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Guns of Peace and an Early Campaign against Smallpox

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 March 2021

Sarah B. Snyder Open the ORCID record for Sarah B. Snyder [Opens in a new window]
Sarah B. Snyder*
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School of International Service, American University, Washington, DC, USA
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Abstract

This article analyses the religious and other motivations of Robert Hingson and Brother's Brother Foundation in their work on smallpox eradication and international health more broadly. It examines Hingson's development and early usage of the jet injector in mass vaccination campaigns. It also highlights that in offering logistical support to Hingson's efforts in Liberia, the US government participated in smallpox eradication earlier than existing narratives have suggested.

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The Historical Journal , Volume 65 , Issue 2 , March 2022 , pp. 462 - 481
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Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press.

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References

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25 Abram to Moyers, 7 Sept. 1965, Hingson, Dr Robert, box 263, office files of John Macy, Lyndon B. Johnson Library, Austin, TX (hereafter LBJL); biographic data, Hingson, Dr Robert, box 263, office files of John Macy, LBJL; and Rosenberg, Henry and Axelrod, Jean K., ‘Robert Andrew Hingson: his unique contributions to world health as well as to anesthesiology’, Bulletin of Anesthesia History, 16 (1998), p. 10CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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27 Bryant, Operation Brother's Brother, p. 28.

28 Ibid., p. 37.

29 ‘Jet inoculation as a public health tool in the control of contagion and epidemics’, Congressional Record, 15 Apr. 1958.

30 'Robert Hingson, founder of Brother's Brother Foundation’, Brother's Brother Foundation, www.brothersbrother.org/bbfs-founder (accessed 23 June 2017); and Hingson, Robert A., Davis, Hamilton S., and Rosen, Michael, ‘The historical development of jet injection and envisioned uses in mass immunization and mass therapy based upon two decades of experience’, Military Medicine, 128 (1963), pp. 516–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Aaron Ismach also played a role in developing jet injectors. Manela, Erez, ‘Globalizing the great society: Lyndon Johnson and the pursuit of smallpox eradication’, in Gavin, Francis J. and Lawrence, Mark Atwood, eds., Beyond the Cold War: Lyndon Johnson and the new global challenges of the 1960s (New York, NY, 2014), p. 170Google Scholar.

31 Hingson, Robert A., ‘The development of the hypospray for parenteral therapy by jet injection’, Anesthesiology, 10 (1949), pp. 66–75CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Hingson, Robert A., ‘America's challenge in the field of public health’, Journal of the National Medical Association, 50 (1958), pp. 114–16Google ScholarPubMed; Hingson, Robert A., Davis, Hamilton S., and Rosen, Michael, ‘Clinical experience with one and a half million jet injections in parenteral therapy and in preventive medicine’, Military Medicine, 128 (1963), pp. 525–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Hingson, Davis, and Rosen, ‘The historical development of jet injection and envisioned uses in mass immunization and mass therapy based upon two decades of experience’, pp. 516–24.

32 Bryant, Operation Brother's Brother, pp. 39, 63.

33 ‘Project brother's keeper’, Baptist World, 5 (1958), p. 1.

34 Ibid., pp. 4–5.

35 Hingson successfully solicited medical supplies from American pharmaceutical companies. See, for example, Hingson to Wright, 27 May 1957, folder 5.6A, part 2, box 57, Baptist World Alliance Archives, American Baptist Historical Society, Atlanta, GA (hereafter BWA Archives); Hingson to Dixon, 6 May 1958, ibid.; Bryant, Operation Brother's Brother, pp. 62–7; and ‘Bishop to Preach on Vietnam War’, Washington Post, 15 Apr. 1967, p. E13.

36 Josephine Robertson, ‘Nigerian infant owes life to mission skill’, Cleveland Plain Dealer, 13 Oct. 1958; and Robert A. Hingson, ‘The American pharmaceutical industry reinforces project brother's keeper in the direction of world peace’, folder 1258: Hingson, Dr Robert A., series XIX, Parran papers.

37 Hingson had earlier practised by vaccinating Cleveland school children against polio. Rosenberg and Axelrod, ‘Robert Andrew Hingson’, p. 11.

38 Josephine Robertson, ‘U.S. physician's “peace guns” captivate Burmese children’, Cleveland Plain Dealer, 10 Aug. 1958, p. 1; and ‘Project brother's keeper’, p. 5.

39 ‘Project brother's keeper’, p. 3.

40 ‘Twenty-seven countries on medical mission itinerary’, Baptist World, 5 (1958), p. 6; and ‘Project brother's keeper’, p. 3.

41 Third Draft, 7 June 1960, ‘Project: brother's keeper’, folder 5.6E, box 57, BWA Archives.

42 Ibid.

43 Bryant, Operation Brother's Brother, pp. 56–7; and Hingson to Kennedy, 4 Oct. 1961, 711.11-KE/4-3062, box 1458, central decimal file, 1960–3, record group 59 general records of the Department of State, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD (hereafter RG 59 and NARA).

44 Hingson, ‘The American pharmaceutical industry reinforces project brother's keeper in the direction of world peace’.

45 Rosenberg and Axelrod, ‘Robert Andrew Hingson’, p. 10.

46 Bryant, Operation Brother's Brother, p. 50.

47 Third Draft, 7 June 1960, ‘Project: brother's keeper’, folder 5.6E, box 57, BWA Archives.

48 Jarman to Denny, 3 June 1958, folder 5.7D, box 57, BWA Archives; Third Draft, 7 June 1960, ‘Project: brother's keeper’, folder 5.6E, ibid.; ‘Project brother's keeper’, p. 1; and Josephine Robertson, ‘Project brother's keeper’, Cleveland Plain Dealer, 22 June 1958.

49 Bryant to Denny, 16 Sept. 1967, folder 5.6D, box 57, BWA Archives.

50 Third Draft, 7 June 1960, ‘Project: brother's keeper’, folder 5.6E, box 57, BWA Archives. The US government began funding ocean freight costs for the transportation of humanitarian supplies in 1947. Schäfer, Axel R., ‘Religious non-profit organizations, the Cold War, the state and resurgent evangelicalism, 1945–90’, in Laville, Helen and Wilford, Hugh, eds., The US government, citizen groups and the Cold War: the state–private network (London, 2012), p. 181Google Scholar; and Nichols, J. Bruce, The uneasy alliance: religion, refugee work, and U.S. foreign policy (New York, NY, 1988), p. 207Google Scholar. The government continued this provision, including it in the 1951 Mutual Security Act and the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961. McCleary, Global compassion, pp. 76, 173.

51 ‘Project brother's keeper’, p. 4.

52 Hingson to Jarman, 26 Mar. 1959, folder 5.6A, part I, box 57, BWA Archives; and Hingson to Maum, 25 Jan. 1961, folder 5.6B, ibid.

53 Hingson to Baptist World Alliance medical mission team mates and our missionary colleagues overseas, 1 June 1959, folder 5.6A, part I, box 57, BWA Archives.

54 Hingson to Friends, 1 Oct. 1958, folder 5.6A, part 2, box 57, BWA Archives; and Bryant, Operation Brother's Brother, p. 70.

55 ‘A plan for the development of operation Brother's Brother into a foundation’, folder 5.6C, box 57, BWA Archives.

56 Hingson to Kennedy, 4 Oct. 1961, 711.11-KE/4-3062, box 1458, central decimal file, 1960–3, RG 59, NARA.

57 ‘A plan for the development of operation Brother's Brother into a foundation’.

58 'Robert Hingson, founder of Brother's Brother Foundation’.

59 Manela, ‘A pox on your narrative’, p. 300.

60 Liberian records available through the University of Indiana unfortunately do not shed much light on the degree to which Hingson's mission was initiated by Liberian leaders or by Hingson. Although both were mentioned in correspondence by Hingson, the role of Republic Steel Company, which owned the Liberian Mining Company, and Firestone, which leased one million acres of land for rubber production, is unclear.

61 Claude A. Clegg III, The price of liberty: African Americans and the making of Liberia (Chapel Hill, NC, 2004), p. 6; and Conroy-Krutz, Christian imperialism, p. 162.

62 Dunn, D. Elwood, Liberia and the United States during the Cold War: limits of reciprocity (New York, NY, 2009), pp. 13–19Google Scholar; and Oral History Interview Thomas F. Johnson, 18 Mar. 2003, Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project.

63 Memorandum of conversation, 25 June 1957, Department of State, Foreign relations of the United States, 1955–1957, XVIII: Africa (Washington, DC, 1989).

64 Dunn, Liberia and the United States during the Cold War, p. 70.

65 ‘Project brother's keeper’, p. 11.

66 Hingson, Robert A., ‘The physician and the burning of Rome’, American Practitioner and Digest of Treatment, 10 (1959), p. 1688Google ScholarPubMed.

67 Denny to Jarman, 7 Dec. 1961, folder 5.7D, box 57, BWA Archives; and Robert A. Hingson, ‘Operation Brother's Brother’, Hamilton Spectator, 20 June 1964, p. 29.

68 ‘Brother's brother II’, Baptist World (Feb. 1962), p. 6. There was a long history of Baptist missionaries in Liberia. Poe, William A., ‘Not Christopolis but Christ and Caesar: Baptist leadership in Liberia’, Journal of Church and State 24 (1982), pp. 535–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

69 Hingson to Denny, 22 Mar. 1961, folder 5.6B, box 57, BWA Archives.

70 Ibid.

71 Hingson, ‘The physician and the burning of Rome’, p. 1688. In a different context, Hingson notes American ‘luxury Cadillacs could not roll without the labor and lives of these rubber tree slaves’. Hingson to Denny, 3 Oct. 1959, folder 5.6A, part I, box 57, BWA Archives.

72 Hingson to Ferreri, 10 Mar. 1960, folder 5.6B, box 57, BWA Archives.

73 Hingson to Tubman, 6 Apr. 1962, correspondence: Hillebrand-Hittle, box 30, papers of Admiral George W. Anderson, 1917–76, Naval History and Heritage Command, Washington, DC.

74 Parran to Hingson, 20 Oct. 1961, folder 1258: Hingson, Dr Robert A., series XIX, Parran papers.

75 Ibid.

76 Hingson to Denny, 3 Oct. 1959, folder 5.6A, part I, box 57, BWA Archives. Jarman again funded Hingson's efforts with repeated donations of several thousand dollars. Jarman to Hingson, 15 Dec. 1961, folder 5.7D, box 57, BWA Archives; and Jarman to Denny, 19 Jan. 1959, ibid.

77 Department of State to AmEmbassy Dakar, 13 Apr. 1961, 876.55/4-1361, box 2769, central decimal file, 1960–3, RG 59, NARA.

78 Monrovia to secretary of state, 16 Aug. 1961, 876.55/8-1661, box 2769, central decimal file, 1960–3, RG 59, NARA.

79 Monrovia to secretary of state, 17 Aug. 1961, 866.55/8-1761, box 2769, central decimal file, 1960–3, RG 59, NARA.

80 Department of State to Monrovia, 29 Dec. 1961, 876.55/12-2961, box 2769, central decimal file, 1960–3, RG 59, NARA. The mission received some funding from the Baptist World Alliance. Hingson to Parran, 6 Apr. 1962, folder 1258: Hingson, Dr Robert A., series XIX, Parran papers.

81 Monrovia to secretary of state, 12 Jan. 1962, 876.55/1-1262, box 2769, central decimal file, 1960–3, RG 59, NARA; and Department of State to Monrovia, 19 Jan. 1962, ibid.

82 Orr to Adler, 12 Jan. 1962, Brother's Brother, container 2, entry #P616, subject files, 1961–9, record group 286 records of the Agency for International Development, NARA; and Orr to McConnell, 16 Jan. 1962, ibid.

83 Edwin Murray, Robert A. Hingson, Lewis E. Abram, Theodore Parran, and H. Q. Taylor, ‘Mass vaccination against smallpox in Liberia’, Bulletin Supplement, folder 1730: Liberia, series XXXVIII, Parran papers.

84 Dungan to Kennedy, 6 Mar. 1963, Department of State, Foreign relations of the United States, 1961–1963, XXI: Africa (Washington, DC, 1995).

85 Oral History Interview Edward R. Dudley, Jr, 15 Jan. 1995, Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project.

86 USS Diamond Head (AE-19) Ship's History, Naval History and Heritage Command, Washington, DC; secretary of the navy to all ships and stations, 11 June 1959, ibid.

87 Dwight D. Eisenhower, ‘Remarks at the People-to-People Conference’, 11 Sept. 1965, American Presidency Project (accessed 13 Aug. 2020). See also Zachary A. Cunningham, ‘Project Hope as propaganda: a humanitarian nongovernmental organization takes part in America's total Cold War’ (MA thesis, Ohio University, 2008), p. 65. The People-to-People programme should also be seen in the context of Eisenhower's plan to share fissionable material with other countries, nicknamed ‘Atoms for Peace’, which were intended to demonstrate the United States as seeking international peace. See Mara Drogan, ‘The nuclear imperative: Atoms for Peace and the development of U.S. policy on exporting nuclear power, 1953–1955’, Diplomatic History, 40 (2016), pp. 948–74.

88 The navy's involvement was also connected with the New White Fleet movement, which was initiated by Commander Frank Manson, with whom Hingson's brother James had roomed at the Naval War College. The New White Fleet never materialized, and the hospital ship initiative Project Hope has often been characterized as its only successor. But Hingson's mission to Liberia likely benefited from Manson's vision. Hingson to Bryant, 13 Jan. 1961, folder 5.6B, box 57, BWA Archives; Frank Manson, ‘Author of the big plan explains’, 27 July 1959, LIFE, pp. 20–1; and Cunningham, ‘Project Hope as propaganda’, p. 58. On earlier US military support for humanitarian activity, see Irwin, Julia F., ‘Raging rivers and propaganda weevils: transnational disaster relief, Cold War politics, and the 1954 Danube and Elbe floods’, Diplomatic History, 40 (2016), pp. 893–921CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

89 Hingson to Rusk, 16 Jan. 1962, 876.55/1-1662, box 2769, central decimal file, 1960–3, RG 59, NARA.

90 Murray, Hingson, Abram, Parran, and Taylor, ‘Mass vaccination against smallpox in Liberia’; Bryant, Operation Brother's Brother, pp. 93–4.

91 USS Diamond Head (AE-19) Ship's History, Naval History and Heritage Command, Washington, DC.

92 The previous month, Burke had met Vice President Tolbert at a State Department dinner. Burke to Hingson, 22 June 1961, folder 1258: Hingson, Dr Robert A., series XIX, Parran papers; and Hingson to Seale, 30 Oct. 1961, ibid. Tolbert also had met Kennedy in the Oval Office during his Washington visit. Padmore, George Arthur, The memoirs of a Liberian ambassador (Lewiston, NY, 1996), p. 120Google Scholar.

93 The navy was frequently involved in a wide range of humanitarian operations in those years, including disaster relief, assisting refugees, and offering emergency medical assistance. In its own account of its humanitarian operations, the most similar activities undertaken involved transporting humans who needed urgent medical care or navy personnel who engaged in campaigns against yellow fever in Ethiopia and broader illnesses in Colombia and Haiti, for example. Siegel, Adam B., A sampling of U.S. naval humanitarian operations (Alexandria, VA, 2003), pp. 19–20Google Scholar.

94 J. Eugene White and Clarence Duncan, ‘The guns of peace’, Christian Herald (July 1963).

95 USS Diamond Head Ship Log, 11 Feb. 1962, National Archives, College Park, MD. Before the USS Diamond Head departed Norfolk, Virginia, the chargé d'affairs of Liberia visited the ship. USS Diamond Head Ship Log, 31 Jan. 1962, NARA, College Park, MD.

96 Hingson to Rusk, 16 Jan. 1962, 876.55/1-1662, box 2769, central decimal file, 1960–3, RG 59, NARA; and Hingson to Anderson, 10 Apr. 1962, folder 1730: Liberia, series XXXVIII, Parran papers.

97 Bulletin Supplement, folder 1730: Liberia, series XXXVIII, Parran papers.

98 Hingson to Peal, 16 Jan. 1962, 876.55/1-1662, box 2769, central decimal file, 1960–3, RG 59, NARA.

99 Hingson later claimed delivery of 200,000 schoolbooks and credited Republic Steel as playing a significant role. Hingson to Tubman, 10 May 1965, folder 5.6C, box 57, BWA Archives; Hingson to Rusk, 16 Jan. 1962, 876.55/1-1662, box 2769, central decimal file, 1960–3, RG 59, NARA; and ‘Eli Lilly Co. sends Liberia medicine’, Daily Reporter, 19 Jan. 1962.

100 Hingson to Anderson, 10 Apr. 1962, folder 1730: Liberia, series XXXVIII, Parran papers.

101 Murray, Hingson, Abram, Parran, and Taylor, ‘Mass vaccination against smallpox in Liberia’.

102 Bryant, Operation Brother's Brother, pp. 91–8; and ibid.

103 Hingson to Kennedy, 30 Apr. 1962, 711.11-KE/4-3062, box 1458, central decimal file, 1960–3, RG 59, NARA. Liberians continued the inoculation efforts, which as Hingson put it made ‘Liberia the first African nation to be essentially shielded against this disease’. Hingson to O'Donnell, 7 Sept. 1962, 876.55/9-1362, box 2769, central decimal file, 1960–3, RG 59, NARA. By 1965, Hingson's assessment of the Liberians spared smallpox had grown to one million. Hingson to Tubman, 10 May 1965, folder 5.6C, box 57, BWA Archives.

104 O'Donnell to Hingson, 1 Oct. 1962, folder 22, box 1224, White House Central Name File, John F. Kennedy Library, Boston, MA.

105 ‘TV programs’, 29 Apr. 1962, New York Times, p. 136.

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108 Ward to Parran, 15 Apr. 1962, Parran papers; and Murray, Hingson, Abram, Parran, and Taylor, ‘Mass vaccination against smallpox in Liberia’.

109 Hingson to Denny, 20 July 1964, folder 5.6C, box 57, BWA Archives.

110 Hingson to Tubman, 10 May 1965, folder 5.6C, box 57, BWA Archives; and Hingson to Tolbert and Tolbert, 10 May 1965, ibid.

111 Denny to Hingson, 3 Sept. 1964, folder 5.6C, box 57, BWA Archives. Thereafter, Hingson and Brother's Brother Foundation shifted their attention to Central America, including drives in Costa Rica, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

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