Doctor to 10,000
Clements, Charles
BOOKS Doctor to 10,000 WITNESS TO WAR: AN AMERICAN DOCTOR IN EL SALVADOR by Charles Clements, M.D. Bantam Books. 268 pp. $15.95. Amidst all the political debate about U.S. intervention in El...
...As an Air Force pilot in 1969, he began flying missions in Southeast Asia, where, he admits, he went "with a set of very naive preconceptions about the war...
...Why did a North American, committed to the Gandhian ideals of nonviolence, involve himself with one of the bloodiest revolutionary wars of the century...
...There, in spite of great hardship, the people have developed cooperative health, educational, and agricultural programs as well as democratic decision-making processes...
...His disillusionment began when he realized that black and Hispanic men were fighting in proportions greater than their numbers at home...
...Sara Diamond (Sara Diamond is a free-lance writer based in Berkeley, California...
...Since his return to the United States, Clements has shared his experiences and analysis of the war in El Salvador with public audiences...
...He declared himself unfit for service and returned to the United States...
...Regarding the source of conflict in El Salvador, Clements says that "revolting conditions create revolutions...
...He later learned that "enemy" body counts were inflated while U.S...
...The story of Clements's own evolution is beautifully woven throughout his account of life in Guazapa...
...Because they lack adequate food and the most basic medicines, the people are plagued with chronic anemia, dysentery, and malaria...
...In the fall of 1981 he went to Mexico and approached members of the Democratic Revolutionary Front (FDR), the political wing of the Salvadoran opposition...
...Witness to War is an inspiration to all who long for peace in Central America...
...intervention in El Salvador, the human side of the story is often neglected...
...His request for a transfer was denied...
...He and the paramedical "sani-tarios" in Guazapa had to perform operations without anaesthesia or proper surgical tools, often by candlelight...
...Early on, he states the reason for his journey to El Salvador: "The paradox of violence aside, there is always a need for healing in the midst of so much suffering, always a place to bear witness in the midst of injustice...
...Witness to War reads like a first-rate novel: It is packed with emotion, suspense, and vivid imagery...
...These zones are controlled by combatants in the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) and their civilian supporters...
...He relates several instances when the guerrillas became indignant about questions of Cuban involvement in the FMLN...
...While Clements says his book is "about people, not policy," he does address important political issues...
...He was shocked by the living conditions in Guazapa...
...Clements describes the history and current structure of the FMLN-FDR and notes that the people "did not just oppose the old order, they were fighting for a new one...
...In 1982, Charles Clements, a former Air Force pilot in Vietnam, a Quaker, and a medical doctor, went to the Guazapa province of El Salvador to help provide medical care for the civilian population...
...Clements "bears witness," in the Quaker tradition, to the reality he has seen...
...Even aspirin is a rare commodity...
...In the spring of 1982, Clements entered El Salvador clandestinely with a seventy-five-pound backpack full of medical supplies...
...This is an authentic revolution as yours was...
...Clements is familiar with suffering and injustice...
...Clements taught the people to use willow bark tea as a painkiller and to make "nail cocktails" by soaking nails in water, then drinking the rusty water as an iron supplement...
...Eventually the destruction of life in Vietnam overwhelmed him...
...They told him, "We don't need Cubans...
...wounds were stitched with dental floss...
...He was particularly impressed with the guerrillas' humane treatment of government soldiers taken as prisoners of war...
...The book is a compelling chronicle of his experiences as the sole physician for 10,000 people in Guazapa, one of many "liberated zones...
...Clements does not romanticize the Salvadoran people...
...he was ordered into a psychiatric hospital for six months and later discharged...
...In 1980, Clements began his medical career in Salinas, California, a rural region where thousands of Central American refugees have come seeking safety and subsistence employment...
...Instead he portrays them as individuals, with shortcomings and strengths...
...At the county hospital, he treated Salvadorans with wounds inflicted by their government interrogators, and he wondered, "Was this another Vietnam, another quagmire in the making...
...casualty figures were downplayed...
...Witness to War is full of extraordinary "make-do medicine" stories...
...Clements felt compelled to offer his services and made inquiries to several humanitarian agencies in Central America, but opportunities were scarce...
...In his new book, Witness to War, Dr...
Vol. 48 • October 1984 • No. 12
