Notre Dame commemorates fraudulent author and CIA operative who launched Vietnam War disinformation
A prominent statue at the grotto features a man with two small Lao children, and bears a plaque:
THOMAS A. DOOLEY, M.D. ’48 / 1927-1961 / Who as a pre-medical student / cherished Our Lady’s Grotto / and who as a physician served the afflicted people of Southeast Asia / with uncommon devotion and dedication / Gift of the / Notre Dame Club of St. Louis / and the sculptor / Rudolph E. Torrini ’59 / Dedicated February 1, 1986.
Dooley’s presence still looms large on campus. In addition to the grotto statue and plaque, which is featured in a FaithND Sacred Spaces Video, he is commemorated by an Alumni Association award, as well as a room in LaFortune student center.
A 1995 Observer article emphasized Dooley’s public service and his identity as a homosexual man, describing him as a “doctor, humanitarian, officer, and favorite son of Notre Dame.” Yet, Dooley’s medical skill and humanitarian aid were part of a fictional identity, carefully crafted as a Navy and CIA operative. Dooley helped the CIA smuggle arms through Indochina and worked as an informant in Laos, writing deceptive accounts of his work in Vietnam to grow his own reputation and promote the CIA’s narrative.
Dooley was a naval officer in the Vietnam war, previously attending—but not graduating from—Notre Dame and dropping out twice. He stayed at the bottom of his class at St. Louis University Medical School, as reported by Diane Shaw for a 1991 article in the Los Angeles Times. He entered on a special waiver by dean and family friend, Melvin Casberg.
He was stationed in Vietnam and recognized by the Vietnamese government as well as by the Navy, receiving the Legion of Merit for his medical work. His engaging “situation reports” to his superiors gained attention, and William Lederer, a press officer for the Navy admiralty, requested that he author a book. More than a creative project, Dooley’s work, Deliver Us From Evil, was a part of the larger disinformation campaign to encourage support for the war effort in Vietnam and the United States. It was particularly directed towards deceiving Catholics.
Co-authored by Lederer and Eugene Burdick, it was published in installments in Reader’s Digest and Sunday Catholic Bulletins across the United States, in order to grow Catholic sympathy and support for the war. As Shaw describes, “The operation was a two-part attempt to bolster Diem. First, there was a psychological-warfare campaign organized by the CIA’s Edward Lansdale, aimed at frightening northern Catholics into fleeing south.”
The CIA falsely attributed bombings to the Viet Minh, distributed pamphlets warning Catholics they would be tortured or killed by Ho Chi Minh’s administration and created international coverage of the refugees’ rush southward.
Shaw describes that “it would appear that the Catholics were leaving the North in spontaneous reaction to the ascendance of the Viet Minh.” This “black propaganda” included threats that the United States was poised to drop an atomic bomb on Vietnam.
The CIA campaign was faltering, but Dooley’s writings revived the effort. He described shocking and horrific violence in Vietnam—particularly against Catholics—but his accounts were untruthful.
As Lederer told the LA Times, “Those things [that Dooley reported] never happened. The atrocities he described in his books either never took place or were committed by the French. I traveled all over the country and never saw anything like them.”
His graphic stories include the communist Vietnamese disemboweling over a thousand native women, sticking chopsticks through children’s ears to prevent them from hearing the Gospel, hanging a priest to die by his legs, and driving nails through a priest’s head as a “crown of thorns.” He claimed that the Vietnamese population “invariably” carried crucifixes, when, in reality, less than 10 percent of the citizenry was Catholic.
For Vietnam Magazine, Jim Troutman reported, “Later, a multitude of witnesses debunked Dooley’s stories, asserting they had never seen any of the events he described,” citing reports from more than six U.S. Information Agency officials and a Navy corpsman. Nevertheless, some Catholic schools deemed it required reading, and many parishes took up special collections for Dooley’s organization, Medical International Corporation Organization (MEDICO).
Dooley’s misleading and distorted accounts promoted him to celebrity status. As Troutman noted, Dooley “stated that humanitarians in the modern world had to run their organizations like a business with ‘Madison Avenue, press relations, TV, radio.’ Dooley added, ‘Of course you get condemned for being a publicity seeker.’”
He was voted Gallup’s 1959 seventh “most admired person in the world,” featured in a 10-page spread in Canada’s Maclean’s weekly magazine, and spoke on TV shows and radio stations. Dooley’s fame, based on fictional heroics, led 50 civil servants to send a letter to his publisher, Farrar, Straus & Cudahy, to oppose Deliver Us From Evil and its deceptive accounts. Ann Miller, a Voice of America reporter in Vietnam, said “he exaggerated his role in the refugee camps at the expense of the people who were working with him, many of whom did just as much, if not more, than he did.”
While his falsified book brought him international and domestic fame, the Navy had discovered a deep secret: Dooley was a practicing homosexual. When uncovered, he was given a “less than honorable” discharge from the Navy in 1959.
Yet, when Edward Landsdale, the CIA’s chief psychological warfare officer in Vietnam, heard of Dooley’s discharge, he pressed him to undertake an “independent mission” to Laos. The International Rescue Committee set up a medical clinic in northern Laos, where Dooley dispatched “Letters from Laos” to the committee and situation reports to the Navy. For the CIA, he facilitated arms smuggling through the clinic to anti-Communist militias.
As Shaw reports, “Much of Dooley’s Vientiane clinic project was a sham. Dooley’s assistants were untrained and unqualified to give him the kind of help he would need to operate a legitimate clinic. His medicine chest was full of pills and elixirs that had been donated by Pfizer, a drug manufacturer, because they had expired and were no longer legal to sell in the United States.”
An AP Report uncovered by a Freedom of Information Act Request to the CIA, reveals that Father Maynard Kegler, the main promoter of his cause for sainthood, discovered nearly 500 CIA documents in which Dooley reported on troop movements and current military happenings in Laos. All movements towards sainthood have since dissipated, mostly on account of his homosexual practices and lifestyle. Jim Winters of Notre Dame Magazine described his “ambiguous legacy” in the same document.
Dooley was more an actor than a medical doctor. Dennis Shepard, a volunteer in Laos, recalled to the LA Times that Dooley handled few cases and would bring in former patients to act as if they were ill in order to convince visitors and sponsors that the clinic was functioning and necessary. It was actually mostly empty and served as an arms outpost.
This technically neutral part of Indochina was militarized by Dooley’s work with the CIA, hidden under the premise of medical work. He wrote two more best-selling books and died of cancer in New York City in 1961. On the day of his death, Dooley’s clinic was overtaken by the Pathet Lao, a communist group in Laos.
Despite his fallacious writings, homosexual lifestyle, and manipulation of facts to promote war, Father Theodore Hesburgh, University President Emeritus, told the Observer in 1991, “If someone asked me if I thought [Tom Dooley] could be canonized, I would not hesitate to say that he could.” A letter Dooley wrote to Hesburgh in 1960 is both engraved at the Grotto and available digitally.
He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Freedom by President John F. Kennedy, and the Navy’s records were later changed to reflect an “honorable” discharge. And today, the University of Notre Dame has continued to honor Dooley.
When contacted for a comment, Dolly Duffy, Notre Dame Alumni Association executive director stated that, “Each year, the Alumni Association presents the Dr. Thomas A. Dooley Award to an alum, living or deceased, who has demonstrated outstanding service to humankind. These exemplary alumni, who have often made great sacrifices to serve those most in need across the globe, embody Tom Dooley’s legacy of humanitarianism, as well as our calling as members of the Notre Dame family to be forces for good in the world.”
When asked about Dooley’s CIA connections, the Alumni Association declined to comment and recommended the University Archives. The Archives referred to their mission statement, and archivist Joe Smith explained, “Dr. Thomas Dooley was a prominent American Catholic with a connection to Notre Dame.” Dooley received an honorary degree from Notre Dame in 1960.
In addition to the Notre Dame Archives, hundreds of documents relating to Dooley and his life are located in the State Historical Society of Missouri. Some documents regarding his biographer, Teresa Gallagher, and her involvement with Tom Dooley, remain inaccessible. They contain confidential information and are restricted for 50 years following the donation date. These records, concerning Dooley’s correspondence and some medical missions, cannot be accessed until 2038.
Catalina Scheider Galiñanes is a senior double majoring in economics and political science with a minor in constitutional studies. She is from the Washington, D.C. metro area, and can be reached at cscheid2@nd.edu.
Photo Credit: Matt Cashore
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