Files
Abstract
This is a long, fragmented poem which builds from archival research to respond to the life and influence of the author’s great uncle, Dr. Thomas A. Dooley III (1927-1961), a wealthy Irish-American medical doctor who became briefly famous in the middle of the 20th century for writing about his role in the movement of Vietnamese refugees as a Navy doctor and, later, about the work of his organization MEDICO, which provided medical aid to Southeast Asia, particularly Laos. In addition to considering the strategic Cold War role of MEDICO and of Dooley’s propagandist writings in justifying the Vietnam wars, this poem considers the roles that Catholicism, homosexuality, and illness played in his life and legacy, as well as the implications of his sentimental idealism and humor regarding popular American feelings toward foreign aid and “protective” militarism.