THE REMEMBERED WAR: THE KOREAN WAR IN AMERICAN CULTURE, 1953-1995 by JONATHAN C. MERRITT ANDREW J. HUEBNER, COMMITTEE CHAIR KARI FREDERICKSON EDWARD T. LINENTHAL MARGARET PEACOCK SARAH STEINBOCK-PRATT A DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History in the Graduate School of The University of Alabama TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA 2017 Copyright Jonathan C. Merritt 2017 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ABSTRACT After three years of bitter fighting, the Korean War ended on July 27, 1953. It profoundly shaped and directed American Cold War policy for the next four decades. Korea’s place in American culture and memory, however, has seemingly been less profound. This dissertation reassesses the war’s legacy from the armistice in 1953 through the construction of the Korean War Veterans Memorial in 1995. It argues that representations of the war have shifted over time in response to contemporary social concerns, emphasizing different aspects of the war that resonated with Americans at the time. Simultaneously, the image of Korea as the Forgotten War has also shaped the war’s meaning and such a label, ironically, has had an important impact on how it has been remembered. Finally, the memory of Korea has been unable to escape the long shadows cast by other conflicts of the twentieth century, especially World War II and Vietnam. These wars have simultaneously limited and broadened the Korean War’s legacy. Taking these factors into consideration, this dissertation reassesses the Korean War’s place in American culture by tracing the various ways it has been remembered and represented. ii DEDICATION For Ann Marie Elizabeth Merritt May she develop a love of history but not make a career out of it iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS No work of scholarship is created in isolation. And something that has taken this amount of time has certainly put me in the debt of many. I would first like to thank my adviser, Andrew Huebner, whose insight always helped point me in the right direction. His mentorship provided just the right balance of freedom and guidance throughout this process. I always left his office after a meeting with a boost of confidence and the feeling that I could write the entire dissertation in a day. (Spoiler alert: I didn’t.) I would also like to thank the other members of my dissertation committee, Kari Frederickson, Edward Linenthal, Margaret Peacock, and Sarah Steinbock-Pratt, all of whom provided helpful commentary along the way and shaped this into a better project. Howard Jones also provided helpful direction on the possibilities of a dissertation about the Korean War. The staff at the Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library at the University of Alabama also provided invaluable assistance. Friends and fellow scholars, especially Blake Ball, Mark Folse, Patrick Cecil, and Matt Pritchett, either read sections of the dissertation or provided insight into the whole process. I would like to thank John P. Lucas, who shared information about his firm’s role in the Korean War Veterans Memorial. I also thank my wonderful wife, Rachael, whose patience and willingness to tackle extra burdens along the way afforded me much-needed writing and editing time. She also took the time to read over segments of the dissertation and coaxed me along when I became discouraged. That she puts up with me alone is amazing and I consider myself beyond lucky to have someone so dedicated. Her love is without equal or parallel, and her belief in me completing this task is certainly proof of that. Finally, I thank our daughter, Ann Marie, in whose future I place my hopes. It is to her that I dedicate this dissertation. iv CONTENTS ABSTRACT.........................................................................................................................................................ii DEDICATION.................................................................................................................................................iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS..............................................................................................................................iv LIST OF FIGURES.........................................................................................................................................vi INTRODUCTION A WAR NOT FORGOTTEN....................................................................................1 CHAPTER ONE THE AMBIVALENT WAR: THE KOREAN WAR IN AMERICAN CULTURE, 1953-1965…….....……………………………………………………...........................21 CHAPTER TWO THE SUBVERSIVE WAR: PRISONERS OF THE KOREAN WAR IN AMERICAN CULTURE, 1953-1965………………………………………………………...........62 CHAPTER THREE THE INSTRUCTIVE WAR: THE LESSONS OF KOREA DURING THE VIETNAM ERA, 1965-1973..............................................................................................................l09 CHAPTER FOUR THE ALLEGORICAL WAR: M*A*S*H AND THE REMAKING OF KOREA, 1968-1983……………………………………………………………….........................152 CHAPTER FIVE THE CONTENTIOUS WAR: THE KOREAN WAR VETERANS MEMORIAL AND THE FIGHT FOR COMMEMORATION, 1981-1995....................................186 CONCLUSION THE REMEMBERED WAR.......................................................................................227 REFERENCES………………………………………………………………………………….237 v LIST OF FIGURES 1.1 Fixed Bayonets! , 1951....................................................................................................................................37 1.2 All the Young Men , 1960..............................................................................................................................48 1.3 Meanwhile, Back at the Front, 1961..............................................................................................................51 1.4 Pork Chop Hill , 1959...................................................................................................................................55 2.1 My Son John, 1952........................................................................................................................................82 2.2 Time Limit , 1957..........................................................................................................................................97 2.3 The Manchurian Candidate , 1962...............................................................................................................106 3.1 The USS Pueblo ..........................................................................................................................................121 4.1 M*A*S*H (film), 1970............................................................................................................................156 4.2 M*A*S*H (television series)..................................................................................................................167 4.3 M*A*S*H (television series)..................................................................................................................182 5.1 Original design for the Korean War Veterans Memorial by BL3....................................................190 5.2 Final design of the Korean War Veterans Memorial by CL.............................................................218 vi INTRODUCTION A WAR NOT FORGOTTEN Nestled at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial and across from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (VVM) on the National Mall stands the Korean War Veterans Memorial (KWVM), with its nineteen oversize statues of American servicemen. President Bill Clinton officially dedicated the memorial on July 27, 1995, exactly forty-two years after the armistice ended major combat operations in Korea. At the ceremony were thousands of veterans, many of whom had assumed they would never see such a monument in their lifetimes. Such pessimism was to some extent well placed. Getting to that hot July day was an arduous process, one that had seen more than a decade of congressional wrangling, bureaucratic in-fighting, and different architectural designs, all competing for a particular representation of why the Korean War mattered. The debates that centered on the memorial exposed important questions about the war and its place in American history. How would the monument depict the nation’s first limited war, one, some critics charged, the United States fought to a draw instead of a victory? What would the memorial say about the first conflict fought, in part, by an integrated military? Would it acknowledge the contributions of United Nations (UN) allies? The roles of women? How would the monument reconcile American action in a war with no direct national threat? These were but some of the questions that led to stark disagreements about the KWVM in the 1980s and ‘90s. They revealed, in other words, strikingly different interpretations about the war. With the intense jockeying by generals, politicians, bureaucrats, architects, and artists all claiming a stake in the war’s legacy, it would be hard to consider the Korean War a conflict that had not been adequately 1 remembered and represented in American culture. Instead, the monument debate illustrates that the Korean War, rather than having been forgotten, has a contentious history of remembrance. This dissertation joins a larger historiography of war remembrance and a smaller one that addresses the role of the Korean War in public consciousness and discourse. 1 The seminal works in the field of war remembrance have examined a variety of conflicts and generally conclude that one or