Kill the Gringo: The Life of Jack VaughnâAmerican diplomat, Director of the Peace Corps, US ambassador to Colombia and Panama, and conservationist
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.81 (560 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 1945572175 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 392 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-08-19 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Told with Jacks’ humor and humility, his stories reveal an astonishingly varied, lively and distinguished career that lasted 50 years and earned him the nickname Peasant Ambassador.. His rapport with people and facility with language led to a speedy rise in international development in Latin America and Africa where he drew the attention of Vice President Lyndon Johnson during his visit to Senegal in 1961. A rural development job in Iran ended dramatically with the 1978 revolution, and Jack turned his focus to the environment, advising the Nature Conservancy and founding Conservation International in 1987. Three years later, President Johnson appointed Jack ambassador to Panama when violent anti-American riots there led to a severing of diplomatic ties.As the second director of the Peace Corps, Jack presided over the largest number of volunteers in the organization’s history and the delicate handling of anti-Vietnam fervor among its ranks. Recipient of the University of Michigan Outstanding Achievement Award in 1966Recipient of the Distinguished Fiji Award 2016 from Phi Gamma DeltaMember of the Order of the QuetzalWinner of the 2002 Ecotrust AwardHonorary Doctor of Laws from the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts 1998Honorary Doctor of Science from the University of Montana 19701990 Jack Vaughn Peace Corps Fellows Scholarship from the University of ArizonaKill the Gring
You must admire a man whose career advice included, "I often say it's a gift to be fired at least once," and "it is always better to be rumored to work for the CIA than to actually be employed there.""Kirkus Reviews. "engaging eyewitness historya worthy read and a textbook for those seeking a career in public service
Highly entertaining, humorous and surprising Juliet Martínez This book has been my obsession for the past five days. I dreamed about urgently reading page after page last night to find out what happened next! It's not only a page-turner rich with context and inspiration for the challenges we now face, Jack Vaughn's voice and the arc of his character are both genuinely interesting.Of many passages I highlighted, this said it all: "We who engage peacefully with others have the chance to change the world in small but powerful ways. Peaceful engagement despite our differences, be they religious, racial, national, or philosophical, trump. Of course there was a political angle to it since the Peace Corps was considered a useful counter to the spread of Communism The U.S. Foreign Service is not noted for its independent thinkers. Ambassadors are meant to toe the line as are all those on embassy staffs and, in fact, all expats serving in U.S. programs overseas. There are exceptions. As U.S. counsel to East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) Archer Blood’s defiance of Henry Kissinger and President Nixon who were supporting Pakistani genocide of Bangladeshis cost him his career. But he was right on both moral and pragmatic grounds.Back in the early 1960’s another form of independent thinking led to the U.S. Peace Corps, a program c. Jack Sullivan said Fortunately his daughter. As a former colleague of Jack Vaughn's I have known about his effort at an autobiography for years. Unfortunately he died before it was finished. Fortunately his daughter, Jane, took up the project and by her edits and editions has fashioned a life story of a truly extraordinary human being. It is a remembered pleasure to have worked with him and a similar pleasure to have this more complete rendering of his very active life. He was an American original and I urge anyone interested in the era 1960 to 1990 in American history to read it.