MASH

When Mrs. Lawson first told us about this project I had no idea what I was going to pick. Considering the fact that we could choose a topic from 1945 to present day that is a lot of things to choose from! When I started really thinking about what I wanted to learn more about it hit me. The Korean War. I had never studied it in any class I have ever been in and the only existing knowledge I have about this topic is from the hit television series M*A*S*H that ran from 1972 to 1983. After I had watched a few episodes of the show I decided to look into what the real hospitals were like during the Korean War. 

MASH operating room

When I was just scrounging the web for information on this I came upon the Journal of the National Medical Association's article written in 2005 on the history of MASH units. I knew this would be an acceptable source to use because it was a published journal from a highly regarded medical society. The concept of a mobile hospital that would be quick, efficient, and of course mobile when dealing with casualties was first thought of towards the end of World War II. Before they had this idea, wounded troops were being sent back to field hospitals a long way away. This cost so much time that men that needed emergency medical care could not get it because they had to wait so long to be shipped back to the hospital. This made the brains of the army think "hey, I bet we could be a lot more efficient if we moved the hospitals closer to the front". That is how the idea of the mobile army surgical hospital was born.

title sequence on M*A*S*H

When I was looking for more information about the Korean War I came across a great website that told me a whole lot of information about the process the units went through. I learned that these units definitely had to be mobile. They moved about once a month and if they got orders to move they had to be up and out of there within six hours. Once they got to the new location they had to be fully operational in four hours. These units were generally stationed about twenty to thirty miles away from the front, just outside of the enemy's artillery range. Each MASH unit had about eight ambulances and four helicopters at their disposal. The choppers were used for more seriously wounded patients where as the ambulances were just used for the not as life threatening cases. All in all there were a total of seven MASH units in Korea during the war.

medical helicopter

I wanted to know more about what it was like to actually be a surgeon in one of these places so I found the notes of a Korean War surgeon Dr. James H. Stewart. I found this to be an extremely credible source because the doctor wrote them himself and had them published. It is an excellent example of a primary source. Dr. Stewart talked about how he was still in his residency in New Orleans when he got called up for duty. When he got to Korea he had to land at Inchon during a firefight that was going on on the island. He also talked about how, once he had settled into the hospital, he had to treat Korean civilians that were casualties from one of the American assaults. I cannot imagine how horrific that must have been for him. After reading. Dr. Stewart's notes I realized how relaxed they made the surgeons seem on the show M*A*S*H. Being a surgeon there seems like it would be the most stressful job in the entire world. 

MASH surgeons

When I compared everything I had learned about in my research to the show M*A*S*H I realized that what they showed on television was an extremely toned down version of what was really going on during the Korean War. 

MASH operating room

I have learned an enormous amount of new information on the Korean War. I am so incredibly glad that I got to study this topic before high school. I hope I will have another opportunity to do some more research in the future on this topic. 

hyper links

I am hyper linking to the contract and to the directions of the research project.

Walker Evans

1938

       I think that Evans' goal with this picture was to show that families esasily grow apart in  this time. The man looks upset because he can no longer provide for his wife and family anymore. The woman appears to be waiting for the man to start providing and make things better for them. These two people have probably been together for a long time. It seems that the Great Depression has been able to tear them apart. SO SAD :( :( :'(

Schenck vs. United States

In class I have started to research the court case Schenck vs. United States. This was a very important case in American history for several reasons. The Supreme Court passed the Espionage Act of 1917 which stated that one did not have the right to their first amendment right to free speech against the newly implemented draft. When I first heard the terms of the Espionage Act of 1917 I was shocked to see that law was actually passed. I found it to be completely unconstitutional!!!!!!!

Charles Schenck was the Secretary of the Socialist Party (I found it interesting to learn that the US actually had a socialist party at one point) and was in charge of sending potential draftees pamphlets. These pamphlets were actually not pro-draft pamphlets. I found out that they were actually encouraging draftees to stand up against the draft. In these pamphlets he was saying things like "In lending tacit or silent consent to the conscription law, in neglecting to assert your rights, you are (whether knowingly or not) helping to condone and support a most infamous and insidious conspiracy to abridge and destroy the sacred and cherished rights of a free people." The comments in the pamphlets was what got Schenck in trouble with the Supreme Court. 

This was an extremely public and much talked about case. It was very difficult trying to find a newspaper article on the subject but the New York Times had an article about the case on March 4, 1919. This article was basically just keeping the public informed about what was going on in the case and who was being charged with what. No one could just look on their iPhone and see how the case was going back then so this was the way the public got to hear about the national news of the time.

propaganda poster

I found an excellent book on AVL called Great American Trials In Schenck's indictment he was no evidence was there to prove that he had "corrupted" any single soldier. However the court thought that the publication of the pamphlets its self was enough to say he was guilty. Schenck's defense simply argued that this was completely against the First Amendment. However, he was found guilty so he appealed the court's decision. Justice Oliver Holmes said that if it had been peace time when this case had been brought up he would have been innocent but since it was war time he was found guilty. I thought that was the most ridiculous thing ever! I just could not believe that you could change a law to be different war time and peace. 

The most important thing I found about this case was the "clear and present danger". During the trial Justice Holmes said "The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent." Basically this means that if what Schenck was trying to tell people was seriously detrimental to the United States, Congress had the right to punish him for what he was saying. So the court had to judge whether or not something was a "clear and present danger" to the war efforts of the time. 

In my research I found that this was an incredibly unconstitutional trial. Schenck should have never been sentenced to six months in prison for what he did. It is completely within his rights of the First Amendment as a US citizen. I sincerely hope that nothing like this ever happens again in our courts of law. I think this all happened because Americans were scared about going into such a massive war and they were just trying to protect the nation that they so dearly loved. 

Chief Justices at the time

 

WWI poetry

I decided to read "Dead Cow Farm" by Robert Graves. I picked this poem in particular because I thought it was just a very interesting and unusual name for a poem. In the poem it describes a cow as the creator of Adam and Eve. I thought this was particularly interesting because that is not how I have always pictured the creation of Adam and Eve. At the end it says "the old cow's dead." I think when he says this he means that the off spring of the cow's creation are all dead like many of the men who died in WWI.

Resources used for Great White Fleet postcards

http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq42-3.htm
http://www.greatwhitefleet.info/Milton_Willard.html
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85066387/1907-07-28/ed-1/seq-5/;words=fleet+white+great?date1=1907&rows=20&searchType=basic&state=California&date2=1909&proxtext=Great+White+Fleet&y=21&x=22&dateFilterType=yearRange&index=0

Great White Fleet

I've been doing my research here. I have learned that the fleet traveled 12,455 miles in 14 months across the world. There were 16 giant battle ships all painted white (that's why its called the "Great White Fleet") that set sail from Hampton Roads, VA. The fleet made 20 stops around the world before ending back up at the very same port they left from.