During which war is the M*A*S*H television series set?

The M*A*S*H television series is set during the Korean War.

The story follows doctors, nurses, corpsmen, and support staff assigned to the fictional 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in South Korea. The Korean War lasted from 1950 to 1953, providing the series’ historical setting even though the program aired from 1972 to 1983.

The setting created a deliberate contrast between the show’s period story and its contemporary audience. M*A*S*H began airing while the Vietnam War was still underway, so its Korean War characters and medical crises often allowed the writers to explore the absurdity, trauma, and bureaucracy of modern warfare indirectly.

A common mix-up is to identify Vietnam as the setting because of the series’ antiwar themes and its original broadcast era. Vietnam influenced the show’s subtext, but the fictional unit is stationed in Korea. The series was adapted from the 1970 film, which was itself based on Richard Hooker’s 1968 novel.