- Or else the Korean War happened in both universes?
Think about it. If people stayed at the 4077th long enough, they developed '70s sensibilities, '70s hairstyles and a supply of pop culture references that postdated the Korean War. For instance, patients regularly went into the camp with '50s views and left it converted to a '70s way of thinking. In the case of Frank Burns, he attempted to maintain his '50s views while constantly living in the '70s zone and naturally went mad. Also, consider B.J.'s look when he first arrived and how his look changed after he absorbed enough of the '70s atmosphere.
Meanwhile, military officials outside the '70s zone were totally baffled by the 4077th since they could only relate to its members with a '50s mindset. As for Dr. Freedman, he only started to fit in at the 4077th because he hung out there so much. Remember he was actually a bit of an ass when he was first introduced on the show.
- Except Sidney really wasn't that much of an ass, he got along well with Hawkeye, Trapper, and the rest of the crew, he's such a nice guy he can even be nice to Frank. At worst he was mildly surprised and privately amused at the shenanigans going on at the 4077th, which never really changes. The worst thing he did was he took Klinger's own schtick and turned it against him to get him to (temporarily) drop his request for a section eight, which was exactly what Henry wanted anyway because the fact of the matter is no matter how much trouble Klinger causes he's still a good soldier and medic who doesn't allow his antics to get in the way of his duties.
- Sidney's only real offensive moment was when he found out that the 'psycho case' he was supposed to be interviewing for a recommendation for a Section 8 was Klinger. Sidney was okay, he was just upset that he'd been dragged away from patients who really needed help.
- Also, this area is still 20 years ahead, and suffers from a high rate of car theft due to the South Korean auto industry stealing specimens of their own future products to reverse-engineer. This explains why Korean cars improve by leaps and bounds with each new generation but never quite catch up to Japan and Europe.
- Except in this loop, the people keep aging, a condition that's unknown to them. That's why they continued to refer to Radar as a kid when he was already 37 years old. This would also explain why the patients that were treated at the 4077th got older as the season wore on, too.
- It also explains why the later episodes became more and more about him, as he descended further into self-absorbed madness.
- It would also explain the increasing darkness and intensity of his breakdowns, from just making one up in a Season One episode to being bent and broken for good in the grand finale.
- Or... He is in fact in a 1970s mental hospital, reliving distorted memories of his Korean War experiences. This would explain both the numerous anachronisms and the inconsistent time-looping.
- And the glimpse of the mental hospital we get in the last episode is actually the only thing that is real, it's an actual 1970's mental hospital. Sidney Freedman is Hawkeye's 1970's doctor, whom Hawkeye retroactively inserted into his memories as Sidney questioned him about them. The therapy was obviously unsuccessful, as instead of being released into normal life Hawkeye descends even further into hallucinatory madness and fantasizes that he has returned to the 4077th.
- But in the end Sidney himself sends Hawkeye back, suggesting that even if it is a hallucination of his delusional mind he still has business there he must take care of before he can ever leave and move on with his life, most likely the repressed memory and the final operations he performed on people who very likely never made it. He had to confront the fact that he couldn't save everyone and the fact that peace doesn't mean people stop dying. Sidney leaves the O.R., realizing that this is something Hawkeye must confront alone if he's ever to have any kind of closure. In the end Hawkeye not only leaves the 4077th, but Korea, which would suggest that he's made his peace with all he experienced there and can finally start to pursue a normal life.
- Or, instead of being sent home, he still has issues resulting in a second breakdown, and is sent to a mental institution shortly after the events of the finale. Sidney was real and was his doctor in the Korea, he just remembers Sidney well into the '70s.
- Or, everything, including his final breakdown and war's end, are memories. He just inserted his current doctor-Sidney- into his memories.
- Henry's death is what triggered the breakdown. That's when the promiscuous practical joker began to be replaced by a darker personality It's also when more serious characters replaced the sillier ones and Radar started to become childlike. Trapper was too much like the old Hawkeye, so he created B.J.. Barely competent draftee Henry is replaced by regular army Potter. Frank was a reminder of his practical joker phase, so he creates more of an equal in Charles. Margaret mellows and becomes a friend.
- And the glimpse of the mental hospital we get in the last episode is actually the only thing that is real, it's an actual 1970's mental hospital. Sidney Freedman is Hawkeye's 1970's doctor, whom Hawkeye retroactively inserted into his memories as Sidney questioned him about them. The therapy was obviously unsuccessful, as instead of being released into normal life Hawkeye descends even further into hallucinatory madness and fantasizes that he has returned to the 4077th.
- Alternately, an aging Grandpa Pierce is telling these stories to his grandkids as wartime anecdotes, and he's long since lost track of when their events took place and which of the accounts he just made up. The 1970s or post-70s attitudes are a result of him adjusting the stories to suit, first his kids' tastes, then his grandkids'.
- Alternately, it's not the 70s at all: it's actually a test being done in the future, far enough ahead that they don't actually know the difference between '70s culture and '50s culture. They were (will be) using different sets of clones with the same sets of memories, and the same "title" for each character- Hawkeye for the happy-go-lucky manic-not-depressive surgeon, Trapper for his Put on a Bus partner and B.J. for his replacement, Burns for the belligerent thinks-he-knows-it-all, Houlihan for the snarky love interest. Two of the same O'Reilly series clones (Radar) happened to be used for the groups of the movie and the television series.
- For this theory to work, it would have to explain the source of the hundreds of wounded soldiers that the 4077 treats. Researchers could be remorseless sociopaths back in the day, but it seems unlikely that they'd intentionally critically wound hundreds of people just to maintain the illusion.
Further similarities between The X-Files and M*A*S*H include:
- Paranormal activity: both shows frequently featured near-death experiences, one episode of M*A*S*H featured the disembodied, self-aware ghost of a dead soldier and suggested the existence of an afterlife. Father Mulcahy often pulls off miracles. And Klinger once ATE A JEEP. The 4077th is located in the Korean version of the Bermuda Triangle where the camp is unstuck in time, fluctuating between the fifties and the seventies, for eleven years throughout a two-year long war.
- Don't forget Radar's ability to hear things long before anyone else could and how he knew what everyone was going to say before they said it, even to the point that they would have to come up with something else to try to trick him.
- Flagg is a Colonel.
- More evidence of this appears when the doctors are about to go make a swap of wounded prisoners. When Klinger finds out, he volunteers to drive the bus even though Radar was already going.
- Sidney Freedman actually offered Klinger a discharge at one point, and Klinger refused it ostensibly because he would be labeled a homosexual in the discharge papers—after he had spent his entire military career trying to convince everyone he met that he was a transvestite.
- This troper figured that if he was pronounced "crazy" under a general Section 8, Klinger could still find good work in Toledo's Grey Market economy, with the transvestite thing waved off as stress or acknowledged as a dodge. Being labeled as a homosexual, especially in the 50s and in (what I assume to be) a family of Lebanese Catholics, would mean instant ostracism at best.
- Klinger implies a few times that his family is Muslim (various references to Allah stand out), although Mulcahey once references him as an atheist.
- I always figured Klinger's family was Lebanese Orthodox, which refers to God as "Allah" due to the Arabic language. God is still Allah to Arab Christians.
- He also mentions he gave it up for Lent when Mulcahey says that.
- Klinger is probably of the Greek Antiochian Orthodox faith by upbringing (mirroring the real-life religion of Jamie Farr), though Klinger has on a couple of occasions self-identified as atheist.
- Weren't most of the men in Klinger's family, or at least one branch of his family, proud evaders of military service going back generations? I seem to remember Klinger mentioning one uncle of his who had avoided military service by crossdressing and that that was where Klinger himself had gotten the idea. If he had been thrown out of the military on a Section 8, everyone would have understood that his pretended homosexuality and/or transvestism had just been a ruse.
- This troper figured that if he was pronounced "crazy" under a general Section 8, Klinger could still find good work in Toledo's Grey Market economy, with the transvestite thing waved off as stress or acknowledged as a dodge. Being labeled as a homosexual, especially in the 50s and in (what I assume to be) a family of Lebanese Catholics, would mean instant ostracism at best.
The proof? The overly lengthy war...the even lengthier hairstyles not in fashion in this universe's' 1950's...the surprisingly modern views towards women and minorities...the lack of smoking in later episodes....the lack of military discipline or order...and the relative lack of friction between the Korean population and the characters.Clearly this show was not set in this universe....
Or at least has ESP and/or some kind of psychic abilities. Both the former and the latter have been explored in Fan Fiction.
Despite being in his 30s, he thinks of himself as a 15-year-old kid. That's why he gets shy around women and can't drink alcohol.
- That's ridiculous. Radar was just a socially awkward, developmentally stunted young man who possessed unusually strong organizational talents and had almost supernatural auditory perception. That doesn't mean—holy crap, you're right! Radar had Asperger's!
- When Frank gets an anti-aircraft gun, Hawkeye sabotages it to keep Frank from shooting down a North Korean plane that has been dropping (by hand) small bombs near the camp.
- Wasn't there a regulation against MASH units having weaponry on base? And the NK pilot was some nutcase thinking he could be a hero.
- No, there's no such regulation prohibiting medical personnel from keeping or using weaponry, then or now. They are permitted to carry rifles, their sidearms (as officers, it is an entitlement), and even grenades. There is a regulation against chaplains from having weapons, but that only dates to about 1980 - in Korea, they were encouraged to carry sidearms because the KPA singled them out for execution. Charlie's plane has communist markings, something a civilian nutcase wouldn't have.
- As a medical unit, the 4077 wasn't supposed to have heavy weapons like that (this was referenced later on when Hawkeye 'won' a Howitzer). Also, if a medical unit was reported to have shot down a NK pilot, then the 4077 would be hit in full force, more than the small number of troops stationed there for protection would be able to handle.
- Gee, it's not like they could, you know, 'move' to a different location. This is supposed to be early in the war, when M*A*S*H units were exceptionally adept at mobilisation and could move at practically a moment's notice. It was only after the battlelines stablised and the need to bugging out decreased, resulting near disastrous attempts in late 1952-53 (the comments in earlier seasons about spending considerable amounts of time in one location, and acting as though moving to a new location was completely foreign to the camp are totally inaccurate).
- Wasn't there a regulation against MASH units having weaponry on base? And the NK pilot was some nutcase thinking he could be a hero.
- After sabotaging Frank's efforts to shoot down the enemy plane, Hawkeye and Trapper guide his AA crew to aim for the ammo dump, resulting in its destruction. They have no concept of what the lost ammo would mean to US troops in the sector.
- They are more concerned with the attacks on the hospital at that time. Besides, the general responsible for positioning the ammo dump near the hospital acknowledges that his actions are barely legal (at best) under international law).
- No, he never says any such thing. He mentions its proximity to a MASH unit means it couldn't be bombed without also attacking a protected unit, which isn't illegal.
- However, placing an ammo dump in such close proximity to a medical unit would strip the medical unit of its protected status, which is what led to the bombings in the first place.
- An ammo dump located in the vicinity of a medical unit does not strip that unit of its protected status. Charlie was bombing the dump regardless of what collateral damage he caused, and the DPRK was not concerned with international regulation (they executed chaplains on capture and their snipers used the Red Cross painted on medics' helmets to aim).
- They are more concerned with the attacks on the hospital at that time. Besides, the general responsible for positioning the ammo dump near the hospital acknowledges that his actions are barely legal (at best) under international law).
- Hawkeye steals a literal gallon of antibiotics and four dozen bedsheets and wastes both in a deliberate attempt to aid the enemy in destroying an allied munition depot.
- Mechurochrome (the substance that Hawkeye requested) is an antiseptic, not an antibiotic. Roughly equivalent in usage to iodine or bactine, not penicillin.
- When a soldier pays off a gambling debt with a piece of artillery, Hawkeye sabotages it. He claims he did it because the gun's presence was drawing North Korean fire, but sabotaging the gun doesn't change its presence. It just keeps it from being used later to kill North Korean soldiers.
- It was drawing fire, and see above re: anti-weapon regs.
- Yet Hawkeye does nothing to actually remove it from the camp, he just prevents it from being used again, despite being given a list of artillery units who would be more than happy to accept it. Though he knows its inoperable, the Red Chinese and North Koreans whose fire it draws don't. And, despite it be his gun, he for some reason feels the need to sneak around at night to disable it, as if he weren't allowed to do anything with it or if it was actively being used by an artillery unit. And Hawkeye didn't want to remove it from the camp in the first place; Potter had to order him to get rid of it, and Hawkeye fought him the entire time.
- It's not that Hawkeye didn't want to get rid of it. He did want to, but he refused to give it to an artillery unit that would just use it to hurt people. I always thought that after they sabotaged it, he did give it to another unit. Add in that he was sneaking because it's not his gun. The gun belongs to the army.
- Exactly, it's not his, which makes disabling it destruction of government property and sabotage. He also explicitely states he did not want to get rid of it.
- There are no regulations against medical personnel possessing weapons, not now and certainly not in Korea. The closest thing would be the rules against chaplains carrying firearms, but even that only dates to 1980.
- It was drawing fire, and see above re: anti-weapon regs.
- When a lone North Korean sniper shoots at the camp, Hawkeye comes up with a plan to surrender, and he and Trapper attempt to surrender the entire camp to the lone soldier.
- Because if they issue a surrender, they can at least get their wounded into OR safely. Hawk's a doctor first, a soldier twenty-eighth.
- How does surrendering to a single sniper allow them to treat wounded? And Henry was ordered specifically not to surrender. And how, exactly, were they supposed to know it was just a single soldier with a captured rifle and not a larger force ready to attack the camp? And the sniper fired at Hawkeye when he tried to surrender (against orders), so again, how does surrendering help?
- Because if they issue a surrender, they can at least get their wounded into OR safely. Hawk's a doctor first, a soldier twenty-eighth.
- Hawkeye refuses to fire his weapon at the enemy even when the enemy is firing at him.
- It's called "conscientious objector" status, and it's still recognized now.
- Yet many of his actions go beyond objector and are downright treasonous.
- Hawkeye is a devoted doctor. He takes very seriously the Hippocratic Oath, which states "First do no harm." He doesn't think of this as just when he's doctoring, but as a philosophy of life.
- Except when he drugged Frank to throw a party, or when he operated on a healthy patient - without consent - to remove a healthy appendix, twice.
- If we accept that it's Hawkeye's adherence to his Hippocratic Oath at work, that makes him an Idiot Hero at best. A lot of the things he does will likely result in more of the young American men he ostensibly wants to save being killed or maimed.
- It's called "conscientious objector" status, and it's still recognized now.
- Hawkeye and Trapper operate on North Koreans and Chinese before operating on Americans, sometimes using valuable supplies on North Koreans instead of using them on Americans.
- Again, doctor first. His triage decisions ignore that pesky nationality business.
- They falsify documents to get willing, effective soldiers sent home, but send cowards, homosexuals, and racists back to the front, probably to sabotage the units, knowing the presence of cowards, homosexuals, and racists is bad for morale.
- They get overeager kids who signed up for stupid reasons sent home. Glory seekers can be more dangerous in the field than "cowards, homosexuals, and racists".
- Most of the willing soldiers that they send home are not capable of being effective in the army anymore, i.e. the soldier who lied about his age to get into the army or those who had been too badly injured to continue serving in the military. The brand 'coward' was shown more often than not to be situational or caused by battle fatigue, and rarely was it demonstrated that it was an inherent personality trait of the individual i.e. the soldier who starved himself after his buddies were killed on Thanksgiving. The homosexual was willing and able to serve, just not legally. The doctors were willing to pull strings to help him thanks to their anachronistic sense of morality. The two most racist characters they encountered were the soldier who wanted his own color blood and the CO who was intentionally putting his black soldiers into harms way. The first one got an Aesop delivered intravenously, and the other they managed to get out of the army.
- Hawkeye helps a North Korean doctor slip into character and assume an identity as a South Korean doctor, then helps him get transferred to a South Korean unit.
- Helping a doctor be a doctor under better conditions? Le gasp! The evil!
- Hawkeye recognized the man's skill and helped a defector get in place to assist allied troops. No real issue there.
- They replace Frank's weapon with various other items, including a toy pistol, possibly in an attempt to get Frank killed.
- More like to keep Frank from getting killed. Frank was an idiot and possibly a glory seeker.
- Even more likely to keep Frank from killing the people around him. His tendency to pull the trigger while aiming at random people has been expounded above, and he even managed to shoot B.J. one time.
- When the doctors go to do a prisoner swap at Rainbow Bridge, Hawkeye and Trapper try to befriend the enemy and seem at-ease with the North Koreans and chastise Frank for disliking them. This gives the impression that Americans with guns are bad, but North Koreans with guns (who explicitly targeted American, British, and South Korean medical personnel) are okay.
- Frank was the one who broke the terms of the agreement of the patient exchange, no matter how ridiculous his gun was. He jeopardized a chance to get their patients back safely.
- They were trying to establish a connection with the North Korean officer in hopes of making these exchanges a semi-regular event, and because they were outgunned roughly 20-1. That's a bad time to be throwing around attitude.
- A good-faith agreement would have both sides show up unarmed. Going unarmed to meet your heavily-armed enemies is just plain stupid.
- When Trapper's friend (an intelligence officer) visits the camp, Trapper and Hawkeye get him into conflicts with Colonel Flagg, wasting the time of two intelligence assets that could be working on the war instead of wild goose chases created by two doctors.
- Oh yeah, Flagg was clearly competent at his job. Methinks you're protesting too much.
- Trapper's friend seemed competent at his job, or at least more competent than Flagg. Plus, this was back when Flagg was a serious threat and reasonably competent.
- Oh yeah, Flagg was clearly competent at his job. Methinks you're protesting too much.
- Hawkeye stands by his Hippocratic oath when he doesn't want to do something, but dismisses it if it lets him do something he wanted to do, like drugging Frank so he can throw a party.
- Wait, how does drugging Frank do him harm? All Hawkeye did was get the reg-happy idiot out of the way painlessly.
- Drugging someone against their will is assault. Just because you don't like someone doesn't mean they don't have rights.
- Or when he performs unnecessary appendectomy on Colonel Flagg and the colonel in "Preventative Medicine". In the latter, B.J. calls him out for it, but this doesn't stop him.
- Hawkeye removing the appendix (both times that he did it) was his attempt at invoking the Zeroth Law, meaning he sought to do the least damage to the least number. He was able to rationalize breaking his Oath by reasoning that he was saving that many more lives. The rationalization was blown up in his face shortly thereafter when B.J. informs him of incoming wounded.
- Cutting into a healthy body to remove a healthy organ without consent is still mutilation. Plus Hawkeye could have reported the colonel for conspiring to defy orders and provoke an attack against his own troops. Had he done that, the colonel would have been relieved of command, received a court martial and possibly dismissed or even jailed, but now his conspiracy will remain secret and go unpunished (and what happens when he returns from medical leave and resumes command?).
- Wait, how does drugging Frank do him harm? All Hawkeye did was get the reg-happy idiot out of the way painlessly.
- On their second run-in with Flagg, Hawkeye and Trapper stop Flagg from taking a North Korean prisoner to Seoul by putting Klinger in a stretcher in the prisoner's place. What happens to the prisoner after that is not revealed in the episode, but knowing Hawkeye, they probably fixed him up in a South Korean uniform and got him a job in a South Korean unit.
- Assumptions do not a solid case make.
- The more valid question in this case is how they kept Klinger from getting put in front of a firing squad for taking the prisoner's place.
- Klinger was just following the orders of a superior officer.
- Which raises the question of how Hawkeye got out of being charged for putting a subordinate in such a position.
- The implication was that Flagg assumed the young man was a spy and shot him without verification, with added implication that he was, in fact, a civilian. This would seem to be born out in a later episode when Winchester tricked Flagg, and the MPs suggest that is not Flagg's first wild goose chase.
- When Hawkeye is the pay clerk in Payday, soldiers approach his table and salute him. Instead of returning the salute, Hawkeye raises his right hand in a limp attempt to wave, but this actually looks more like the Nazi indoor heil.
- I don't think I understand what this last point has to do with him being a Communist sympathizer? I suppose that he is associating the U.S. army with fascists? I realize this is all in good fun, but I find it odd and troubling that the implication that being critical of the U.S. military means one should be suspected of being a traitor. Isn't it interesting that, in the 70s, a popular sitcom could have a conscientious objector as its key protagonist? Would this fly today?
- I think it would fly today as long as Hawkeye was anti-war and didn't use so many anti-American statements.
- I am lost as to which of these are anti-American (as opposed to anti-military or anti-war).
- Yes, many of Hawkeye's actions are not just in opposition to the politics of the war. He goes beyond the definition of an objector or protester and commits several subversive and traitorous acts.
- This is actually a common trait amongst staff officers even in the modern military. Medical officers (more often than not) see themselves as doctors first and soldiers second, so they are more lax on military protocol than career soldiers. Flimsy salutes, failure to show proper military regard, and other similar things are commonplace (and would have been even more so amongst draftees) in a war that they disagreed with).
- When a wounded female guerrilla is treated at the camp, a South Korean officer known for torturing prisoners (played by Mako!) comes to the camp to take her when she is ready to travel, Hawkeye refuses to believe she could possibly be a guerrilla, even after she tries to kill a wounded US soldier (albeit found by the staff collapsed by his bed, with the unit of blood smashed on the floor) and when the officer spells it out that her life meant more to Hawkeye than it is to her, he still refuses to believe him, even attempting to evacuate her, disobeying orders from both Potter and I-Corps that he was not to interfere, yet he identified a group of Koreans as guerrillas in Welcome to Korea when they vanished into the woods and started firing on him, B.J. and Radar.
- For part one, do I really have to raise the "doctor first" flag again? For the second, let's see, combatants who apparently know the woods like the backs of their hands and are firing on people in American uniforms. Plainly this is a US platoon we're talking about here.
- Just watched the episode in question, "Guerrilla My Dreams", and some of the facts are wrong. Hawkeye never insisted that the woman couldn't be a guerrilla, simply that he didn't care whether she was or wasn't. The incident where she tried to kill a soldier was misinterpreted as her being disorientated by the entire camp, not just Hawkeye. At the time Hawkeye tried to evacuate the woman, there was still room to believe she might be innocent and the line about Hawkeye caring more about her life than she did came after that. On the other hand, the episode does rely on a False Dichotomy, where the only options are torturing her to death or letting her go scot-free. And Hawkeye does seem to be opposed to her being interrogated on principle, even before he finds out torture would be involved.
- The woman, guerrilla or not, was his patient. He simply refused to allow his patient to be handed over to torture and certain death on the assumption that she was an enemy. The guerrillas he identified in the other episode were more an example of pattern recognition, as he had heard stories about that very same time of incident happening and had likely had it happen to him before. Also, Radar backed him up on that one.
- Hawkeye seems vehemently opposed to releasing her before interrogation is even mentioned, and the only proof we get that Mako tortures prisoners is a rumour and hearsay at best by someone with the 4077, and we never get any real confirmation.
- If someone says something bad about the United States, Hawkeye will join in on the bashing, but if you say something bad about the Chinese, like Frank did when he called them the Yellow Horde, Hawkeye will threaten you with bodily harm despite claiming to be a pacifist.
- Referring to China as the "Yellow Horde" is racist. You don't have to be a supporter of China's communist government to think that's wrong.
- Hell, even FRANK agreed with Hawkeye when Hawkeye expressed concern about Macarthur riling up China.
- When does that happen?
- When Colonel Flagg appears after black marketeers attempt to steal some penicillin, Flagg tries to steal the penicillin himself, explaining to Hawkeye that he can barter the penicillin for information that will end battles sooner and help American troops avoid deadly ambushes. Hawkeye doesn't even bat an eye at this, even though he's supposed to be more interested in saving lives and preventing bloodshed. I can't help but think that if a North Korean was stealing supplies for the same reason, Hawkeye would have even helped him load the truck and would have helped him forge a pass to make it past checkpoints.
- See above re: Flagg and assumptions.
- The thing about Hawkeye is that he ignores the politics surrounding a patient and focuses on those who are wounded. He doesn't care so much about hypothetical patients next week as he does about the person who is dying of an infection right in front of him. To him, the war isn't about millions of soldiers fighting, it's one patient that he treats and, when they are taken care of, he moves on to the next one.
- This falls apart when one remembers that Hawkeye wasted a literal gallon of antibiotics in "Five O'Clock Charlie", in a deliberate attempt to aid the enemy. It's also strange that he would stop Flagg from gathering information that could prevent bloodshed, doubly so when one considers the penicillin would be used on patients being treated in a far lower standard of care than that afforded by the 4077.
- Mechurochrome (the substance that Hawkeye requested) is an antiseptic, not an antibiotic. Roughly equivalent in usage to iodine or bactine, not penicillin.
- If you look at the show through the lens of the actual state of U.S. politics in the early 1950s (rather than the 1970s when the show was made), it's likelier than you may think that Hawkeye and friends are communists or at least fellow travelers. At that time, U.S. politics was still divided between an internationalist left and an isolationist right. As with World War II, the Korean War was supported by the internationalist left and opposed by the isolationist right. Left-wing opposition to the Korean War was largely limited to the sort of radical progressive circles in which Stalin was regarded as a hero of the working class. Of course, this is really an illusion caused by the show putting 1970s politics into the early 1950s.
- And there, everyone, is the rub. The show was originated during The Vietnam War, by people who were opposed to that war and who were disgusted by the nightly news about events like the My Lai Massacre, and the endless announcements of "body counts" (and the argument of whether or not the news was showing a bias against the conduct of the war is probably best undertaken elsewhwere). Since the show's mantra at least in the early seasons was "military bad", there is a metric crapton of Protagonist-Centered Morality in play. In short, the writers almost certainly believed whatever Hawk and Trap/B.J. did to frustrate the General Ripper or Colonel Kilgore of the week was completely kosher, no matter what the end consequences would have been. Because to their minds, it was giving a kick in the balls by proxy to the General Westmorelands, Col. Medinas and Lt. Calleys of real life.
- Early on he could get nearly any woman he wanted with a relative minimum of effort. Women seemed to fall over themselves for him, now later on it got harder and harder to the point where he was getting shot down heavily, could be his charm expired or maybe they had become immune to his ability to shift how things worked.
- More likely, he simply spread his powers too thin, as he was trying to bed all the women all the time.
- Colonel Blake was a friend to Hawkeye, and you'll notice that even when he could (and possibly should) have had the weight of the army's bureaucracy land on him something would bail him out. Hawkeye's abilities though likely have a bit of a snapback effect once you leave their aura, his protection had build up a big debt which was paid over the sea of Japan.
- Also explains Franks Flanderization, in the beginning he was a mediocre surgeon but was still at least mildly capable and while not the hero he imagined himself showed a willingness to risk himself to save a child. Hawkeye's dislike for him began to shift Franks personality and caused him ill fortune. (When Frank got home there was a backlash effect on it, in essence all of the 'bad' caused to him by Hawkeye's power was now counterbalanced, hence his being cleared of charges, promoted, etc.)
- Radar started off as much more canny and cunning, perhaps initially shaped that way, Hawkeye saw his youth and knew he was a farmboy, hence Radars gradual shift to being a more naive kid that hadn't ever drunk anything stronger than a grape nehi.
- Might also explain why the army tried to keep weapons or other strategic supplies near the 4077, they weren't aware of Hawkeyes abilities but knew that SOMETHING was off about the camp.
- Might also explain some of Margaret's character shifts. Initially she might have simply been caught in the effect of what happened to Frank, but as more things went wrong for her he felt sympathy and things changed.
- It might also explain why the war seemed to go so much longer, in this case Hawkeye's thoughts that the war would never end actually kept drawing it out, meaning that in their world the Korean war lasted several more years.
- Also could explain people like Flagg, assuming that he was mildly competent outside of the camp in it he was more or less subject to Hawkeye's views on the military system and this his disguises failed and his plans often backfired.
The real Rosie went south ahead of the offensive and never came back. The prostitute played by Eileen Saki sees an opportunity and takes over Rosie's Bar, becoming Rosie in the process.
- At one point, however, he converted to Muslim, as in the pilot episode of AfterMASH, he tells Mulcahy that he kept praying to Allah that his hearing would be restored, and it was.
- Not necessarily. Many Christian churches based in the Middle East (including the Lebanese Orthodox Church) refer to God as "Allah" simply because that's the Arabic translation.
- At one point, however, he converted to Muslim, as in the pilot episode of AfterMASH, he tells Mulcahy that he kept praying to Allah that his hearing would be restored, and it was.
- Not the most original theory considering Margaret voiced it all the way back in the original movie: "This isn't a hospital, it's an insane asylum! And it's your fault because you don't do anything to discourage them! [...] At first they called me Hot Lips and you let them get away with it! And then you let them get away with everything!"
- Addressing a popular chaplain as "Padre" is a US military tradition that dates at least as far back as World War One, possibly earlier, and is not unheard of in the British Army, either. It's a detail establishing Potter as an Old Soldier and indicating that Mulcahy is a good Chaplain (troops will only call a chaplain "The Padre" if they like him).
- Klinger does look a little bit like Romero.
Radar starts out almost as one of the guys - a drinker, a smoker, and a lot more aware of the ways of the world than the naive farmboy he becomes by his exit. What if his change in personality wasn't Flanderization but a result of the war? He starts regressing early on in the series, but it really ramps up after Colonel Blake is killed on his way home. Blake was a second father to him - and he was already a witness to his father's death. What if that brought out repressed trauma over the loss of his father more than the carnage of the war and sent him over the edge? It would also explain why he was "away on R&R" so often - a lot of the time it was a cover for his treatment.
- Margaret Houlihan ran into ex-husband Donald Penobscot, who admitted to that the real reason their marriage fell apart was that he was no longer able to deny that he was in fact gay. He has since accepted the truth about himself (although his wealthy upper-crust parents didn't and essentially disowned him), and shortly after the war met Steve, a physical therapist. The two of them were quite happy, and while Margaret was taken aback by Donald's confession, she wished them well and the two of them parted friends.
- Shortly after her meeting with Donald, Margaret took some long-overdue time off and found herself driving through Maine. She decided to look up Hawkeye in Crabapple Cove, where he now had a small but successful town practice. Hawkeye was pleased with the chance to show Margaret his hometown, and the two of them became closer than either of them had suspected; away from the war and the Army, they both realized how much they have in common, and Margaret came to fall in love with both Crabapple Cove and with the town doctor. Six months later, Hawkeye and Margaret were married in a small ceremony presided over by Father Mulcahey. Trapper John, B.J. and Radar were Hawkeye's groomsmen while Nurses Baker and Kelly, and B.J.'s wife Peg were Margaret's bridesmaids.
- Klinger and Soon-Li also attended the wedding. Unable to afford to buy Soon-Li a nice dress, Klinger fell back on his dress-making skills and made an original dress for his wife, a sky-blue creation that combined traditional Korean formal wear with contemporary lines and pleats. At the wedding reception, everyone complimented Soon-Li's dress and Margaret, along with several female guests, wanted to commission Klinger to make dresses for them. Within a year, Klinker opened a boutique, Klinger Originals, and began a career as a successful and much sought-after fashion designer.
- Dr. Charles Emerson Winchester was unable to attend but he did send the bride and groom a fine gift, a hand-carved teak chest from Kenya. When he returned to Boston after the war, Charles was distressed to find that his sister Honoria was not there to greet him. His parents informed him that shortly after graduating from college, she had joined a volunteer group that was helping to build a hospital in Kenya. His curiosity piqued, he contacted the volunteer organization and within a month, he received a tape-recorded message from Honoria, explaining the progress she and her group was making in establishing the hospital. Charles was amazed, not only the work the group was doing, but in the changes he noticed in his beloved sister as a result; her stutter, which she had dealt with for much of her life, was absent from the recordings, and she seemed more confident and focused. Finally, he flew out to the site in Kenya and visited Honoria, to witness first-hand the construction of the new hospital. He was so impressed by the work, and how this work had transformed his sister from a shy and submissive slip of a thing into a confident tower of strength that he ended up joining the volunteer group, offering his services as a surgeon to the new hospital. As the hospital and surrounding facilities were being built he spent the next few years working, living and sleeping in conditions that made the 4077th look like the Hyatt Regency. And he was happier and more satisfied than he had ever been in his life. For the first time in his life, he felt he was doing something worthwhile.
- You don't know the VA. Frank being in charge of a VA hospital might actually improve their level of care and bedside manners.
- It's possible that the entire camp, and all of the personnel, are an SCP object, and the researchers are sending in D-class personnel as wounded to test how long the 4077th can handle the stress. The experiment ran for 12 years that we know of (and may still be running today)