THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2026 33 experienced significant distress: 60 percent reported psychological distress symptoms, 33 percent reported stress-related physical symptoms, and 20 percent received a mental health diagnosis. A Deep and Pervasive Wound To capture the complexity of the experience, scaled questions (0–4) based on validated psychometric measures assessed identity disruption, grief, anger, and moral injury—the distressing psychological, behavioral, social, and sometimes spiritual aftermath of exposure to events that contradict deeply held moral beliefs and expectations. The findings are striking: 90 percent of respondents scored 3 or 4 (out of 4) on questions measuring betrayal by trusted institutions and violation of deeply held moral and professional values. A sense of betrayal was the strongest qualitative theme, appearing in 18 percent of open-ended responses. Respondents described not only the loss of a career, but the public false accusations of fraud, the failure of Congress to intervene, and the pain of having extended family members who accepted the narratives maligning USAID. Nearly as prominent was a lost sense of professional identity. USAID was not “just a job.” It was a vocation, a worldview, and a personal identity. Seventy-three percent of respondents felt strongly (scored 3 or 4) that their jobs were a central part of who they were and losing that job left them feeling unanchored. Job loss was experienced not only as unemployment, but as dislocation from a mission and a life built around public service overseas. Respondents also described grief over the human consequences—the knowledge that people who depended on lifesaving aid would suffer or die as programs stopped abruptly. This data represents the first phase of a long-term longitudinal study that I hope will ultimately document stories of resilience. At this point, however, the findings point to a population still absorbing the shock of the rupture. These were purpose-driven professionals, individuals who saw their work not only as a way to earn a living, but as a vocational worldview and identity deeply rooted in public service, international investment, and an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States of America. n
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy ODIyMDU=