis will be more than just a subject analysis of my case studies; it will be analyzed as a reflection
of its own time.
In this thesis I will argue that in the absence of any official commemorative culture, there was a
popular representation of a war which was purposefully forgotten. More than a decade before the
first official initiatives from Korean veterans, M*A*S*H attempted to make people aware of the
personal experience of individuals during wartime. It also brought a particular portrayal of the
Korean War into cinema’s and into people’s homes, in a period when official commemorative
culture of the Korean War was non-existent. The show is as much a drama as a comedy, as it
7
Chris Vos, Bewegend Verleden. Inleiding in de analyse van films en televisieprogramma’s (Amsterdam 2007), 120.
5
addresses a variety of serious issues which are unique to a wartime situation. It mediated an image
of the Korean War to the audience who, consciously or subconsciously, adopted it into their
memory.
6
2. Mediating collective memory and selective amnesia
The analytical approach of this thesis has been inspired by Jay Winter’s theories on remembrance,
and the role film and television can play in the collective memory of a particular group or nation.
The basis of his theory is the claim that different generations have different associations with
history, which is the result of different experiences and interaction with the past. 8 Especially during
the second half of the twentieth century, generations were continually being influenced by new or
flourishing media such as film and television. According to Winter this interaction had a substantial
influence on the diffusion of commemorative culture:
Memory is not additive. Different cohorts cannot simply and easily be conflated into something
called collective memory (...). Different cohorts have different memories and draw on different
representations which are not identical. They are exposed to various narratives of the past, and film
is a very powerful source of such narratives, but to call these narratives collective memory is to turn
a very complex phenomenon into something so vague as to means virtually nothing.9
Winter not only stresses that memory is not something which is flawlessly passed on from
generation to generation, he also points out that even though film can be a very powerful source in
influencing memory this is not a direct reflection of how the majority of a group or nation views
their past. However, Winter does consider film and television series to be an essential influence on
commemorative culture. He defines collective memory as a set of memories which are expressed in
public and by different individuals. Also, he sees film as one of the most significant cultural
practices through which collectives mediate their sets of memories.10 However, he warns against the
urge among scholars to bridge the gap between the representation of war and the collective
memory, and concludes that sharing a common mediator such as film does not mean that people
share the same memories. Therefore, this analysis is not based on the assumption that M*A*S*H is
a direct representation of the life of American doctors, nurses and soldiers in wartime Korea.
However, this does not eliminate the possibility that the early nineteen fifties wartime scenario, as
well as the social-political views which were influential ate the time, are partially represented.
Film and television can still be useful as a historical source within the field of memory
studies. In the case of M*A*S*H, a story of war is produced which consists of different story lines
and characters with which the audience can identify itself. According to Winter, conventional
categories of thought are being challenged and the story is intended to move the viewer. This does
8
Winter, Remembering War, 183.
Ibidem, 184.
10
Ibidem, 185.
9
7
not necessarily mean that through this medium the producers are trying to make the audience
uniformly identify with one story line or one memory. Winter contributed an article to the book
‘Memory, Trauma and World Politics. Reflections on the Relationship Between Past and Present’
in which he illustrates a surge in remembrance during the 1970’s and 1980’s as the second memory
boom. He defines this phenomenon as a result of identity fragmentation of (mainly) national
identities. These national identities were supposedly formed during the first memory boom between
the 1890’s and 1920’s.11 This second memory boom however, according to Winter, is resistant to
reconstructions which appeal to a majority. Instead people are trying to find elements in the past
which are usable for the present or even the future. In other words, those aspects of the past which
are usable are being remembered and those aspects of the past which are seen as negative are
forgotten. This way of selecting specific elements of history and purposefully forgetting them is
often referred to as selective amnesia. In the case of M*A*S*H you could argue that this is an
example of creating a usable past, and therefore that it is part of the second memory boom. Before
the film and show were created this episode in America’s past was considered to be shameful,
which was a new phenomenon in America’s commemorative culture. This change in
commemoration and identity of the American soldier will be elaborated in chapter two, as part of
my historiographical framework.
When setting up a theoretical framework it is essential to clearly define terms which can
otherwise be misinterpreted. Frederic Bartlett defines remembering as a process of constructing or
reconstructing the past which is based on three mental faculties. Firstly people base their
remembrance on their personal experience, something which they witnessed first-hand. Secondly
individuals are confronted with images of the past which contain specific traces of memory. The
third and final mental faculty defined by Bartlett is attitude, the way people relate themselves to a
remembered event and the feelings that accompanies it.12 In other words, people are not only
affected by what they know through personal experience, but they are influenced by images and
attitudes of the past which have been formed by other individuals or groups as well. Maurice
Halbwachs takes this a step further by stating that memory has a socially integrative function, and
that it is mainly created within a specific social context and through engagement between
individuals.13 He rejects the concept that the individual is capable of a completely individual
conscious state, in other words an individual’s remembrance is never something which develops in
total solitude. In fact, people tend to remember those memories which harmonize with others. As
Winter also argues, people tend to remember those aspects of the past which are usable.
Winter ‘Notes on the Memory Boom’, 58.
Anna Green, Cultural History. Theory and History (London 2008), 84.
13
Maurice Halbwachs, Collective Memory (Leuven 1991), 7-9.
11
12
8
Keeping in mind the several factors which influence how a person’s memory is formed, I
will now turn to my analytical framework which is based in Chris Vos’ theories on the analysis of
audiovisual images as a historical source. The above mentioned aspects of remembrance and how
memory is formed are also at the center of his analysis and theoretical critique, which is why I felt
the need to elaborate on these concepts first.
2.2 Reflecting social mentality
Chris Vos has created an analytical model as well as a theoretical overview on the use of
audiovisual sources in historical research. The case studies I have chosen to analyze will not
primarily be regarded as a source on the Korean War, but instead as a source of the contemporary
context in which they were created. Vos defines this approach in his book Bewegend Verleden and
stresses that the representation of historical facts loses its relevance and that the focus has shifted on
how a television show mediates information about the time in which it was created. 14 In other
words, the analysis will heavily focus on how the show also represents the social and political
situation of the nineteen seventies and early nineteen eighties. More importantly, I will look at how
this social-political context affected the actual representation of wartime Korea. This will be a key
aspect which will help determine what representation was being mediated through the motion
picture and television show. I will use Vos’ theory on the analysis of audiovisual sources on
historical events to analyze the possible role M*A*S*H played in America’s commemorative
culture between 1970 and 1983. Using this theoretical framework together with the
historiographical context I will attempt to analyze what M*A*S*H tells the viewer about the
Korean War, and what this can tell us about America’s commemorative culture in this period.
Vos tackles the assumption that film and television can be analyzed as a reflection of
society. Even though this assumption is very debatable and there are many factors which have to be
taken into consideration, Vos does argue that film and television series can say something about the
society in which they were created. A television show or movie does not directly reflect society but
it can reflect certain social values within society. However, it is essential to try and indicate which
part of society is reflected, and which values accompany it. Film and television are not only there to
impose society with their ideas and ideologies, they are created to explore social problems and
possibly even offer a solution.15 As a result people recognize their situation. This is why the
intentions and ideas of the creators of M*A*S*H are essential to my research. Their intentions,
together with the contemporary social problems and contemporary dominant beliefs, can give an
14
15
Chris Vos, Bewegend Verleden. Inleiding in de Analyse van films en televisieprogramma’s (Amsterdam 2007), 150.
Ibidem, 121.
9
indication of what mentality M*A*S*H is attempting to project. Therefore I have analyzed three
interviews conducted with three of the most important creators of the television series.
In the introduction I have already indicated that the motivation behind the producers is
essential to my research. The Archive of American Television has conducted relatively recent
interviews with three of the key people involved in creating the show. Larry Gelbart, who produced,
directed and wrote throughout the first four years of the series, Alan Alda, who plays the main
character ‘Hawkeye’ and wrote and directed several episodes, and Gene Reynolds, who was the
casting director, producer and later co-producer alongside Gelbart.16 During these interviews
specific questions are asked regarding their background research for the show. This research mainly
consisted of interviews with veterans who had served in a M*A*S*H-unit during the Korean
conflict. These specific surgical units were new and experimental when they were implemented
within the US Army at the start of the Korean War. The idea was that these medical units would be
positioned several miles from the fighting and that it would accompany the front-line whenever it
shifted. As a result wounded soldiers where never far from a M*A*S*H-unit where they would
receive lifesaving surgical treatment. This innovative approach to caring for those soldiers which
were wounded proved to be an enormous success. ‘They were purposefully interviewing hundreds
of men and women who had served in medical units in Korea, because it is was their story which
they wanted to tell. To add to this, Gelbart and Reynolds visited the last operating American
M*A*S*H-unit which was still operation in Korea in 1974.
The creators felt that their of research in the form of oral history was essential in telling their
story because this gave them access to the personal experiences of the individuals. This focus on the
individual is what I believe makes the television series suitable for this research, because it gives an
insight how the creators wanted the audience to associate with the Korean War, and its veterans as
individuals. Also, their research motivated them to represent not just the Korean War in general, but
in particular the wastefulness which seemed to characterize the memory of this war.17 It is
important to mention that there was a particular message which the creators of M*A*S*H wanted to
relay to their audience; however this does not necessarily indicate that they were biased. They
interviewed those who had experienced the war from inside these medical units and they decided to
approach their project accordingly. With this information they told their story of the Korean War,
and on a bigger scale they told the story of how wartime experiences influences different
individuals.
16
American Archive interviews with Gene Reynolds, Alan Alda and Larry Gelbart
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIj3qLbrygI&list=PL41AF6AA259CA3F8A (15-01-2013).
17
American Archive interview with Gene Reynolds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIj3qLbrygI&list=PL41AF6AA259CA3F8A (15-01-2013).
10
Vos’ view is that the intentions and motivation of the creators are essential, because this is
of great importance for understanding what their finished product represents. Also, he claims that
films and television shows scan society for its problems and attempt to offer a solution.18 In my
opinion, the main problem which M*A*S*H focusses on is how war changes individuals and
permanently changes the lives of those who have been confronted with the wastefulness of war.
Therefore, I feel that the creators want M*A*S*H to interact with the contemporary difficulties
society faced regarding war, and at the same time tell the story of Korea. The story is that of Korea,
but the show also interacts with the social mentality of the 1970’s and 1980’s. From the American
Archive Interviews it becomes clear that the creators had an idea in mind of what the show should
represent. Alan Alda expresses that he only agreed to do the show if it would not portray the war
was a jolly experience. It had to show that the people who got involved in this conflict had to do a
job under horrendous circumstances and he believed that this message was directly related to the
research they had done.19
Apart from their intentions it is also important to keep in mind that the creators themselves
were part of a society by which they were unavoidably influenced. Their perceptions of certain
social or political issues could have influenced their portrayal of the early nineteen fifties. President
Truman signed an act in 1948 which officially desegregated the army. However, the desegregation
had not effectively been put into practice within the army apparatus as America got involved in the
Korean conflict.20 A majority of the white servicemen were reluctant to work and fight alongside
black soldiers. This form of racism is illustrated in the M*A*S*H episode ‘The Tooth Shall Set
You Free’, in which the doctors at the 4077th-unit uncover a pattern amongst several wounded
which belong to one particular engineer-regiment.21 The majority of the wounded soldiers coming
into the hospital from this unit are black, and on top of that their commanding officer keeps
pleading that the black soldiers under his command be granted a hardship discharge. While at first
the main character Hawkeye sees this as an act of good will, it turns out that this officer
purposefully sends the black soldiers under his command to perform high risk duty. That way they
earn a lot of service points, get injured or even get killed. This story line very much refers to the
specific situation concerning the issue of desegregation at the beginning of the 1950’s. However, at
the end of the episode the three M*A*S*H surgeons Hawkeye, BJ and cornel Potter team up with
an African American dentist in order to trap the suspect of his bigotry. This seems to be an idealized
scenario, especially for the specific period in the nineteen fifties which it is supposed to portray.
This episode seems to indicate that racism was an exception within the military rather than a
18
Vos, Bewegend Verleden, 122.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70e-rrF1NnQ&list=PL7F01D987931B035B (18-06-’13).
20
Christopher S. Parker, Fighting for Democracy. Black Veterans and the Struggle Against White Supremacy in the
Postwar South (New Yersey 2009), 55.
21
s10e14 ‘The Tooth Shall Set You Free’ (aired: Feb 8 1982).
19
11
dominant mentality, which was the reality at the time.22 This example show the impact of the
creators’ contemporary social and political environment on the eventual representation of Korea.
This episode was aired on February 8 1982, approximately three decades after the Korean
War took place. During these thirty years the issue of racism towards African Americans went
through turbulent times, which perhaps made it easier to address this issue in one of the last
seasons. Also, the fact that three white surgeons from different parts of the United States, agree
ideologically and organize themselves against this form of racism seems more a reflection of the
mentality of the early 1980’s than of the period in which the television series is set. In my analysis
it is important to remain aware of the timeframe which is represented in the show, and the mentality
which accompanies it. Also, in this chase I believe that the ideals of the creators have a lot in
common with the mentality which is portrayed by the main characters. They are all white liberal
minded men who are aware of the injustice of the war as well as the social-political injustice within
the United States. Reynolds expresses in his interview that the network never censored their scripts
because of the political messages which were being mediated from it. This meant that they could
express their own political message and mediate it through the show. Vos indicates that subjects
which are important to the creators are often the main subjects which are dealt with in the film or
television series. The finished product will always be a reconstruction which is influenced by the
political and social ideals of its creators.23
The creators have the desire to bond with their audience, this is essential for the show’s or
film’s success. Therefore, the creators want to create characters and a story line with which the
audience can identify itself:
Karakters die in een audiovisueel verhaal figureren, komen niet toevallig tot stand; ze
vertegenwoordigen een grotere groep, klasse of zelfs stroming. Dat is alleen al zo omdat (vrijwel)
elke film zich richt op de totstandkoming van een identificatie met de kijker en dus zal proberen een
stereotypering neer te zetten waarin die kijker zich kan herkennen.24
In other words, Vos indicates that stereotypes are created and used in order to connect with the
audience who as a result relate to a specific character or situation. In my analysis I want to look at
the different stereotypes/characters which have been created for the film and the series, to try and
identify which part of the American people the creators want these characters to relate to. Vos states
22
Parker, Fighting for Democracy, 55.
Vos, Bewegend Verleden, 122.
24
Vos, Bewegend Verleden, 116. Translation of quote: ‘Characters who appear in an audiovisual story, are not formed
by accident; they represent a larger group such as a class of even a trend. This is possible because almost every movie
focusses on the development of an identification with the viewer, therefore, stereotypes are formed in which the
audience member can recognize oneself’ (translation by Roxanne Elt).
12
23
that when stereotypes are understood and embraced by the audience, these same stereotypes are to
be found within society itself:
Personages zijn snel identificeerbaar, doordat ze zijn vormgegeven op basis van bestaande
stereotypen (... ) Als de stereotypen kloppen, en de film dus begrepen wordt, mag men
veronderstellen dat die typeringen in een breder verband onderdeel uitmaken van de maatschappij.
Soms zijn de uitgebeelde karakters verbonden aan formele groepen of klassen (...) Maar zelfs dan is
er nog steeds die maatschappelijke meerwaarde, de diepte van het personage om de herkenning te
bevorderen, geschapen uit de cultuur van de vigerende (veranderlijke?) maatschappij.25
According to Vos, stereotypes work when these created characters are to be found in society itself.
Again, it is important to realize that the stereotypes created for M*A*S*H could say more about
society’s mentality during the 1970’ and 1980’s than during the years of the Korean War. Also, it is
important to state that the viewers of the series and the film do not represent the entire society. Still,
I agree with Vos that stereotypes must relate to something which can be found in society itself. If
not based on an existing stereotype, then at least on positive characteristics which people like to
relate to.
At this point I will formulate what analytical aspects will form the base of my own
analytical framework. From the motivation of the series’ creators it has become clear to me that
there is an undercurrent which is present throughout all eleven series. Reynolds, Gelbart and Alda
all expressively state in separate interviews that it was their overall intention to tell a very serious
story, but to combine this serious premise with comedy. However, they strongly resented the idea
that M*A*S*H was to represent a jolly wartime experience. In their opinion, based on their
extensive research, this would not truthfully represent the circumstances of war. It is this impact of
war on the presented stereotypes which will be the focal point of my analysis. In other words, I will
analyze the characters’ reaction to the wartime experience and combine this context analysis with
the creators’ motivation and the historiographical context.
Vos, Bewegend Verleden, 116. Translation of quote: ‘People identify themselves with characters, because their
creation is based on existing stereotypes (...) If these stereotypes work and people therefore understand the film, you can
state that in a broad sense these characters are part of society. The characters are sometimes connected to a formal
group or class (...) But even then their social relevance remains, the deepness of the character will stimulate recognition,
and it is formed by the culture of changing society’ (translation by Roxanne Elt).
13
25
14
3. Korea’s absence in American commemorative culture
Even though Reynolds expressively mentions that the show ‘was Korea, it was not Vietnam, it was
Korea’, he admits that the show’s critical view on military values might have touched the
contemporary anti-war sentiment towards Vietnam.26 He states that the premise of the show is antimilitary and anti-war, which could indeed be picked up by the audience as a subject which was
relevant within their society. However, even though anti-war sentiments regarding Vietnam had
been present throughout the Vietnam War, this did not immediately translate into acknowledgement
and remembrance of its victims and efforts. Critics of the film and show dismissed M*A*S*H as a
true representation of the experiences of the Korean War and regarded it as a representation of
Vietnam instead. Because this is the overriding sentiment within the popular press, as well as the
academic world, a valuable source goes to waste. An article released in the New York Times on May
17, 1981, a scene from the film is used as an example of how Vietnam Veterans foresaw their
homecoming.27 The writer of the article does not feel the need to explain his interpretation of the
film as a representation of Vietnam.
Also, the film and show combined two genres which critics and viewers at times found to be
a problematic union. It was as much a comedy as a show which treads on some very serious and
tragic issues. However, because of its comical tone historians have been reluctant to interpret it as a
tragedy as well. Humor was not merely added to the show to entertain; it had a purpose which was
directly connected with wartime experience they wanted to represent. This misinterpretation of
M*A*S*H leads to the dismissal of the film and the show as a relevant source for historical
research. The following paragraphs will deal with academic research which focusses on
representations of the Korean War through popular culture, and their view towards M*A*S*H as a
historical source.
3.1 How Korea feminized the American Soldier
For three decades, America’s commemorative culture lacked any official remembrance regarding
the Korean War. Even though the Korean War has been the subject of various and extensive
academic research, its absence in America’s commemorative culture remains an issue that is not
frequently addressed. Lost to Public Commemoration: American War Veterans of the “Forgotten“
Korean War, by professor Judith Keene, is one of the few articles which does deal with this subject.
Her research is focused on the absence of a commemorative culture, as well as the process of
purposefully forgetting the Korean War.28 According to Keene America’s popular imagery of the
26
American Archive interview with Gene Reynolds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k00te6lAJvw&list=PL41AF6AA259CA3F8A (20-06-’13).
27
Marc Leepson, ‘Vietnam Voices’ in: New York Times (May 17 1981).
28
Keene, ‘Lost to Public commemoration’, 1097.
15
Korean War was that of a defeated, emaciated brainwashed prisoner of war. This indicates that a
change in identity resulted in the reluctance to commemorate the war and the memory became too
negative. Not only was the war declared a ‘draw’, prisoners of war were treated as though they had
been infected with communism. Keene states:
When the dissonance between the private and the public recollection cannot be assimilated, the
recollection may disappear into silence (...) The silence of many Korean War Veterans, especially
prisoners of war, can be attributed to the fact that after the return home their participation in the
Korean War became associated with feelings of shame and humiliation.29
Furthermore, according to Keene, the identity of the American soldier changed, from that of a
masculine hero to a feminized, defeated communist sympathizer. This created an atmosphere in
which the government felt it was best to forget this military and political failure, which gave
veterans the impression that they had been part of an effort not worthy of remembrance.
Even though Keene touches upon some very interesting aspects of the Korean War and the
reason for its invisible state within America’s commemorative culture, she fails to include any
visual and popular representations of the war in her research. She mainly deals with the mentality of
the American people, yet when she talks about Korean War veterans emerging into public view, she
focusses solely on the erection of monuments and national remembrance campaigns. However, it is
my opinion that a film and television series such as M*A*S*H confronted people with the Korean
conflict, and wartime experience in general. This seems to indicate a fine line that exists between
‘awareness’ of ones history as opposed to actively ‘commemorating’ war and the costs that
accompany it. M*A*S*H may not have been an organized commemorative campaign, but the
people who viewed it were confronted with serious issues about war and the individuals which are
involved.
The context of the Cold War had a significant impact on this change in perception of the
American soldier. The early 1950’s were characterized by an increasing paranoia towards
communism and every political and ideological movement that seemed in any way similar to it.
David McCann gives a good illustration of what the McCarthy years did to people’s association
with the Korean War. Senator Joseph McCarthy’s cooperation with the House Un-American
Activities Committee drew people’s attention towards the issue of an internal communist threat.
This committee was initially created by the U.S. House of Representatives in 1938, with the
purpose to investigate individuals and organizations which were deemed to be subversive and
29
Ibidem, 1098.
16
disloyal.30 As a result, the focus shifted from the actual conflict in Korea to the possible infiltration
of Communism which was supposedly taking place within America itself. 31 According to McCann,
this hostile and suspicious culture which emerged in the early nineteen fifties explains the Korean
War’s absence from popular as well as the commemorative culture:
The Korean War has been a forgotten, invisible war in American popular culture, to be sure, just as
the Korean War has also been misremembered in Korea until only relatively recently. The
explanation for its invisibility seems to involve at least two factors: the final deterioration of a
literary and rhetorical tradition that glorified war and a process of domestic American social and
ideological change that eventuated in the erasure of the political Left.32
Even though this article, written in 1998, seems outdated, it is one of the few articles to address the
representation of the Korean War in American popular culture. Also, McCann briefly mentions
M*A*S*H in his article, but quickly dismisses it as a show which featured ‘only bits and pieces of a
stereotyped “Korea” as a situational background for its comedy routines’.33 This dismissal
illustrates that the comedy genre made it hard for people to value the show as a tragedy. These two
genres were purposefully combined which means that both aspects of the show should be
acknowledged.
3.2 Raising Paranoia
The social and political changes that took place during the early nineteen fifties were vast and
significant. It is important to point out those changes that took place because their influences are
reflected in M*A*S*H. At this point I would like to elaborate on the several social and political
changes which took place during the late nineteen forties and the early nineteen fifties. This context
is crucial to the analysis of my case study because it can help clarify which time frame is
represented in the story lines; that of the Korean War or of the time of production.
The level of paranoia towards the communist threat grew even larger as the French forces
were preparing to surrender to the Viet Minh forces at the battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954. 34
Western forces, and therefore western individuals, were being defeated by communists and several
people who grew up in the western, capitalist society were joining the communist campaign.
Definition of: ‘House Un-American Activities Committee’, in Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition, (Feb
2013).
31
David R. McCann, ‘Our Forgotten War. The Korean War in Korean and American Popular Culture’ 65-81 in: Philip
West, Steven I. Levine, Jackie Hiltz ed. America's wars in Asia: a cultural approach to history and memory (zp 1998),
81.
32
Ibidem, 82.
33
Ibidem, 66.
34
Thomas Doherty, Cold War, Cool Medium Television, McCarthyism, and American Culture (New York 2003), 190.
17
30
According to Thomas Doherty, who wrote the book Cold War, Cool Medium Television,
McCarthyism, and American Culture, there were other social minorities who were cast in a similar
category as the American communists; the homosexual community. Homosexuals were not deemed
a loyalty risk but a security risk, because they were believed to be vulnerable targets for communist
groups. Also, the GI bill had been initiated in 1945, which was considered to be the soldiers New
Deal because it provided soldiers and veterans with social securities. This bill however did not
benefit men and women within the United States Army who were suspects of homosexual acts or
tendencies.35 Subjects such as communism, racism and (homo)sexuality within the army are raised
in the motion picture as well as the television show, which is why understanding America’s social
contexts of the early nineteen fifties is crucial to my analysis.
It was not just the loyalty and security paranoia that marked American society at this time.36
Before the start of the Korean War social changes were also taking place within the civil rights
movement as the Supreme Court declared segregation within public schools unconstitutional. Six
years prior, President Truman signed an executive order which initiated the desegregation of the
American Armed Forces.37 This order clearly states that ‘there shall be equality of treatment and
opportunity for all persons in the armed forces without regard to race, color, religion, or national
origin.’38 Also, the explanatory text which accompanies this document states that ‘there was
considerable resistance to the executive order from the military, but by the end of the Korean
conflict, almost all the military was integrated.’39 This indicates that the Army was experiencing
some turbulent internal changes during the Korean conflict. The desegregation act added to the
change in identity of the American Army and its personnel. American society was changing in more
ways than one, and it was the inability and reluctance to deal with changes which forced Korean
War veterans into the background. The creators took the liberty to include these aspects of a vastly
changing American society into the film and television series. This showed that America’s social
turbulence was also present within the Army.
McCann’s statement shows that M*A*S*H has the reputation of being a purely comical
representation of wartime Korea and therefore has to be rejected as a valuable source for historical
research. This dominant assumption seems to indicate that a delicate subject such as war cannot be
presented in a comical way and at the same time still mediate a serious message. However, in my
Margot Canaday, ‘Building a Straight State: Sexuality and Social Citizenship under the 1944 G.I. Bill’ in: The
Journal of American History (December 2003), 935-957, 935.
36
Ibidem, 221.
37
Executive Order 9981: Desegregation of the Armed Forces (1948)
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=84 (23-06-’13).
38
Ibidem.
39
Additional text that accompanies the Desegregation Act of 1948:
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/print_friendly.php?page=&doc=84&title=Executive+Order+9981%3A+Desegregation+
of+the+Armed+Forces+%281948%29 (24-06-’13).
18
35
research I have analyzed the motives of the actors, directors, writers and producers of the show and
they explain that the serious tone was a prerequisite for them. The jolly representation of war had
already been practiced in the past and they believed that this was a misrepresentation of a wartime
experience. M*A*S*H is a mixture of comedy and tragedy, a strange combination of genres but one
that was representing a real experience. The practical jokes and humorous monologues were not just
there to entertain, they represented wartime escapism. In other words, humor was a tool which was
being used in these wartime experiences to prevent you from going crazy from the constant
confrontation with death and destruction.40 Historians have to be aware of this dual-genre in order
to fully understand the message which is being mediated.
3.2 The war before Vietnam
The title of this paragraph refers to a book on the Korean war entitled Korea. The War before
Vietnam.41 It illustrates a second prejudice within the academic world, which has kept the film and
the show from being considered as a source for historical research. Considering the context in
which the motion picture and the first three seasons of the television series were produced, the
setting of Korea was seen as a front and it was assumed that the situation which was being
portrayed really dealt with the Vietnam War. Also, the Korean War has a marginal place within the
field of memory studies mainly because the Vietnam War overshadows this previous conflict. A
New York Times article from 1981 focusses on the Vietnam War and how oral history will finally
tell the true story of wartime in Vietnam. However, it is interesting to see that the journalist begins
his article with an example from M*A*S*H:
In a split second scene in the movie “M*A*S*H,” we get to see into the mind of an American Army
doctor as he hears the news that he is going home from Korea. He visualizes stepping off an airplane
in his hometown and spotting his wife and children. He jubilantly tosses his hat in the air and rushes
to greet them. As he is engulfed in hugs and kisses, a marching band plays a heroic song. That
idealized vision of coming home couldn’t be farther from the welcome accorded to the nation’s 2.7
million Vietnam veterans.42
Here the journalist does see M*A*S*H as a representation of Korea but he completely misinterprets
the scene. It is true that the Army doctor ‘Trapper’ has this vision, but as the scene continues it
American Archive interview with Alan Alda, he talks about his character ‘Hawkeye’ and how he uses comedy as a
tool to prevent himself from going insane. His character finds it particularly difficult to be a surgeon in a war zone (2306-’13).
41
Callum A. MacDonald, The War before Vietnam (London 1986).
42
Marc Leepson, ‘Vietnam Voices’ in: New York Times (may 17 1981).
19
40
becomes clear that this is a dream which is far from reality. 43 The irony of the scene is that this is
the vision which the soldiers had in their mind, but the reality is that this welcome was a thing of
the past. This example shows that the Korean War is often ignored as a crucial turning point in the
identity of the American soldier and that the film and series very much reflect this. However, if and
when M*A*S*H is used, the serious and often ironic tone is ignored.
Just as humor is essential to the message mediated through M*A*S*H, so is the irony and
seriousness of the situations which are being portrayed. The previous paragraphs have shown that
there is hardly any serious reference to M*A*S*H within the field of memory studies, which is
mainly the result of false assumptions concerning its validity as a historical source. The upcoming
analysis will illustrate that M*A*S*H does have value as a historical source and that it mediates a
series of serious messages and scenarios. Also, this analysis will show that the social-political
context of the years in which the show was created, had a vast impact on the manner in which
subjects and stories were dealt with.
43
M*A*S*H motion picture (1970).
20
4. Mediating wartime experience
The case studies around which I have formed my research consist of the motion picture M*A*S*H
as well as the television series. In both productions the story-line focuses on the inner workings of a
particular medical unit known as M*A*S*H 4077th. The abbreviation stands for Mobile Army
Surgical Hospital and these particular medical units were designed to move along with the front
lines. This enabled wounded soldiers to receive quick and thorough medical care. The two main
characters at the start of the series, Trapper and Hawkeye, are both surgeons who were drafted.
Especially in the case of the television series, there are other characters which feature repeatedly in
the storyline and they will also feature in my analysis. The motion picture was released in nineteen
seventy and the pilot of the television series first aired in 1972 and ran for eleven seasons until the
last episode aired on the February 28 1983.44
In order to analyze such an extensive amount of visual material, I have chosen to construct
an analytical framework based on the criteria formulated by Chris Vos and the social historical
context outlined in the first two chapters. For the analysis of the television series I have defined
three themes which help categorize the analysis. By analyzing the show in this manner, I will be
able to determine how the Korean War is being portrayed and the central messages which are being
mediated. The analyses of the show and the motion picture have their separate paragraphs in order
to keep a clear distinction between the two. The script of the film has primarily been based on the
novel M*A*S*H. A Novel About Three Army Doctors, written by Richard Hooker.45 The television
series made no use of the story line of the book and motion picture, but did adopt the characters and
the setting. The story lines were based on the extensive research done by Larry Gelbart and Gene
Reynolds. As mentioned before this research mainly consisted of interviews with doctors, nurses
and other hospital and army personnel who had been stationed at a M*A*S*H-unit during the
Korean War. The story lines are directly inspired from the recollection of veterans. At this point I
would like to elaborate on the themes which reoccur in the film and television show.
- The first theme deals with the Army’s attempt to eliminate individuality. The story line often
features the conflict between individuals and the Army. The reason I have chosen to focus on
this theme is because of the diversity among the individuals, and how this proves to clash with
the workings of the Army. Also, a considerable part of the armed forces consisted of people who
were drafted, in other words who had not joined the army on a voluntary basis. The army
however, made no distinction in their treatment of draftees and regular army personnel and
44
45
Ibidem.
Richard Hooker, M*A*S*H. A Novel About Three Army Doctors (New York 1968).
21
expected total devotion to the cause from every individual. M*A*S*H shows how the different
characters react to this army identity which is forced upon them.
- The second theme, which plays a significant part in almost every episode, is the impact of war on
individuals. What the show stresses when dealing with this theme is that there is almost no
distinction to be made between how professional soldiers and draftee’s react when confronted
with the horrors and wastefulness of war. The situations dealing with this theme mediate the
message that each individual reacts in a different way, regardless of personal motivation to take
part in a war.
- The third and final theme is the level of discriminatory actions on the bases of race, political
views, sexuality or gender. The television show and the film both tread on some sensitive social
and political issues, which can either represent society’s mentality in the early nineteen fifties, or
reflect the time in which the film and/or series were produced.
With the use of these themes I have been able to analyze the image of the Korean War with which
the American people were being confronted. These representations were intended to entertain and at
the same time, to make the audience aware of the wastefulness of war.
4.1 From the pages to the silver screen
As mentioned before, the movie script was based on the novel by Richard Hooker, who wrote the
novel based on his own experiences at a M*A*S*H unit when he served in Korea.46 The appointed
director Robert Altman rewrote the original script, which had been written by Ring Lardner Jr. The
characters, stories, experiences however remained based on the original book. 47 However, the
opening scene of the movie is accompanied by a song which had been written especially for the
film. Entitled Suicide Is Painless, the song addresses how an individual would consider suicide as a
solution to life’s problems. This soundtrack was primarily created to accompany a particular scene
which the unit’s dentist starts to question is heterosexuality, because he was unable to perform
sexually with a nurse. His initial shock that he might have homosexual tendencies makes him
contemplate suicide.48 This particular situation is very much portrayed as a problem of life in
general rather than the result wartime circumstances.
Ring Lardner Jr., who had written the original screenplay, had been previously been branded
as one of the ‘Hollywood Ten’ on the blacklist of the House Un-American Activities Committee.
Regardless of being branded as subversive, he insisted on joining the armed forces in Korea and
Documentary ‘The Serious Sitcom’ enclosed with the M*A*S*H DVD box set.
Documentary on Robert Altman in which he explains how he got the job for M*A*S*H:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OUZNa6Oe4o (25-06-’13).
48
M*A*S*H motion picture.
46
47
22
took part in the Korean War.49 As opposed to the television series, the motion picture stayed true to
the stories which were told in the book. However, the motion picture is dominated by an attitude
which is anti-military and anti-discipline which, according to Altman, caused the young American
audience to associate it with Vietnam and the anti-war movement. However, in an interview he
explains that even though part of the audience loved the anti-establishment and anarchic attitude of
the film and related it to Vietnam, it remained a representation of Korea. 50 This did cause the the
film to have a strong anti-military attitude, especially in comparison to the book.51
Regarding the genre, it can best be seen as a comedy drama in which humor had a specific
function which was essential to the story line. Humor is the primary tool which the people inside
the M*A*S*H-unit use to keep themselves from going insane as a result of their wartime
experiences. Especially when compared with the television series, the humor in the motion picture
is of a subtle nature. Also, the contrast between humor and suffering is more confronting and visual.
The first appearance of the surgeons and nurses in the operating room, shows the character of
Hawkeye amputating a leg and casually asking his nurse to scratch his nose. The audience is
directly confronted with a surgeon having to cut off a man’s leg, which to him has become a regular
part of his job as an army surgeon. Even though the film directly confronts the audience with
bloody wartime circumstances, it rarely shows how the characters are emotionally affected. One
exemption is a scene in which a patient suffers heart failure and the attending surgeon quickly
demands help from a young draftee called Boon. Being medically inexperienced and unaware of the
severity of the situation, fails to supply the surgeon with the medicine he asked for. As a result
doctor Burns accuses him of being responsible for the death of the patient. 52 The young draftee at
this moment realizes the situation in which he has been placed.
In general, the film shows that these M*A*S*H-units consisted of different people from
different backgrounds who were forced to work together in order to save as many lives as possible.
Many of the characters were completely dedicated to the medical cause but refused to conform to
the rules and regulation which the army had imposed upon them. Insubordination is the dominant
theme which again shows that it was easily associated with the anti-military attitude towards the
Vietnam War. It showed individuals who coped with the situation which was forced upon them, in
the best way possible. The priority was surviving in this wartime situation, both mentally and
physically.
As the motion picture and the television series are based on different sources, the intentions
behind the two differ as well. The film gave the audience an visual insight into personal
49
Larry Gelbart confirms this fact mentioned by the interviewer of American Archive
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4H-5i_CERQ (25-06-’13).
50
Documentary: Robert Altman in England http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OUZNa6Oe4o (19-06-’13).
51 Richard Hooker, M*A*S*H.
52
M*A*S*H motion picture.
23
recollections of Richard Hooker’s experiences during the Korean War. It showed how he as an
individual attempted to cope with the circumstances in which he was placed. Also, the motion
picture had an audience which had pay money to come and see the film at the cinema. This way it
reached a very different audience than the television series which aired weekly and was therefore
readily available for many households.
4.2 M*A*S*H the television series
The analytical approach of this thesis mainly derives from Chris Vos’ theories on analyzing visual
sources. In chapter one I already elaborated on the motivations of the creators of the television
series when producing it. These motivations are documented in extensive interviews by the Archive
of American Television with Gene Reynolds, Larry Gelbart and Alan Alda. Although the
interviewer’s questions were mainly focused on the story line of the show as well as its characters,
the creators themselves kept stressing that the show was not solely produced to entertain. All the
interest and motivation for the show came from the research that Larry Gelbart, Gene Reynolds and
then executive producer Burt Metcalfe had done (Metcalfe would go on to become executive
producer of the series after the departure of Gelbart and Reynolds). In the American Archive
interview, Gelbart illustrates the extent of the research which they had done. They had interviewed
surgeons, nurses, corpsmen, helicopter pilots, ambulance drivers, anyone who had served in Korea
and had experienced the workings of a M*A*S*H unit first hand.53 He also confesses at this point
that these people had often experiences connected with Korea as well as Vietnam, and that stories
from both wars have been used either as inspiration for a scene or story line that runs through an
entire episode. This again shows that it was the main objected of the creators to be as true as
possible to wartime experience. The situation is Korea; the experience that is being represented is
that of wartime. The subtext of the entire show is the wastefulness of war and the heroic but
confrontational position the surgeons and nurses were in. As mentioned at the beginning of this
chapter, I have formulated three themes through which are central to the storyline throughout the
different seasons. With the use of these themes and the analytical framework based on Vos’ criteria,
I have been able to analyze the series and reveal which representations are being mediated.
4.3 Repressing Individuality
This first theme is immediately one of the most dominant throughout the entire series. The character
of Hawkeye and Trapper, and from the fourth series the character of BJ, are in a constant battle with
the Army and its attempt to unify everyone under its authority. In one of the episodes in the first
season Hawkeye writes to his father that he feels they are not more than ‘ciphers, an army of
53
American Archive interview with Larry Gelbart: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4H-5i_CERQ (24-06-’13).
24
walking zilches’.54 The army is not only represented as a machine that treats people as replaceable
parts, it is also an institution that does not wish to be confronted with dysfunction. This refers to
anything which could possible jeopardize the arranged order of things. Opposite of the Army as a
dominant force of authority were the very liberal minded surgeons who valued their individuality.
These characters were removed from their life in the United States and regardless of their opinion
of the war forced to participate in it. The episode For the Good of the Outfit shows that the surgeons
have become used to behaving in a certain way. However, after they have uncovered that the
Korean civilians they had to operate on were the victims of an American air raid, an act that is
being denied by the army, they leap into action to recover the truth. 55 This story line suggests that
the Army valued its reputation more than the truth. However, the surgeons’ brave endeavor may not
have been entirely realistic at a time when suspicion of subversion was something people were
quickly accused of. It is clear that the creators wanted to show draftee doctors who were not only
saving lives, but standing up for the indigenous people whose voice would not be heard, and
standing up for injustice in general.
An illustration of how Army authority overruled the common sense mentality of the draftee
doctors, is shown in the episode The Trial of Henry Blake. This episode deals with the accusation
that the commanding officer of the 4077th, Colonel Henry Blake, is unfit to command and that he
gave aid and comfort to the enemy by supplying an independent American nurse with medical
supplies. This support aided her in treating Korean women, from the North and the South, through
their childbirth.56 With this episode an image is being mediated of the red-scare era as a period in
which paranoia ruled over common sense. In other words, this nurse acted independently from the
Armed forces and treated pregnant Korean women regardless of their political beliefs. The idea that
the commanding officer aided this women who helped north Korean communist women, was
enough for the Army to accuse him of giving aid and comfort to the enemy. This accusation
illustrates the impact of the red scare on this particular situation. In this case the creators have very
much taken into account the social circumstances during which the war took place. Besides this
serious charge, the army also accuses Blake of being unfit to command his unit because he allows a
lot of recreational activities which are officially not allowed. There is a strong counter argument in
which his defense illustrates that the people at this M*A*S*H unit handle so many casualties that
on occasion they need to unwind. This shows that the Army can set up strategies, but it still has to
deal with individual reactions to wartime experiences.
There is a lot of irony in the story-line which is most clearly illustrated when the doctors do
want to work with the Army, but the level of bureaucracy makes this virtually impossible to do so.
54
s01e18 Dear Dad Again (aired: 04 feb 1973).
s02e04 For the good of the outfit (aired: 6 oct 1973).
56
s02e08 The Trial of Henry Blake (aired: 3 nov 1973).
55
25
The problem is that the doctors are completely dependent on the army, both personally and
professionally. They depend on supplies, medical staff en medical education in order to adapt to the
drastic conditions. The clear issue within this struggle is that the doctors see that the immediate
result of bureaucracy can be life threatening. At one point Trapper and Hawkeye try to cut through
several layers of red tape to acquire an incubator for their hospital, which would help them speed up
diagnoses by days. Their initial request is refused but ironically they have just ordered a barbecue
and are told that they can order a pizza oven instead of the incubator. In the end they have to pose
as journalists in order to talk to the General who is in charge of their supplies.57 This example
suggests that the Army is blinded by its own bureaucracy, which can in some cases be of severe
consequence to individuals. As an establishment, the army is not only projected in a negative way
but it is also accused of handling in such a careless way that it cost lives. However, it would be
drastic to assume that the situation was as ironic as portrayed in this particular episode. It does
indicate that the army would do well to take into account the opinions and experiences of
professional individuals.
The individual experience of the people who participated in the conflict is presented in a
unique way during the episode Point of View. The entire episode is filmed from the point of view of
a soldier who gets wounded in the first scene, and is eventually transported to the 4077th. This
approach gets the audience involved on a personal level and shows how a soldier would have
experienced the frightening situation of getting wounded, as well as the feeling of relief and
comfort as he arrives at the M*A*S*H-unit.58 Instead of writing another episode in which the
characters complain about the Army and its collective approach to the people involved in the war,
they illustrate that every individual is just that, an individual. It helps to give an insight into the life
of a soldier in a war-zone.
There are other examples in which the message is more clearly aimed at the Army’s
apparent ignorance about how the war directly influences every individual present in Korea. During
one episode Hawkeye is confronted with an article which celebrates the one year anniversary of the
peace talks. Not being able to comprehend how these negotiations have been going on for over a
year and are still considered to be a work in progress, he decides to write the Army’s supreme
commander president Harry S. Truman. As the episode carries on, Hawkeye constructs his letter
around how the individuals in the camp experience the various frustrations of their situation. BJ is
confronted by a Korean boy who admires the Americans so much that he wants to have an
operation that will alter his eyes so that they look like those of an American. He writes that ‘he is
just one of the many Koreans who think the road to happiness leads straight to America. If we stay
57
58
s02e12 The incubator (aired: 1 dec 1973).
s07e10 Point of View (aired: 20 nov 1978).
26
here much longer we’ll have all of Korea disoriented’. 59 Also, there are several news reals,
contemporary to the wartime period, which are integrated in the episode. Some of them deal with
the political situation in Korea and others deal with festive activities taking place in the UnitedStates. The equal division of entertainment- and war news suggests that the War was not necessarily
a priority, and that many people were unaware of the direct influences the American forces had not
just on their own people, but on the indigenous people of Korea. This could be interpreted as an
illustration of the absence of the impact of the Korean War, in the minds of the American people.
However, this can only be seen as an assumption.
The above mentioned examples indicate that the show had a passion for showing the American
people individual stories and experiences. Initially this is how the project started, with interviewing
those people who had experienced life in a M*A*S*H-unit and focusing on their stories and how
the circumstances affected their lives as individuals. These story-lines will never be an exact
representation of wartime experience, but they have been inspired by first hand experiences. The
creators felt that these personal stories had never been told and shown in a television series. In order
for this message to be mediate, the creators felt they had to create a genre of its own; a comedytragedy. In combining these two genre’s they were able to create serious story lines, but still appeal
to a large audience who appreciated the strong and humorous characters above all else. This
approach mediated the individual experience of war to the American living room.
4.4 The impact of war on individuals
The general message about war is not only focused on the workings of the Army as an institution.
The effects of wartime on an individual level are equally prominent within the story lines. The
creators portray the horrors of war as something which is universal and has remained unchanged
over time. The fact is that war always has its cost, and most costly is the loss of individuals who
either get killed, missing in action, imprisoned and permanently effected by their experiences. The
latter can either mean that individuals suffer physical or mental handicaps with which they have to
return to society. In general, the story lines in the first season deal with the dysfunction of the army.
However, there is one episode which is a clear exception. Sometimes You Hear the Bullet deals with
a very serious story line in which Hawkeye is reunited with his friend Tommy. This is a good
example of how the show uses comedy to get its serious messages across. The introduced character
is fun and lively and the situations are very comical. Tommy explains that he volunteered for active
duty in order to get a first-hand impression of the war. He explains that he witnessed a young
soldier in his outfit die, and that it was nothing like the popular film image in which the young
59
s10e04 Give Em’ Hell, Hawkeye (aired: 16 nov 1981).
27
blond hero dies at the end with a lot of noise and dramatic scenes. The boy’s last words had been ‘I
never heard no bullet’. A long pause followed which stresses the seriousness of the message, after
which Hawkeye says ‘let’s get drunk’. The two friends say their goodbyes and life at the 4077th
carries on. However, the episode ends with a very emotional twist when, during the O.R. Scene,
Hawkeye turns to his next patient who turns out to be his best friend who he had come to visit him
that same day. He is in a critical condition and Hawkeye is unable to save his life. This episode
confronts the audience with the wartime fact that people die, and that these victims are someone’s
friend, partner or family member. As a viewer you begin to get used to Tommy and just as his
presence feels comfortable and enjoyable, he is taken away from you. McClain Stevenson’s
character Colonel Henry Blake tries to ease Hawkeye’s dilemma of being a surgeon in a war zone:
All I know is what they taught me in command school. There are certain rules about a war and rule
number one is young men die. Rule number two is, doctors can’t change rule number one.60
This episode is a perfect illustration of the intentions of the show’s creators and the criteria which
they had. The war would not be portrayed as a joyous or pleasurable experience because that would
not portray the actual experience. Even when enjoyable things happened people were always faced
the horrendous realities of war.
The characters are being confronted with the consequences of wartime experience even in
the most humorous and silly episodes. Even when the people get the opportunity to indulge in the
simple civilian pleasures, the war comes into play. At one point Hawkeye decides that he has had
enough of the same Army food day after day so he goes through enormous lengths to order his
favorite spare ribs from Adam’s Rib’s in Chicago. The entire episode is devoted to the scams and
tricks he performs in order to get the Ribs. Just as he is about to sit down and eat them, you can hear
the sound of helicopters closing in. After all the effort he has put in he has to spring into action to
attend to the wounded.61 At first glance this episode may not seem that serious, but the subtle twist
at the end makes it more than just an episode about getting spare ribs. Suddenly it is about the
system the medical personnel are trapped in, and how their simple wholesome pleasures always
come second to the turbulent wartime situation.
An interesting development behind the scenes caused the show to add a laugh track under
the pressure of the television network which ran the show; CBS. Reynolds and Gelbart were
reluctant to add a laugh track and in the end compromised with the network that there would be a
few exceptions. They demanded that the scenes which were shot in the operating room would not
60
61
s01e17 Sometimes You Hear the Bullet (aired: 28 jan 1973).
s03e11 Adam’s Ribs (aired: 26 nov 1974).
28
contain a laugh track. They felt that this would be disrespectful and contrary to their serious subtext.
During the third series they created an episode that showed a long O.R. session. This gave the
audience an impression of what happened in the operating room, and the standard life and death
situations with which the surgeons and nurses were being confronted. 62 Also, it shows how the
medical personnel had to improvise in order to deal with the constant arrival of the wounded, which
also forces them to adapt their surgical procedures to save time. The surgeons often refer to this
ordeal as ‘meatball surgery’, referring to the fact that their number one priority was to save lives
quickly so that they could move on to the next critically wounded patient.
At the end of the third season, the creators decided to present the realities of war in a way
that would be even more shocking than the story line of Sometimes You Hear the Bullet. Again, it is
the subtlety of the script which suddenly pulls the audience out of the comedy setting and into the
tragic scenario. At this point actor McClain Stevenson had decided to leave the show, which meant
that the character of Henry Blake had to be written out of the show. The episode is filled with folly,
drinking and everything that Henry was about, which makes the outcome more of a shock but also a
reality-check. Gelbart and Reynolds had written a final scene, which would take place after Henry
had left the 4077th to return to the United States. Apart from them, Alan Alda was the only one who
knew about this addition to the script. As the characters are busy in the operating room, Radar the
company clerk walks in and delivers the shocking message that Colonel Blake’s plane had been
shot down over the Sea of Japan and that there were no survivors. 63 The unique situation that could
only be found in medical units like the 4077th followed, as the camera moved from Radar across
the operating room. The surgeons were in the middle of their operations and had to continue
working. There was no immediate time to mourn, which stresses again that war carries on
regardless of the loss of individuals.
Several viewers wrote to Gelbart and Reynolds complaining about how they killed a
character that was deeply loved by the audience. The writer and producer were aware that they had
written a depressing ending and they replied to each and every letter explaining their choice as well
as their intentions. The essence of their motivation was that lovable, ordinary Americans like Henry
Blake had been killed during the Korean War, and it is this awareness that they wanted to bring to
the public. In the letters they pointed out that this fictional character had died in the same week that
a plane load of Vietnamese children, which had taken off from Saigon on the way to America, had
crashed. Everyone that was on this plane had perished. Gelbart confronted them with this fact and
told these people that he hoped they felt the same remorse for these children as they did for the
62
63
s03e05 O.R. (aired: 8 oct 1974).
s03e24 Abyssinia Henry (aired: 18 may 1975).
29
death of a fictional character.64 This example shows again that the creators purposely combined the
genre of comedy with tragedy to empower their message.
It is interesting that the reactions of the audience mainly consisted of shock; they were
confronted with the reality of war when in fact they thought they had been watching a comedy show
all this time. Reynolds explains that it was very important to him that the serious message did not
get lost and that the viewers would be confronted with reality, even though it was a comedy show.
This shows that the people who watched the show were not (yet) on the same page as the creators.
This particular situation is an illustration of what academics have to be aware of when analyzing a
visual source according to Chris Vos.65 In this particular case the people who felt the need to write
the creators, did not identify with the situation which was being represented. From this we can
conclude that the creators felt there was a misconception about war, in particular the Korean War,
which dominated society. They decided to tackle this problem by showing the viewers a
representation of the Korean War which in their opinion had been lost. This proves Chris Vos’ point
that a historical television program is not so much a valuable source for research on the Korean
War, but it is a source of its own time.66 At this point in the series the viewers seemed to be
unaware of the serious message of the show. Also, the creators had a hard time convincing CBS and
20th century Fox that they could end the episode, and therefore the season, in this manner.67 This
indicates that people were not used to a critical and tragic representation of wartime Korea, and that
a long time absence of any representation of this event meant people had forgotten, or had never
been confronted with, its negative aspects. The above mentioned examples show that this television
series was partly created as a project to raise people’s awareness of the effects of war on the
individuals which partake in it.
The fourth season immediately drops into a more serious tone with the one hour episode
Welcome to Korea which also introduced two new characters. Hawkeye’s right hand Trapper was
written out of the show because of the departure of Wayne Rogers, who was replaced by the
character BJ played by Mike Farrell. The character of Henry Blake had died and therefore a new
commanding officer arrived in the character of Colonel Potter, played by Harry Morgan.68 The
arrival of BJ represents the confrontation with the wartime situation these people were placed in, in
a nutshell. Their trip from Kimpo airbase to the 4077th is interrupted by mortar attacks and land
mines which cause casualties who have to be cared for by Hawkeye and the new doctor. In one
64
Larry Gelbart talks about the final scene of Abyssinia Henry, and the viewers’ reaction on this episode:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9o--97Yoms (24-06-’13).
65
Vos, ‘Bewegend Verleden’, 150.
66
Ibidem, 150.
67
Larry Gelbart talks about the final scene of Abyssinia Henry, and the viewers’ reaction on this episode:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9o--97Yoms (24-06-’13).
68
American Archive interviews.
30
afternoon he faces the strict disciplinary system of the army, as well as mutilation and death of
civilians as well as soldiers. This causes a roller coaster of emotions with this new character, who
realizes how quickly he needs to adapt and learn to handle the situation best as possible. In true
M*A*S*H fashion just before Hawkeye and BJ arrive at their unit, they drink to forget. This
episode, which lasts longer than any of the previous ones, shows the audience that characters come
and go just as people went to war, came back or never came back. To the army these were just
serial numbers each with their own skills to make the Army machine run smoothly, but on a microlevel, individuals were put in life changing situations. As they drink Hawkeye tries to explain
something even he does not fully understand and says: ‘I can’t think of one reason why we’re here
except that were needed’.69 This indicates that the politics of the situation did not matter to those
individuals who were involved; they had to fight and work to survive and prevent others from
dying. This is the crucial image the creators chose to portray. The efforts of the individuals cannot
be dismissed or forgotten. Many of them were forced to take part in the war, and did their best to
save their own lives and that of others.
After the third season there is a new subtext which features more prominently in the show. It
is not only the confrontation with the wartime experiences, but in particular the limit of how much
individuals can take before it becomes too much. Early in the fourth season there is an episode in
which Hawkeye is presumed dead by the Army who has informed his father about it. The Army
treats the situation as a harmless mistake and confronts Hawkeye with the enormous amount of
paper work with which he can undo this mistake. In the end he decides to make use of the
unfortunate circumstances to get back to his father. As choppers and ambulances are on their way to
the 4077th BJ urges him that he has to stay, to which Hawkeye replies:
I don’t care, I really don’t. They’ll keep coming whether I’m here or not. Trapper went home and
they’re still coming... Henry got killed and they’re still coming... Wherever they come from they’ll
never run out.70
This scene represents the army as a bureaucratic machine where people are just names on a piece of
paper, and individuals suffer as a result of the system. Alan Alda describes that his character
Hawkeye hated war, hated death and hated the machine he was a part of.71 This scene does not only
represent the hatred towards war and death but also how such an attitude could eventually result in
self-destruction. The character of Hawkeye is on the verge of collapse and glimpses of it can be
69
s04e01 Welcome to Korea (aired: 12 sep 1975).
s04e04 The Late Captain Pierce (aired: 3 oct 1975).
71
American Archive interview with Alan Alda.
70
31
seen in Sometimes You Hear the Bullet, the above mentioned episode The Late Captain Pierce, and
reaches a dramatic end during the final episode Goodbye Farewell and Amen.
The first three seasons have a stronger comical note, whereas the later seasons seem to deal
with more serious topics. These earlier episodes mainly deal with the incompetence of the army as
an organization which is characterized by corruption, bureaucracy and republican patriots. Opposite
of this military machine are the liberal, open minded, democrats and surgeons with an anti-war
mentality. The fifth season saw the departure of Gene Reynolds and Larry Gelbart, after both had
left the show, Alan Alda and Burt Metcalfe took control behind the scenes. In a one hour
documentary on the show, the pair stresses that with this opportunity they wanted to continue
revealing ‘the human drama behind the headlines’ and further develop the characters. 72 Before their
departure however, Reynolds and Gelbart created one episode which was vastly different from all
the others they had done. Gelbart gives an extensive recollection of how this episode, his last
episode The Interview, came into being. It had been inspired by a real trip to Korea by Edward R.
Murrow, during which he talked to several Americans who were part of the war effort to get their
impression of the war. The preparations for this episode were similar to Murrow’s approach. The
creators hired Cleve Roberts, a war correspondent who had been to Korea himself, to ask the actors
questions in front of the camera. However, during filming Gelbart told the interviewer to also ask
the actors new unrehearsed questions, which meant that they had to improvise. Even though the
actors had done practice interviews which Gelbart transcribed and rewrote, a substantial part of the
episode was unscripted.
Regarding context, the episode dealt with the characters and their personal response to the
situation they were assigned to.73 This episode, shot in black and white, is filled with monologues of
how the war has affected each of the main characters. BJ describes himself as a ‘temporarily miss
assigned civilian’ and that his duty is to perform in case of a medical emergency, but that he has
never seen a case that is not a medical emergency. Again, Alan Alda’s character talks about certain
tricks and practices which help him keep as sane as possible. He explains that ‘you have to use a
mental anesthesia; otherwise you bleed for everyone who’s bleeding... If you get caught up into
their misery you get into a hole you can’t climb out of’.74 This illustrates that the doctors in Korea
had the almost impossible task of getting used to death and destruction in order to perform their
duties as efficiently as possible. There is one line in this episode which derives from the interviews
the creators had done as part of their research prior to the show’s existence: ‘when the doctors cut
into a patient, and its cold you know the way it is now, today... steam rises from the body. And the
Documentary ‘The Serious Sitcom’.
Larry Gelbart elaborates on the preparations for the episode The Interview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9o-97Yoms (26-06-’13).
74
s04e24 The Interview (aired: 24 feb 1976).
72
73
32
doctor will warm himself over the open wound. Could anyone look on that and not feel changed?’75
For a sitcom, the content of this episode is presented in very a personal and unconventional way.
You get the idea that the creators made a fictional blueprint of how the experiences of the Korean
War should be broadcast to the American people. Humor is present in the answers of the characters
but in no way is this episode a comedy. Regarding Vos’ criteria on what a television show might
represent, in the case of this episode, I believe the creators are trying to fill in the commemorative
void of the Korean War. Because the entire episode is constructed as an actual interview, the
audience would have felt connected to the stories as if they were told by actual veterans. At one
point during the episode you feel confronted as a viewer as Radar describes the living situation of
the locals. He makes an appeal that someone should tell the people back home that some of the
local people are simply not able to live as a result of the war.76
This episode is an example of how the creators believe war correspondence should look like,
and it appeals for an honest representation of wartime realities. A contributor to the book America’s
War is Asia, Colonel Harry Summers Jr., explains that the majority of Americans experienced war
from their living rooms, but that this image of war was ‘sanitized for home consumption’ and
therefore rarely showed any combat footage.77 With this in mind an interview would have been a
realistic way of mediating wartime reality to America’s living rooms. The images may be sanitized
but the message is not.
4.5 Discriminatory Actions
There are several social problems which were present within American society during the early
nineteen fifties. The strain on one of these issues accumulated in this period as the desegregation of
the American armed forces was being introduced. In the case of the Korean War, the American
troops had to adapt to a different culture, an Asian culture. M*A*S*H deals with several kinds of
discriminatory situations and it will be interesting to compare these scenarios with the social
context of the nineteen fifties, as well as the social-political context of the time in which the show
was produced. It is not just the issue of racism, but the superior attitude of several characters toward
the Koreans which features in the series. In the episode The Moose a sergeant arrives at the 4077th
with a girl whom he has bought from her family, so that she can tend to his household chores. When
he arrives he explains to the doctors ‘The gooks, they don’t mind working’. Gook was a term with a
very negative connotation, used to describe an East Asian person, which was also used to describe
the Japanese during the Second World War. However, even though this episode shows that the
75
Ibidem.
ibidem.
77
Colonel Harry Summer Jr. ‘Through American Eyes. Combat Experiences and Memories of Korea and Vietnam’ in:
Philip West, Stephen I. Levine, Jackie Hiltz ed. America’s War in Asia. A Cultural Approach to History and Memory
(New York 1998), 173.
33
76
American sergeant feels superior he does treat the girl as an employee, not as a slave. The doctors
are outraged that this man bought a person and that the army is reluctant to do anything about it. In
true style of the show the doctors decide to buy the girl from the sergeant so that they can give her
back her freedom and to help her understand the injustice of the situation she was in. 78 It is difficult
to determine whether this would have been a realistic situation within the social and political
context of the early nineteen fifties. In order to contextualize the scenario of wartime Korea and the
relationship between the indigenous people and the Americans, I would like to refer to the
recollections of Ahn Jungho, who contributed his article Double Exposure of the War to the book
America’s Wars in Asia. A Cultural Historical Approach to history and Memory:
‘For us the grass-roots people of the hermit kingdom, the American liberators were like Santa
Clauses. They were Santa Clauses during the day in every respect, handing out chocolate bars,
Chuckles candy, and c-ration cans, sacrificing their own lives to fight the Reds for us. (...) The
American big brothers called themselves liberators as the reds had, and we went out to hail them in
the same way that we had welcomed the communist liberators. But it did not take long for us all to
realize how the big-nosed liberators behaved after nightfall. They terrorized the villages with nightly
visits to molest our mothers, aunts, and sisters. Every night my mother and other village women had
to run and hide in the bushes, in rice boxes, and under the floor to escape the UN forces of the
night’.79
Even though he was only eight at the start of the Korean War, as South Korean civilian, he
experienced the circumstances first hand. His recollection indicates that death and suffering was to
be found in other places than the front line. Even though characters died on screen in American
living rooms, M*A*S*H never addressed the issue of rape and abuse by American soldiers.
Regardless of the show’s progressive attitude, they probably considered this a subject too delicate
for their show, and perhaps television in general. There is a vast difference between death amongst
soldiers and the abuse of civilians. Such a representation would have identified every single Korean
War veteran with these atrocious deeds, which was not the intention of the show. However,
interracial contact, and its direct consequences or problems, was a subject that did feature in several
episodes. In comparing the situation in this particular episode with the personal recollections of a
Korean civilian, it becomes clear that regardless of its progressive nature, the creators failed to
address this issue. Even though the show never experienced any censorship on military and political
issues raised, scripts did have to be approved by the television network CBS.
78
s01e05 The Moose (aired: 15 oct 1972).
Ahn Jungho, ‘Double Exposure of the War’ in: America’s Wars in Asia. A Cultural Historical Approach to history
and Memory (zp, zd), 161-171, 163.
79
34
During the second series an episode aired entitled L.I.P, which is an abbreviation of the term
the army used to refer to the Korean civilians; Local Indigenous Personnel. As Hawkeye becomes
aware if this term he says: ‘Leave it to the Army to remind us nobody’s human’. There are two
story lines which appear to be totally separate. Hawkeye is trying to seduce a lieutenant nurse who
is making him work for her affection, on the other hand a friend appeals to him to help him with a
personal problem. The problem involves a Korean girl with which he recently had a baby. He wants
to take them both back to the United States but knows that the army makes the process virtually
impossible. When the nurse finds out that Hawkeye has been helping the young couple get married,
she expresses her disapproval that he ‘arranged a marriage between one of our guys and a gook’. 80
Again, Hawkeye is the one with the liberal and open minded ideology and finds her racist attitude
revolting. The issue of racism among American army personnel is being addressed, but this kind of
prejudice is only to be found in a fraction of the characters. The show seems to suggest that this
kind of racist prejudice is exemption rather than a rule.
There is one other occasion in which racism and even abuse is being addressed. In Yes Sir
That’s Our Baby a Korean woman who remains anonymous leaves her baby at the M*A*S*H unit.
They are left with the information that the baby is ‘Amer-Asian’, which meant that it was of mixed
race. The chaplain explains that this child has no future at an orphanage because she will be bullied
and (lethally) abused by the Korean children. However, the episode does not focus on the abuse
itself. Instead it shows that the U.S. Military is reluctant to help these baby’s, and does not
acknowledge the situation to be an ‘army matter’. The surgeons and nurses of the 4077th again
work their way through the bureaucratic military machine and are repeatedly faced with the reality
that the Army does not consider it to be its responsibility. 81 Children being conceived outside of a
marriage would have been a social taboo in America itself; it is an issue which is not unique to a
wartime situation. However, the situation was unique in the fact that the American soldiers would
leave Korea and leave behind the consequences of their actions. This could be a reflection of
American society being reluctant to address these issues. The main argument here is that ignoring a
problem and branding it socially immoral, does not make it go away.
Racism was not the only social issue, or taboo, that has been addressed during the show.
One particular episode in the second season deals with another form of discrimination;
homophobia. Even though the network hardly ever rejected the story line, Larry Gelbart does
mention that CBS did not appreciate scripts or scenes which had too much of a sexual connotation.
The episode George however dealt with sexuality rather that sexual deeds or desires. Still,
according to Reynolds, up to that episode the subject of homosexuality had not yet been dealt with
80
81
s02e07 L.I.P. Local Indigenous Personnel (aired: 27 oct 1973).
s08e15 Yes Sir That’s Our Baby (aired: 31 dec 1979) .
35
on American television.82 The surgeons notice that one of the soldiers brought into the operating
room suffered some severe bruises which were unlikely to be the result of combat. As the episode
progresses and the soldier is recovering, he approaches Hawkeye in private and reveals to him the
nature of his bruises. ‘There were two guys who got beat up, one colored... and… one homosexual’.
The soldier, being white, hereby outed himself. Considering the social and political context of the
early nineteen fifties, this this confession would have been a great risk to his reputation and future
securities. At this point in time, Army personnel suspected of homosexual acts or tendencies would
have been deprived of their social benefits and dishonorably discharged from the service. 83 The
soldier, called George, expresses that regardless of what the other soldiers in his unit had done to
him, he wants to return to his unit and finish his tour of duty. With this act he seems to be
compensating for his sexuality and wants to prove his loyalty. During the early nineteen fifties, a
situation as portrayed in this episode would have been a realistic one. He chose to out himself
which was risky, but he carefully selected Hawkeye whom he got to know as a very open minded
and caring person. He knows that his initial confession directly resulted in his being beaten up, and
knows that this will influence his reputation. Therefor he is determined to show that his loyalty lies
with the army and his country.
4.6 Goodbye, Farewell and Amen
As a conclusion to my analysis of the television series I would like to dedicate this paragraph to the
final episode, which lasted for two and a half hours. There is however one dominant story- line in
this particular closing episode which deals with the constant psychological battle one of the
characters is in throughout the series. The opening scene shows the images of a mental hospital, and
that the main character Hawkeye has been admitted.84 Throughout the series this character is
portrayed as the individual within the unit who struggles the most with the situation he has been put
in as a surgeon, but perhaps more importantly, as a civilian. The episode is set during the final
weeks of the war during which life changing experiences confront several of the main characters.
As seen before in this analysis, there are several episodes which confront the audience with
depressing issues in an often unexpected way. The last episode is one of these examples. Hawkeye
is most likely the character with which the audience felt most comfortable, as he appears in every
single season. The main strength of this character was that he had been able to keep his sanity with
the use of humor. However, Goodbye, Farewell and Amen shows that he has been mentally broken.
As the episode progresses the psychiatrist who works with him gets him to confess the experience
82
American Archive interview with Gene Reynolds.
Canaday, ‘Building a Straight State’, 935.
84
s11e16 Goodbye, Farewell and Amen (Aired: 28 Feb 1983).
83
36
which caused him to collapse. He witnessed a mother suffocate her crying newborn baby, in order
to avoid that the noise would attract attention from a passing group of North Korean soldiers.
The main message which the creators seem to mediate through this episode is that during a
war tragic experiences accumulate, and that individuals have their own unpredictable breaking
point. Also, it deals with the issue that every individual who is involved in military conflicts, can be
confronted with mental as well as physical injury. The issue of mental health among veterans has
always been a subject of relative taboo. This again shows the progressive nature of the show and
that the creators intended to make the audience aware that these were situations which many
veterans could relate to.
It is difficult to determine whether M*A*S*H can be seen as ‘the missing link’ in America’s
commemorative culture on the Korean War. This thesis was originally inspired by the idea that this
could be a possibility. However, during my research it became clear that the motion picture and
television series were not created to encourage people to actively commemorate, but to raise
awareness on how war affects the individuals who (are forced to) partake in it. Perhaps M*A*S*H
cannot be seen as the missing link within America’s commemorative culture, but it can be seen as
a forgotten and misinterpreted source which initiated the beginning of a process in which America
was gradually being confronted with what their veterans had experienced.
37
38
5: Conclusion
The analysis of the television series shows that during a period when there was no official initiative
regarding the commemoration of the Korean War, there was in fact a very serious, as well as
entertaining representation of the Korean War experience. It would be incorrect to assume that the
show was interpreted by its viewers as a form of commemorating the American War efforts in
Korea, in particularly because the show had a clear attitude against the Army as an institution. This
analysis, and in particular the interviews with the writers, directors and producers, show that it was
not necessarily their intention to make the nation remember. Instead they wanted to mediate a
representation of war based on personal recollections of the people who had experienced it. Even
though representations of war existed on television, in their opinion these were too remote from the
truth. They felt that these stories were worth telling and that they had not been told before in this
manner.
This research shows that the dismissal of M*A*S*H as a representation of the Vietnam War
with a ‘Korean veil’ is an incorrect one. Even though certain story lines, events or quotes have been
inspired by recollections of veterans who had served in Korea as well as Vietnam, they still kept
true to the social and political context of the Korean War in the early nineteen fifties. It was this
period in American history which they wanted to portray. The subtext of the show however, is
considered by the creators to be universal. The wastefulness of war, and the permanent damage on
the lives and limbs of individuals was in their opinion a message that had not yet been mediated on
American television. Chris Vos rightly points out that the analysis of a visual source, such as a film
or television show, as a representation of a certain age and mentality is complicated. During this
analysis I have been constantly aware of the historiography on the subject and the (marginal)
presence of the Korean War in America’s commemorative culture. As the research progressed, it
became clear that M*A*S*H can be most valuable to historical research when it is analyzed a
source of its time rather that a direct representation of its subject. It did produce a representation of
the Korean War, but it will remain a reconstruction which was under the influence of the socialpolitical context of the nineteen seventies and early nineteen eighties.
The motivation behind this thesis derives from the belief that the intention behind these case
studies was misinterpreted by historians. As this research progressed it became clear that, especially
the television series, says more about war in general than about Korea. This subtext was branded as
an indirect representation of wartime Vietnam, which led to the dismissal of M*A*S*H as a
relevant source for historical research. However, this thesis shows that the general message which
the creators attempted to mediate was one of war experience in general, and not Korea or Vietnam
in particular. It progressively dealt with sensitive social and political issues, based on experiences of
39
Americans in a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War. Instead it attempted to raise
the audience’s awareness on how a wartime situation impacts not just a country, but every single
individual who takes part in it. The anti-war sentiments proved to be circumstances in which the
creators were able to create a usable past with subjects and scenarios which had never before been
addressed on national television.
This thesis offers M*A*S*H a place within the field of memory studies as a source which mediated
the experience of war to the American public. This research can be seen as a message to historians
that sources such as M*A*S*H can be of great value if put into the right context. I hope my work
will motivate further and broader research within a the field of visual culture as well as memory
studies.
40
6. Bibliography
Sources:
- American Archive interviews with Gene Reynolds, Alan Alda and Larry Gelbart:
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIj3qLbrygI&list=PL41AF6AA259CA3F8A (15-012013)
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIn5J6YJAmQ (15-01-2013)
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KK-fAXqQRM0 (15-01-2013)
- M*A*S*H television series season 1-11 (1972-1983)
- M*A*S*H the motion picture (1970)
- Documentary on Robert Altman: Robert Altman in England http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUZNa6Oe4o (26-06-’13)
- Documentary on M*A*S*H ‘The Serious Sitcom’
- Digital issues of Graybeard Magazine http://www.kwva.org/graybeards/graybeards_history.htm
- Executive Order 9981: Desegregation of the Armed Forces (1948)
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=84 (23-06-’13)
- Additional text that accompanies the Desegregation act of 1948:
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/print_friendly.php?page=&doc=84&title=Executive+Order+9981
%3A+Desegregation+of+the+Armed+Forces+%281948%29 (24-06-’13)
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