The Korean War

Although I’ve done a blog on “M*A*S*H”, in which I briefly covered this war, I never did a blog on this war itself.  Coming shortly on the heels of World War II – just 5 years after – it pulled in many WWII veterans.

Phase I.  North Korea kicks ass.  On June 25, 1950, the North Korean army (Korean People’s Army, KPA) launched a surprise attack across the 38^th Parallel and pushed the South Korean (Republic of Korea, ROK) forces all the way down to the very southeast tip of the peninsula, at Pusan.  This small pocket held out against amazing odds.  [M*A*S*H item: Veteran surgeon cracks after too long – Hawkeye is disturbed, as the man was at Pusan.  If a man who survived Pusan can break, what hope is there for anyone who didn’t go through all that?].   In addition to the KPA outnumbering the AROK by 3 to 1, they had also had tanks – the South Koreans had none – and more aircraft.  There were no US forces in South Korea, but there were nearby in Japan.

The US got an UN resolution passed, and sent its own forces from Japan to reinforce the South Koreans.  Troops & tanks, of course, but also overwhelming air superiority which blitzed the KPA.  By September the UN forces were actually breaking out of the perimeter.  Note:  although the US provided the majority of troops, air support, and supplies, the Allied effort was a UN effort.  French and Turkish troops wound up playing pivotal roles in several battles.             

Phase II.  UN kicks ass.  September 15, 1950, MacArthur engineered a brilliant landing at Inchon, which is on the west coast of the peninsula about halfway up.  This was well behind North Korean lines and completely took them by surprise.  South Korea was liberated, and the UN forces rolled all the way up to the Chinese border on the Yalu River.  KPA forces disintegrated and left North Korea almost defenseless.  

MacArthur publicly argued that the UN should invade China, and Truman disagreed with him – and sacked him.  Remarkably, the US had competent military commanders aside from him who managed to get the job done. 

Phase III.  Mao kicks ass.  On October 25, 1950, Mao sent millions of “volunteers” over the border – mostly former Nationalist armies who surrendered after Chiang Kai-Shek fled to Taiwan, relabeled the People’s Volunteer Army (PVA) – to overwhelm the UN forces by sheer numbers.  After the initial shock, the UN forces rallied and held the communist forces…right around the 38^th Parallel – i.e. the original border.  The first half of 1951 involved a series of costly but strategically significant battles between the UN forces and the PVA, ending by June 1951.

Phase IV.  Stalemate.   For the next two years the battle dragged on at that place, neither side gaining an advantage over the other.  Peace talks dragged on, much to Hawkeye’s annoyance.  Mao seemed to be the only one who wanted to continue the war, but Hawkeye never bitched to him (by the time “M*A*S*H” aired, Nixon had made Mao a popular guy in the US).

Chinese forces suffered heavy casualties.   They had little air support.  The .50 machine gun did a great job of slicing through dense ranks of soldiers.  Most of the forces were former Nationalist armies Mao didn’t care about.  Moreover, Mao was trading Chinese lives to get Soviet technology from Stalin.    

Leaders.  US:  Harry S. Truman (until January 1953); Republic of Korea (South Korea): Syngman Rhee; Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (North Korea): Kim Il-Sung (grandfather of current leader); China: Mao Zedong; USSR: Josef Stalin.

Tanks. The communists used mainly T34-85s left over from WWII.  The US forces used M46 Patton tanks, which replaced the T26 Pershing tanks originally designed in 1945 but were outdated by 1951.

MiG-15.  This was originally my angle, until I realized that the war itself was a more substantial topic.  The war gave jets an opportunity to show what they could do on a broader scale than WWII, where the ME262 was the only jet to get any substantial airtime. 

            The Russians brought the MiG-15 to the table.  Although they trained North Korean and Chinese pilots, most of the planes were flown by Russian pilots.  They pretended to speak Korean on the radio, but reverted to Russian when under stress and/or swearing.  Since Stalin didn’t want any captured – which would prove the Russians were in the cockpits – they had orders not to fly over enemy territory. 

            The MiGs themselves were highly competitive with the US jets, the F86 Sabres.  They also shot B29s out of the sky fairly easily, which meant the US had to fly those bombers only at night. 

R&R in Tokyo.  Instead of being firebombed, Tokyo is where Hawkeye and Trapper John go for R&R.  Amusing turn of events, as least as far as the Americans are concerned.  Also, my military history professor at UM, Sumida, made an interesting observation.  It seems there were some North Korean prisoners who refused to talk.  The Americans brought in a Japanese officer, merely as an observer.  When the North Koreans saw him, they immediately started talking.  

Armistice, but no Peace Treaty.  Technically the war ended with a cease fire on July 27, 1953, not a peace treaty, so it’s going on right now.  The demilitarized zone was added as part of the armistice terms. 

Uncle Jeff.  The only relative I know who fought in Korea (he also fought in the Pacific in WWII).  Sadly, I can't remember any war stories from Korea.  For that matter, I don't recall him telling stories about WWII.  My Uncle Larry, navigator in a B17, did observe an ME262.  

Movies.  It turns out that there are lots of Korean War films, but I’ve only seen a handful.

M*A*S*H.  The original, with Donald Sutherland as Hawkeye and Elliot Gould as Trapper John.  This had Robert Duvall as Major Frank Burns and Rene Auberjonois – Odo on Boston Legal – as Father Mulcahy.  Gary Burghoff, aka “RADAR” O’Reilly, was the only actor to play in both the movie and the series.

            Since it mainly dealt with the doctors, I don’t really consider it much of a Korean War film.  Moreover, unlike the TV series, which was a comedy, this film is more of a drama, albeit highly irreverent. 

The Manchurian Candidate.  Although the events in question started in Korea – the US squad captured by the Reds – all the main plot takes place in the USA.  Not much of a Korean War movie.

The Steel Helmet.  B&W, made in 1951.  Features a gruff sergeant, a young Korean boy ("Short Round"), a Japanese-American soldier, Tanaka - proud veteran of the 442nd in WWII - and a black medic.  For a movie of that vintage, it pushes a whole bunch of buttons: racism in the US, internment camps, and general discord and nastiness among US soldiers.  I noticed a few Mosin-Nagants and a PPSH.  Thanks, Dave!

Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War.  A South Korean film from 2004, obviously inspired by “Saving Private Ryan” in terms of its direction, editing and pacing. When a South Korean family’s younger son gets drafted into the army, his older brother volunteers to serve so he can look after him.  Bad stuff happens after the South liberates their village which had been overrun and captured by the North Koreans.  Older brother goes apeshit, defects, and becomes a fanatical officer in an elite North Korean unit.  Very intense, and from the South Korean perspective (not US).  But excellent and exciting to watch.

M*A*S*H

Were it not for this series, the Korean War would be completely forgotten except by those who actually fought in the war – and the Koreans themselves.  It’s like “WWII junior” with jets thrown in and the Chinese and North Koreans as the bad guys instead of the Germans and Japanese.  Tokyo is the source of R&R and geisha girls instead of a firebombing target for the USAAF.  It lacks the rice paddies, jungles, helicopters, 60s Woodstock music, marijuana/counterculture, and of course, provocative, pervasive prostitution that the Vietnam War injected permanently into our minds.

Korean War.  June 1950.  North Korea invaded South Korea in a surprise attack, pushing the South Koreans down to the bottom of the peninsula, to a tiny perimeter at Pusan which barely held out.  September 1950.  General MacArthur pulls a stunt: he landed at Inchon, behind North Korean lines, catching the North Korean Army by surprise, and UN forces drove all the way up to the Chinese border.  November 1950: a huge army of Chinese “volunteers” swarmed across the border and pushed the UN forces back down to the 38^th Parallel, where stalemate ensued, until an armistice was signed two years later.

Movie.  The movie came out in 1970.  The theme song, “Suicide is Painless”, actually has lyrics.  Long after being familiar with the TV show, I watched this, and was not very impressed.  While the familiar characters are here, though in most cases with different actors, as well as the elements and ingredients, it strikes me that the TV show had the benefit of running with the concept and developing it much further, plus allowing the various actors to flesh out their respective characters over several seasons and not merely 90 minutes.  The movie also features “Duke” Forrest, Tom Skerritt’s character, who is absent from the TV show.

TV Series.  Lasted from 1972-83 – far longer than the war itself.  (Be sure to catch all 400 seasons of the laugh-a-minute sit-com based on the Hundred Years War!).  The theme song is now an instrumental.

Characters

Captain Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce (Movie: Donald Sutherland).  Played on the TV show by Alan Alda – forever typecasting him as Hawkeye, at least for those of us who knew him from “M*A*S*H”.  From Crabapple Cove, Maine.  Easily the main character, and one of the few to remain throughout the entire run of the series.  He loves his martinis – a very pretentious affectation – and is always wisecracking, though he’s also very sensitive.  He loves to consider himself a Groucho Marx clone.

Captain Trapper John MacIntyre (Wayne Rogers)(seasons 1-3).  Originally played by Elliot Gould in the movie.  He never really seemed to have much of a role than to be a comic sidekick friend to Hawkeye to make them a pair.  In fact, this was the reason why Rogers left the show.

Captain B.J. Hunnicutt (Mike Farrell)(seasons 4-11).  From San Francisco, wife Peg and daughter Erin (name of his real life daughter).  He took over from Trapper John mid series, so there was no movie version of him.  I’ve noticed Farrell showed up recently, remarkably only little older than in “M*A*S*H”, as Victor Long’s father on “Desperate Housewives”.  Like Trapper John, BJ really doesn’t seem to have much more importance than to be a supporting character to play off Hawkeye.

Major Frank Burns (Larry Linville) (seasons 1-5).  Played in the movie by Robert Duvall.  Married, but having an affair with Major Houlihan.  I notice that all the doctors – even Colonel Potter – consider themselves to be doctors first, and military officers second, with very little care or concern for military formalities beyond the minimum required of them.  Burns was the one who got stuck up in being a MAJOR and an officer, to the detriment of his medical skills.  This is despite the fact that he is not career military and has a private practice back in the US like all the other doctors. Like Colonel Flagg (the idiot military intelligence officer) Burns seems to act as a magnet for civilian hatred of typical military types as being morons and buffoons.

Major Charles Emerson Winchester, III (David Ogden Stiers) (seasons 6-11).  From Boston.  Incredibly arrogant and stuck up, even affecting the snobbish, stilted New England accent.  He inflicts his noxious classical music on his roommates Hawkweye and Hunnicutt, reads letters from his sister Honoria, and typically acts pompous and better than anyone else.  In one episode he gets a taste of his own medicine when an arrogant English officer slams him as a wanna-be and considers even New England Americans to be second-class. Although he took over from Burns, he doesn’t share Burns’ idiocy or devotion to military discipline for its own sake, though he doesn’t share Hawkeye’s anti-military attitude either.

Major Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan (Movie: Sally Kellerman; TV: Loretta Swit).  An army brat, no real hometown – the Army IS her life.  Her father is a big shot general.  She takes her role as head nurse seriously but has compassion for the nurses under her.  She has a friendly but platonic relationship with Hawkeye, though at the same time she chafes at his obnoxiously anti-military and unprofessional attitude – and teams up with Burns, her lover, to try to take out Colonel Blake.

Corporal Walter “RADAR” O’Reilly (Gary Burghoff both in the movie and the TV series) (seasons 1-7).   The company clerk until Klinger took over.  Very shy farm boy from Iowa, average intelligence, but a nice guy.  I loved the episode where Hawkeye and BJ managed to weasel him a commission as 2LT so he could hook up with a cute nurse who insisted she only dated officers – and who rejected him anyway even with the gold bar.  He clutches a teddy bear and loves grape NeHi soda.

Corporal (later Sergeant) Maxwell Klinger (Jamie Farr).  The Lebanese clerk from Toledo, Ohio – most famous for dressing in drag to get a Section 8 (discharge for insanity).  Of course this never worked, the classic “Catch-22” – applying for Section 8 proves you aren’t insane.  He dropped the Section 8 routine by season 8 when he replaced RADAR as the company clerk. Not only a capable clerk, he knew all the ins and outs of the supply and Korean underground – he knew how to get anything, something which the naive, innocent RADAR couldn’t handle.

Colonel Henry Blake (McLean Stevenson)(seasons 1-3).  I never liked him – he was really a slacker, far more so than Hawkeye, who at least brought wit and humor so we could laugh WITH him, not AT him.  He was always wearing a fishing cap or his college sweater.  I suppose some portion of the audience related to him, but I never did.

Colonel Sherman Potter (Harry Morgan)(seasons 4-11).  From somewhere in Missouri.  Served in WWI (which he refers to as “W W Eye”).  I liked him far more than Blake – very military, but still a doctor and he had a heart.  Given his extensive service I think Potter is career military and not simply called up for the war the way the rest of the medical staff was.  Potter could see the forest for the trees and understand the spirit of military regs without getting caught up, as Burns did, in the formality and letter of it.  I still think of Harry Morgan as Colonel Potter, even when seeing him in “Dragnet”.  His fondness for his horse and the cavalry led Winchester to slam him as “our beloved Colonel Cowpie”.
 
Father Mulcahy (1LT, later Captain) (Movie: Rene Auberjunois; TV: William Christopher).  The camp chaplain, always a sympathetic character.  He was religious without being a hard-ass pompous zealot, the perfect combination we seek from men in the cloth.

Minor characters: Ho-Jon, their South Korean servant boy.  No, not Ganymede;  Ugly John, a colorful, mustached Australian trooper complete with slouch hat; Spearchucker, their Afro friend with the charming politically incorrect nickname – I know he’s a tentmate of Hawkeye and Trapper and has an officer’s rank, but I have no idea if he’s actually a surgeon.

I’ve always liked the show, though I probably haven’t seen nearly all the episodes despite having watched it since it was originally on in the 70s.  In later episodes the show got progressively darker and more cynical, to the point where they had nightmares drenched in blood, Hawkeye would sleep walk, and things started getting really strange.  For some reason all the actors and actresses have 70s-era haircuts (e.g. Farrell’s mustache), unlike “Happy Days” where the hair was appropriate for the 50s. The finale show itself was extremely well done, and so depressing you almost wished “hey, why can’t the war continue indefinitely, so as not to break up this family?”  But everything comes to an end – even wars and TV shows.