The Patient Was Vietcong

Book excerpt: In 1965, drafted into the Army to serve in Vietnam, Lawrence Climo, a young physician just out of training, learned of a unique humanitarian mission with counter-insurgency objectives that was looking for doctors: MILPHAP (Military Provincial Hospital Augmentation Program). Because it seemed to be an honorable as well as a doable enterprise he volunteered and began keeping a journal. At the start he appreciated the varied interactions with people of different religious, social, racial and ethnic cultures, especially among both Americans and Vietnamese as well as between the two. Whatever culture shocks emerged proved, if not intriguing or entertaining, at least informative. But then he encountered a culture shock that proved toxic and threatened to corrupt both MILPHAP and himself.