Dr. America: The Lives of Thomas A. Dooley, 1927-1961, a book written by James T. Fisher, provides a historical discussion of Thomas Anthony Dooley III, an American medical missionary who worked in Vietnam and Laos in the 50s and early 60s. The book itself is viewed not only as a statement on Dooley’s "lives" as a medical missionary, but it is also a socially scientific analysis of his life. A central argument of the book is that Dooley’s work laid the ideological foundation for U.S. entry into Vietnam. Other important topics discussed are Dooley's personal journey towards becoming a "Jungle Doctor," Dooley's similarities and differences from Albert Schweitzer, Dooley as a contemporary Jesus or a redeemed man, and Dooley as a "historical bridge" between anticommunist McCarthyism and the Pr