A posted a version of this essay a few years ago. In remembrance of how much America has lost as result of Trump’s shameful action regarding refugees. I’m posting a later version. (Originally posted Jan 2017 on Facebook The next year, Andy Grove’s widow, Eva, wrote a very similar article.
{Andy Grove was the legendary CEO of Intel, and a mentor from everyone from Steve Jobs,and Mark Zuckerberg to myself, and my old admin.)
Andy Grove wouldn’t be allowed in today’s America
Sixty years ago, this month. Andras Grof along with 1,715 other Hungarian refugees arrived in Brooklyn New York. I can’t claim to fully know Andy’s politics but of this, I can be certain he would be harshly critical of Trump’s action to stop admitting refugees.
Many of the marvelous remembrances of Andy Grove, I’ve read refer to him as an immigrant. Now under normal circumstance, the distinction between refugee and immigrant is just one of semantics. Sadly this is not a normal time for America regarding immigration. Simply put, an immigrant leaves their native country by choice, a refugee by necessity. Andy Grove, like millions of displaced people in Europe and the Middle East today, was a refugee. Much has been written of Andy’s remarkable, yet quintessential American story, of a 20-year-old arriving on America’s shores with $20 in his pocket, and through brains, and hard work, becoming a captain of industry, engineer, role model, mentor, philanthropist, and a mensch.
Sadly, it is impossible to believe that Andy Grove would have made it to America today. Imagine the reception a 20-year-old single male, coming from a country wracked by violence. Educated by a system the preached the dangerous of the corrupt and evil America system, and run by leaders who owed their allegiance to a large country sworn to the destruction of America, would receive today. You can substitute ISIS, Syria, Iran today for Communism, Hungary, and the Soviet Union in 1956.
How would you go about doing a background check on Andy Grove? What State Department official would take the chance of approving him? Would a Governor or Mayor have let such a potentially dangerous man into their state or city?
After all, Andy Grove could have been a spy. What a great spy he would have been, amazing discipline, brilliant, and with a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, he would have been the perfect candidate to join fellow Hungarian refugee Edward Teller at Lawrence Berkeley Labs and work on developing atomic weapons. This isn’t as preposterous as it seems since in all likelihood the Soviet Union did slip in a couple of spies among the 200,000 Hungarian refugees.
We shouldn’t forget that commie spies in 1956, were as feared as terrorists in 2016. They had stolen weapon plans, infiltrated our government and intelligence agencies. 1956 even had its own demagogue: Senator Eugene McCarthy. McCarthy was finding communist spies and commie sympathizers in government, entertainment, and business. Like today’s demagogue, facts weren’t important, guilt by association was all that was needed.
Our parents and grandparents weren’t stupid, they understood the potential danger of letting in a large number of refugees from a communist country like Hungary and in latter years, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, and Vietnam and others. Yet their reaction was totally different than today. In 1956, a Republican President, Eisenhower, tripled the number of Hungarian refugees accepted and 40,000 out of 200,000 ended up moving to the US. The most of any country. A comparable number today would be over 1 million Syrian refugees, a hundred-fold increase over the 10,000 proposed by the Obama administration.
They also admitted these refugees into the USA remarkably fast. Somehow it is supposed to be a feature that it takes the State Department at least 18 months to “vet” a refugee. The Andy Grove that I knew wouldn’t have waited around 18 months in a refugee camp for some bureaucrat to decide his fate, he would have gone to another country or figured some other way out. It took Andy about a month from the time he crossed the border into Austria to setting foot in New York. Nor was his story unique 75% of the Hungarian refugees were resettled in 10 weeks. All this was done, without cell phones, personal computers, or transatlantic jet flights.
The previous generation also understood what we seemingly have forgotten. A government or group which, rapes the women, executes and imprisons the men, indoctrinates their children, and generate such fear the people flee their long-time homes, tends to be just a tad unpopular.
Andy Grove hated communism. The one time I saw the man genuinely mad was when communism came up during a lunch conversation. A hatred that is shared by every immigrant or refugee, I’ve ever met from a communist country. I recently had drinks, with an Iranian engineer he talked about how desperate he and his educated friend were to get out of Iran, and sensed the same hatred of Islamic theocracies that Andy had of communism. I have no doubt that a vast number of refugees of Syrian refugees will have a hatred of Assad and ISIS, that far exceeds that of Americans. These refugees are future allies, not our adversaries.
In 1957, the International Rescue Committee,(IRC) gave Andy Grove $300 ($2,500 today) to buy hearing aids. The trust and generosity amazed Andy at the time, but I think it is quite possibly one of the best investment ever made. The generosity of the IRC and the American people at the time wasn’t the potential for future economic gains (although economic benefits of America from refugees and immigrants are immense) but rather because it was the right thing to do.
America not only survived but prospered by allowing refugees without extreme vetting for almost her entire history. Yes, there is a risk that a terrorist or three will slip in. But for every person hurt, there is score who will be helped. I know that for myself, my Intel colleagues, Silicon Valley, the country, and the world would be a far worse place if extreme vetting was in place in 1956.
