Old TV show MASH

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wrhk33

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When I was a teen I watches MASH. I thought it was an entertaining show. I did notice all the anti war comments at the time but now when I watch it I find those comments piss me off. The channel that shows the old MASH shows have interviews with the original actors and it was mentioned that the stories were a blend of Korea and Vietnam. I think the main points that people forget or never learned are that the Communist North started the damn war. What was the South supposed to do? Give up? The Chinese and Soviets helped the North and the U.S. and other nations helped the South.
Alan Alda was the perfect match for Jane Fonda.
When you look at the current North and South Koreas I bet there are still liberals that wish the North had taken the South. I bet they never mention this war in schools.
 
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Alan Alda has never responded to questions..........The Korean people have never forgotten the terrible sacrifices our people made to keep them free...... My next door neighbor is a USN Korean war vet... Bill went on one of the honor flights back to Korea several years ago...he said that everyone thanked them & treated them as honored guests....
 
"M*A*S*H*" was a blatantly anti-war diatribe intended more as a protest against the Viet Nam war than it ever was intended to tell the story of the Korean War! The show ended in 1972, and you are just realizing this?

Un-fortunately the program was portrayed as principally a comedy, about an extremely un-funny subject!
 
I've always loved that show. Yes it had a strong anti-war theme but that never bothered me. Heck, any sane person is against the idea of having to go to war.

But by that I don't mean that war is always the wrong choice. I know and understand, and even agree that often it is the right choice. It is the only choice when faced with a rogue nation bent on aggression. But I still wish it weren't necessary, and find it extremely disheartening that people can't find other ways to settle things without bloodshed and killing.

I hate the idea of needing to shoot someone in defense of my home and family too, but I am still armed and prepared to do so if given no other viable option.

As I see it, most of the anti-war message in MASH is aimed at pointing out the senselessness and brutality of war. It doesn't glorify war, like so many of the older movies do. It gives a more realistic view of the horrors of war and what it is like to be there than many of the old WWII movies. That isn't a slam on any of the old movies, just a comparison of two different styles.
 
Yeah it was based on the movie M.A.S.H which was also a anti war type thing. But you'd be surprised just how many of the crazy things they did were actually done in a M.A.s.H unit. I was a medic in the Army and I can vouch for a lot of the funny goings on.
 
I like the show in general, and prefer the later episodes with Col. Potter and Maj. Winchester. The one thing that really irks me sometimes is all the bitching and moaning about how awful the conditions are by some of the characters. Mostly this is Hawkeye but sometimes BJ and Trapper do it too.

Well yes, war is hell, but those guys had it far better than the guy in the front line foxholes. Let's see.... tents to keep you out of the rain and snow, stove to keep you warm, cot to sleep on, hot food (might be crappy but at least it's hot and not rations), O club with booze, a moonshine still, movies, generally no one is shooting or shelling you, clean clothes, able to take off your boots and clean/dry your feet, no patrols, no sentry duty, and lastly female companionship. All things considered, you have it pretty good Hawk, so zip it.
 
Liberal TV? No way!

I grew up watching it. Been watching it on Netflix. I still like it. Yes, Alda, and others hated war. What's to like?
 
My colo-rectal surgeon was a MASH doctor. It was quite interesting how different his approaches to cancer were than those of younger docs.

I was undergoing some brutal exams in prep for more serious surgery. Young CR surgeon said (while I was bent over) "I want to talk to the man who did THIS". I heard it as a bad comment on the guy's work, so responded with a snarl. He quickly adjusted tone and said it was the best suturing and positioning of the incisions he had ever seen in his career.

He wanted to meet the doc to learn from him. Pity that the original surgeon was diagnosed and died of cancer in a period of about 6 weeks just a year before.

Original doc, when I questioned what sent him to colo-rectal as a specialty, said that nothing was as dark and hopeless as war, so even working with his head up my arse was an improvement.
 
It "jumped the shark" for me before it actually finished, and I still have never seen the final episode.

However, I still like the first three seasons, and since it's on Netflix, there are certain episodes I've watched a bunch.
 
It is interesting to note how the actors careers went south after the show ended. How often do you see, Radar, Hotlips, Frank Burns, Clinger, etc. in any TV or movies? Allen Alda and Harry Morgan are see once in a while but the rest have joined the pile of unemployed actors.
 
Yeah, the show applied Vietnam standards to Korea. The thing that caught my attention were the 40 year olds who were supposed to be draftees. I know, that was Hollywood too.
 
When we lived in Ohio, our doctor had been a Korean War combat MASH veteran. He said it was no fun and games like the show, just nearly constant sewing and patching of the wounded with seldom a break. The show and movie, while set during the Korean War, was really a surrogate for Vietnam.
 
What got me towards the end were the attempts to turn Korea into Vietnam, and the North Vietnamese and Chinese into "victims".

It's not like we didn't know what North Korea was all about during the Korean War, much less during the '70s.

What this is is the far left's unvarying impulse to take the side of ANYBODY against the United States and Western liberal democracy. They took the side of genocidal militarist Japan when "The Great Raid" came out. Eventually, they'll work themselves up to taking the side of Hitler.
 
It did not take too long to figure out that show had a lot of hidden messages in it. Yes it had some rather funny stuff in it, but as time went on it was apparent what they were selling.

FWIW, check the credits of who did the directing/ writing for each show!

Most anything directed/written by Alan Alda was far from funny and overloaded with his beliefs.:mad:
 
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My favorite episodes are the ones with Col. Potter and Maj. Winchester. I also liked Radar but, also enjoyed Klinger's antics.

To me it was all about trying to lighten the horrors of what M.A.S.H. Drs. must have seen coming thru their hospitals due to the tragedies of war.

I go to Church with a Vet. of the Korean war and many times he has related what went on, cold, heat, and other conditions wise. He has said more times than one had it not been for God's mercy being on their side a lot of them would never have made it.

War in the first place is not a nice thing but, when you have the climate and others factors against you it can really seem like a living hell on earth I suppose.

We owe all of our veterans a debt much larger than we can ever pay and, when I see them being talked down and looked on as nothings it bothers me greatly.
 
Some time ago, the History Channel had a 3-part series called "The Korean War: Fire and Ice". It still shows up as reruns on THC and related channels. It gives a very concise picture of what happened back then, with lots of interviews with those who were there. I can't imagine what it was like at the Chosin Reservoir fighting Chinese human wave attacks in sub-zero temperatures.
 
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