Transplanting Technology: Dr. DeBakey in Cold War China and the USSR

At the height of the Cold War, Dr. Michael E. DeBakey, one of the most prolific American surgeons of the 20th century, made several trips to China and the USSR to survey the medical landscape on the other side of the Iron Curtain. He toured clinics and medical schools and met with barefoot doctors. DeBakey became a broker of valuable medical and scientific information, teaching new techniques and introducing new machines in the USSR and China, while reporting on the conditions of Chinese and Soviet medical institutions back home to the American public. His diplomatic success was possible in part because of his willingness to take other medical systems seriously—he praised the barefoot doctors and was “impressed” with Russian medical inventions that were showcased during his visits. This paper draws from archival and oral historical material in Dr. DeBakey’s personal papers to consider the ways in which he was able to gain mobility between the Cold War East and West through his expertise in medical technology. With rich diary entries describing his visits, DeBakey situated both the Western technology he helped transplant to the East as well as that which he encountered there within the topography of the Soviet and Chinese medical systems. In reflecting upon DeBakey’s Cold War travels, this paper seeks to interrogate how his influence and mobility shaped perceptions of both American and communist-sphere medical technology.