Why Magnum PI is the Noblest Vietnam Veteran

“Magnum” Opus: A Soul-Baring Tribute to TV’s Noblest Vietnam Vet
by K. F. Smith
 
“Magnum P.I.” was more than a TV show, it’s a vindication of America’s unsung Vietnam vets.   

SOCIAL STUDIES WAS ALWAYS MY FAVORITE CLASS at Franklin Elementary School in North Andover, Massachusetts. That was where we learned about history, geography and current events. We learned that Marco Polo brought noodles from China to Italy and that Harriet Tubman brought slaves to freedom along the Underground Railroad, and we watched as Lech Walesa fought for solidarity in Poland. But at no point during my primary education in the late 1970s did we learn anything about the Vietnam War.

We knew it was a bad war—and it had something to do with bell-bottoms and Agent Orange. But it was all secretive and shameful; whispered about but never openly discussed. That all changed on December 11, 1980, when CBS aired “Don’t Eat the Snow in Hawaii,” the inaugural episode of “Magnum P.I.”  (Continued…)

Almost everything I know about the Vietnam War I learned from Tom Selleck. Well, okay, I learned it from Selleck’s alter ego, Thomas Magnum, the mustachioed, Hawaiian-shirt-wearing private eye who charmed America for exactly 162 episodes, which are currently being rebroadcast in approximately 90 countries. I know what you’re thinking, and I assure you that there was a lot more to Magnum than his Captain America physique and that damn red Ferrari.

Thomas Sullivan Magnum was the first Vietnam veteran to be featured in a prime-time drama on American television. A mere five years and eight months after the last few Marines were spirited away from Saigon via helicopter, the proverbial “first television war” returned to the small screen, and once again Americans tuned in. As the nation sorted through the aftermath of the war and its many contradictions, Magnum led the way.

Humanizing Vietnam Vets
Although the iconic war comedy “M*A*S*H” was aired in part during the Vietnam War, it was a fictional rendering of the experiences of Dr. Richard Hornberger, who served in a medical hospital during the Korean War. After the debut of “Magnum,” other shows such as “The A-Team”, “Riptide” and “Airwolf” also emerged, with Vietnam veterans featured in prominent roles. Like Magnum, the vets were empowered by their combat experience, and were dedicated to the military tradition of brotherhood. Yet they all had renegade tendencies and a poetic sense of betrayal, not unlike that generation of young Americans who were outraged by the war, and then again, by the Watergate scandal. The Magnum character was a perfect representation of the American spirit during the post-Vietnam era: disillusioned and indignant, but somehow still idealistic.

Before Magnum, the only image I had of a Vietnam veteran was of a fellow from my hometown who would sit on the sidewalk outside the liquor store mumbling to himself and asking passersby for spare change. He was nicknamed “The Caveman” for his lax personal hygiene, and it was rumored that he had once been a handsome high school scholar and athlete until his experience in Vietnam relegated him to a life of alcoholism and mental illness.

Thomas Magnum also returned from Vietnam forever changed. A third-generation military man, he attended the U.S. Naval Academy and voluntarily enlisted in Vietnam, serving as a liaison for Navy intelligence. In Southeast Asia, he met the men who were to become his closest friends: Theodore “T.C.” Calvin, an African American from the Deep South who served as a helicopter pilot, and Orville “Rick” Wright, a scrappy machine-gunner from Chicago. All three men settled in Hawaii after the war, and despite their occasional bickering, they were indeed a band of brothers.

Thomas Magnum explains his resignation from the Navy simply: “One day I realized I was 34, without ever having been 24.” After an honorable discharge, he magically procured an invitation from Robin Masters, a prolific writer of pulp fiction, to stay for free in the guesthouse of his Hawaiian estate. This invitation included the use of Mr. Masters’s Ferrari, as well as regular abuse from the estate’s caretaker, Jonathan Quail Higgins, a former British soldier with elitist tendencies.

It bears mentioning that the creators of “Magnum P.I.,” Donald Bellisario and Glen Larson, originally envisioned the title character as an invincible James Bond figure, with an unlimited expense account and a woman on each arm. Selleck refused to accept the role unless the Magnum character was portrayed with some aspect of vulnerability. He claimed it made for a more interesting drama. It also made the series more topical for the post-Vietnam era.

While World War II veterans returned home as conquering heroes marching through ticker tape and assimilating into the workforce as the stoic men in gray flannel suits, Vietnam veterans returned to a nation that wasn’t quite sure what to do with them. The benefits available to Vietnam veterans were not as extensive as those offered under the G.I. Bill, and a number of Vietnam veterans faced drug addiction and mental illness. While Magnum and his friends were not willing to don a suit and join corporate America, they nevertheless contradicted the stereotype of the drug-addled soldier that Oliver Stone would later depict in his 1986 film “Platoon.”

Sexy and Sensitive
In the debut episode, when one of Magnum’s war buddies dies of a cocaine overdose, he is so certain his friend was not a drug user that he investigates, and of course proves his friend was the victim of foul play. This heightened sense of integrity was the central characteristic, and indeed one of the most fascinating aspects, of the Magnum character. While James Bond lied and cajoled women into bed, Magnum had platonic female friends and often ended up sleeping alone. He took cases even when his clients weren’t able to pay, and his preferred means of doling out justice was by speaking his mind, not discharging his peacemaker.

The producers of “Magnum P.I.” claim that the show was born out of the studio’s desire to make use of the old soundstages that had been employed in the filming of “Hawaii Five-0.” But Oahu is the perfect setting for the escapades of the Magnum character for a number of reasons. Hawaii is the site of one of the largest military bases in the South Pacific, and provided numerous opportunities for Magnum to act out his dissatisfaction with military protocol in his many run-ins with Navy brass. The tropical landscape and proximity to Asia sometimes incited Magnum to have war flashbacks. The most poignant incident occurs in the opening episode of season three, “Did You See the Sunrise?,” when Magnum and T.C. are held in a P.O.W. camp and tortured by a Russian agent working alongside Viet Cong forces. Although T.C. and Magnum make it out alive, one of their friends is brutally slaughtered before their eyes.

Meaningful Twist
The most meaningful Vietnam-related plot twist involves Magnum’s wife and child. In a season two episode entitled “Memories Are Forever,” we are introduced to Michelle, the bicultural Vietnamese-French nurse (played by Panamanian actress Marta DuBois) whom Magnum married in Saigon during the war. He had believed that Michelle was killed in the chaotic days leading up to the Fall of Saigon, but in fact Michelle was alive and married to a Viet Cong general (it’s a long story). Michelle and Magnum reunite for a single night in Hawaii, and then a few years later, in season seven, we meet 5-year-old Lily. Magnum is insufferably charming as a doting dad, and it gives him a chance to practice his rusty French and Vietnamese, as Lily doesn’t speak English.

This narrative twist is a nod to the thousands of Amerasian children who were conceived by wartime brides (and girlfriends) and often faced harsh discrimination at the hands of their own countrymen. Magnum and Michelle never have the chance to reconcile, the final episode of “Magnum P.I.” ends with Magnum’s reenlistment in the Navy in order to provide a stable life for himself and his daughter.

Today, Magnum’s iconic Hawaiian shirt hangs in the Smithsonian Museum, and American pop culture has a sympathetic and complex character who humanized the plight of soldiers who returned home from Southeast Asia in April of 1975. According to Internet reports, a “Magnum P.I.” movie is the works, starring either George Clooney or Matthew McConaughey or Ben Affleck. I’d have to go with the bloodthirsty masses on this one and agree that the only acceptable way to do a “Magnum P.I.” movie is with the original stars.

When I asked Tom Selleck about this a few years ago in an interview for Newsweek.com, he simply said, “That’s my role.” (And just for the record, he is one fine looking 60-year-old.) To many Americans, “Magnum P.I.” was more a just a role—it was a symbol of vindication for soldiers who had been misused by the American government, abused by war and spurned by the American people.

K.F. Smith is a self-proclaimed “Magnum P.I.” scholar. In her free time, she is an Associate Editor in the foreign department at Newsweek.

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