Synopsis
The book begins by pointing out that Dooley grew from an “undisciplined Irish American rake into a celebrity-saint” through his use of showbiz and his ability to market himself. Dooley’s use of showbiz became apparent when the Kingston Trio named one of their songs after him so as to make people increasingly aware of Dooley and his work. Fisher also presents the Kingston Trio’s song “Tom Dooley” as evidence for Dooley’s successful self-marketing while also pointing to Dr. America (Thanh Mo America), a term people in Laos used to glorify Dooley. Fisher does not fail to mention that Thomas Anthony Dooley III was the seventh-most well-known name in the world after Winston Churchill, Pope John XXIII, Albert Schweitzer, and a few other prominent figures.
In addition, Fisher makes two claims regarding Dooley’s self-marketing ability: first, he claims that Dooley’s self-marketing resembled Albert Schweitzer’s ability to market himself. Second, Fisher proposes that Dooley’s self-marketing ability was strongly connected to Cold War politics “on a world stage.”
The book then delves into Thomas A. Dooley III’s childhood and the personality of his early life. Fisher points out that classmates paradoxically describe Dooley as both “quiet and pleasant” and a “cocky showoff.” However, classmates commonly noted that Dooley “remained aloof from the conventional groupings that comprised the student body." According to Michael Harrington, Dooley’s classmate, they felt like soldiers of Christ guarding faith from the forces of the modern world. Harrington and Dooley were also claimed to have lived in a secure “ghetto,” protected from “British imperialists, Yankee bosses, and Protestant princes” by a Roman Catholic church that had been shielding them from modern culture for more than four hundred years. Fisher discusses how Dooley’s music career in his childhood made him seem like a nonconformist when Dooley played melodic ideas from contemporary pop tunes. Dooley is also portrayed as a mischievous child, teenager, and bachelor who became a homosexual in his adolescence while maintaining prodigious contact with the opposite sex.
After briefly narrating Dooley’s shenanigans in college and his expulsion from medical school, Fisher points out that Dooley was assigned as a medical officer to a special operation called Passage to Freedom, a part of the Saigon Military Mission (led by Edward Lansdale) designed to propagandize the anti-communist movement in South Vietnam. According to Fisher, Dooley’s principal objective of his work was to make the military familiar with the diseases they would be up against should they occupy Vietnam. In the process, Dooley appeared as if he did extraordinary work, offering “medical triage to the refugees who are here in such large numbers." Fisher uses these facts to propose that although Dooley appeared as a selfless altruist, he was actually a political pawn shaping US-South Vietnam relations.
Fisher then transitions into discussing how a shift in Dooley’s motivations for being in Vietnam helped shape his political role there. He claims that Dooley went to Vietnam at first because he detested French colonialism but that this motivation changed into one that wanted to overthrow the communist Viet Minh. He concludes that Dooley’s work for “preventive medicine” was a crucial component of CIA officer Edward Lansdale’s agenda to facilitate an anti-Communist regime under Jean Baptiste Ngo Dinh Diem in South Vietnam. Lansdale was trying to find an American Catholic who was both anticommunist and able to connect with people across cultural barriers. Dooley had an opportunity here to assume this position by giving the Americans the impression that "a pluralist Vietnamese democracy" was emerging.
Fisher then discusses how Dooley marketed himself, thereby earning celebrity status. Through Dooley’s connection with William J. Lederer, a public information officer for the Navy, Dooley had his military adventures in Vietnam published in his bestselling book Deliver Us from Evil. Chapters of this book were reprinted in Reader's Digest, a periodical Fisher claims to have been heavily monitored by the CIA at that time.
Afterwards, he discusses how the Navy discharged Dooley due to homosexuality, and he delves into Dooley’s relationship with secular and Catholic journalists. Secular and Catholic journalists emphasized different aspects of Dooley’s work; secular journalists emphasized the fact that Dooley was a “so-what guy on the surface” who had profound individual initiative. Catholic journalists emphasized how Dooley’s refugee work resonated with Catholic spiritual values. Fisher follows this contrast by explaining that Tom Dooley then mobilized support from the International Rescue Committee for his Operation Laos, which Dooley began in the late 1950s.
The author then discusses the Laos Operation in greater detail and how it deviated from the mainstream American anticommunist agenda of the 1950s. Fisher also presents Dooley as a medical missionary and analyzes Dooley’s attitude towards the people whom he helps. The partnerships between Operation Laos and Lansdale’s Operation Brotherhood are also discussed.
Dooley is then described as a “Jungle Doctor of a New Age” and is contrasted with his contemporary Albert Schweitzer. Fisher discusses the relationship fostered between the two humanitarians and also introduces a key person who shaped how Dooley conducted his work. This person, Teresa Gallagher, was an earnest fan of Dooley who joined his efforts. Fisher discusses how Gallagher nicely resembled the ideal selfless maiden of Catholic theology because of her giving nature, as demonstrated by how she constructs a prayer for Dooley when Dooley becomes afflicted with melanoma.
Fisher then writes about how media attention on Dooley’s Operation Laos and his recovery from melanoma created a story of hope that inspired Americans to continue pursuing humanitarianism. How American government agencies learned to sync their political endeavors with Dooley’s Operation Laos is also discussed.
Dooley’s death, legacy, and impact on cold war politics are finally mentioned.
Read more about this topic: Dr. America