International Rescue Committee

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The International Rescue Committee (IRC) was founded in 1942 to assist social democratic refugees from Europe. During the Cold War it became increasingly integrated into the US foreign policy establishment.[1]

It grew into a major international aid agency, active in more than 40 countries, with $390 million in operating revenues in 2012.[2]

In 1988, IRC executive director Robert DeVecchi, stated: "It is... inaccurate to characterize IRC's operation as having `historically reflected the interests and directions of foreign policy. ' IRC establishes and follows its own policy directions which may or may not coincide with U.S. foreign policy objectives. It is immaterial to us whether they do or not."[3]

A 2011 organisation report on the IRC by non-profit consultancy Root Cause found that 44 per cent of its funding came from the US government, 27 percent from other governments, 11 per cent from the UN, and 14 per cent from private sources.[4]

History

International Relief Association

The earliest precursor of the International Rescue Committee was the International Relief Association (IRA) founded in Germany in 1931 by the German Communist Party Opposition (KPO) and the Socialist Workers Party (SAP), to aid victims of state repression. It was forced to move to Paris when the Nazis came to power in April 1933.[5]

An American support committee was formed by Jay Lovestone in July 1933. Although Lovestone's main aim to help the KPO, he ensured the organisation was endorsed by a range of progressive luminaries.[6]

Funding from the ILGWU was used to fund refugees, some of it was also secretly diverted to the KPOs resistance activities in Germany.[7]

Emergency Rescue Committee

The evolution of the Lovestoneites towards mainstream social democracy in the late 1930s created a vacuum in refugee activity focused on a broader range of Socialists. The Emergency Rescue Committee was created in 1940 to aid refugees trapped in Vichy following the fall of France. Its key founders were Karl Frank, Reinhold Neibuhr and Joseph Buttinger.[8]

The ERC representative in Marseilles from August 1940 to August 1941, Varian Fry rescued many European refugees, including many who were important intellectuals. He also worked with British intelligence to secure escape routes for British soldiers.[9]

Merger

To end the rivalry between the two organisations, the IRA and the ERC merged in 1942, initially as the International Relief and Rescue Committee. The new organisation was funded from 1943 to 1946 by the National War Fund. It also had close links to the intelligence community through its first treasurer, David Seiferheld, an early recruit to the Office of Strategic Services.[10]

Cold War

In the immediate post-war period, the Committee focused on rebuilding the German Social Democrats of the SPD as a bulwark against the Soviets. It strengthened its relationship with the intelligence community by recruiting several OSS veterans to the board, including OSS chief William Donovan.[11]

The International Rescue Committee was an early entrant into the field of support for political refugees from the Soviet Bloc, but soon found itself sharing the field with outright CIA fronts such as the National Committee for a Free Europe and the American Committee for Liberation.[12] The East European Fund created by the Ford Foundation was also a potential rival.[13]

Vietnam

The Committee became involved in refugee work in South Vietnam from the mid-1950s, marking the first major expansion of its focus from Europe. It played a key role in two American lobby groups for the South Vietnamese regime, the American Friends of Vietnam and the Citizens Committee for Peace with Freedom in Vietnam.[14]

Cuba

In July 1960, the IRC announced a Caribbean Refugee Program initially focused on Cuba and the Dominican Republic. In reality, almost all of those aided by the programme would come from Cuba.[15]

Czechoslovakia

The Austrian Government of Bruno Sleisky turned to the IRC as lead relief agency in 1977 in anticipation of a wave of refugees following the emergence of the Charter 77 movement in Czechoslovakia.[16]

Afghanistan

IRC President John Whitehead visited the Afghanistan-Pakistan border shortly after the 1979 Soviet invasion. The IRC subsequently launched a relief effort which would become its largest programme.[17]

El Salvador

The IRC began a relief programme in El Salvador in 1984, following the election of the pro-American Christian Democrat José Napoléon Duarte. The programme was turned over to a local provider after the negotiation of a ceasefire in the country in 1992.[18]

Yugoslavia

The IRC was the first American aid agency to begin working in Yugoslavia in 1991, and campaigned for tougher US policies towards the Serbs.[19]

Iraq

The IRC lobbied the George H.W. Bush administration to use US military force to defend Iraqi Kurds following the first Gulf War in 1991.[20]

The IRC arrived in Iraq shortly after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, but pulled out due to escalating violence three years later. It returned in 2008.[21]

People

Presidents

Chairs

Treasurers

Executive Directors

Other historic board members

Matthew Woll | Victor Reuther[30] | Albert Jolis | Arthur Schlesinger Jr. | Sumner Welles | Adolf Berle[31] William Donovan[22] |Christopher Emmet[22] | Richard Salzmann[23]

People 2010

Headquarters - New York

Headquarters - Europe

Board of Directors

Overseers

Madeleine K. Albright | Laurent Alpert | Kofi A. Annan | Lila Azam Zanganeh | F. William Barnett | Alan R. Batkin | Georgette F. Bennett | Vera Blinken | Michael Blumenthal | Andrew Brimmer | Jennifer Brokaw, M.D. | Tom Brokaw | Frederick Burkle, M.D. | Nestor Carbonell | Jeremy Carver | Geoffrey Colvin | Karen Cook | Robert M. Cotten | Robert P. DeVecchi | Dina Dublon | Robin Chandler Duke | Jodie Eastman | Katherine Farley | H.R.H. Princess Firyal of Jordan | Harold Ford, Jr. | Theodore J. Forstmann | Jeffrey E. Garten | Evan G. Greenberg | Maurice R. Greenberg | Andrew S. Grove | Morton I. Hamburg | Karen Hein, M.D. | Lucile P. Herbert | Howard Jonas | Marvin Josephson | Alton Kastner | Henry A. Kissinger | Yong Kwok | Reynold Levy | Winston Lord | Dan Lufkin | Vincent A. Mai | John Makinson | Lucretia Martin | Roberto Martinez | Roman Martinez IV | Kati Marton | Jay Mazur | W. Allen Moore | Kathleen Newland | Indra Nooyi | Robert B. Oakley | Sadako Ogata | Sarah O’Hagan | Catherine O’Neill | Susan Patricof | Alexandra L. Peters | David L. Phillips | David N. Pincus | General Colin L. Powell, USA (Retired) | Donald H. Putnam | Bruce C. Ratner | Milbrey Rennie | John Richardson | Felix G. Rohatyn | George Rupp | Jessica T. Seinfeld | Barbara Shailor | James T. Sherwin | Nancy Starr | H. Peter Stern | James C. Strickler, M.D | Lee Thaw | Georgia Travers | Liv Ullmann | William J. Vanden Heuvel | Ronald J. Waldman, M.D. | Rhonda Weingarten | Edwin J. Wesely | Josh Weston | Anne Whitehead | John C. Whitehead | Elie Wiesel | Jonathan L. Wiesner | James D. Wolfensohn | Guy Wyser Pratte[35]

UK

  • Richard Sharp, ex-Goldmans Sachs banker, sits on the board (from 2013-2015)

Contact

External Resources

Reading

  • Eric Thomas Chester Covert Network: Progressives, the International Rescue Committee and the CIA, M.E. Sharpe (31 Aug 1995) ISBN-10: 1563245507 ISBN-13: 978-1563245503
  • Ronald Cohn Jesse Russell International Rescue Committee, VSD (1 Jan 2012)

Notes

  1. ↑ Eric Thomas Chester, Covert Network: Progressives, the International Rescue Committee and the CIA, M.E. Sharpe, 1995, p.249.
  2. ↑ Nikhil Kumar, David Miliband's new world: From Westminster to the International Rescue Committee in New York, The Independent, 29 March 2013.
  3. ↑ Letter from Robert P. DeVecchi, exec dir IRC, Dec 6, 1988, quoted in International Rescue Committee, Inc., RightWeb, 11 January 1989, accessed 30 March 2013.
  4. ↑ International Rescue Committee, Root Cause, June 2011.
  5. ↑ Eric Thomas Chester, Covert Network: Progressives, the International Rescue Committee and the CIA, M.E. Sharpe, 1995, p.242.
  6. ↑ Eric Thomas Chester, Covert Network: Progressives, the International Rescue Committee and the CIA, M.E. Sharpe, 1995, pp.8-9.
  7. ↑ Eric Thomas Chester, Covert Network: Progressives, the International Rescue Committee and the CIA, M.E. Sharpe, 1995, p.10.
  8. ↑ Eric Thomas Chester, Covert Network: Progressives, the International Rescue Committee and the CIA, M.E. Sharpe, 1995, p.11.
  9. ↑ Eric Thomas Chester, Covert Network: Progressives, the International Rescue Committee and the CIA, M.E. Sharpe, 1995, pp.16-17.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Eric Thomas Chester, Covert Network: Progressives, the International Rescue Committee and the CIA, M.E. Sharpe, 1995, p.18.
  11. ↑ Eric Thomas Chester, Covert Network: Progressives, the International Rescue Committee and the CIA, M.E. Sharpe, 1995, p.60-61.
  12. ↑ Eric Thomas Chester, Covert Network: Progressives, the International Rescue Committee and the CIA, M.E. Sharpe, 1995, p.30.
  13. ↑ Eric Thomas Chester, Covert Network: Progressives, the International Rescue Committee and the CIA, M.E. Sharpe, 1995, p.42.
  14. ↑ Eric Thomas Chester, Covert Network: Progressives, the International Rescue Committee and the CIA, M.E. Sharpe, 1995, p.145.
  15. ↑ Eric Thomas Chester, Covert Network: Progressives, the International Rescue Committee and the CIA, M.E. Sharpe, 1995, p.186.
  16. ↑ Eric Thomas Chester, Covert Network: Progressives, the International Rescue Committee and the CIA, M.E. Sharpe, 1995, p.192.
  17. ↑ Eric Thomas Chester, Covert Network: Progressives, the International Rescue Committee and the CIA, M.E. Sharpe, 1995, p.189.
  18. ↑ Eric Thomas Chester, Covert Network: Progressives, the International Rescue Committee and the CIA, M.E. Sharpe, 1995, p.190.
  19. ↑ Eric Thomas Chester, Covert Network: Progressives, the International Rescue Committee and the CIA, M.E. Sharpe, 1995, p.195.
  20. ↑ Eric Thomas Chester, Covert Network: Progressives, the International Rescue Committee and the CIA, M.E. Sharpe, 1995, pp.194-195.
  21. ↑ The IRC in Iraq, IRC, accessed 28 March 2013.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 Eric Thomas Chester, Covert Network: Progressives, the International Rescue Committee and the CIA, M.E. Sharpe, 1995, p.242.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 23.3 Eric Thomas Chester, Covert Network: Progressives, the International Rescue Committee and the CIA, M.E. Sharpe, 1995, p.245.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 Eric Thomas Chester, Covert Network: Progressives, the International Rescue Committee and the CIA, M.E. Sharpe, 1995, p.246.
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 Eric Thomas Chester, Covert Network: Progressives, the International Rescue Committee and the CIA, M.E. Sharpe, 1995, p.241.
  26. ↑ IRC Leadership, International Rescue Committee, accessed 24 February 2010.
  27. ↑ Eric Thomas Chester, Covert Network: Progressives, the International Rescue Committee and the CIA, M.E. Sharpe, 1995, p.244.
  28. ↑ Eric Thomas Chester, Covert Network: Progressives, the International Rescue Committee and the CIA, M.E. Sharpe, 1995, p.117.
  29. ↑ International Rescue Committee, Inc., RightWeb, 11 January 1989, accessed 30 March 2013.
  30. ↑ Eric Thomas Chester, Covert Network: Progressives, the International Rescue Committee and the CIA, M.E. Sharpe, 1995, p.60 .
  31. ↑ Eric Thomas Chester, Covert Network: Progressives, the International Rescue Committee and the CIA, M.E. Sharpe, 1995, p.61.
  32. ↑ IRC Leadership, International Rescue Committee, accessed 24 February 2010.
  33. ↑ IRC Leadership, International Rescue Committee, accessed 24 February 2010.
  34. ↑ IRC Board of Directors and Overseers, International Rescue Committee, accessed 24 February 2010.
  35. ↑ IRC Board of Directors and Overseers, International Rescue Committee, accessed 24 February 2010.
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