John Paul Horgan

Jack Horgan of the Council of Foreign Relations passed away October 1st.  His wife and children were with him.  Jack was an expert on Japan, fluent in Japanese, and was a sharp, challenging and caustic political commentator.  In the U.S. Army he served in World War II in the Pacific and trained for the forecasted 1946 sea invasion of Japan's Home Islands. He returned to the United States and obtained his degree from Harvard.  He then joined the CIA and served many tours in Japan, Korea, Philippines, Southeast Asia and Ghana. He was a key U.S. counterintelligence officer with Ambassadorial rank in South Vietnam and helped organize the evacuation of wounded GIs from Hue' during the Tet Offensive.  The Viet Cong issued a death sentence on him but never could get him. He was known as the "Prophet" among his peers for his field-based political analysis being the only one to predict to President Kennedy the outcome of the Philippine presidential election.  He never bragged and believed the best intelligence was in the field not in the air-conditioned comfort of U.S. Embassies.Jack was a true patriot and devoted over 35 years to the service of his beloved country.  His words on the fiftieth anniversary of his graduation from Harvard:"We graduated in the middle of a savage century that has seen two world wars, unnumbered dirty little wars, and an ambiguous confrontation between the totalitarian forces unleashed by the French Revolution and the idea of democratic government first nurtured by the people of Great Britain. That latter struggle turned into a hot war in Korea just after our class graduated.I chose to take my part in the struggle for democracy. I pursued a thirty-five year career of government service, including the Central Intelligence Agency, in what has been called the ultimate international career. It was much more than a job; it was a challenge to my deepest values and demanded the highest personal standards of integrity and responsibility, all grounded in my Harvard concentration in philosophy. Harvard also taught me the value of "the great university" where all contending voices gain a hearing. Who ever saw truth put to rout in a fair fight? I am proud to have carried the Harvard banner into the long twilight struggle that came to an end with the Berlin Wall. I hope my classmates are pleased to know that Harvard men were there in the epic of this century." Jack, we will all miss you dearly. Visitation will be from 5-7:00pm, Monday, October 5, 2015 at the Merritt Funeral Home, Spring Hill Chapel. A funeral mass will be celebrated at 11:00am, Tuesday, October 6, 2015 at St. Frances Cabrini Catholic Church.

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