Book Description

In 1953, as part of the Eisenhower/Dulles response to Senator Joseph McCarthy's charges of security risks in its staff, John Bresnan was fired from the U.S. foreign service. This turned out to be a blessing is disguise as he was quickly hired by the Ford Foundation in its New York headquarters, and in 1961 was appointed Assistant Representative to Indonesia. Four years later, Bresnan was given another assignment: close the office. What follows is a personal recollection of the philanthropic work by the Ford Foundation during a critical period of development for the country. It details the Ford Foundation's successes and failures as well as his relationships with a wide array of characters: from John D. Rockefeller III to Soedjatmoko, from McGeorge Bundy to the Sultan of Yogyakarta. Based on extensive research in the archives of the Ford Foundation as well as personal files, At Home Abroad is an engaging insight into the inner workings of one of the largest philanthropic organizations and their mission in the developing world. This book should be required reading for anyone interested in the role of American philanthropy overseas. JOHN BRESNAN was Assistant Representative of the Ford Foundation in Indonesia from 1961 to 1965, Representative there from 1969 to 1973, and Head of the Office for Asia and the Pacific at Ford's headquarters in New York from 1973 to 1982. Since then, he has been a Senior Research Scholar at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University, where he has written and edited books on Indonesia, the Philippines, and Southeast Asia that were published by Columbia University Press, Princeton University Press, and the Council on Foreign Relations.