Thread by @halaljew

While I'm on the subject of the White Helmets, I'd like to point out that their role in the Syrian War as pro-intervention propagandists has some precedent. One of the most interesting parallels is Tom Dooley, an American Navy medic and propagandist in Vietnam

First of all I'd just like to point out that I did not come up with this parallel on my own-- I got it from @TheWarNerd and @MarkAmesExiled, who discussed this on their podcast back in November. Everything I'm about to say, they said first.

Tom Dooley was a Navy medic who became famous in the U.S. for his book about his work as a doctor in Vietnam “Deliver Us From Evil”— he wrote in vivid detail about horrible atrocities committed by the Viet Minh, and Americans ate it up.

Here’s the thing: Dooley made it all up.

Dooley wasn't a very good doctor-- he graduated at the very bottom of his class in medical school, and would've flunked out entirely if the dean hadn't been a family friend. He was good at one thing though-- he was an excellent story-teller, and in Vietnam, that came in handy.

They Dooley's sitreps were unusually dramatic and well-written. He was noticed by a press officer, and they told him to write a book:

"Who wouldn't be moved by the story of a young doctor who had fought communism with penicillin or disarmed the communist Viet Minh with a smile?"

Psychological warfare was incredibly important in Vietnam-- the CIA started a campaign to frighten Vietnamese Catholics in the North into moving to the South to give Diem a base.

"What [Dooley's] mentors wanted, it seemed, was a vivid story that would make it impossible for Americans to ignore what they both perceived to be the crisis taking shape in Vietnam."

The book "[took] Vietnam from the edge of American awareness to the core of its consciousness"

It didn't hurt that Dooley was a closeted gay man, which, in this era (Deliver Us From Evil was published in 1956 btw) was quite a piece of blackmail for the U.S. government to have on someone like Dooley.

"What [Dooley's] mentors wanted, it seemed, was a vivid story that would make it impossible for Americans to ignore what they both perceived to be the crisis taking shape in Vietnam."

The book "[took] Vietnam from the edge of American awareness to the core of its consciousness"

Dooley wrote vividly of atrocities committed by the Viet Minh, esp against Catholics— priests hanged with nails hammered into their skulls, stuff like that.

But it was all fiction: "Those things never happened… I traveled all over the country and never saw anything like them."

"Tom Dooley's major achievement… was to convince the American public that the U.S. must come to the aid of these people and to help them maintain their freedom under God and Diem."

These are the kind of stories that Dooley made up in Deliver Us From Evil with help from his advisors. The book became a best-seller, and the public was on board with the idea that America needed to "do something" about these "atrocities" in Vietnam.

Does this sound familiar?

Here's a bit from the episode where @TheWarNerd talks about reading Dooley's stories at a young age:

"I didn’t know exactly where this Tom Dooley guy existed, but I knew that he was doing 2 things: he was holding back Communism, and he was curing starved looking asian children"

“If anything happened in Life Magazine, it had to be real, and it had to be pretty important”

After Deliver Us From Evil was published, Dooley was discharged from the Navy, as they'd discovered that he was gay. His CIA handlers, most notably Edward Lansdale, decided that, while he wasn't welcome in the Navy anymore, he was still useful-- so they sent him to work in Laos

The clinics that Dooley established in Laos were CIA straight-up CIA fronts. They were used to store weapons for U.S.-backed militias in Laos, which was supposed to be neutral. This was all run by the CIA.

"[Dooley's] task would be to promote his clinics as outposts of peace, all the while covertly preparing for battle and giving induction exams to Laotian boys to clear them for service in the militia."

"Dooley would round up as many of his former patients as he could whenever potential sponsors came to tour the clinic, giving the impression that he had a full and active hospital. In fact, he handled few cases, and the hospital was largely empty. "

"Before long, Dooley had become a familiar and favorite guest on radio and television talk shows, including the popular programs hosted by Arthur Godfrey and Jack Paar. He had his own radio show, broadcast over KMOX, St. Louis, ostensibly recorded each week in Laos."

Here's the article about Dooley that all of these excerpts (except for the Radio War Nerd transcript) are from: articles.latimes.com/1991-12-15/mag…

The exploitation of civilian suffering in war propaganda certainly isn’t unique to Syria, but I hope you can all see the parallels between Thomas Dooley’s made-up horror stories in Vietnam and the videos published by the White Helmets and other opposition media outlets in Syria.

Dooley’s books became a best seller in the late 50s and got a lot of people to support American invention in Vietnam. When opposition media outlets in Syria (or in Istanbul and Washington) put out their videos, they have the same goal.