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We Will Not Be Strangers
Korean War Letters between a M.A.S.H Surgeon and His Wife
Edited by Dorothy G. HorwitzForeword by James I. Matray
Cloth978-0-252-02204-3
$28.95
| Pub Date: | 1997 |
| Pages: | 320 pages |
In the first war Americans didn't care to understand, a young M.A.S.H. surgeon finds himself in a dusty hospital tent on the Korean front. He and his new wife back in Manhattan exchange daily letters in which they express the timeless urgency of young love and a mutual contempt for war. Even though their day-to-day lives offer stark contrast to one another, his spent in a blood-smeared apron and gloves, hers teaching high school Spanish and taking dance classes with Martha Graham, Mel and Dorothy are determined to chronicle these parallel experiences so that, in their words, "we will not be strangers."
By examining the minutiae, they avoided exploring the emptiness; by framing their lives in the normalcy of the 1950s, they avoided confronting the reality that their lives were not theirs alone to control. Attending separate Rosh Hashanah services, his in a mess tent, hers in a Park Avenue synagogue, they were reminded of the pain of their separation. In Mel's hands, Dorothy's letters commented on Sid Caesar, Edward R. Murrow, Joseph McCarthy, Adlai Stevenson, while Dorothy held anguished accounts of the carnage and uselessness of war.
Now, more than forty-five years later, we are just beginning to understand Korea as the dress rehearsal for a far bloodier conflict--Vietnam. And Dorothy and Mel are just beginning to understand how their youthful experiences--together, even if only by mail--laid the groundwork for a mature and enduring union.
Subjects:
History, Am.: 20th C. / Popular Culture / Women's Studies / History, Military / Biography & Personal Papers / Radical Studies
