The good American : the epic life and adventures of Bob Gersony, the U.S. Government's greatest humanitarian / Robert D. Kaplan.

Vietnam, 1966-1969 -- Guatemala, 1970-1977 -- Domenica, El Salvador, and South America, 1979-1983 -- Uganda, Luwero Triangle, 1984 -- South China Sea, 1984-1985 -- Sudan and Chad, 1985 -- Honduras, 1985-1986 -- Mozambique, 1987-1988 -- Ethiopia and Somalia, 1989 -- Liberia by Way of Nicaraqua, 1990-1993 -- Rwanda, 1994 -- Gaza and the West Bank, 1995 -- Bosnia, 1995-1996 -- Northern Uganda by Way of Nicaraqua, 1996-1997 -- From El Salvador to Ecuador and Colombia, by Way of Africa, 1997-2002 and 2008-2009-- North Korea, 2002 -- Nepal, 2003 -- Micronesia by Way of Iraq, 2003-2008 -- Northern Mexico by Way of Central America, 2010-2013.

"The Good American is a story about courage, intense loneliness, and the State Department's golden age during the late Cold War and post-Cold War. It is also a celebration of ground level reporting and getting a worm's eye view of crisis zones. Robert Gersony, a high-school dropout later awarded a bronze star in Vietnam, spent over four decades on the ground in virtually every war and natural disaster zone in the world. Interviewing hundreds of refugees and displaced persons in each place to assess humanitarian crises, Gersony's research and thorough reports had an immense, underappreciated impact on US foreign policy across the globe. In every case, his recommendations made it smarter and more humane, often dramatically so. In his career as a journalist,Robert D. Kaplan often crossed paths with Gersony while covering the "hot" moments of the Cold War and its aftermath. Even as a biography, this is Kaplan's most personal book to date, and through Gersony's story, he makes a poignant case for how Americandiplomacy should be conducted--with a clear eye toward facts on the ground--at a time when diplomacy is too often being left behind."-- Provided by publisher.