Fond memories
As a member of the class of 1966, Bacon experienced a very different Amherst College. His Amherst was one with two years of required classes and one without the current co-educational arrangement. "[It was] probably a lot less fun and a lot less educational than if I had attended a co-educational institution," said Bacon, with regard to the experience of attending an all-male institution.
During Bacon's sophomore year, he attended President John F. Kennedy's dedication of the Robert Frost Library. "It was a wonderful experience," he said. "There was a moving speech in Coolidge Cage [before the groundbreaking] and it was packed with students." However, Bacon remembers less of Kennedy's speech than the experience he had later that day.
"After the groundbreaking I was walking up Route 9 with a friend when [my friend] said, 'Here comes the President.'" Bacon said President Kennedy was coming up in a motorcade with one police car in the front, a Lincoln Continental convertible where the President was sitting and maybe one more car in the back. "My friend said that we should go and pay respect to the President, and I asked him how we should do that. He said we should applaud as the President went by.
"So here we were, two sophomores of Amherst College, and we stood at the side of the road applauding as President Kennedy drove by. [President Kennedy] stood up and waved to us. The amazing thing was the lack of security as the President drove by in an open vehicle. In retrospect this may have been the problem in Dallas a few weeks later," he added, referring to the assassination of President Kennedy which occurred a few weeks after the library dedication.
Moving up the ladder
While at Amherst, Bacon secured a summer internship at the Chicago bureau of The Wall Street Journal. "By the second day on the job, it was clear to me that this was what I wanted to do. It was totally engrossing," he said. "I enjoyed every minute of it." After graduating from the College as an English major, Bacon continued his education and received both an MBA and master's degree in journalism from Columbia University.
Bacon got his first job in 1968 as a legislative assistant to New Hampshire senator Thomas M. McIntyre. He returned to The Journal in 1969 as a reporter. By 1983 he was the assistant news editor, supervising economics and foreign policy coverage of Washington D.C.
During his 25-year career at The Journal, Bacon covered such issues as defense, international financial matters and banking. "Every day was exciting," he said, adding that the 25 years sped by. Bacon said he particularly enjoyed covering economics during the Reagan administration, when officials were choosing between control inflation or establishing a stronger economic policy.
Bacon also covered issues at the Pentagon while working at The Journal. It was during this coverage that he regularly interviewed William Perry, an official at the Department of Defense who would play a prominent role in advancing Bacon's career.
In 1994, President Clinton named Perry as his second secretary of defense to replace Les Aspen. Perry, who had remained in touch with Bacon during this time, contacted Bacon to see if he was interested in becoming the liaison between the military and media. Bacon carefully pondered the prospect and in 1994 accepted the position of assistant secretary of defense for public affairs. He represented both William Perry and Perry's successor, William Cohen, for the next six years of the Clinton Administration.
"The overall characterization of a day is frantic," Bacon said. "My day began at 7:30 in the morning and ended between 7:30 and 8:30 at night. Most of the day I was trying to ride the tide of the news. My job was to keep the secretary of defense up on all the [news] while conversing with the White House on matters of foreign and national security. I was always meeting with reporters either on the phone or in person [or in public briefings]. It was constantly challenging, but great fun."
Passion for world affairs
It was while Bacon was at the Department of Defense that he began to be aware of the difficulties of refugees in the world, an awareness that would drive him to his current career at Refugees International. The 1990s were rife with defining global events, but it was the Kosovo conflict that engrossed Bacon. He saw millions of Kosovars leave their homes as Serb forces moved into Kosovo, and he saw the heartbreaking task of rebuilding life that they had to face when they returned. Yet Bacon also saw beyond the dismal situation and focused on the positive aspects of the conflict's aftermath.
"It's important to remember that the world rallied to take care of the people of Kosovo," Bacon reported in an interview with The Washington Diplomat, an international newspaper. "This shows what happens when the world focuses on humanitarian issues. We know how to solve these problems. But we need the will, and we don't always have the will." Bacon, however, did have the will. In 2001 he accepted the position of CEO and president of Refugees International.
"Our goal is to make an organization of 16 people as productive as one of 160 people," Bacon said of Refugees International. "We pick our punches carefully and are funded solely by foundations and private donations. We are constantly sending people out to survey the displacement of people, mainly in and around war zones. We promote peaceful solutions while generating humanitarian aid. In the last two years we have focused on Iraq, but overall Africa receives most of the attention [simply because] there are the most conflicts there. We are pushing for a higher level of refugee resettlement in the U.S. while also promoting peacekeeping benefits."
To promote a higher level of refugee resettlement in the United States, as well as the other causes of Refugees International, Bacon and his colleagues have written editorials and articles in numerous publications. In an article in The New York Times on June 4, Bacon stated his case for refugee resettlement in the United States in a letter to the editor. He began his argument by citing the fact that "[t]here are 13 million refugees in the world today. Most have been displaced by conflict and will go home when fighting ends. For those who can't, there are two solutions: asylum and integration in an adjoining country or resettlement in a third country, like the United States."
Bacon continued by stressing the importance of the United States' admission of refugees as leaders in resettlement. "The erosion of the program in the United States-traditionally a haven for the persecuted-hurts refugees around the world. When the richest country dramatically reduces resettlements, other countries will find it easier to close their doors."
Recent humanitarian efforts
Recently, Refugees International has been focusing on the Bush administration's inability to properly prepare for the aftermath of war with Iraq. "Lack of preparedness by U.N. and private relief agencies means the U.S. military will have to do most of the relief work, and this in turn could mean that the suffering of the Iraqi people will be greater than necessary ... Our urgent unanswered question is: Who will care for Iraqis exposed to weapons of mass destruction? Humanitarian organizations lack the skills and equipment to handle this challenge," Bacon wrote in an article for The Washington Post.
With compelling arguments such as these, Refugees International has become a respected organization in the eyes of governments around the world. Currently the most support has come from the United States government, the United Nations and the European Union.
Kenneth Bacon's life has been one of passion for world affairs. Whether writing for The Journal, speaking on behalf of the Pentagon or writing articles to help refugees, Bacon has dedicated himself to the global community. Yet he has never lost his dedication to Amherst College. He received an honorary doctorate as a Doctor of Humane Letters from the College in 2001. In addition, Bacon currently serves on the board of trustees.
Many students may wonder what to do after they graduate from the College. "Look beyond your narrow world," Bacon advised. "And try to help people."