[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.
____________________