AUTHOR RECALLS HOW PRESIDENT REAGAN BUILT UPON PRESIDENT CARTER'S CRITICAL CHANGES FOR REFUGEES

Hope of the Phoenix

The Reawakening and Rise oF America's Humanitarian Spirit 
from the Ashes of Vietnam
1975-1986

Presidents Carter and Reagan (photo credit: History.com)

Author Jim (James N., Jr.) Purcell remembers when President Reagan took the torch and heartily supported the new Bureau for Refugee Programs at the State Department.  George P. Shultz was President Reagan's Secretary of State after Alexander Haig.

In 1979, President Carter's State Department geared up to establish a new bureau for refugee programs to deal with the continuing and increasingly critical flow of refugees from Southeast Asia after the Fall of Saigon, April 30, 1975--40 years ago. 

Incoming in 1981, President Reagan gave full support to State's growing Bureau for Refugee Programs, today known as Bureau for Population, Refugees, and Migration.  

The author has considered Secretary Shultz to be a professional mentor since 1976, when President Nixon appointed Mr. Shultz to be director of the Bureau of the Budget, now known as the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the author, a young budget analyst, met him at the outset and told his own staff, "This time, we got a good one."  

In 1982, President Reagan appointed Mr. Shultz to the State Department, and he was the author's boss in the Refugee program, where the author served from 1979 to 1986.

April 28, 2015, in the finishing stages of writing Hope of the Phoenix, Jim Purcell is scheduled to visit at the Hoover Institution, not far from San Francisco, to meet with former Secretary of State George P. Shultz .

The meeting with "the boss" will set a cherished milestone for the author.

About Jim Purcell's Forthcoming Book 2015

"To the front press row I said in a low voice, “Believe me, folks, if the President and national security adviser have a secret plan, they wouldn’t use me to unveil it.  I just work here.” From Harbinger, Chapter 1, Hope of the Phoenix

James N Purcell, Jr. is Chairman of the Board of the U.S. Association for International Migration (USAIM). He is a member of the board of the Council for a Community of Democracies (CCD). His forthcoming book (2015), subtitled "The Reawakening and Rise of America's Humanitarian Spirit from the Ashes of Vietnam," is the history of the U. S. Refugee Program (RP), 1979 to 1986, the author's personal narrative.

The U.S. Department of State tasked Jim Purcell with setting up the new Bureau for Refugee Programs (now Population, Refugees, and Migration) in 1979. President Reagan appointed Mr. Purcell as Assistant Secretary of State for the Refugee Program in 1983, where Mr. Purcell served until 1986, as the longest-serving director for the Refugee Program.

Through the State Department's Refugee Program, the U.S. put into place protocols and policies relied upon today around the world.

The early U.S. post-Vietnam refugee efforts involved U. S. Presidents Ford, Carter, and Reagan; U. S. congressional committees and subcommittees, U. S. communities and churches, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), helping governments, and international organizations, among them: UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), International Organization for Migration (IOM), and others.

The U. S. Refugee Program team worked to strengthen American responses to humanitarian crises around the world.

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Book Subtitle The Reawakening and Rise of America's Humanitarian Spirit from the Ashes of Vietnam - 1979 to 1986 -by James N. Purcell, Jr., former Assistant Secretary of State, U. S. State Department, Bureau for Refugee Programs; former Director General, International Organization for Migration


The Distinguished Honor Award from Secretary of State George P. Shultz

The Senior Executive Service Meritorious Executive Award from President Ronald R. Reagan

Forthcoming Book Genres: Refugees, Humanitarian crises, Policy, Government, International

Copyright (c) 2014 James N. Purcell, Jr. All rights reserved.