ABSTRACT
I t is April, 1953. There is a lull in the battle for Pork Chop Hill, the scene of one of the last battles in the stalemate known as the Korean War. As the American GIs pause to catch their breath, they break out their rations, including cans of pulverized “ lun cheon meats” full of meat and meat by-products with a high fat content. After the meal, another “ macho” -male symbol appears: the cigarette. Meanwhile, in the nearby battalion aid stations, body bags are being prepared for their unfortunate buddies who were killed in the assault on the hill. Some of these men-those already dead and those soon to die-will be part of a study that
will greatly influence the way physicians consider the relation between young people’s eating and smoking habits and heart disease. The results of autopsies done on young American GIs killed in Korea will raise many questions about the harmful effects of the foods young people eat and the cigarettes they smoke. It is one thing to talk about risk factors in the abstract; it is another to see the opened blood vessels of young GIs filled with yellowish deposits of fat already beginning to block the channel of blood. How do these risk factors turn a normal heart into an abnormal heart?
