Please welcome Mickey Bergman, lead author of the book "In The Shadows," where he discusses his experiences negotiating the release of hostages and people unlawfully imprisoned in some of the most restrictive places on Earth.
In the book, Mickey takes the reader through his time working with Governor Bill Richardson and, after his death, transforms his legacy into the non-profit Global Reach, where he now brings in a community of people to continue the work.
This is part two of a two-part episode. Check out last week's episode to hear part one.
Global Reach Website: https://www.reach.global/
Link to the book: https://www.amazon.com/Shadows-High-Stakes-Negotiations-Americans-Captured
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One CA is a product of the civil affairs association
and brings in people who are current or former military, diplomats, development officers, and field agents to discuss their experiences on the ground with a partner nation's people and leadership.
We aim to inspire anyone interested in working in the "last three feet" of U.S. foreign relations.
To contact the show, email us at [email protected]
or look us up on the Civil Affairs Association website at www civilaffairsassoc.org
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Today's music is a tribute to James Chance, who passed away this week. The solo is from his album White Cannable. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/vUfcWDHMEQY?si=gPGLKe6_05aFSE24
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Transcript
00:00:01 Introduction
Welcome to the 1CA Podcast. This is your host, Jack Gaines. 1CA is a product of the Civil Affairs Association and brings in people who are current or former military, diplomats, development officers, and field agents to discuss their experiences on ground with the partner nation's people and leadership. Our goal is to inspire anyone interested in working the last three feet of foreign relations. To contact the show, email us at capodcasting at gmail dot com. or look us up on the Civil Affairs Association website at www .civilaffairsassos .org. I'll have those in the show notes. Please welcome Mickey Bergman, lead author of the book In the Shadows, where he discusses his experiences negotiating the release of hostages and people unlawfully imprisoned in some of the most restrictive places on earth.
00:00:49 JACK GAINES
In the book, Mickey takes the reader through his time working with Governor Bill Richardson, and then after his death, transforming his legacy, into a nonprofit called Global Reach. This is the first of a two -part episode. The second part will air next week. Enjoy. I really appreciate you guys reaching out. I did finish the book. It was great. And in my perception of it, it kind of encapsulates the work and legacy of Governor Richardson and then that transformation that you had to do with his death into Global Reach. So it was kind of both a historical document. and continuing the work through the aggregate of other specialists in the field, and then continuing on with the mission. Is that similar? Am I right on your goals?
00:01:36 MICHEY BERGMAN
Yeah, no, you're right. It's interesting because, look, I wrote the book. Obviously, the governor was alive, and he hasn't even read it because I was waiting until the manuscript was final in order to share it with him because the governor referred to him as Gov. He was like my six -year -old father. You know, father figure, but also juvenile as a six -year -old. And I knew for the first time in his life, somebody else was telling the stories and the role that he played and not him. And that's a great thing to have. And I think it comes out really, really well in the book, but I knew that he's going to nitpick and find something and give me hell for it. So I was really, really dreading. point. And so I wanted to give it to him when it's done, when I can't do anything about it. It's already published, boss. What can you say? But then he died. And I'm sad that he didn't get to read it. But after he died, I figured that I can't publish a book and not address his death. So basically, I wrote it in one day. I wrote this section to him and telling the story of how I found out and then touching on the first mission that we did after his death. And that's where Global Reach kind of came in. So it was not intentional in the design of the book, but out of circumstances, it was important to convey that this continues. And not only that, the mission to Venezuela, where the book ends with us going, the book does not cover the actual mission and the fact that 13 Americans came home in December, partially because of that mission. So I like that dynamic. At some point, you have to cut.
00:03:13 JACK GAINES
You have to because you're constantly on another mission. Correct.
00:03:16 MICHEY BERGMAN
Because they just continue to go.
00:03:18 JACK GAINES
Yeah. Reading that last portion, that was my perception is you were focused absolutely on a good ceremony and burial for the governor. But this Venezuela issue was on the back of your neck the whole time. And so to me, reading it, it felt like you were like, all right, the best way to appreciate this is after the ceremony. Get back to work and finish his mission, his goals, and then find a path forward from there.
00:03:43 MICHEY BERGMAN
Yeah, and not only that, we had the trip to Venezuela was planned before he died. And we had a whole process. We knew exactly where the deal was stuck. We had an idea for it. We wanted also to make sure that the two Green Berets that were there in Venezuela, Luke Denman and Aaron Berry, are included in it because they were never designated. by the U .S. government as wrongfully detained, we were very worried that they would not be included. So we needed to get that commitment directly from the Venezuelan leadership to lock them into the deal. And we had that all set up to the extent that the day before the governor died, I actually shared with the families that were going. And then when I got the news the next day, and I was like, the first thing, of course, is the personal grief that you have. The second thing is, oh, shoot, he was my access over there. He had a relationship with Maduro. He had a relationship with Jorge Rodriguez. You know, I was like, oh my God. And it took about 24 hours to figure out, oh, he would love me to use his death for one last mission of rescue. In the WhatsApp group of the team and of the mission, we call that group the governor's last rescue.
00:04:56 JACK GAINES
Right. Wow. And that brings up an interesting point.
00:04:59 JACK GAINES
brings up an interesting point. And that is what in the tech community, they call the founder's curse. And that is the founder starts a movement or an organization and they are so entrenched in the details in the process that it's hard for them to separate the program from themselves. And often if that transformation doesn't happen, the legacy dies with the person. Almost sounds like he brought you in because he was considering his legacy and brought you into the fold and in the details to the point where he didn't predict his death. But he knew that by bringing some people like you and others in to understand the details and the nug work within the negotiations, he was sort of a life preserver to the mission versus passing away and the whole thing just goes flat.
00:05:45 MICHEY BERGMAN
Yeah, well, it's funny because, look, in his mind, he was immoral. Yeah. Of course, like typically they are. And he had a huge personality and a huge presence. And I worked with him for 17 years. You know, he gave me compliments and then he would balance them with punches. That's typically his management style, which was a lot of fun, right? But towards, in the last couple of years, he had these little sessions with me that were just so uncharacteristic to him. We just like to say, Mickey, you're better than everybody else just because you don't have a government title. Don't you realize that you get it better than the high officials? So he was very encouraging from that perspective, but he never spoke to me about what happens after. That is a conversation that we had without him, with his board, not because we expected him to die. Obviously, he died too soon. There was no underlying disease there or something that was expected. It was a surprise, but his mortality was not a surprise. And so we had that conversation. And then with the board immediately after, with the board of directors of the organization, because you're right, it's not the first government organization that I worked with. I've seen the founders curse. I've seen what happened immediately after the founders death, not even stepping away and retiring, just death. There is so much emotions and nostalgia because the board is made of his friends. Right.
00:07:10 JACK GAINES
Or chaos because no one knows all of the different things that are going on in the process and they have to rediscover it. Yeah.
00:07:16 MICHEY BERGMAN
But emotionally, we were all, including myself, like, oh, my God, we have to create a legacy. We have to continue with this. And everybody's like, no, we'll step in. We'll make sure it happens. And I remember the day after his funeral, breakfast with the board. Just informal. It wasn't a board meeting. It was just breakfast. Just to debrief. And I told him, look, the governor and I actually had a conversation after Kofi Annan passed away. The Kofi Annan Foundation kept the name, and they wanted to keep this because they were. blown in with that kind of emotional response to it. But we talked about how it just feels like all they're doing right now is fundraising full time just to keep the lights on. But there's no substance left. And it's a miserable way for an organization to die out. And so I raised it with the board. I said, look, we can try. We can see if there's sustainability in it just for a couple of months to see where things settle. But I know that despite our very raw emotions right now, life continues. And life happens. And I do not want to spend all of our time just keeping the lights on because that's not what he would love. He wanted to find a way to keep the work going. So if we can't keep it as Richardson's center and there is a law of diminishing returns on the name, let me work and put a proposal in front of the board of what it looks like to do the different pieces of this legacy. One, of course, hostages and prisoners, which is a huge chunk. And that came out to be global reach. Another one was around the program we did with the Rohingyas and humanitarian work that we did. And that we basically have moved it, found a different home for it. It's going to continue at the Stimson Center instead of the Richardson Center with the funder that funded it is moving there with our guy, Steve Ross, who's the director of that program. So he's moving over there as well. And third, I wanted more of a name legacy piece. And that's when we established and announced the... The Bill Richardson Heart of a Patriot Award, which we hope will be known as the Billy. We're trying to make that stick. And that's going to be awarded every year at the Foley Foundation Gala. And the award is going to be given to former political and policy principals that, after leaving government, use their credentials and their gravitas to help bring Americans home.
00:09:35 JACK GAINES
Let's just make it stick. Let's just start calling it the Billy Awards. I like the Billy.
00:09:37 MICHEY BERGMAN
like the Billy. The Billies. The Oscars, we have the Billies.
00:09:43 JACK GAINES
Well, I apologize if I cut you off on your string, but that makes total sense. So how do you guys stay afloat? If it's something sensitive, I won't add it to the show. Oh, no,
00:09:52 MICHEY BERGMAN
no, no, absolutely. No, as you can tell, we're an open book. We love that. So we were lucky enough that during the pandemic, because there was just no commercial flights, but we still had hostages and we still needed to go there and get people out. And the governor has met an American businessman named Steve Menzies. He's an insurance guy out of Omaha. He runs a reinsurance company called Applied Underwriters. And he's done very well for himself financially. But he's one of those, you don't see him flying rockets to space. He's a quiet guy. He does his thing. And he and the governor got to this. He said, hey, you can use my jet for some of these missions, especially in places that you can't go commercially. Right. But I'm coming with you.
00:10:37 JACK GAINES
Of course, he wants the experience. He wants to feel a part of the cause. Yeah,
00:10:41 MICHEY BERGMAN
he came with us in the middle of the pandemic on a mission to Venezuela. Later on, he did a few other missions with us to Russia, including the return and recovery of the Taylor Dudley. That was a month after Brittany Griner came home and we went to Russia and got the former Navy guy, Taylor Dudley, out. That's the one where you're driving through Poland.
00:10:59 JACK GAINES
the one where you're driving through Poland. That is correct. And that was Steve's plane.
00:11:01 MICHEY BERGMAN
is correct. And that was Steve's plane. But it's not only his plane. At that point, he already started integrating his logistics skills into this and helping us really set this up. And so when the governor passed away, Steve and I sat together and he said, Mickey, we have to continue this, not only for the name of his legacy, but for the work that it is. And he says, but. I'm no Governor Richardson. I know that what he did with you was unique. So you tell me, Nicky, if you didn't have budget constraints, how would you build that and structure this in a post -Richardson world to be not only as good as what you did, but better? And so he gave me basically a blank check to put a structure together. And we looked at, A, the piece of what we did with the governor, which was this intergovernmental mediation and negotiations. And on that, I said, well, I'm going to run that part, but I'm not going to replace Governor Richardson with a single person because there isn't such one person.
00:11:58 JACK GAINES
Right. You did an aggregate.
00:12:00 MICHEY BERGMAN
Yeah. I wanted a bunch of people that we have worked with over the years, former diplomats, former politicians, Republicans, Democ