Medicine and Conflict, c.1945-c.1980: The United Kingdom and the 'Savage Wars of Peace'

在第二次世界大战结束时，卫生和医学是考虑建立一个新社会的最前沿。服务人员和平民受益于高水平的医疗保健和疾病预防运动，输血体现了对公共利益的共同承诺。1948年国家卫生服务制度的建立巩固了这些思想，世界卫生组织和联合国人权宪章的建立也在国际上得到了体现。健康权现在与不受酷刑和言论自由等更熟悉的权利并列。1950年朝鲜半岛爆发的战争挑战了许多这些理想，并提醒人们战争对平民和军队的毁灭性影响。在欧洲剩下的殖民地中，激烈的战争也是如此，争取独立的斗争往往以共产主义和资本主义之间意识形态之争的形式出现。在所有这些运动中，医药不仅在保护战斗人员的健康方面发挥了至关重要的作用，而且在试图赢得人心方面也发挥了至关重要的作用。从马来亚战役开始，在反叛乱行动中广泛使用了医疗、牙科和兽医服务。战俘和仍在战斗中的战俘的健康问题变得高度政治化，战斗人员和联合国为援助平民而开展的医疗救济运动的某些方面也是如此。该项目考察了从朝鲜战争（1950-53）到1975年佐法尔叛乱的后果，卫生和医学的争议领域。它的重点主要是英国武装部队的医疗服务以及英国通过联合国、红十字会和其他机构对医疗救济的贡献。然而，英国的角色被置于一个更广泛的背景下，这使我们能够比较英国参与的医疗方面与其他参战国家的医疗方面的关系，以及检查战争对平民的影响。除朝鲜外，该项目还将研究卫生和医药在1945年后英国军队参与的一些冲突中的作用，例如马来亚紧急状态（1948-60年）、婆罗洲紧急状态（1962-66年）、亚丁紧急状态（1963-67年）和阿曼紧急状态（1962-75年）。这些战役对武装部队构成了重大挑战，武装部队必须在困难的环境中作战，往往因疾病和精神状况造成大量伤亡。尽管出现了直升机撤离，但由于激烈的战斗、恶劣的天气或复杂的地形，从战场上转移伤亡人员往往被证明是困难的。需要设计新的疾病预防和前方治疗方法来应付这些情况。该项目将评估这些方法的有效性，其中一些方法仍然与今天的冲突高度相关。与这些运动的医疗方面有关的大量未使用的档案也可以与回忆录、日记、信件和报纸一起阅读，以了解服务人员如何经历这些运动，以及英国和其他国家公众如何看待这些运动。该项目将揭示1945年后战争的一个方面，这个方面在很大程度上仍不为人知。此外，它将协助联合王国武装部队重新评估其医疗能力，利用PI与国防医疗服务和联合王国部队其他部门的长期关系，以及与仍然积极参与国防政策医疗方面工作的前外科医生的合作。我们的项目合作伙伴，军事医学博物馆，即将搬到卡迪夫码头的新馆，将允许我们与公众接触项目的发现，而首尔的军事历史研究所也将在韩国这样做。

At the end of the Second World War, health and medicine were at the forefront of thinking about the creation of a new society. Service personnel and civilians had benefited from a high level of medical care and campaigns for disease prevention, and blood transfusion epitomized a shared commitment to the public good. The creation of the National Health Service in 1948 consolidated these ideas, which also found expression internationally in the creation of the World Health Organization and the United Nation's charter on Human Rights. The right to health was now listed alongside more familiar rights such as freedom from torture and freedom of expression. The eruption of war on the Korean peninsula in 1950 challenged many of these ideals and served as a reminder of the devastating impact of war on civilians as well as troops. The same was true of bitterly fought campaigns in Europe's remaining colonies, in which the struggle for independence often took the form of an ideological battle between communism and capitalism. In all these campaigns, medicine played a vital role, not only in protecting the health of combatants but also in attempts to capture hearts and minds. From the Malayan campaign onward, medical, dental and veterinary care was used extensively in counter-insurgency operations. The health of prisoners of war and those who remained in combat became highly politicized, as did some aspects of the medical relief campaigns launched by combatants and the United Nations to aid civilians.This project examines the contested domains of health and medicine from the Korean War (1950-53) to the aftermath of the Dhofar Rebellion 1975. Its focus is primarily on the medical services of the British armed forces and Britain's contribution to medical relief through the United Nations, the Red Cross and other agencies. However, Britain's role is put into a broader context, which allows us to compare medical aspects of the UK's involvement in relation to that of other combatant nations, as well as to examine the impact of war upon civilians. In addition to Korea, the project will study the role of health and medicine in a number of post-1945 conflicts involving British forces, e.g. the Malayan Emergency (1948-60), Borneo (1962-66), Aden (1963-67) and Oman (1962-75). These campaigns posed major challenges to the armed forces, which had to operate in difficult environments, often with high casualties from disease and psychiatric conditions. Despite the advent of helicopter evacuation, removing casualties from the battlefield often proved difficult because of heavy fighting, poor weather or difficult terrain. New methods of disease prevention and forward treatment needed to be devised to cope with these situations. The project will evaluate the effectiveness of these methods, some of which remain highly relevant to conflict today. The extensive and largely unused archives relating to the medical aspects of these campaigns can also be read alongside memoirs, diaries, letters and newspapers to provide insight into how they were experienced by service personnel, and how they were perceived by the public in the UK and other countries.The project will reveal a dimension of post-1945 campaigns that remains largely unknown. In addition, it will assist the UK's armed forces in a reappraisal of their medical capabilities, making use of the PI's long-standing relationship with the Defence Medical Services and other branches of UK forces and collaboration of the former Surgeon-General, who is still actively involved in medical aspects of defence policy. Our project partner, the Museum of Military Medicine, which is shortly to move to new premises in Cardiff dockland, will allow us to engage the public with findings from the project, while the Military History Institute in Seoul will do likewise in South Korea.