Foreword

This is the fourth volume published by the U.S. Army Center of Military
History in its United States Army in the Korean War series. Once termed a
police action, the Korean War was fought by massed armies on a constricted
field of operations. Its battles were as intense as those of any other war this
century.

The Medics’ War views this conflict from an uncommon angle. It documents
the efforts of American Army doctors, nurses, and enlisted medics to save life
and repair the damages wrought by wounds and disease. Though the charges of
biological warfare made at the time are shown to have no foundation, the
disease-ridden environment of wartime Korea aided the side with the best
medical care. The real MASH clearly emerges in this study, along with the
variety of technical innovations produced by the conflict that have advanced
medical science.

The perspective of The Medics’ War is an enlightening one, showing that the
compassionate treatment of both United Nations and enemy wounded pre-
served human values in the midst of bitter, unforgiving strife. Civilian and
military readers alike will gain from it a deeper understanding of the processes,
destructive and reconstructive, that together made up the human experience of
the Korean War.

Washington, D.C.

24 March 1986

WILLIAM A. STOFFT
Brigadier General, USA
Chief of Military History