The Scalpel, The Sword : The Story of Doctor Norman Bethune

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ISBN 9789350020418
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ISBN 9789350020418

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This book is the story of Norman Bethune, a prominent Canadian thoracic surgeon. During the 1930s he became a convinced communist, which led him to the fron lines of the wars in Spain and China. He arrived in China about six months after the start of the major Sino-Japanese War. He made his way to Yenan where, in discussion with Mao Tse-tun, he advanced his theory that fully 75 percent of serious battle casualties would survive if operated on immediately. Mao commissionied Bethune to organize a mobile operating unit, and this brought Bethune to the "center of the war" in the interior of norhtern China.

His extraordinary devotion to duty became a legend throughout the region and eventually throughout China. He died of septicemia contracted when he cut himself while operating under great pressure as the Japanese advanced to within ten minutes of his operating room.

Ted Allan(1916-1976) was a journalist, playwright, novelist and screenwriter. He covered the Spanish Civil War for the Federated Press and joined Dr. Noram Bethune and his staff in Madrid. During the Second World War he worked as a writer in the U.S. Office of War and subsequently returned to his hometown of Montreal to work for CBC Radio.

Sydney Gordon, an editor and writer, later lived and worked in Berlin.

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