Medic: The Autobiography of Crawford F. Sams

Brigadier General Sams (1902-1994) believed that control of communicable disease was the handmaiden of democracy, helping to preserve individual worth. He pursued this theory when he served as head of public health and welfare in the military government during the Allied occupation of Japan and then during the Korean War. Sams felt he faced his greatest professional challenge in Japan--to help transform a devastated nation, riddled with disease, into a functioning, productive democratic society. He established a vast reform program in both preventive medicine and medical care, setting into motion immunization programs, establishing nationwide health centers, training and educational facilities, and bringing in the necessary medical supplies. Another challenge came when U.S. troops in Korea began a renewed push northward in early 1951, as wildfire epidemics, reported as ""Black Death,"" were sweeping across Communist-held areas. Sams's account of his secret trip to personally investigate and identify the disease, traveling via destroyer, whaleboat and rubber raft, is riveting, and his ultimate determination is a testament to his plucky know-how. Unfortunately, Sams's memoir, written in the years following his retirement from the army in 1953, is packed with prosaic minutiae and very un-P.C. tough-guy pronouncements about his often unwilling host countries, which undercuts considerably its appeal for a broad readership. Photos not seen by PW. (Jan.)