Volume 1 No 1

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Friend or foe? Venereal diseases and the American presence in Trinidad and Tobago during World War II
(Department of History, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus,Trinidad and Tobago, 2010-04) McCollin, Debbie
While there has been extensive scholarship into sexually transmitted diseases, particularly HIV/AIDS in the latter part of the twentieth century, and a very rudimentary understanding of `a VD problem’ during World War II, little specific research has been conducted into the escalation and the control of this `problem’ in the war, far less its significance to the colony’s wider development. Thus, this work investigates the culpability of foreign forces, specifically the Americans stationed in the colony during the war, in the dramatic escalation of VDs. Conversely, it also examines their contribution to the development of the first comprehensive VD control campaigns, especially for syphilis and gonorrhea, and thus establishes concretely the dualism which is prominent in this period, of the American military as friend and foe, as impediment and facilitator in the control of some of the most prominent diseases and generally in the advancement of healthcare in the colony.