| Dr. America: The Lives of Thomas A. Dooley, 1927-1961 Contributor(s): Fisher, James T. (Author) |
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ISBN: 1558491546 ISBN-13: 9781558491540 Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press OUR PRICE: $26.55 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: October 1998 Annotation: A highly acclaimed biography of the fabled "jungle doctor" of Southeast Asia, "Dr. America" chronicles the short life of Tom Dooley, whose exploits in Vietnam and Laos during the 1950s helped lay the ideological groundwork for U.S. military intervention a decade later. 33 illustrations. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Biography & Autobiography | Medical (incl. Patients) - Biography & Autobiography | Military - Biography & Autobiography | Historical |
| Dewey: 610.92 |
| LCCN: 96048652 |
| Series: Culture, Politics, and the Cold War (Paperback) |
| Physical Information: 0.87" H x 6.12" W x 9.23" (1.22 lbs) 336 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 20th Century |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: This book chronicles the life of Tom Dooley, the American doctor whose much-publicized exploits in Vietnam and Laos during the 1950s helped lay the ideological groundwork for the U.S. military intervention a decade later. The scion of an upper-middle-class St. Louis family, Dooley was an enormously complex and fascinating individual. He was a devoutly religious Roman Catholic as well as a self-styled playboy socialite, a devoted physician to the poor and a tireless propagandist for the Vietnam Lobby, a shameless self-promoter and a closeted homosexual, a victim of Navy persecution and a beneficiary of CIA support. Dooley first gained notoriety as a young Navy doctor charged with overseeing the evacuation of Catholic refugees from North Vietnam in the wake of the 1954 Geneva Accords. His celebrity grew after his book Deliver Us from Evil, a fervently anticommunist account of his experiences, was serialized in Reader's Digest. By the end of the decade, as his name became associated (albeit mistakenly) with a ballad popularized by the Kingston Trio, he had achieved the status of America's first pop star saint. In addition to exposing the roots of the Vietnam War, Dooley's story illuminates a broad range of developments in post-World War II United States culture--from the Americanization of Catholicism to the rise of the mass media. |