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| August 16, 2009 |
KENNETH H. BACON, 64: Pentagon Spokesman Became an Advocate for Refugees
Ken Bacon, WASHINGTON POST
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/15/AR2009081501336.html?hpid=moreheadlines
Mr. Bacon had spent 25 years at the Journal's Washington bureau before becoming the chief spokesman at the Pentagon in 1994, working under then-Defense Secretary William J. Perry. He held the position of assistant secretary of defense for public affairs and stayed in his post when William S. Cohen was named defense secretary in December 1996.
On a visit to the Balkans in 1999, Mr. Bacon saw firsthand the human toll of warfare, as hundreds of thousands of people were driven from their homes with no place to turn.
"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," he told the New York Times in 2001.
After leaving the Pentagon in 2001, Mr. Bacon became president of the D.C.-based advocacy group Refugees International and emerged as one of the strongest voices for the dispossessed around the globe. His organization, which accepts no funding from governments or the United Nations, estimates that there are 12 million international refugees.
Mr. Bacon was among the first to draw attention to the humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan, and he helped bring to light the problems facing millions of refugees from the war in Iraq. He was instrumental in finding sanctuary for displaced Iraqis in Middle East countries and lobbied for greater numbers of Iraqi refugees to be admitted to the United States. Between 2006 and 2008, the State Department increased funding for Iraqi refugees from $43 million to $398 million.
"The U.S. cannot afford to win the military battle and lose the humanitarian campaign," Bacon said.
After struggling with metastatic melanoma, Mr. Bacon wrote about his illness and his problems with insurance coverage in an essay published by The Post on July 21.
"My oncologist has spent hours filling out forms and arguing with the insurance company to arrange coverage for my chemotherapy," he wrote. "Now my wife and I are waging our own fight with the provider to arrange payment for my daily brain radiation, which has been rejected as 'not medically necessary' even though the cancer in my brain is growing rapidly."
"For me and other Americans
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Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Bacon, who was Pentagon spokesman during the Clinton administration, a "great humanitarian leader.- 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.”