One Degree: An Historical Medical Mystery

ONE DEGREE is an historical medical mystery thriller involving a fatal infectious illness that is first observed in 1971 in the postoperative American Vietnam War wounded. Five Vietnam Veterans who observed the illness first hand and others touched by it are followed in ONE DEGREE during their decade and a half stateside journey to define and eradicate this fatal gruesome disease. It is a metaphor for the real-life factors involved in my Vietnam War experience, the Agent Orange poisoning of us, the corrupt relationships between corporate America and Washington, the loss of control of our fighting men in Vietnam after Tet ‘68, and the total abdication of responsibility by the United States to rehabilitate and reintegrate our soon to be veterans into a peaceful society. The veterans felt helpless to treat this disease first encountered in soldiers during the early 1970s, which peaked globally in the mid-1970s and essentially disappearing by 1975. A talented plastic surgeon, Claire Ferrier, tragically succumbs to the same once dormant illness after returning to the US from Cameroon in 1986. With great effort, dedication, and original thinking the brotherhood of Vietnam Veterans and their group spearhead the discovery of the disease’s causation and eliminates its vile occurrence. Corrupt activities of Big Pharma in collusion with an influential US Senator are documented to be at the root of the causation of the disease.