This collection consists of materials created by and related to Dr. Thomas A. Dooley III, who graduated from Saint Louis University’s medical school and worked in Southeast Asia during beginning of the Vietnam War.

Thomas A. Dooley III (1927-1961) was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to parents Thomas A. Dooley Jr. and Agnes Wise Dooley. He graduated from Saint Louis University High School in 1944 and then attended the University of Notre Dame for a short time before enlisting in the Navy, where he served as a medical corpsman. He returned to Notre Dame, before leaving without a degree and enrolling in the Saint Louis University School of Medicine in 1948. He graduated in 1953, after having to repeat his final year of medical school, and then re-joined the Navy in the Medical Corps.

In 1954 Dooley was sent with the Navy to Vietnam where he was part of Operation Passage to Freedom and was stationed in Haiphong. In 1956 his first book Deliver Us from Evil was published and became a best-seller in the United States. This book recounted the communist atrocities and religious persecution against Catholics that he witnessed while in Vietnam, although the truth of these experiences was questioned by other US officials. While on a promotional book tour in the United States, the Navy investigated Dooley for homosexual activities, at which point he announced he would be leaving the Navy to establish the Medical International Cooperation Organization (MEDICO).

MEDICO built two hospitals in Laos and Dooley wrote two books about his time there: The Edge of Tomorrow (1958) and The Night They Burned the Mountain (1960), both describing more atrocities by communist forces that he claimed to have witnessed. During this time in Laos, Dooley also worked to collect intelligence for the CIA in his clinics—the CIA had recruited him a few years prior and encouraged him to write his books.

In 1959, Dooley was diagnosed with cancer and returned to the United States for treatment. His melanoma surgery was broadcast on television in April 1960, hosted by Howard K. Smith, and he received an honorary degree from Notre Dame in June 1960. He died due to cancer on January 18, 1961, in New York City. After his death, John F. Kennedy started the Peace Corps, naming Dooley as an inspiration for the program. Teresa Gallagher, a volunteer for MEDICO, established the Thomas A. Dooley Foundation. In the mid-1970s, the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, an order of priests dedicated to missionary work who had worked with Dooley in Laos, began efforts to have Dooley canonized as a saint. His connection to the CIA was discovered during the sainthood investigation.

The Thomas A. Dooley collection consists of scrapbooks, photographs, audiovisual material, publications, correspondence, and ephemera related to Thomas A. Dooley, his work, and the Thomas A. Dooley Foundation. A large number of the scrapbooks were created and organized by his mother, Agnes Dooley, after his death. This collection offers insight into Dooley’s life and work, the early years of the Vietnam War, and Dooley’s influence on Catholic Americans in 1950s and 1960s.