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Article ID: CBB001201763

The Itinerary of a North Vietnamese Surgeon: Medical Science and Politics during the Cold War (2013)

Aso, Michitake (Author)
Guénel, Annick (Author)

Science Technology and Society
Volume: 18
Pages: 291--306
Publication date: 2013
Language: English

DOI: 10.1177/0971721813498494

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Surgery Medicine and science, relationships Science and politics Cold War Biographies Travel; exploration Liver Diffusion of innovation; diffusion of knowledge; diffusion of technology Herbicides Toxins and antitoxins Foreign relations; diplomacy Cross-national interaction Agent Orange 20th century, late Vietnam Tôn-Thất, Tùng

This article argues that science was inextricably bound up with politics in the life and career of T n Th t Tùng. Nationalism motivated Tùng to join the Vi t Minh fight against the French in the First Indochina War, but it was his colonial-era training as a surgeon that made him invaluable for the resistance. The widespread recognition of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) in 1954 gave Tùng, in turn, access to human and material resources that would not have been available otherwise. With these resources, including equipment and human livers, Tùng developed surgical techniques that enabled him to publish in internationally recognised journals. In return, Tùng trained doctors for the state, focusing on knowledge that helped the DRV battle the Republic of Vietnam's and the United States' (US) armies. During the 1960s, Tùng engaged in medical diplomacy that allowed those against US intervention, yet uncomfortable with DRV politics, to support the North. For his part, Tùng tapped into his far-flung network to access the latest medical advances as well as obtain training for his students. These developments, international and domestic, came together in Tùng's struggle to identify and treat the effects of exposure to herbicides and their contaminant dioxin, popularly known as Agent Orange.

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Article Clancey, Gregory; Chen, Haidan (2013) Introduction: Asian Biopoleis---Biomedical Research in “The Asian Century”. Science Technology and Society (p. 267). unapi

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