Kenneth Bacon

Kenneth Hogate Bacon (November 21, 1944 – August 15, 2009) was an American journalist who served as a spokesman for the Department of Defense during the Presidency of Bill Clinton, and later as president of Refugees International, an organization advocating for displaced persons and solutions for displacement crises.

Early life and career Bacon was born in Bronxville, New York. He earned his undergraduate degree at Amherst College, where his father was a dean

Bacon served in the U.S. Army Reserve from 1968 to 1974. After two years working in the office of U.S. Senator Thomas J. McIntyre (D–NH) as a legislative assistant, he was hired by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) as a reporter (1965).

In 1997 Bacon was retained in his post In a 2003 settlement, following a lawsuit which claimed that the revelations violated the Privacy Act of 1974, Tripp received a payment of $595,000, retroactive promotion and salary increases for the years 1998 to 2000 and the right to reapply for government employment.

Refugees International

Bacon said he recognized that becoming a refugee was a matter of circumstance that could affect anyone, noting that his own "blue-blooded WASP" ancestors were refugees themselves, who "came over from England in 1630, fleeing debts for all I know". Bacon focused much of his work on advocating for additional protection and assistance to displaced people from Sudan's Darfur region and Iraq. He also drew attention to displaced people in Afghanistan, Burma, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Colombia and Thailand. During Bacon's tenure as president of Refugees International, the organization doubled in size.

In the weeks before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Bacon suggested such methods as selection of bombing targets outside of densely populated areas as a means to reduce the number of refugees. In September 2003, Bacon encouraged French participation in the peacekeeping forces in Iraq, based on that nation's prior experience in such circumstances.

He served as chairman of the Folger Shakespeare Library and was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Death A resident of Washington, D.C., Bacon died at age 64 of complications related to melanoma, at his second home on Block Island, Rhode Island. He and his wife of 43 years, the former Darcy Wheeler, had two daughters.