Tom Dooley

[Thomas Graves]

William Kelly said:

[...]

GPH claims to have run into LHO at the Cuban consuulate in San Diego (sic) and recognized that he too was involved in such special ops at that point. (emphasis added by Thomas G.)

[...]

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The Cuban consulate in Los Angeles, yes?

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Edited May 20, 2017 by Thomas Graves

[William Kelly]

[...]

GPH claims to have run into LHO at the Cuban conusulate in San Diego and recognized that he too was involved in such special ops at that point. (emphasis added by Thomas G.}

[...]

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The Cuban consulate in Los Angeles, yes?

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Yes, Thomas, thanks for the correction, LHO was stationed in San Diego and the Cuban Consulate was in LA, from memory, though I stand to be corrected.

BK

[Tim Gratz]

Bill, you have raised a good point that I had not thought of before. If LHO had adequately performed his duties while in the military and had been granted an honorable discharge, how could it be changed to "dishonorable" after the fact? I don't think someone can receive a dishonorable discharge for performing some dishonorable act after they are back in civilian society?

Does anyone know whether the "order" changing Oswald's discharge status cited a reason?

Edited November 8, 2007 by Tim Gratz

[Tim Gratz]

I might even try to contact JAG to see if anything like this has happened before--i.e., the retroactive change of a discharge due to events happening after the discharge. I am sure there are military regulations re when a dishonorable discharge is warranted.

[Tim Gratz]

Bill, sorry for the multiple posts but see if we agree on this.

Most of us, I suspect, believe Oswald was on some sort of a US-sanctioned mission when he went to Russia.

Therefore there is no way that the reclassification of his discharge involved a recruitment effort. He could not be recruited if he was already an agent.

As you suggest, perhaps his discharge status was intended as some sort of a signal.

But perhaps the simplest explanation is that the military personnel (whoever it was) that peformed the change in his discharge status had no idea that he was Lee Harvey Oswald, Secret Agent.

[William Kelly]

Bill, sorry for the multiple posts but see if we agree on this.

Most of us, I suspect, believe Oswald was on some sort of a US-sanctioned mission when he went to Russia.

Therefore there is no way that the reclassification of his discharge involved a recruitment effort. He could not be recruited if he was already an agent.

As you suggest, perhaps his discharge status was intended as some sort of a signal.

But perhaps the simplest explanation is that the military personnel (whoever it was) that peformed the change in his discharge status had no idea that he was Lee Harvey Oswald, Secret Agent.

How could they not know if they have LHO's complete USMC/ONI military record in front of them, the record that was intentionally destroyed?

As for Tom Dooley, I'd like to know what years he went to Notre Dame, if he knew Phil Agee, or if they were recruited by the same talent scout professor?

I'd also like to know, now that we have two examples - Don Norton and Tom Dooley, of the CIA/ONI blackmailing gays into covert service, if that was standard practice or a special project?

I'd also like to know how Oswald got Leo Cherne's name and address and that he could help him return home?

BK

[Tim Gratz]

Bill, if LHO was on a top secret mission for ONI I am certain the people who changed his discharge from honorable to dishonorable were not shown his top secret file particularly if he was still considered an asset to be used in future missions.

[William Kelly]

Bill, if LHO was on a top secret mission for ONI I am certain the people who changed his discharge from honorable to dishonorable were not shown his top secret file particularly if he was still considered an asset to be used in future missions.

No sense speculating on what other people knew and didn't know.

Now if anyone can help answer any of those other questions.

BK

[Antti Hynonen]

Yes, Thomas, thanks for the correction, LHO was stationed in San Diego and the Cuban Consulate was in LA, from memory, though I stand to be corrected.

BK

I thought LHO was stationed at El Toro in Santa Ana? About 35 miles from down-town LA?

[William Kelly]

Yes, Thomas, thanks for the correction, LHO was stationed in San Diego and the Cuban Consulate was in LA, from memory, though I stand to be corrected.

BK

I thought LHO was stationed at El Toro in Santa Ana? About 35 miles from down-town LA?

Antti, LHO was stationed at El Toro, which is north of San Diego and south of LA.

And from my memory, GPH said he ran into Oswald for the first time at the Cuban counsulate, which I thought was in San Diego but more likely was LA.

Now if anyone can help answer the other questions:

- Were Tom Dooley and Phil Agee contemporaries at Notre Dame and did the same talent scout recruit them?

- Was it standard operating procedure to identify and blackmail gays, like they did to Donald P. Norton and Tom Dooley?

- And where did LHO get Leo Cherne's name and address in order to write to him from USSR?

Thanks,

BK

[Thomas Graves]

On 11/6/2007 at 7:10 PM, William Kelly said:

TOM DOOLEY - GAY & CIA?

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Tom Dooley was one of the most revered heroes and role models of his time. In a popular opinion pole Dooley was recognize in the same league as Dwight D. Eisenhower, Winston Churchill and Pope John XXIII.

And now, more than 30 years after his death, we learn that he not only received an Undesirable Discharge from the Navy because he was homosexual, but he may have worked for the CIA while administering to the refugees in Southeast Asia.

The allegations are contained in a book, Conduct Unbecoming - Gays & Lesbians in the U.S. Military (St. Martin's Press, 1993) by Randy Shilts, who died of AIDES shortly before the book was published.

Shilts notes how the details of Dooley's dismissal from the Navy were discovered by a researcher reviewing Dooley's military files for a movie, which now won't be made because of the developing facts. But his short life was extremely siginificant and inspirational, and Dooley should be given more recognition, rather than less, because of his homosexuality and CIA associations.

Born in St. Louis, Mo., and educated at Notre Dame, Thomas Dooley entered medical school with the idea of becoming an obstetrician and suburban society doctor. After his older brother was killed in Germany near the end of World War II, Dooley became a medic in the U.S. Navy stationed in Japan.

A temporary assignment to help transport refugees fleeing Communists North Vietnam led Dooley to establish a series of temporary hospitals. Inspired by the work of Dr. Albert Schweitzer in Africa, Dooley set up tent cities to hosue and care for the thousands of people who wanted to leave North Vietnam before the Communist Viet Minh took over in May, 1955.

Confiscating supplies from other Navy vessels, Dooley and his small staff cared for tens of thousands of refugees, most of whom had never before received even redimentary medical treatment. With the administering of this care Dooley told every patient he treated, "Dai la My-quock Viet-tro," or "This is American aid."

To his patients he was called, "Bac Sy My," - "the American doctor," who was and still is revered as a saint to those whose lives he saved or influenced.

With publicity from Life Magazine and Reader's Digest, Dooley was portrayed as an anti-Commuist humanitarian who countered the more common percepton of the greedy, careless and disinterested "Ugly American" that was then prevalent in Southeast Asia.

The rumors of his homosexuality however, instigated an investigation by the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), who planted an undercover agent in a gay bar that Dooley was known to frequent when he was in New York.

Shortly thereafter Dooley voluntarily resigned from the Navy and started a new organization called MEDCO, which established hospitals in remote areas of Laos and in other third world countries.

Dooley asked for and received supplies from varioius medical supply companies, toured the country giving speechs and accepted donations of food and clothing that he took to Laos with him, ensuring that the victims he treated knew "This is American aid."

Dooley's MEDCO was at first established as part of the International Refugee Committee (IRC), whose longtime director Leo Cherne has numerous connections to the U.S. ingelligence community. The IRC was originally established to assist those fleeing Nazi occupied Europe, but after World War II the IRC worked closely with the CIA's Operation Wringer, which debriefed refugees fleeing Communist East Europe and Soviet Russia.

Cherne served on the board of MEDCO and the Tom Dooley Foundation, was close friends and associates with William F. Buckley, Jr. and other cold warriors, and was appointed to the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board under Presidents Ford, Reagan and Bush I.

Cherne and his IRC were the recipients of three letters from ex-patriot American Lee Harvey Oswald when he was in the Soviet Union seeking assistance home. Oswald had left the USMC with an Honorable Discharge that was later changed to "Undesirable" after he had defected, and he too made attempts to have his discharge status changed.

According to Shilts, Dooley's CIA file indicates that he was very upset about his Undesirable Discharge from the Navy, and when he met with his CIA contacts, often inquired about the status of his discharge, which he wanted changed to honorable, to no avail.

After achieving even more fame with the publication of three best selling books, Deliver Us from Evil, The Edge of Tomorrow and The Night They Burned the Mountain, Dooley was honored for his work by the Pope, President Eisenhower and the Presidents of Vietnam and Laos.

When he was diagnosed with cancer, Dooley went public with the fact, and even allowed his operation to be filed and broadcast on television, which generated even more assistance to his cause.

But even while laying in his deathbed, Dr. Dooley asked only that his Undesirable Discharge be changed to Honorable, a wish that was finally granted on the day before he died in January, 1961.

The next day, John F. Kennedy was inaugurated President, and with his assassination, the war in Vietnam would overshadow much of the humanitarian work that Dooley acomplished. "The American Doctor," as Dooley was known to his patients, always reminded people that he was only human, like anyone else, and that anyone with the desire, ambition and determination, can accomplish seemingly impossible tasks.

The story of Dooley, being blackmailed for being gay by the ONI, sounds similar to the story of Donald Norton, who was blackmailed for being gay in the military and became entwined in New Orleans shennigans. It also rings true to Oswald's situation, regarding his discharge and attempts to have it changed.

I also wondered whether Dooley was at Notre Dame at the same time as Phil Agee, and whether they were recruited by the same person?

Leo Cherne's papers are at the Ford Library.

BK

My Dad (R.I.P.) told me about 55 years ago that Dr. Tom Dooley visited our apartment / house?  in San Diego / La Jolla? when I was an infant (around 1950 -1951) and held me "in his arms".  

My Dad had been a M.A.S.H.-like Navy eye surgeon (attached to 1st Marine Division) in the Korean War (he was eventually transferred to a hospital in Japan where he had better operating conditions), and I guess he met Dooley there (in Korea or Japan).  I don't remember the details now.

Just bragging some more, of course, but it's true.

--  Tommy

 

Edited March 2, 2018 by Thomas Graves

[Michael Clark]

On 11/9/2007 at 11:32 AM, William Kelly said:

Antti, LHO was stationed at El Toro, which is north of San Diego and south of LA.

And from my memory, GPH said he ran into Oswald for the first time at the Cuban counsulate, which I thought was in San Diego but more likely was LA.

Now if anyone can help answer the other questions:

- Were Tom Dooley and Phil Agee contemporaries at Notre Dame and did the same talent scout recruit them?

- Was it standard operating procedure to identify and blackmail gays, like they did to Donald P. Norton and Tom Dooley?

- And where did LHO get Leo Cherne's name and address in order to write to him from USSR?

Thanks,

BK

This YouTube video is of poor quality. At around 28:00, Landsdale talks about Dooley.