Dr. Robert Petzold and his wife Kathryn were among the 30 Lifelong Learning Club members who attended Dr. Richard Carlson’s Feb. 29 presentation, “Angels Amid the Enemy: The Untold Story of Medical Care and Vietnam’s Forgotten Civilian Victims.” at the Fairway Recreation Center. 

Petzold served with a civil affairs company that arranged medical care in Vietnam; similarly, Carlson participated in the Military Provincial Health Assistance Program, which provided primary aid to civilians in Vietnam. The vision of General William Moncrief, MILPHAP was composed of teams of doctors from the Army, Navy and Air Force who had a willingness to put their lives and their practices on hold and donate their time and expertise to the people of South Vietnam. The program was in effect from 1965 until 1973 and attracted 774 physicians; amazingly, none were fatally wounded although one doctor later developed Parkinsonian indicators of the aftermath of Agent Orange.

Carlson was among this group of doctors who treated the diseases which were caused by malnutrition, lack of sanitization, a lack of immunization (such as tetanus, parasites, dengue, diptheria) and the aftermath of war casualties such as such as loss of limbs (and even eyes) because of artillery, grenades, bombs, assassination attempts and torture. In November of 1966, Carlson arrived in BacLieu in the Mekong Delta where people led “a simple but difficult life” consisting of farming rice and vegetables and catching and selling seafood. 

He found himself “caught in a time warp” where people still traveled by ox carts pulled by water buffalo. He lived in a “hooch” (an Asian hut about 9’x15’) and he worked in a hospital (in translation called “the Place of the Sick”), which had been built in 1909. The building had no screens, no electricity, no running water and vermin. Carlson and his colleagues slept, often fitfully, to the serenade of 105 mm Howitzers, other “fearsome weapons” and the sounds of helicopters and planes. A senate investigative committee found, in 1972, that 6 million tons of bombs were dropped on Indo-China.

Despite all this, Carlson found the people to be positive, sometimes full of smiles. Small children actually lived at the hospital, many of them orphaned. The doctors never asked about political affiliation and he is sure some Vietcong were treated along with the South Vietnamese. Half the patients were women and children. 

“Civilians are always the forgotten victims of war,” he said. “Covid resulted in acts of heroism by the medical community. Taking care of civilians are angels who helped strangers in a war torn land for no reward other than humanity.”

“Any effort to help others is of value,” he added.

Carlson, a Scottsdale resident, is the author of eight textbooks and 350 papers about medical practices. Once at the Maricopa Medical Center in Phoenix, he now serves as chairman emeritus in the Department of Medicine and the Medical Intensive Care Unit for the District Medical Group.

His lecture was made possible for members of the Lifelong Learning Club in collaboration with the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Arizona State University and a collaboration between Michael Powell, president of the Lifelong Learning Club of the Recreation Centers of Sun City, and Jared Swerzenski, of Osher. Carlson was introduced by Susie Rego, program coordinator for Osher.