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Tightrope: A true story of the unique challenges and personal trials of a humanitarian program director in Laos before, during and after the country's fall to Communism in 1975
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About Tightrope: A True Story Of The Unique Challenges
As Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos slowly crumbled under the weight of the Communist onslaught in the 1970's, the politics in Laos became especially challenging. Though the coalition government in Laos comprised of Neutralists, Royalists and Pathet Lao diminished the internal level of military and civil upheaval, the country became a hotbed of intrigue and competing political agendas. Such a unique political situation presented a daunting negotiating environment for the author who was tasked by a large private American overseas relief and development agency to negotiate and manage an expanded humanitarian program in Laos while avoiding political entanglements. As director of this operation in Laos, this account is based upon the personal experiences of the author. The writer's purposes are two-fold: 1) to demonstrate to the reader that an ordinary person in an extraordinary situation can successfully cope and function with surprising success, and 2) to dispel what may be a lingering misconception that a "relief worker" is a one-dimensional and naive do-gooder unacquainted with and, perhaps, both ill-equipped and incapable of dealing with the full range of personal and professional challenges the third world can often present. A couple years following his Laos assignment, two young U.S. Foreign Service Officers he met in Thailand opined that "not in three lifetimes as FSO's" could they hope to deal with the array of challenges the author had experienced in Laos.
