The young American who became a living legend to the world tells how as a navy doctor he helped half a million Vietnamese refugees escape from communist terror…
This is the true, first-hand narrative of a twenty-seven-year-old Navy Doctor who found himself suddenly ordered to Indo-China, just after the tragic fall of Dien Bien Phu. In a small international compound within the totally Communist-consumed North Viet Nam, he built huge refugee camps to care for the hundreds of thousands of escapees seeking passage to freedom. Through his own ingenuity and that of his shipmates, and with touching humor, he managed to feed, clothe, and treat these leftovers of an eight-year war. Dr. Dooley “processed” over 600,000 refugees down the river and out to sea on small craft, where they were transferred to U.S. Navy ships to be carried to the free areas of Saigon.
The “Bac Sy My,” as they called the American doctor, explains how he conquered the barriers of custom, language and hate to become, as the President of Viet Nam said of him, “Beloved by a whole nation.”
