Self-Reliance
I always knew, I always sensed that I could go into a village and find somebody to pull me out if I’m stuck in the mud. I can’t rely on the embassy to send a helicopter, because there are no helicopters, there’s no support mechanism at all that they can provide that I can’t find locally.
– Parker W. Borg (PCV Philippines 1961-63; U.S. Ambassador to Mali 1981-84 and to Iceland 1993-96)
When he arrived in Camarines Norte as part of Philippines I, Parker Borg knew nothing about soccer. Asked to coach the local boys team, Borg found the instruction he needed in a book at the library and led the team to the local championship.
Less than two decades later he would become the first Returned Peace Corps Volunteer to be named U.S. Ambassador. He presented his credentials to Malian president Moussa Traoré in 1981 and served as chief of mission until 1984.
During the intervening twenty years, he worked side-by-side with the U.S. and Vietnamese military as a civilian development worker assigned to the hotly contested central part of Vietnam during some of the heaviest fighting. This was the Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support (CORDS) program, a State Department, USAID, Defense Department initiative.
Following his village assignment, Borg extended his tour of duty in Vietnam to help write the pacification plans in Saigon for CORDS Director and future CIA Director William Colby.
On assignment in Lubumbashi, Zaire 1976-8, one of his tasks was to evacuate local Peace Corps Volunteers, under threat during the Shaba Wars.
He would later look to an RPCV to help Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Richard Moose get inside the mind of Liberian coup-maker Sammy Doe.
As U.S. Ambassador in Mali, Borg worked with both Peace Corps and USAID in an attempt to create a coherent approach to—and better results from—both forms of U.S. foreign assistance.
The drive from Bamako to Timbuktu took two days over dirt tracks through harsh barren desert and required one night of camping because there were no communities halfway along the route. I made the trip alone and without a radio on several occasions, much to the consternation of my security officer. I argued that if something happens and I can’t find somebody locally to help me, then I’m lost.
A full profile of Parker Borgs service as a Peace Corps Volunteer and U.S. Diplomat is set for release this fall in the forthcoming book, Profiles in Service: Peace Corps Roots and Distinguished Careers in American Diplomacy.
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Ben East Books 