Hawkeye and Trapper discover that the recently-bombed South Korean village of Tai-Dong was attacked, not by the North Koreans, but by the United States Army. The two endeavor to get the Army to take responsibility, but the problem there is the Army is already in the process of covering up the whole thing and want the two doctors to keep their mouths shut. Or else the Army will do it for them...
Attention, all personnel! These tropes were not made for the good of the outfit:
- Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: Henry Blake again.
- Armor-Piercing Response: Frank tries to boast to Major Stoner that he was the ranking surgeon. Stoner remarks then he should have been the one to file the investigation report, not Hawkeye and Trapper.
- When Margaret yells at Pierce for not letting Frank be part of the report, Pierce responds that they begged Frank to assist them, but he refused.
- Becoming the Mask: Due to the man's own cynicism and willingness to do as the Army tells him, Hawkeye accuses Henry of becoming a military man, which the latter bristles at.Hawkeye: Henry, what's happened to you? You sneak off behind our backs and enlist? You Regular Army now?
- Big Bad: General Clayton takes a much more antagonistic role than usual and is the main driver behind the attempted cover-up.
- Buy Them Off: Inverted. The Army elects to rebuild Tai-Dong with their own budget and in a Bigger Is Better kind of fashion. Hawkeye considers this a plus, but he still wants them to take responsibility for the attack.
- Changed My Mind, Kid: Frank at first refuses to get involved, but just before Clayton is about to fully bury the story he and Margaret step up and present irrefutable evidence that the Army is responsible for the bombing.
- Comically Missing the Point:
- Henry hilariously does not understand or misinterprets whatever Major Stoner is telling him.
- Margaret wonders where Major Stoner could be from. Radar thinks she's talking about where Henry Blake is from.Radar: Bloomington, Illinois.Margaret: What?Radar: The colonel's from Bloomington. It's a town. I'm from Iowa myself, which is quite a coincidence when you think about it.Margaret: Where the major is from.Radar: Oh, he's from the inspector general's office.
- Radar informs Hawkeye he has a problem. Hawkeye gets the wrong idea. As it turns out, Radar's just being hypothetical. It's Hawkeye who's got the problem.Hawkeye: Radar, Radar, we're giving you these lectures, we show you these training films.Radar: No, no, come on, listen, I'm seri... [long pause] If a certain M.D. doctor around here sent off a certain letter to a certain male parent, not his mother, to get in touch with a certain senator about a certain favor, he shouldn't be too certain that that letter didn't end up in a certain whole other place.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: General Clayton proves that no matter how friendly his relations with the people of the 4077 are, his first loyalty is to the Army.
- The Cynic: Frank Burns. Henry Blake, as well.
- Deadpan Snarker:
- Trapper does this to Frank first thing in the episode.Trapper: Beautiful stitching, Frank.Frank: Thanks.Trapper: You used to do baseball gloves, right?
- He does it again when he and Hawkeye are talking about Tai-Dong and Frank interrupts.Frank: I insist on quiet in here.Trapper: Will someone please turn the war down for Frank?
- Trapper does this to Frank first thing in the episode.
- Defeat Means Respect: Hawkeye rewards Clayton with this for outwitting him and Trapper.
- Distinction Without a Difference: Henry warns Hawkeye not to leave the camp to tell the civilian paper about the truth of what happened at Taidong, because the Army will arrest him if he does.Hawkeye: Wh- What are? I'm under arrest?Henry: I didn't say that. You're restricted.Hawkeye: That means I'm under arrest!Henry: Not at all. You're only restricted up to the point where you're, uh, where you're, uh, you're under arrest.
- Every Man Has His Price: The reason Major Stoner did not pursue the investigation further is because the Army offered him a transfer to a stateside post in Honolulu and he accepted.
- False Flag Operation: Toyed with. The shelling was from the U.S. military and was presumably accidental, but the Army announces that the shelling was an enemy attack rather than cop to the fact that they just leveled an allied civilian village.
- Faux Affably Evil: When General Clayton arrives, he greets Hawkeye and Trapper warmly even though he's come to threaten them to back off.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Frank tells Trapper and Hawkeye to "go fish".
- Government Conspiracy: The Army accidentally levels a South Korean controlled village, but rather than admit to their mistake they decide to bury the evidence and harass Hawkeye and Trapper when they try to get some accountability.
- Hidden Depths: Margaret Houlihan supports Hawkeye and Trapper's campaign to get the truth out.
- Malaproper: Radar calls Margaret "sir" and Frank "ma'am". He immediately apologises for it.
- Near-Villain Victory: General Clayton persuades Hawkeye and Trapper to give up their campaign. Then Frank and Margaret burst into the office to save the day.
- Noodle Incident: There was a colonel who once tried to debate with the Army on a matter similar to Tai-Dong. He's a private now.
- Precision F-Strike: Hawkeye can tell that Major Stoner is merely trying to put him off over the phone.Hawkeye: The major just happens to be the Korean distributor for crapola.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: Inverted with Major Stoner, who gets transferred from Korea to Honolulu in exchange for burying the evidence that Hawkeye and Trapper had. Clayton gives a Shame If Something Happened version of this to Hawkeye and Trapper, hinting that as bad as things are at the 4077, they might find themselves assigned to a front-line aid unit if they don't back off about the shelling.
- Refusal of the Call: Frank does not want to help Hawkeye and Trapper with their campaign, as he believes they are just setting him up to take a fall.Frank: Huh! Last time we had a truce, I found peanut butter in my stethoscope.
- Ripped from the Headlines: The shelling of Tai-Dong by U.S. forces has obvious similarities to the 1968 massacre of the Vietnamese village of My Lai—except that the Real Life Counterpart was a lot worse. When the episode first aired, in 1973, the My Lai massacre would have come readily to viewers' minds, as it had been a major news story just a few years before, and continued to generate headlines into 1973–74, when the U.S. Army officer held responsible for the massacre appealed his court-martial conviction.
- Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: Hawkeye and Trapper will fight off the Army's attempts to keep the truth about the attack on Tai-Dong from getting out to the bitter end.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Hawkeye tries this tactic by writing to his father to get a senator who is a close friend of the family to get the Army to take responsibility for shelling Tai-Dong. Then the Army intercepts his mail.
- Stealth Insult:Frank: Now, do I know anything about this Major Stoner?Radar: I don't know that you know anything at all, sir.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: This is the way Frank wants to act initially.
- Title Drop: By General Clayton.Clayton: [to Hawkeye and Trapper] Now, look. Let's play ball, huh? For the good of the outfit. You don't wanna give the Red, White and Blue a black eye, do you?
- Took a Level in Cynic: Henry Blake completely shrugs off the revelation that it was the U.S. Army who shelled Tai-Dong as he knows they will be covering the incident up by any means necessary.Henry: I just want to remind you how thrilled the Army is about people who rock the boat.
- Truth in Television: When you're trying to pry an embarrassing admission out of a government-run organization, in this case the United States Army, you had better be fully prepared for a long drawn-out fight.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Subverted. Margaret lashes out at Hawkeye for not letting Frank get involved. An incredulous Hawkeye informs her they tried.Margaret: Why didn't you let him sign?Hawkeye: Let him? We begged him to. We begged him to do the decent thing.Margaret: Frank?
