[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 125 (Tuesday, September 8, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2205-E2206]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       IN MEMORY OF KEN BACON, PRESIDENT, REFUGEES INTERNATIONAL

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JAMES P. McGOVERN

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, September 8, 2009

  Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, it was with deep sorrow and shock that I 
learned of the death of Mr. Ken Bacon, President of Refugees 
International. Ken was a great man, who accomplished so much in his 
lifetime, both inside and outside the U.S. government. His wit, focus, 
passion and vision will be sorely missed by me and everyone who knew 
him.
  One of the first actions I did with Ken in his capacity as the new 
president of Refugees International was an event in 2001 on the need to 
ban anti-personnel landmines. His background and experience at the 
Pentagon made Ken an especially authoritative voice in support of the 
international treaty to ban landmines and on the horror and 
humanitarian consequences of landmines. I found him inspiring and 
energizing.
  In the years to come, we would work together on issues ranging from 
internally displaced people in Colombia, to the tragedy of Darfur, and 
the need to ban the use of cluster munitions. I last saw Ken at a 
breakfast on Capitol Hill on June 17th, where we had a chance to join 
forces once again to talk about the special needs of displaced women 
and girls.
  Ken Bacon helped strengthen and revitalize Refugees International 
into one of the most internationally recognized voices and advocates on 
behalf of refugees and the internally displaced. And like all his 
friends, family and colleagues, I pledge to carry on his work as if he 
were still right by my side.
  I would like to insert into the Record the statement on the death of 
Ken Bacon by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; the August 16th 
obituary in the New York Times; and the August 15th tribute posted by 
Refugees International on its web site.

        Death of Ken Bacon, President of Refugees International

                (Hillary Rodham Clinton, Aug. 15, 2009)

       The United States and the world lost a great humanitarian 
     leader with the passing today of Ken Bacon, President of 
     Refugees International. Most Americans remember Ken as the 
     unflappable civilian voice of the Department of Defense, 
     where he served with distinction as spokesperson for many 
     years. But for millions of the world's most vulnerable 
     people--refugees and other victims of conflict--Ken was an 
     invaluable source of hope, inspiration and support. From 
     Central Africa to South Asia to the Americas, Ken shone the 
     spotlight on the causes of humanitarian suffering, and served 
     as an impassioned yet reasoned advocate for the principles of 
     humanitarian protection and assistance. We will miss Ken, but 
     we will be inspired by the contributions he has made and the 
     example he has set.
                                  ____


                [From the New York Times, Aug. 16, 2009]

           K. Bacon, an Advocate for Refugees, Is Dead at 64

                          (By Douglas Martin)

       Kenneth H. Bacon, a former journalist and Pentagon 
     spokesman who devoted his last years to highlighting 
     refugees' problems and urging policymakers to find solutions, 
     died Saturday morning at his summer home on Block Island, 
     R.I. He was 64 and a resident of Washington.
       The cause was complications of melanoma, his daughter Sarah 
     said.
       Mr. Bacon, as an assistant secretary of defense in the 
     Clinton administration, was the spokesman for the Defense 
     Department during NATO's campaign to end the violence in 
     Kosovo in 1999. He then visited his first refugee camp during 
     a trip to the Balkans with William S. Cohen, then the defense 
     secretary.
       ``I had never seen refugees before, never fully appreciated 
     the sheer magnitude of one million people leaving their homes 
     and needing food, shelter and medical care and then one 
     million people going back home after the war,'' he said in an 
     interview with The New York Times in 2001.
       ``This fascinated me,'' he continued. ``I knew it was rare 
     for the world to help refugees so completely, and I wondered 
     if somebody could help give the same attention to the 
     refugees in the Congo, Afghanistan and Sudan.''
       Mr. Bacon became president of Refugees International, which 
     advocates for assistance to save the lives of the world's 
     41.9 million people who flee their homes to escape violence, 
     either in their own countries or across borders. The 
     organization also aids the 12 million stateless people living 
     in limbo without citizenship rights.
       Refugees International helps abandoned refugees receive 
     food, medicine and education; helps displaced families to 
     return home and helps stateless families obtain legal status. 
     It also urges policymakers at the national and international 
     levels to send peacekeepers to protect displaced people.
       In a biography he wrote for the organization's Web site, 
     Mr. Bacon said the most important thing Refugees 
     International does is push governments and the United Nations 
     to overcome what he called the ``commitment gap'' that 
     prevents the world from ending genocide, human rights abuses 
     and wars.
       Mr. Bacon wrote and spoke extensively about these issues. 
     In remarks at the Brookings Institution in February 2003, 
     just five weeks before the United States attacked Iraq, he 
     suggested ways to reduce the number of refugees in a war, 
     including choosing targets outside of urban areas.
       In an article in Newsday in September 2003 he urged the 
     United States to persuade France to contribute peacekeepers 
     to Iraq, because of France's success in peacekeeping 
     elsewhere. At the time, many Americans resented France 
     because of its strong opposition to the American attack.
       Kenneth Hogate Bacon was born in Bronxville, N.Y., on Nov. 
     21, 1944. He graduated from the Phillips Exeter Academy and 
     Amherst College, where his father was a political science 
     professor. He earned master's degrees in journalism and 
     business from Columbia.
       In 1968 and 1969, he was a legislative assistant to United 
     States Senator Thomas J. McIntyre, Democrat of New Hampshire. 
     He then joined The Wall Street Journal's Washington bureau, 
     where he worked for 25 years as a reporter, columnist and 
     editor. From 1968 to 1974, he served in the Army Reserve.
       Mr. Bacon had covered the Pentagon during the Carter 
     administration and had come to respect William J. Perry, a 
     senior official. When President Bill Clinton appointed Mr. 
     Perry as his second secretary of defense in 1994, Mr. Perry 
     asked Mr. Bacon to be his spokesman.
       Mr. Bacon joined the Clinton administration as assistant to 
     the secretary of defense for public affairs, and was promoted 
     to assistant secretary in 1996. He served until 2001, 
     becoming a familiar face on broadcast and cable television 
     news shows donned in his signature bow tie.

[[Page E2206]]

       Mr. Bacon is survived by his wife, the former Darcy 
     Wheeler, and his daughters, Katharine and Sarah; his father, 
     Theodore S. Bacon of Peterborough, N.H.; and his brother, 
     Douglas A. Bacon of Concord, Mass.
       To Mr. Bacon, being a refugee was something that could 
     happen to anybody at any time.
       ``Even blue-blooded WASPs were refugees at one time; mine 
     came over from England in 1630, fleeing debts for all I 
     know,'' he said.
                                  ____


              [From Refugees International, Aug. 15, 2009]

      Refugees International Mourns the Death of Kenneth H. Bacon

       Washington, DC.--With grief and a deep sense of loss, 
     Refugees International announces that Kenneth H. Bacon, 
     President of Refugees International, died this morning from 
     an aggressive melanoma that spread into his brain. Mr. Bacon, 
     who became President of Refugees International in 2001 and 
     was only 64 years old at the time of his death, devoted the 
     final years of his life to building the organization into the 
     leading advocacy group on refugee crises.
       ``Ken Bacon was an extraordinary human being. He led by 
     example and dedicated his efforts to help those most 
     vulnerable--refugees and displaced persons across the 
     globe,'' said Farooq Kathwari, Chair of the Board of 
     Directors of Refugees International. ``We are inspired by his 
     passion, his integrity, his humility, and the dignity with 
     which he faced the inevitable. We will sorely miss our friend 
     and colleague.''
       Under Mr. Bacon's leadership, Refugees International 
     doubled in size and grew from an organization that largely 
     sounded the alarm on the latest refugee crisis to a program 
     built on sustained advocacy to transform unwieldy and often 
     ineffective international systems. During his tenure, the 
     organization successfully advocated for increased protection 
     and assistance for displaced people in places like Darfur and 
     Iraq, where he focused much of his own work, as well as in 
     Afghanistan, Burma, the DR Congo, Colombia, and Thailand. Mr. 
     Bacon also launched new advocacy programs on peacekeeping and 
     statelessness.
       In the last few months of his life, Mr. Bacon turned his 
     passion towards the growing threat of climate displacement. 
     Just a few weeks prior to his death, he and his wife Darcy 
     provided a generous donation to establish the Ken and Darcy 
     Bacon Center for the Study of Climate Displacement.
       ``Ken's death is an enormous loss--to his family, his 
     friends, and Refugees International. All of us here will miss 
     his leadership, his kindness, and his quiet passion,'' said 
     Joel Charny acting president of Refugees International. ``He 
     never stopped looking for new ways to bring attention to the 
     millions of people who have been uprooted by violence and 
     conflict. The world's most vulnerable people have lost one of 
     their most tireless advocates.''
       In 2004, Mr. Bacon made Darfur his primary regional focus 
     before throngs of activists and celebrities began calling for 
     support to the region. In 2005, he accompanied UN Secretary 
     General Kofi Annan to Darfur, and he met with Sudanese 
     President Al-Bashir in 2007 to push for a ceasefire and 
     greater access for relief workers in Darfur. Over the years, 
     he travelled to Darfur four times, wrote op-ed pieces, 
     conducted media interviews and testified to Congress in his 
     trademark bowtie, participated in think-tank working groups, 
     debated the merits of military action with journalists and 
     humanitarian workers and gave advice to the leaders of the 
     grassroots movements that made Darfur a household name. These 
     efforts helped lead to the substantial funding the U.S. has 
     provided for aid to the people of Darfur and to African Union 
     and United Nations peacekeepers in the region.
       ``Ken would walk the corridors of power one day and then 
     meet with refugees in the most remote areas of Darfur the 
     next. His unique mixture of expertise in the media, military 
     affairs, and U.S. government policy, added to his compassion 
     for vulnerable refugees, made him one of the great voices in 
     humanitarian advocacy,'' continued Charny. ``Ken always saw 
     the best in people. His ability to connect with nearly 
     everyone he met made it possible for him to convince 
     officials at the highest levels of government and the United 
     Nations to make the necessary changes to save lives and 
     protect people from harm.''
       In 2006, Mr. Bacon pushed Refugees International to 
     investigate the plight of Iraqi refugees at a time when no 
     one was willing to acknowledge or speak out about this 
     matter. Drawing on the findings of Refugees International's 
     field research teams, Mr. Bacon was a leader in pushing the 
     U.S. government and the UN to recognize the world's fastest 
     growing refugee crisis at that time. His advocacy with senior 
     administration officials and key members of Congress, such as 
     Senator Edward Kennedy, was instrumental in achieving 
     extensive press coverage and policy discussions on Iraqi 
     displacement, the creation of a State Department task force 
     on the problem, a sharp increase in international assistance 
     for displaced Iraqis, and greater numbers of Iraqis being 
     resettled in this country.
       Mr. Bacon wrote a few months before his death, ``When I 
     came to Refugees International in 2001, I planned to stay for 
     several years and then retire or move on to teaching or 
     writing, but the challenge of the work and the commitment of 
     the staff are too exciting to leave.'' When he thanked people 
     for their support of the organization, he regularly noted, 
     ``We have a lot to do.''
       In 1994, Mr. Bacon became Assistant Secretary of Defense 
     for Public Affairs and Pentagon spokesman. During the U.S. 
     and NATO operations in Kosovo, Mr. Bacon became convinced 
     that the world needed more people working to stop human 
     rights abuses and to assist people displaced by man-made and 
     natural disasters. He became president of Refugees 
     International in 2001 to help further that goal.
       From 1969 to 1994 Mr. Bacon worked as a reporter and editor 
     at The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Bacon received his Bachelor's 
     degree from Amherst College, and a Master's degree in 
     Business Administration and Master's degree in Journalism 
     from Columbia University. He served in the U.S. Army Reserve 
     from 1968 to 1974.
       Mr. Bacon is survived by his wife, two daughters, two 
     grandchildren, his brother and his father. The board and 
     staff of Refugees International express their deepest 
     condolences to his family and friends.
       A memorial service will take place in Washington, DC in 
     September and forthcoming details will be posted on the 
     Refugees International website. In lieu of flowers or gifts, 
     the family has designated Refugees International for memorial 
     contributions in honor of Mr. Bacon. For more information, go 
     to http://www.refugeesinternational.org/ken-bacon.

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