Kill the Gringo: the Life of Jack Vaughnmdash;American Diplomat, Director of the Peace Corps, US Ambassador to Colombia and Panama, and Conservationist Online
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3oMYv (Mobile pdf) Kill the Gringo: The Life of Jack Vaughnmdash;American diplomat, Director of the Peace Corps, US ambassador to Colombia and Panama, and conservationist Online [3oMYv.ebook] Kill the Gringo: The Life of Jack Vaughnmdash;American diplomat, Director of the Peace Corps, US ambassador to Colombia and Panama, and conservationist Pdf Free Jack Hood Vaughn, Jane Constantineau ePub | *DOC | audiobook | ebooks | Download PDF Download Now Free Download Here Download eBook #269926 in eBooks 2017-04-18 2017-04-17File Name: B01N90FO8A | File size: 54.Mb Jack Hood Vaughn, Jane Constantineau : Kill the Gringo: The Life of Jack Vaughnmdash;American diplomat, Director of the Peace Corps, US ambassador to Colombia and Panama, and conservationist before purchasing it in order to gage whether or not it would be worth my time, and all praised Kill the Gringo: The Life of Jack Vaughnmdash;American diplomat, Director of the Peace Corps, US ambassador to Colombia and Panama, and conservationist: 4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Highly entertaining, humorous and surprisingBy Juliet Martiacute;nezThis 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, trumps all other options. Those who donrsquo;t agree with me havenrsquo;t experienced the madness of Pacific Island trench warfare or the magic of an Ivy League grad learning basic economics from a single mother in Zimbabwe."3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Of course there was a political angle to it since the Peace Corps was considered a useful counter to the spread of CommunismBy spatenThe 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 Bloodrsquo;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 1960rsquo;s another form of independent thinking led to the U.S. Peace Corps, a program created during the Kennedy administration although credit for it belongs more appropriately with Hubert Humphrey and a few other non- conformist foreign policy experts. Perhaps the defining and differentiating characteristic of the Peace Corps was (and more or less still is) its emphasis on ldquo;participatingrdquo; with the people of other nations rather than pedantically imposing American economic and political ldquo;principlesrdquo; on their social and cultural structures. Of course there was a political angle to it since the Peace Corps was considered a useful counter to the spread of Communism. But the bottom line was that Peace Corps volunteers learned the language of the countries where they served (what a novel idea!), lived with the people they worked with and within the same economic parameters of the native population. Volunteers lived (and live) in villages isolated from the main urban centers, they lived (and live) as the locals and that could mean no running water, no sanitary facilities, no commissaries to shop in, and no emotionally supporting expat community to fall back upon. In short, volunteers went native and by doing so they built bridges of understanding and respect between peoples of different cultures. Perhaps it was an unintended consequence of the program but volunteers probably learned more from the people of their host countries than they imparted to them. Although generally unrecognized by Congress and administrations, this cross-cultural interaction bears more fruit for peaceful relations among nations than any of the various military escapades most commonly used as Americarsquo;s primary ldquo;foreign policy tool.rdquo;Which leads to an epic adventure story. Kill the Gringo. Wersquo;re talking about a WWII fighting Marine, a boxer who sparred with some world champions, a linguist fluent in at least four languages, a man who survived multiple plane and car crashes. Wersquo;re talking about a guy who spent hours with his neck in a noose while standing on tiptoes as his rebel captors discussed whether to ldquo;kill the gringo.rdquo; Jack Vaughnrsquo;s memoir is a downright exciting story of effective iconoclasm in the face of rigid, arrogant, and appallingly self-righteous American foreign policy and political leadership.Vaughn became the second director of the Peace Corps after Sargent Shriver moved on to other things. But the route to that job followed a circuitous, highly unconventional, and unusually dangerous path. Vaughn was good. A fighter, literally, he saw so far beyond the conventions of traditional American foreign and domestic policy he frequently ran afoul of Washingtonrsquo;s top brass. Yet he was indispensable to them. From President Johnson on down through Congress and the State Department, Vaughn knew the world as none of them did. He could actually communicate fluently with much of the world. He embraced and enjoyed cultural emersion. In short, Vaughn could do extraordinary ldquo;diplomacyrdquo; because he spoke the language in the same tongue as those with whom he negotiated.If nothing else is taken away from this book it should teach us how critically important language skills and cross-cultural experiences are to opening doors and building bridges. The book offers both critical and supporting insights into the world of Washington. It is far more readable than any of the insufferable stuff from Henry Kissinger who could never break out of the imaginary world of realpolitik that he himself fabricated. Thank God there is an occasional Jack Vaughn to rattle the self- righteousness of American political leadership.Disclosure: My father knew and worked for Jack Vaughn. I did not know him.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. A must read!!By SSWhat a terrific book! Jack married my cousin Lefty in the late 60's, and for a few years when we lived in the same area, we had wonderful discussions at annual family holiday dinners, not always in agreement, but always fascinating and fun. I regret that I didn't take advantage back then of learning more about his incredibly interesting life--I had heard some of the stories, but reading this well written memoir that he and his daughter Jane put together was such an eye opener about the period in which he lived and worked. He truly was a unique individual who managed to hold more interesting jobs than anyone else I have ever heard of....and his particular love for the Peace Corps and its mission could not have been better described. He threw himself with intensity into everything he did--such a good lesson in leadership and how to make a positive impact in the world...while still having a lot of fun! We need more Jack Vaughn's... Kill the Gringo is the wide-ranging, action-packed memoir of Jack Hood Vaughn, whose career in diplomacy, social advocacy and conservation spanned more than 25 jobs and 11 countries.A professional boxer during his college years, Jack joined the Marines in 1941, fighting in the battles of Guam and Okinawa during World War II. 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. 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 organizationrsquo;s history and the delicate handling of anti-Vietnam fervor among its ranks. After his foreign service career, Jack led the National Urban Coalition and Planned Parenthood during the turbulent late 60rsquo;s and early 70rsquo;s. 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. Told with Jacksrsquo; humor and humility, his stories reveal an astonishingly varied, lively and distinguished career that lasted 50 years and earned him the nickname Peasant Ambassador. ..".engaging eyewitness history...a worthy read and a textbook for those seeking a career in public service. 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 s "Before there was Indiana Jones there was Jack Vaughn, the fearless Peace Corps executive plunging into some of the most dangerous territory on earth to spread the story of American values. Jack's life story is at once inspirational and terrifying, such a compelling combination for this modest man who looked like a country doctor and lived like a poster for a Harrison Ford movie."?Tom Brokaw, Journalist and author of ?A Lucky Life Interrupted"...engaging eyewitness history...and a textbook for those seeking a career in public service. 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 s"But this is no dry record of names and dates.