Dr. America

Dr. America

Dr. America: The Lives of Thomas A. Dooley, 1927-1961, a book written by James T. Fisher, provides a historical discussion of Thomas Anthony Dooley III, an American medical missionary who worked in Vietnam. The book itself is viewed not only as a statement on Dooley’s “lives” as a medical missionary, but it is also a socially scientific analysis of his life. A central argument of the book is that Dooley’s work laid the ideological foundation for U.S. entry into Vietnam. Other important topics discussed are Dooley's personal journey towards becoming a "Jungle Doctor," Dooley's similarities and differences from Albert Schweitzer, Dooley as a contemporary Jesus or a redeemed man, and Dooley as a "historical bridge" between anticommunist McCarthyism and the Vietnam-oriented Kennedy era. The biography is one volume of a series titled Culture, Politics, and the Cold War edited by Christian G. Appy.