The good American : the epic life of Bob Gersony, the U.S. Government's greatest humanitarian

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Title:

The good American : the epic life of Bob Gersony, the U.S. Government's greatest humanitarian

Author:

Kaplan, Robert D., 1952- author.

Edition:

First edition.

Subject Term:

Humanitarian assistance, American.

Refuge (Humanitarian assistance) -- United States.

Philanthropists -- United States -- Biography.

Summary:

"The Good American is a story about courage, intense loneliness, and the State Department's golden age during the late Cold War and post-Cold War. It is also a celebration of ground level reporting and getting a worm's eye view of crisis zones. Robert Gersony, a high-school dropout later awarded a bronze star in Vietnam, spent over four decades on the ground in virtually every war and natural disaster zone in the world. Interviewing hundreds of refugees and displaced persons in each place to assess humanitarian crises, Gersony's research and thorough reports had an immense, underappreciated impact on US foreign policy across the globe. In every case, his recommendations made it smarter and more humane, often dramatically so. In his career as a journalist, Robert D. Kaplan often crossed paths with Gersony while covering the "hot" moments of the Cold War and its aftermath. Even as a biography, this is Kaplan's most personal book to date, and through Gersony's story, he makes a poignant case for how American diplomacy should be conducted--with a clear eye toward facts on the ground--at a time when diplomacy is too often being left behind."-- Provided by publisher.

Publication Date:

2021

Format:

Book

Language:

English

Available:*

Library	Item Type	Item Barcode	Call Number	Current Location
Searching... Mishawaka Library	Book	33028011884808	921 K172 2021	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

The sweeping yet intimate story of the most influential humanitarian you've never heard of--Bob Gersony, who's spent four decades in crisis zones around the world--from the New York Times bestselling author of The Revenge of Geography .

Fromthe New York Time s bestselling author of TheRevenge of Geography comes a sweeping yet intimate story ofthemost influential humanitarian you've never heard of-Bob Gersony, who spent four decades in crisis zones aroundtheworld.

"One of the best accounts examining American humanitarian pursuits over the past fifty years . . . With still greater challenges on the horizon, we will need to find and empower more people like Bob Gersony-both idealistic and pragmatic-who can help make the world a more secure place."- The Washington Post

In his long career as an acclaimed journalist coveringthe"hot" moments oftheCold War and its aftermath, bestselling author Robert D. Kaplan often found himself crossing paths with Bob Gersony, a consultant fortheU.S. State Department whose quiet dedication and consequential work made a deep impression on Kaplan.

Gersony, a high school dropout later awarded a Bronze Star for his service in Vietnam, conducted on-the-ground research forthe U.S. government in virtually every war and natural-disaster zone intheworld. In Thailand, Central and South America, Sudan, Chad, Mozambique, Rwanda, Gaza, Bosnia, North Korea, Iraq, and beyond, Gersony never flinched from entering dangerous areas that diplomats could not reach, sometimes risking his own life. Gersony's behind-thescenes fact-finding, which included interviews with hundreds of refugees and displaced persons from each war zone and natural-disaster area, often challenged theassumptions and received wisdom ofthepowers that be, on boththeleft andtheright. In nearly every case, his advice and recommendations made Americanpolicy at once smarter and more humane-often dramatically so.

In Gersony, Kaplan saw a powerful example of howAmerican diplomacy should be conducted. In a work that exhibits Kaplan's signature talent for combining travel and geography with sharp political analysis, The Good American tells Gersony's powerful life story. Set duringtheState Department's golden age, this is a story abouttheloneliness, sweat, and tears andthegenuine courage that characterized Gersony's work in far-flung places. It is also a celebration of ground-level reporting- a page-turning demonstration, by one of our finest geopolitical thinkers, of how getting an up-close, worm's-eye view of crises and applying sound reason can elicit world-changing results.

Reviews (4)

Publisher's Weekly Review

An "obsessive-compulsive" freelancer with a knack for talking to people epitomizes what foreign policy should be, according to this poignant and provocative biography of Bob Gersony, a retired independent contractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department. Journalist Kaplan (The Return of Marco Polo's World) recounts Gersony's unsung, four-decade career from the 1970s to the 2010s as he parachuted into humanitarian disasters, refugee crises, and civil wars in order to assess the situation up-close and recommend policies through the straightforward mechanism of interviewing ordinary people. Kaplan credits Gersony with crucial policy redirections, including the Reagan administration's decision not to arm Mozambique's RENAMO rebels after he exposed their atrocities in 1988, and recommendations of many aid programs--road-paving in El Salvador, water projects in the West Bank--that allowed people to work instead of fight. It's a vivid story as Gersony, suffering perpetual nervousness and indigestion, navigates hair-raising conflict zones, and fences with denialist bureaucrats and politicians. It's also Kaplan's love-letter to Reagan-era Cold War diplomacy, when "realism... encompassed a concern for human rights." Liberals may dispute that assessment, but Kaplan's immersive, ground-level view of practical foreign policy-making gives it substance. This incisive account pays tribute to the people who uphold America's ideals to the world. Agent: Gail Hochman, Brandt & Hochman. (Oct.)

Kirkus Review

For four decades, a daring American assessed trouble spots throughout the world. Robert Gersony (b. 1945), the son of Central and Eastern European refugees, spent a productive, interesting career as a special consultant for the State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the United Nations, conducting firsthand research on "virtually every war and disaster zone on earth." Veteran journalist and author Kaplan, who met Gersony in Khartoum in 1985, draws on hundreds of hours of interviews with him, along with abundant additional sources, to create a vividly detailed chronicle of the courageous, challenging life of "the ultimate field worker." Convinced that "evidence…rather than theories" must inform foreign policy, Gersony conducted long, intense interviews with more than 8,000 refugees, displaced persons, and humanitarian workers, exposing the reality of their experiences. "The most sensitive things they told me on their own," Gersony said. Kaplan recounts Gersony's work in South America, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, from Guatemala in the 1970s to North Korea in 2002. Gersony was passionate about human rights, working long hours in dangerous, sometimes life-threatening conditions, and defiant against policy wonks. Much of American aid, he believed, "is a complete waste of money, since it is not integrated with a plan for governance or business development." After the Berlin Wall came down and the Soviet Union collapsed, a new optimism arose about the state of the world, which Gersony did not share: "It was another example of Washington elites manufacturing a theory: a theory born with dramatic events in Central Europe that they mistakenly applied to the whole world." His witnessing of "state failure, rule-of-law breakdowns, genocide, and long-standing ethno-nationalist conflict" sharply contrasted that worldview, but knowledge about the world, Kaplan learned, is gleaned now from consulting groups rather than the kind of research to which Gersony devoted his career. A life story that reads like an action thriller. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

Kaplan (The Return of Marco Polo's World, 2018), a best-selling global affairs writer, presents a biography of humanitarian-crisis investigator Robert Gersony that celebrates a life of selfless dedication in perilous circumstances and offers an elegy for a time when humanitarian aid figured more prominently in U.S. foreign policy. A skilled interviewer, Gersony believed that the best way to learn about a conflict zone was to go there and speak with ordinary people. Vietnam taught him to value the "facts on the ground," and aid work in Latin America taught him how to deal with the powerful in service of the powerless. Working constantly, mostly as a freelancer, Gersony wrote dispassionately, including a report on the Rwandan genocide, compartmentalizing powerful feelings about his subjects. Despite a life spent in Guatemala, Uganda, Sudan, Somalia, and North Korea, to name a few, he disliked travel and kissed the floor every time he came home. Kaplan writes with earnest reverence for a longtime friend and wistful praise for the particular blend of realism and idealism that Gersony represented, which seems less valued in today's world.

Library Journal Review

Award-winning journalist Kaplan (The Return of Marco Polo's World) shows the positive effects humanitarian work can have in this insightful biography. During his four-decade career, Robert Gersony (b. 1945) worked as a freelance contractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). As a fieldworker, the author journeyed into crisis areas in Central and Latin America, Africa, and Asia. It was on these assignments that he perfected his trademark methodology of talking and listening to people, which allowed him to foster a sense of empathy and develop a clearer picture of individual needs. Working tirelessly, Gersony's meticulously written reports influenced American foreign policy and allowed well-placed aid to have a more immediate and longer-lasting impact. Kaplan views the world of humanitarian and foreign policy work of the 1970s and 1980s as a less overtly ideological period where people like Gersony and career diplomats worked hand-in-hand. Based on hundreds of hours of interviews with Gersony, his colleagues, as well as personal recollections, Kaplan deservedly shines the light on a humanitarian who spent much of his career working anonymously. VERDICT A must read for anyone interested in humanitarian work, foreign policy, and biography.--Chad E. Statler, Westlake Porter P.L., Westlake, OH

Excerpts

Prologue Mozambique February 1988 She was a displaced farmer from Chemba, near to the border of Sofala and Tete provinces, in central Mozambique. Her village was at the intersection of the great Zambezi River and one of its tributaries. She spoke to him through a translator in Sena, a Bantu language of the Mozambique, Malawi, and Zimbabwe border areas. He had found her wearing a black kerchief and blue blouse. She appeared as "quite self-possessed," crouching on the dirt floor of the hut, and beckoning him to sit beside her on a chair. The government troops of FRELIMO had fled her village, she explained to him, and RENAMO soldiers closed in from several directions, forcing the villagers to the bank of the Zambezi. FRELIMO, the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique, had come to power as an anti-Portuguese guerrilla group, with some support from Cuba and the Soviet Union. But it couldn't control the countryside where RENAMO, an indigenous African, anti-communist insurgency supported by apartheid South Africa, was on the rampage. RENAMO soldiers executed her niece, and soon afterward her niece's nursing daughter died of hunger and exposure. The woman told him she saw half a dozen bodies up close: of two young boys and other women and children. There were more bodies still, but she didn't have the courage to look at them. The woman and her own seven-year-old daughter then began to run but were chased into the big river by more RENAMO troops who had just arrived and were shooting at them, spraying the water's surface with bullets. People drowned, trying to escape the barrage. She told him that "she tried as best she could," but exhausted, made the split-second choice to save herself and in a panic let go of her daughter, "who was swept away by the current and drowned." She said that "God helped me to an island in the river," where people from Mutarara, on the far side of the river, came with boats to evacuate them. She remained in Mutarara as a displaced person for five months. But then RENAMO attacked it and she fled again, helped by the cover provided by the outnumbered FRELIMO troops. She then walked roughly twenty miles north to a refugee camp across the border in Malawi. She remained at Makokwe camp in southern Malawi for three months. But "there was no future there," she told him. So she crossed the border back into Mozambique, where she stayed in a transit camp by a railway yard in Moatize, which was mortared by RENAMO. Then she escaped to a displaced persons camp in Benga, in Changara district, west of Moatize. She had been in Benga four months when he interviewed her on Monday, February 29, 1988, the third person he had interviewed there, according to his diary. He remembered each person he interviewed by a distinguishing characteristic that he marked down in his notes. That way he could remember them as individuals, and thus preserve their humanity. This interviewee was "the woman with the black kerchief." "The various expressions on her face, and the way she pronounced the words, were powerful and full of emotion. The moment she told me of letting go of her seven-year-old daughter's hand in the great River, her hand slowly waved in the air, as if she were letting go again, and again." He had no children of his own yet, though he was already forty-three. But he was torn apart by the image of the woman's decision between surviving herself and letting her own daughter drown. He never got used to the stories he heard. She was the 143rd of 196 refugees and displaced persons of the Mozambique civil war he interviewed, traveling between camps that were separated by hundreds of miles in war zones in Malawi, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, and Mozambique itself. He was eating one meal a day, interviewing people like her during all the daylight hours, concentrating hard so as never to ask a leading question. He lived out of a tent with a sleeping bag and mosquito coil, writing in his lined notebook and typing by candlelight as there was no electricity, remembering each voice through his fingertips. It was merely another day of work for him, just another assignment, like all the others in war and disaster areas of the developing world: assignments which continued--literally one after another--for four decades, on several continents. He was often lonely, depressed, but lived in fear of being promoted out of what he was doing. He was truly calm only while interviewing and taking notes. It was in such moments that he attained the quality of an ascetic, inhaling the evidence almost. For him, listening to these voices was like slow breathing. So he never stopped doing it. The surroundings meant little to him. In his mind, the towering and interminable bush of Mozambique had been reduced to the lined pages of his notebooks, where his swift, graceful jottings became a sacred script: all he was able to remember were the stories that these refugees and displaced persons had told him. He was not a journalist or a relief worker. He worked for the U.S. government in a very unusual capacity. He deliberately avoided publicity, and thus many of those who flock to war zones barely knew he existed. In any case, as someone who was at heart an introvert, he was easily ignored by them. They made legends out of other people, not out of him. I first met him in a cheap hostel in Khartoum more than a third of a century ago as I write these words, and crossed paths with him over the decades in Somalia, Liberia, Ethiopia, the Sudan-Chad border, Nepal, and other places. He was everywhere the news was, and also where it wasn't. Yet in a certain sense he was invisible, and he was happy that way. To the media and the human rights community, Robert "Bob" Gersony was often the forgotten man. This is his story. It is the story of a son of Jewish Holocaust refugees who dropped out of high school, was awarded a Bronze Star in Vietnam, and then spent forty years interviewing at great length over eight thousand refugees, displaced persons, and humanitarian workers in virtually every war and disaster zone on earth as a special contractor for the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the United Nations. The results were legendary "Gersony reports," of which Mozambique was one. The story of "the woman with the black kerchief" made it all the way up to Secretary of State George Shultz and Maureen Reagan, whom Gersony briefed days after returning from the field. It was a standard pattern for him: living in the bush for many weeks and then briefing high policymakers in person about his findings. They listened to him and often changed policy accordingly--making it smarter and more humane--because of the way that Gersony was able to ingeniously integrate a concern for human rights within the framework of national interest. For the two were inseparable in Gersony's mind: a mind that eschewed grand schemes and was always emphatically loyal to the minutiae of the local situation, in which each far-flung place was a product of its own unique geography and history. Gersony's life is about how the granularity of distant places defeats all theories. It is about how if foreign policy ignores the effect it has on individual human beings it descends into a realm of inhuman abstraction. Indeed, this is the story of a man who epitomized the American Century more than anyone I know or was ever aware of. His story is that of the Cold War and the post Cold War, of America's vast moral responsibilities in this world and its total immersion in it, which grew out of both America's geopolitical necessities and its aspiration to be an exemplar of humanity. It is a story of fieldwork and reporting, of letting the facts emanate from the ground up--what in particular the State Department for so long was so great and indefatigable at, and which he so typified. And it is a story of the last golden age of American diplomacy, as he interacted with ambassadors, assistant secretaries of state, and others who were giants in their day: a day when the bureaucracy at all levels had sufficient money and rewarded talent. This is as much a picaresque as a biography: a series of overseas assignments that make up an epic life. Excerpted from The Good American: The Epic Life of Bob Gersony, the U. S. Government's Greatest Humanitarian by Robert D. Kaplan All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.