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Dr. Tom Dooley (1927 - 1961)
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America : The Lives of Thomas A. Dooley, 1927-1961
by James Terence Fisher
Thomas A. Dooley's 1956
bestseller, Deliver Us from Evil,
"quite literally located Vietnam on the map," as this
provocative critical biography puts it. Dooley's passionately
anticommunist description of evacuating Catholic refugees from
North Vietnam made him a Cold War celebrity and a particular hero
to his fellow American Catholics, who had no idea he campaigned
relentlessly for his glowing press and spent his spare time
pursuing not-very- closeted homosexual affairs. The brief life
(1927-61) of this fascinatingly complex character here gets the
thoughtful assessment and rich historical context it deserves.
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by Arthur C. Sippo, M.D., M.P.H., St.
Catherine Review, July/August 1999
Excerpt:
The Navy became very nervous about
Dooley's celebrity especially because of the rumors about his
homosexuality. There were fears that it would embarrass the
service if it ever leaked out. The Navy launched a discrete
investigation and determined that Dooley was an active and
habitual homosexual. On the basis of this evidence he was actually
discharged from the Navy for homosexuality. Dooley never admitted
this in public and appears to have hidden this from his mother as
well. In Asia, it was possible to engage in any number of sexual
perversions, including those with pre-pubescent children, without
interference. Many homosexuals then and now have found the far
east to be a haven for their lifestyle. Dooley was no exception.
He remained an active homosexual for his entire life up to his
death...
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By Edward F. Palm, Glenville State College
I am characterizing Dooley as the "Holy
Ghost" not simply because he was a devout Catholic, a
commitment he was always very public about, but rather because of
what two people have told me about what made Dooley run--William
Lederer, who is still very much alive at age 86, and William R.
Corson, a retired Marine lieutenant colonel and CIA operative who
served off and on as Dooley's handler. Both insist that Dooley's
ultimate ambition was to become a saint–not just in a secular
sense, but the actual canonized variety (Lederer, personal
interview; Corson, telephone interview, e-mail). As Randy Shilts
revealed in his book Conduct Unbecoming, that
ambition was effectively derailed by the posthumous discoveries
that Dooley was in fact gay and that he had been at least loosely
affiliated with the CIA (21-27)...
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By Robert Scheer, Published January 11, 2000 in
the Los Angeles Times
Excerpt:
Dooley was the object of a smear campaign by
some in naval intelligence who were determined to prove that this
hero, in his private life, had gay relationships. Navy snoops
followed him everywhere, planting electronic bugs in his hotel
rooms and finally recording a conversation between Dooley and a
male lover.
His military career was then over, but without
public scandal, because this hero was still useful to U.S.
policymakers eager to build support for an increased U.S. role in
Vietnam. The CIA continued to support Dooley's medical clinic as a
front for its clandestine military operations in Laos and Vietnam,
and Dooley went along with the deception, seriously risking his
own health at jungle medical outposts...
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From Gay
and Lesbian Alumni/ae of the University of Notre Dame and Saint
Mary's College
Both of my lovers, Dr. Tom Dooley and Sgt.
Leonard P. Matlovich, were destroyed by this corrosive disease
[prejudice]. The effects of it and extent of its corrosiveness can
be readily seen in videos of the GOP Convention in 1992. The pain
in Dr. Tom's melanoma was not half as bad as the excruciating
agony of being rejected by one's countrymen--not for anything one
did--but simply because he was born gay. The Navy which rode on
his coattails...brazenly exploited this great American hero on
coast-to-coast television and never disclosed how it had booted
him out, held his reputation hostage. He was a brilliant man. He
was a graduate of your University. And his life was made a living
hell by those who, even today, promote discrimination against gays
and lesbians--all in the name of God, Christianity, or Patriotism.
Cliff Anchor
Monte Rio, California
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Names Index:
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