JOANNE HERRING
Photography by Greg Swales | Styling by Marc Sifuentes | Art Direction by Louis Liu | Feature by Ralph J. Benko
Dress by Valentino, available at Neiman Marcus | Earrings and Ring by Bulgari | Shoes by Alexander McQueen
Joanne Herring is an internationally famous, glamorous, figure. She rivals Queens Cleopatra and Boadicia for beauty and historic stature. She was called by American Secretary of State James Baker “a flash of light in a dark world.” She has been nominated to receive the Congressional Gold Medal, first awarded to General George Washington. Joanne Herring has earned the right, first applied to George Washington, to be called “first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of her countrymen.”
Gone With The Wind, War and Peace, The Aeneid, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Epics, whether literary or historical, have two key elements: love and war. The 20thCentury was an epic era, fretted through with both.
A thousand years hence almost all of us will have been forgotten. There is one woman living in our midst who proved so virtuous both in love and war as to make herself a candidate to enter history and lore and legend: Joanne Herring.
Testimonials to her glow. President George W. Bush said “Joanne Herring is an extraordinary woman who was and still is a real catalyst for peace in our world.” Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf said “Her unique contribution to the Afghan freedom struggle in the 1980s turned the tide of the conflict.” Former secretary of state James Baker says “She walks where others fear to tread and never quits. She is a flash of light in a dark world.” She was nominated for the Congressional Gold Medal, one of America’s two highest civilian honors, last year for her valorous role in winning the Cold War.
The woman critical to winning the Cold War reveals to us how to make war forever a thing of the past. There is a guiding premise with which Joanne has worked miracles for people: believe in people and equip them with the skills and tools to meet their own needs.
In the Cold War Joanne earned her place alongside – perhaps at the fore of – two other legendary regal women warriors, Queen Cleopatra, of Egypt, and Queen Boadicia, of England. Both led resistance against an empire. Both iconic queens forfeited their lives in defending their sovereignty against the Romans. Joanne, uniquely, defeated her imperial adversary, the Soviet Union, and lived to tell the tale.
As I wrote five years ago in my Forbes.com review of her memoir, Diamonds and Diplomacy, a column headlined The Fall of the U.S.S.R. Twenty Years Ago: Beauty Killed The Beast:
There is much to celebrate about the December 25, 1991 implosion of [the USSR.] a totalitarian, bellicose, imperialistic regime with 45,000 nuclear warheads, captor of dozens of nations, killer of tens of millions, sociopathic in its brutality against the innocent in its quest for world domination.
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People’s eyes got big. Suddenly eyes that were glazed with boredom opened wide with understanding and interest.
It finally dawned on them that America and the free world, not just foreign countries, were being threatened.
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Photographed in front of Untitled, 2012 by Anish Kapoor in the library of the Brookshire residence in Houston, TX | Sunglasses by Versace | Leopard-Print Belted Long Fur Coat by Tom Ford, available at Neiman Marcus
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Today, then, I sing of arms and the woman….
Joanne Herring’s story has been written many times. It is almost always told casting her as Cinderella. As stated at joanneherring.com:
Born in a man’s world at a time when women had limited choices, Joanne King Herring blazed a trail with allies as unlikely as Charlie Wilson, Pierre Cardin and President Ronald Reagan, and in so doing forged new paths for women in Pakistan, Afghanistan and America. Joanne hosted the Joanne King Show on television for 15 years, was made roaming Ambassador of Pakistan and received the Quaid-e-Azam award, the highest honor given by the nation of Pakistan. She was made Dame by the Order of St. Francis and has been knighted by the King of Belgium. Joanne has appeared as a guest on Fox News Channel programs “Fox & Friends”, “On The Record with Greta Van Susteren”, “Hannity”, “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” and “Huckabee”. … Her book, Diplomacy and Diamonds was also featured in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Observer, the New York Social Diary and PW Weekly.
Yes, her life is a Cinderella story. But there’s more to the fairy tale. Here revealed for the first time, Joanne Herring’s true secret identity: the Fairy Godmother. She works magic by inspiring and equipping people to solve their own problems rather than by working from the top down. She has done this so many times and continues to this day.
Joanne recalled for Iris Covet Book how she assembled the international network crucial to funding the Afghan freedom fighters to beat the Soviets. In her own words:
When Saudi Prince Bandar came to Washington as US ambassador I offered to give him a welcoming party. It was enormous – 112 seated at one table – including every important person on President’s Reagan’s staff.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff were there. So was the entire Reagan cabinet along with ambassadors and Senators and Congresspeople from both sides of the aisle. Secretary of Defense Weinberger cancelled a speech, delegating it to his Secretary of the Navy (later Senator and husband of Elizabeth Taylor) John Warner in order to attend. Henry Kissinger and Barbara Walters flew in from New York City.
The party was a huge success. Things got done, Washington style.
A great photojournalist – and my most trusted counselor – Robin King and I went into Afghanistan. His film was instrumental in changing the course of history; he deserves far more credit than he has yet received.
The Afghans were starving. The Soviet gunship helicopters were killing everything that moved, including people and the livestock they used for food, even dropping butterfly bombs attached to toys to attract children to maim themselves and die a horrible, lingering, death to traumatize and subjugate the villagers.
The Afghans we visited killed the one goat they owned to feed our party. As famished as they were, they encircled us, so happy to be our hosts. The people’s faces were glowing with pride to host us. They said ‘You are the only people in the world who have cared about us.’
It is the Muslim way to welcome strangers. They were on fire with the desire to push back the Soviets and regain their liberty. They are an amazing people. They really are an inspiration. I understand how to relate to the poor as well as I do to presidents and royalty.
When I returned from Afghanistan I studied the map. What did the Soviets want with these countries? I was the first person of influence to really make the point that it was the Strait of Hormuz, where 80% of the world’s oil passed daily, not Pakistan or Afghanistan, that the Soviets were after.
People’s eyes got big. Suddenly eyes that were glazed with boredom opened wide with understanding and interest. It finally dawned on them that America and the free world, not just foreign countries, were being threatened. The rest is history. But history with a cruel twist. As summarized by the New York Times in Charlie Wilson’s Zen lesson: “Today there can be little doubt that Washington’s brusque loss of interest in the fate of Afghanistan after the Soviets’ withdrawal was a calamitous error.”
Photographed in front of Abstraction, 1946, edition of 3, by Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986) in the gardens of the Brookshire residence in Houston, TX. | Red Jacket and Optical Dress both by Issey Miyake, available at Saks Fifth Avenue | Necklace and Earrings from Tenenbaum Jewelers selected by John A. Evatz.
This default by the United States government was not Joanne Herring’s fault. She pushed hard for continued humanitarian aid, post-war, to Afghanistan. Joanne states:
The Afghans fought terrorists for us three times: against the Russian invaders, after 9/11 when Afghanistan became the training site for terrorists, and today. America basically abandoned them all three times. We pleaded with Washington to help them rebuild. Our pleas fell on deaf ears.
JOANNE HERRING’S NEW WAY TO FIGHT WARS AND ACHIEVE PEACE
Unable to produce meaningful aid or even interest on the part of the United States government Joanne set out to do it herself. She formed Marshall Plan Charities which simultaneously provided the five things that a village needed to thrive: food, water, education, healthcare and job training.
It worked. The model village thrived even in adversity.
Transforming this village was not merely a humanitarian act. It was a marker for potential geopolitical triumph, showing that believing in and equipping people to fight their battles provides better outcomes with genuine liberty and justice for all.
In 2015, after five years of not being able to contact the village due to the ongoing strife in Afghanistan, she received a communication from a village Elder showing that they had survived and flourished in the middle of a war, surrounded by terrorists but capable of taking care of themselves, thriving and so grateful:
[My] people are forever grateful to Ms. Joanne Herring for her care and support to our community, and our children and grandchildren will remember this for generations to come.
God be with you, and may God Bless America.
Joanne:
The Afghans, with our military help, fought the greatest war machine in history, the Soviet Union and won! Not one American soldier died! The cost of equipping a village to support 20,000 Afghans represented HALF THE COST of keeping one American soldier in the field for one year! $1,000,000 for 1 Soldier, $450,000 for 20,000 Villagers.
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A village Elder told me: ‘We know that the billions in foreign aid that were sent here went down a black hole. As far as we know, we are the only village that was significantly helped.’ My plan gave them not one penny of money but all the tools, all at once: food, seeds, fertilizer and instructions, water, education, healthcare and job training, costing half of what it costs to keep one American soldier in the field for one year. They flourished.
Help from the bottom up. We did it. It works.
AMERICA’S PROBLEMS – AMERICA’S FUTURE
The same principle of believing in people and helping them help themselves works everywhere. It is designed, above all, to inspire and equip the poverty-stricken with the tools to achieve success. As Joanne puts it:
My grandmother and I started the Women’s Home in Houston to provide services to battered women. Lord, what challenges they had to overcome, but today it is 60 years old and we are told it is one of the most successful homes for battered women in the United States. We used the same theory as we did in Afghanistan and my television show. Give them tools, instructions, and materials to help them help themselves. They will.
Photographed in front of Non-Object (Spire), 2008, edition 3/3, by Anish Kapoor in the gardens the Brookshire residence in Houston, TX. | Cape-Effect Embellished Silk-Satin White Gown by Oscar De La Renta, available at Neiman Marcus | Bracelet and Earrings from Tenenbaum Jewelers selected by John A. Evatz.
I have spent the past several years closely studying television programming with a close eye on its impact on American society, especially with its impact on the kids in our inner cities. So many children are at risk through no fault of their own.
I wish to do a TV series on people who made it against the odds and how they did it. I used the same formula (helping people help themselves) for my TV show first when I was a TV host in Houston. I put on everything I could to encourage people and equip them to succeed. Every day people were learning something valuable and interesting. That’s what I want to do for the kids now.
Rather than plunging our airwaves and cable networks into morbidity let’s give viewers interesting and useful stories about people who made it against the odds, giving hope: ‘if they can make it, I can make it.’ We will give them actual tools to do it.
I am working to produce a pilot for a docudrama. Just one successful example will be both transformational and profitable. The secret? Spoiler alert: the good guys, not the black hats, win! There is an abundance of priceless and fascinating stories that are not making it onto TV. When the heroes and heroines of these stories tell them, people will listen spellbound….
My friend, the championship boxer George Foreman – who taught himself to read at age 16! – has written a spectacular book – Knockout Entrepreneur – that lays out the “how to,” one two three, to make it with however little you start with.
The key lies in our knowing, and communicating, that any good person can succeed if they have the tools and is provided those tools. If we believe in people right here, or anywhere, and give them the skills and tools they need, the vast majority will succeed.
I know this as a person, as a woman, and as a mom and grandmother. My chief blessings and joy include my two sons and three grandchildren who are my inspiration, including Beau and Stanisse King, Beau II, Becket and Robert among my Inspiration
and Joy.
Believing in people and giving them the simple tools to succeed through their own hard work is the secret ingredient of my recipes for world peace and for prosperity. There. You now are in on my secret to working miracles: help people help themselves.
Joanne pivots from winning an epic war to making fairy tales come true, real life fairy tales in which she provides the tools to find our own way to Happily Ever After. Meet Joanne Herring, a real deal Fairy Godmother. “She is a flash of light in a dark world.” Wish to encounter the real Fairy Godmother? Contact her at [email protected].
Photographed in front of Blind, 2013 by Anish Kapoor in the gray panel living room of the Brookshire residence in Houston, TX. | Priscilla Leather-Trimmed Velvet Dress by Ralph Lauren Collection, available at Saks Fifth Avenue. Diamond Sautoir Necklace by Bulgari designed by Pierre Cardin, Joanne’s own. Earrings from Tenenbaum Jewelers selected by John A. Evatz.