A Eulogy for USAID, Whose Death Affects the World, Including the USA

This is one of the most powerful SoftPower/FulStories I've heard. Last year, at a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer gathering in San Francisco, I met former USAID staff members wearing shirts that read , "USAID Forever." I thought of them while listening to Susan Sullivan's moving eulogy, released on the first anniversary of USAID's death.

Describing the dismantling of America's most influential foreign assistance, she pays tribute to the agency's 65-year legacy as she critiques its murder. She tells the story of the agency created by President Kennedy in 1961 to win "hearts and minds" around the world—not through military force, but through humanitarian assistance and development. (I was also struck by how she recreates 1961, reminding us of Elvis Presley and Sean Connery as the first James Bond!) She reminds us of an organization that rarely advertised itself to Americans, even while touching millions of lives abroad.

She doesn't pretend USAID was flawless. She acknowledges bureaucracy and other shortcomings. But she also describes how its destruction has carried an enormous human cost. In addition to giving statistics, she illustrates that cost with unforgettable examples: food being destroyed instead of delivered to hungry people, disaster victims left without assistance from the US, and an agency dismantled at great expense while contributing almost nothing to reducing the federal deficit. She also places USAID's $40 billion annual budget (less than 1% of the federal budget) in the broader context of federal spending. She notes that the Pentagon has failed eight consecutive financial audits and contrasts the agency's elimination with the far greater sums devoted to military spending on the war on Iran.

She also makes a very interesting revelation about which country, too rich to qualifying for aid, got half of the annual budget USAID had not because of need but because of its leaders personal ties with the US administration.

Particularly compelling is her examination of how misinformation, conspiracy theories, and political rhetoric helped turn a respected institution into a target. She contrasts earlier bipartisan recognition of USAID's importance—even from leaders who later reversed course—with the speed and finality of its demise.

"We miss you, USAID," Sullivan says at the close of her eulogy., and thanks to this episode (and Nicholas Enrich's), those who were a year ago unaware of all USAID was doing will miss it too.