Clifford H. Brown

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CLIFFORD H. BROWN

About me

Between my sophomore and junior years of college, I took a year off and worked first as a deckhand on a Columbia River tugboat, later as a timekeeper on a railroad maintenance gang, and finally on an USG oceanographic ship that travelled from Seattle to Tahiti and various ports in Latin America. The experience prompted a lifelong interest in both international affairs and foreign languages. I won a Thomas Watson Fellowship during my senior year in college and spent another year travelling in Latin America and living in Chile during the time leading up to the 1973 coup which overthrew Salvador Allende.

I won a Thomas Watson Fellowship during my senior year in college and spent another year travelling in Latin America and living in Chile during the time leading up to the 1973 coup which overthrew Salvador Allende.

Moments That Matter

Journeys Across Nations, Law, and Human Experience

USAID will always be best known for its humanitarian, disaster and public health work. But it did far more. It was the primary tool the USG used to accomplish virtually anything overseas in between our military and diplomatic work.
International Impact

INSIDE USAID

This book contains the collected tales of one insider who, over nearly three decades, lived and worked in many countries where the social consensus fell apart in a short period of time. I was the Acting Deputy Chief of Mission during the Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan. I was the USAID Mission Director when long-time dictator Guinea, Lasana Conte, died and was followed by more than one military coup.

International Impact
I was the legal advisor in Haiti after their dictator was forced to flee after ordering soldiers to shoot voters standing in line to vote, and in Guatemala after the President ordered all Supreme Court Justices and legislators arrested, only to flee the country a week later.I saw firsthand the chaos in Nicaragua following the first administration of Daniel Ortega, and later the futility of fighting the illicit drug trade in both Colombia and Peru.
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Personal Journey

DILETTANTE

This book contains my own tales which led me to eventually work in USAID. Growing up in Eastern Washington State necessarily meant exposure to the timeless wisdom of farmers. I tell of life on the farms and in small town America, about some serious juvenile prankster-hood, life as the only white kid on a maintenance crew gang worker living in boxcars on remote railroad sidings of the Northern Pacific Railway, floating and learning guitar on a tugboat pushing wheat barges on the Columbia River, nine long months as a sailor for the US Coast and Geodetic Survey headed first to Tahiti and then the Antarctic ocean (with a medevac stop at Easter Island),

travelling for a year in both Central and South America following college, life as a UCLA law student and then as a practicing commercial attorney in two different law firms, and finally my transition to USAID and first assignment overseas to Nairobi in 1989 as a regional legal advisor.
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USAID will always be best known for its humanitarian, disaster and public health work. But it did far more. It was the primary tool the USG used to accomplish virtually anything overseas in between our military and diplomatic work. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, USAID hired advisors to develop modern commercial laws and provided training to function in a private sector economy. USAID gave key assistance to promote the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa in the 1990’s. We helped Latin America reform criminal law procedures and adopt jury trials. We developed entire industries to allow products to be exported to the US at times when they were otherwise unavailable. We provided job opportunities to disarmed soldiers following a host of civil wars. We brought the governments of Central America together and brokered a multi-country corridor of national parks to preserve biodiversity. The list is endless, and all such work reflected priorities of, and was approved by, our Executive Branch, Congress and the State Department.

This book contains the collected tales of one insider who, over nearly three decades, lived and worked in many countries where the social consensus fell apart in a short period of time. I was the Acting Deputy Chief of Mission during the Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan. I was the USAID Mission Director when long-time dictator Guinea, Lasana Conte, died and was followed by more than one military coup. I was the legal advisor in Haiti after their dictator was forced to flee after ordering soldiers to shoot voters standing in line to vote, and in Guatemala after the President ordered all Supreme Court Justices and legislators arrested, only to flee the country a week later. I saw firsthand the chaos in Nicaragua following the first administration of Daniel Ortega, and later the futility of fighting the illicit drug trade in both Colombia and Peru. While often critical, I give context to the current debates over USAID’s demise, and I describe the human side of working in international development. I hope readers may better appreciate the work USAID did and also just how fragile and vulnerable the social consensus anywhere may become.
This book contains my own tales which led me to eventually work in USAID. Growing up in Eastern Washington State necessarily meant exposure to the timeless wisdom of farmers. I tell of life on the farms and in small town America, about some serious juvenile prankster-hood, life as the only white kid on a maintenance crew gang worker living in boxcars on remote railroad sidings of the Northern Pacific Railway, floating and learning guitar on a tugboat pushing wheat barges on the Columbia River, nine long months as a sailor for the US Coast and Geodetic Survey headed first to Tahiti and then the Antarctic ocean (with a medevac stop at Easter Island), travelling for a year in both Central and South America following college, life as a UCLA law student and then as a practicing commercial attorney in two different law firms, and finally my transition to USAID and first assignment overseas to Nairobi in 1989 as a regional legal advisor. The book title comes from my conclusion that I was supremely fortunate to be able dabble in so many different fields and in languages which most people likely would not experience in more ordinary jobs.

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