Colonel Cathcart and Colonel Korn

Colonel Cathcart and Lieutenant Colonel Korn are the ruling dyad of the Group Headquarters building, a partnership built on mutual dependence and barely concealed resentment. Cathcart, a slick, slipshod, unhappy man of thirty-six who wants desperately to be a general, provides the rank and the public face; Korn, a stocky, dark, flaccid man with a shapeless paunch and rimless spectacles, supplies the cunning and the operational ideas. Their relationship is the administrative engine that relentlessly raises the number of combat missions, trapping the men in a cycle of fear and duty.

The Architecture of Dependence

Colonel Cathcart is deeply indebted to Colonel Korn for the ingenious moves he devises, yet he does not like him at all. Korn is a loyal, indispensable ally who gets on Cathcart's nerves. Cathcart is jealous of Korn's intelligence and must remind himself that Korn is still only a lieutenant colonel, almost ten years older, and that Korn obtained his education at a state university. Cathcart bewails the miserable fate that gave him an assistant as common as Korn, lamenting that if someone had to become indispensable, it could have been someone wealthy and well-groomed. Despite this, Cathcart pledges eternal gratitude for Korn's stratagems, only to become furious afterward when he realizes they might not work. Korn, for his part, treats Cathcart with a condescending, cynical amusement, often mocking him openly in front of others, as when he reminds Cathcart that he was the one who advised promoting Yossarian after Ferrara, a point he rubs in with relish.

Shared Ambition and Mutual Manipulation

Their partnership is cemented by a shared, self-serving ambition: Cathcart wants to be a general, and Korn wants to be a colonel. As Korn explains to Yossarian, "What else have we got to do? Everyone teaches us to aspire to higher things." This ambition dictates their every decision. When Cathcart panics over the potential fallout from Yossarian's refusal to fly, it is Korn who devises the "odious" deal to send Yossarian home as a hero in exchange for his silence and public friendship. Korn presents the plan with a cynical flourish, calling it "a thoroughly despicable deal" and predicting Yossarian will accept it. Cathcart, lumbering and blustering, is largely a figurehead for Korn's machinations, though he is capable of his own petty cruelties, such as raising the missions to sixty-five after Kid Sampson's death and to seventy after Doc Daneeka's supposed death. Korn, however, is the architect of the system, the one who understands that the only way to control the men is to give them no alternative, and that the only way to advance is to make the group stand out, even if it means forcing them to fly more missions than any other outfit.

Tension and the Threat of Displacement

The partnership is not without its fractures. Cathcart is perpetually insecure, oscillating between exhilaration and anguish, and he fears that Korn's competence might overshadow him. During the first Avignon briefing, when General Dreedle is present, Korn steps in to take control after Cathcart falters, and Cathcart watches with growing alarm as Korn preens and struts, casting sidelong looks at the general. When Dreedle whispers to Cathcart, asking who Korn is, Cathcart's face glows with immense joy upon hearing the reply: "He makes me sick." The moment reveals Cathcart's deep-seated fear of being outshone and his petty satisfaction at Korn's comeuppance. Yet, they are bound together. When the command structure changes and General Scheisskopf takes over, they face the new regime as a unit, with Korn still the one who must reassure Cathcart that everyone loves him and that Yossarian is a figment of his imagination. Theirs is a relationship of mutual necessity, a partnership of ambition and cynicism that perfectly embodies the novel's vision of institutional power as a self-perpetuating, morally bankrupt game.