Page 207 - Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows

THE LESSONS

to do this, so let’s sit down and figure it out,’” said longtime friend and
former spokesman for the Defense Department Kenneth Bacon. “People
could not say no to Julia.”
Taft always said that President Ford’s decision to put her in charge of
resettling tens of thousands of Vietnamese refugees changed her life. As
Bacon noted, “It did more than that. It changed the very complexion and
DNA of our nation, and we are a richer nation as a result. At an early age
Julia learned lessons that, coupled with her indomitable ‘can do’ spirit, would
bring success in a series of difficult jobs. First, you need coordination when
crafting responses to complex emergencies. Second, don’t go for the easy
solution, go for the right solution. And third, public-private partnerships
are almost always better than the government acting alone. She was, after
all, a Taft Republican.”
After the resettlement was complete, Taft took time to raise her three
children with the same values that characterized her life. She insisted that
each go on a foreign trip between the junior and senior years in high school
to a place where poverty and hunger were endemic so that they all would
have a meaningful personal experience in helping others. There was never
a time when she did not answer the call for help around the world. Devoted
to her husband Will, who in turn supported her life’s work with his con-
siderable personal and professional skills, Taft never stopped making friends
and important contacts in senior government positions worldwide. Her
reputation opened doors, and her friends always answered her calls, doing
what they could to respond to the need. Inaction was one of the few crimes
she would not forgive.

Taft helped shape the Refugee Act of 1980, which moved the country from
an ad hoc resettlement program to the current infrastructure, which
includes strong partnerships between the government and private resettle-
ment agencies as well as clear annual goals. Later, as director of the Office
of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) in the Reagan administration, she
brought a sense of urgency and efficiency to the post. In December 1987,
four strong jolts from an earthquake leveled swaths of towns and cities in
Armenia in less than four minutes and left more than 55,000 dead. Ken
Bacon recalled, “One day shortly thereafter, a visitor was in Julia’s office when
she got word that President Reagan had approved aid for the earthquake
victims. ‘How long will it take to pull it together?’ the visitor asked. Without

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