A Mighty Purpose Read Online Free PDF

accustomed to extreme situations. A drunk, maniacal Thai colonel once put a gun to his head. Kristoffersson, himself a military veteran, patiently talked his way out of the standoff and then drank cognac with the colonel.
    By the time Grant arrived, the effort Kristoffersson had put together was feeding more than a half million people. The ICRC supplied medical care; the UN’s World Food Program provided some of the food. UNICEF delivered a variety of aid and ran the whole show. Dozens of NGOs also offered assistance. There was heroism and sacrifice, and there was also bickering andinfighting, as agendas and personalities clashed like cars in a demolition derby.
    Grant’s first priority was to keep donors engaged and money coming in. He had already started doing this before joining UNICEF. As the president of the Overseas Development Council (ODC), a progressive international think tank, Grant had spearheaded an effort to pressure President Carter into dramatically increasing the US contribution to help Cambodia. On a Sunday night in October 1979, Grant had called the ODC’s board chair, Father Ted Hesburgh. The idealistic, imperturbable president of Notre Dame University, Hesburgh was a respected voice on international affairs and a longtime friend of Grant’s.
    “We’ve got to do something,” Grant had insisted.
    The priest had demurred. “It’s a big world, Jim.”
    Grant’s reply: “Don’t give me that.”
    He then had instructed Hesburgh to send a telegram to a group of several dozen religious and NGO leaders and ask them to come to the ODC offices the next day to draft a letter to President Carter. All but one showed up, according to Hesburgh, and the letter had gone immediately to the White House. It worked: within hours, Carter invited them to a meeting in the cabinet room. The president had previously pledged $7 million for Cambodian relief. Now they were asking him for $60 million. The survival of an entire country was at stake, they had told him. Grant had recognized that the source of the request was as important as the request itself. One of his signature strategies: demonstrate an overwhelming unanimity across a diverse spectrum of interests. Carter might have been able to say noto Hesburgh or even to the man he had recently nominated to run UNICEF. But saying no to a varied coalition of NGOs and clergy from several major faiths—representing tens of millions of constituents—would be more difficult.
    After the meeting, the president had announced the US government would contribute $69 million to help stop a tragedy “of genocidal proportions.” (Never mind that genocide had already taken place in Cambodia, and that the Carter administration was supporting the very people who had caused it.) Some of the money pledged by Carter went to support the effort Kristoffersson was building on the Thai-Cambodian border.
    Grant saw that effort for himself shortly after taking the helm at UNICEF. He met with Kristoffersson at the operational headquarters in Aranyaprathet, Thailand, and was immediately impressed by the alacrity of UNICEF staff, who were working around the clock in austere conditions and ceaseless, smothering heat. Grant asked to visit the camps, but Kristoffersson warned him it was unsafe.
    “Are you going?” Grant said.
    “Yes,” Kristoffersson replied.
    “Then I’m going.”
    Grant threaded his way into dense crowds of Cambodian refugees. They barraged him with stories and complaints and pleas. As an interpreter relayed it all, he assiduously took notes.
    Buoyed by the visit, Grant started putting pressure on governments all over the world to contribute. Often accompanied by the secretary general’s representative, a formidable Aussie and esteemed UN veteran named Sir Robert Jackson, he canvassedthe globe. The two men drummed up money and awareness and studiously avoided taking sides. As accusations swooped from every direction about corruption and misappropriation of aid, Grant made