James Gavin, special assistant to Dr. Pak from 1982 to 1982, is currently president of the Minnesota Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.

I came to know Dr. Bo Hi Pak over the years in a number of ways. He is a man with many hats: special assistant and translator to Reverend Sun Myung Moon, father, mentor, diplomat, teacher, businessman, supporter of the arts, spiritual leader, defender of the faith, friend, husband, ambassador of goodwill, gentleman, and in every way a man with a heart of gold. Dr. Pak has the rare gift of uplifting everyone he meets and works with, whether it is the president of a country or a young man or woman just starting out in life. He leaves people feeling good about themselves and motivated to give more to life.

I first spoke with Dr. Pak when the Little Angels performed at the state fair in Minnesota in 1973, although I had seen him with Reverend Moon at various events before then. At that time I was the director of the Unification Church in North Dakota. My father and mother, along with members of the church from Minnesota and North Dakota, watched the performance and then met the performers and Dr. Pak after the show. Dr. Pak spoke to everyone about the Little Angels and Reverend Moon's vision for young people and the arts. What struck me most about him was his enthusiasm and the appreciation that he gave to everyone. Afterwards he mingled with the guests and, in what I would come to know as his way of being, made everyone feel important; he listened to them. Dr. Pak made a lasting impression on my parents by being the gracious person that he always is. After he met my Mom and Dad, my Dad said to him, "Please take good care of my son Jim." Dr. Pak looked at my Dad and said, "Oh, he's going to take good care of me." As it turned out, he took better care of me than I ever took care of him.

I first worked directly with Dr. Pak in 1975 when I moved to Washington, D.C., to join the Capitol Hill Ministry. One of the first projects I helped with was to invite members of Congress to hear Reverend Moon speak in one of the Senate committee rooms. As usual, Dr. Pak accompanied Reverend Moon and interpreted his speech. Since Reverend Moon is very demonstrative and enthusiastic when he speaks, and Dr. Pak always tries to match Reverend Moon's energy, the members of Congress got the one-two punch from Reverend Moon's speech and Dr. Pak's translation.

Each time Reverend Moon spoke on the Hill, he was invited to meet privately in a senator's or congressman's office. Dr. Pak was always there to translate Reverend Moon's words, passion, and warmth to the leaders in these meetings, whom Reverend Moon encouraged to stand up to atheistic communism and revive the moral fabric of America. Reverend Moon and Dr. Pak made a great team. Dr. Pak would always show the greatest respect and love for Reverend Moon, and anyone who witnessed his attitude had to respect Reverend Moon more. Dr. Pak hung on every word Reverend Moon spoke; his concentration was 100 percent. He wanted people to understand not only the words but the man himself.

In the 1970s, Reverend Moon spoke at Madison Square Garden, the Washington Monument, and in every state over and over again with Dr. Pak at his side. During the campaigns preceding these speeches, Dr. Pak motivated and encouraged the members. His warm and generous spirit made it easier for people to work hard, and his translation and assistance to Reverend Moon made for a closer relationship between Reverend and Mrs. Moon and the members. I'll always remember the day after Reverend Moon's speech in 1976 at the Washington Monument where hundreds of thousands of people had come to hear Reverend Moon. The next day the members got together on Roosevelt Island in the middle of the Potomac River to celebrate the victory. Reverend Moon proclaimed in his speech that day: "Let us now march to Moscow." Dr. Pak's translation of those words raised everyone to their feet, and even though it was hard to believe anything like the liberation of communism would ever take place, we believed in Reverend Moon and were ready to follow him anywhere. Dr. Pak's enthusiastic translation brought Reverend Moon's words to life for all of us.

In 1978, Congressman Donald Fraser, a Democrat from Minnesota, decided to investigate Reverend Moon and his associates through the Subcommittee on International Organizations. Reverend Chung Hwan Kwak invited me to assist Dr. Pak, who had become the main target of Fraser's investigation. Dr. Pak's staff consisted of Judy LeJeune, Elena Decker, Gerard Willis, and myself. Judy and Elena were already working with Dr. Pak with the Korean Cultural and Freedom Foundation, Gerard was the editor of the Rising Tide newspaper, and I was working with the director of the Capitol Hill Ministry. We worked out of a small suite of offices on Connecticut Avenue in Washington, D.C., the office of the Korean Cultural and Freedom Foundation, which represented the Little Angels Korean Folk Ballet, the Sung Hwa Performing Arts school, and Radio of Free Asia.

Dr. Pak met with Congressman Fraser and his staff and arranged to make a statement at each session for the record before he answered questions. Judy and Elena worked primarily on preparing for the question-and-answer part of the testimony, while Gerard and I assisted Dr. Pak with his opening statements. Dr. Pak is a tireless worker; he left no stone unturned in preparing his testimony to the subcommittee. Congressman Fraser had nearly $I million and a huge staff to assist him-Dr. Pak had only us. However, he always told us that God plus one is a majority, so if we would do all that we could do, God would do the rest.

In the office behind his desk was a large picture of Reverend Moon. Before he started work each day, Dr. Pak prayed for God's guidance and then he would start writing with his black felt-tipped pen, putting his thoughts down on paper. I have never met a person who worked so hard or prepared so diligently for anything. More than any of us, he knew just how much was on the line. He told us that Reverend Moon was praying for us and that God would be our shield in the days and months ahead.

Congressman Fraser really didn't know what he was letting himself in for. Dr. Pak is a warrior at heart. He survived years of fighting during the Korean war, he has lived a very disciplined and spiritual life as a follower of Reverend Moon, he has a spirit that never gives up, and he believed God was on his side. Each day Dr. Pak came to the hearing with a well-prepared, lengthy statement, which many times left Congressman Fraser red-faced and muttering.

We did extensive research on the time Congressman Fraser's committee had spent investigating the human rights violations taking place in various countries. Dr. Pak pointed out in his opening statement that Fraser had spent months investigating and criticizing the human rights records of our allies, such as Taiwan and South Korea, while ignoring the genocide in Cambodia and the atrocities in other communist bloc countries. Congressman Derwinski from Illinois told us later that he felt like cheering during Dr. Pak's statement because, as a member of the committee, he was frustrated by Fraser's extreme leftist tendencies. Dr. Pak also explained in his statement that Congressman Fraser's father, who was a dean at the University of Minnesota Law school, was nicknamed the "Red Dean" because of his political beliefs. He quoted sources from an FBI investigation that accused Fraser of being an agent of influence for the USSR. Dr. Pak was fighting fire with fire. He let the world know where Congressman Fraser was coming from and why he was investigating and attempting to destroy the pro-democratic, anti-communist work of Reverend Moon and his people.

It got nasty. The subcommittee did everything in its power to discredit Dr. Pak, even suggesting that he had been an unfaithful husband. Fraser's staff had planted the story in the Chicago Tribune, citing a diplomatic colleague of Dr. Pak's as saying Dr. Pak had an inappropriate relationship with his wife. Back in our office Dr. Pak told us that Fraser must think he was losing the battle to stoop so low. Dr. Pak prepared his heart with prayer and got down to work.

The next day a bombshell hit Congressman Fraser. The arrangement Dr. Pak had made with the subcommittee was to submit his prepared statement before he read it publicly. Well, that was one statement Congressman Fraser didn't want the press to hear, so he tried to change his own rules and told Dr. Pak they didn't have time for him to read it. It was tense; the two men went back and forth on the time needed. Dr. Pak wanted 19 minutes and 45 seconds and Congressman Fraser didn't want to allow him to speak. Finally Dr. Pak said, "I'm prepared to stay over all night. Just let me have my 19 minutes and 45 seconds." Amazingly, Fraser relented and let Dr. Pak speak.

Dr. Pak made it clear that he lived by God's law and the teachings of Reverend Moon. He challenged Congressman Fraser to call Dr. Thomas Chung, the man who had purportedly accused Dr. Pak and who was standing by in Korea, ready to refute the lies that were printed in the paper. Dr. Pak challenged Fraser to call Dr. Chung to restore his good name. Fraser's eyes continually went to the clock, waiting anxiously for Dr. Pak's time to elapse. Dr. Pak had to rein in his emotions to conclude his testimony, saying, "I am a proud South Korean, I am a proud anti-communist, and I am a proud follower of Reverend Sun Myung Moon. And I will remain so, all the days of my life." He then recited the 23rd Psalm: "The Lord is my shepherd..." After reciting the Psalm he broke down in tears with his head on his arms.

Dr. Pak's 19 minutes and 45 seconds had a tremendous impact. Fraser turned bright red and was visibly shaken by Dr. Pak's powerful statement. Dr. Pak took the high ground and kept it from that point on. Fraser had probably thought Dr. Pak would be like a sheep being led to the slaughter, but Dr. Pak was never meek or timid, and he was always well prepared, always speaking eloquently, with passion, straight from the heart. However, after the testimony, it still wasn't over.

Congressman Fraser took time off to run for the U.S. Senate seat for the state of Minnesota. His wish was to pursue the investigation further once he was elected to the Senate. I was born and raised in Minnesota, so I went back there to observe the race and assist Fraser's opposition any way I could. On Election Day Dr. Pak was flying back from Korea and called me in the evening to check on the early results. I told him it didn't look good; Fraser was ahead, but it was still early. When he got to California, Dr. Pak called again, and I told him the votes from Minneapolis and St. Paul were all counted and Fraser was still way ahead. Dr. Pak said, "Jim, you'd better start praying," and I said, "I haven't stopped." Dr. Pak took the redeye to Washington, D.C., and called me when he arrived. I told him Fraser was still ahead by a few thousand votes, but the outlying counties were coming in, and it looked like Bob Short, Fraser's opponent, might overtake him. Within an hour Short bypassed Fraser and ended up winning by a few thousand votes.

One paper's first headline the next morning was "Fraser Beats Out Short," but the follow-up, revised headline was "Short Victory Took All Night." When Dr. Pak heard the news, his elation could be heard all the way to Minnesota. At that moment he was probably the happiest man on earth. The voters in Minnesota had put an end to Congressman Donald Fraser's misuse of power. Unfortunately, the government investigations and persecution of Reverend Moon didn't stop with Donald Fraser.

They say you really get to know the character of a person in the heat of battle. Dr. Pak was unflappable. He is the type of person who sees the glass as being half full, very positive and very hard working. Thomas Jefferson once said, "The harder a person works, the luckier one gets." If that is so, then Dr. Pak is very lucky indeed.

Dr. Pak has always been a family-oriented person. Even when we worked very late he would go home and have a little dinner with his wife. He and his wife are very close; it's easy to see that they really love each other. Through it all, she was always there for him, and her love and care gave him strength. Also, Dr. Pak was always in communication with Reverend Moon. They have a special relationship, and the spiritual strength Dr. Pak received from that relationship made him strong. Dr. Pak would pray with us and ask us to pray with him. God's spirit was always with him. Throughout the Fraser ordeal, he never got down; in fact, he was always lifting up other people through praise and encouragement. He is a very positive person to work with.

I continued to see Dr. Pak and work with him throughout the next few years, but it wasn't until 1982 that we worked together again on a full-time basis. In 1981 the Washington Star, Washington's oldest newspaper, closed its doors. On that day I called Dr. Pak in New York where he was heading up The News World, a newspaper founded by Reverend Moon in Manhattan. When I told him about the Star, he immediately seized on the idea that Washington, D.C., needed a second voice. Reverend Moon was excited by the idea and asked Dr. Pak to explore the possibilities. Dr. Pak undertook this mission with a passion. When the Washington Post outbid everyone, including Reverend Moon, for the old Star building, Dr. Pak went on to find a new site and under Reverend Moon's direction built the paper from the ground up. News World staff members and people like myself who lived in Washington, D.C., formed the nucleus of the new paper. Dr. Pak was in the middle of everything, from hiring seasoned newspaper people for the editorial side to bringing on a general manager and circulation director to run the business side.

Reverend Moon was very much involved in all of this and was frequently in Washington, making decisions and giving final approval to all the important aspects of this huge project. Reverend Moon wanted a newspaper in Washington that would stand up to communism, something that the Washington Post had never done. In fact, more often than not, the Washington Post was an apologist for the Soviet Union and its allies.

I first worked as the public relations director for the Washington Times, helping Dr. Pak with the first advertising and promotion campaign to launch the paper and later on our first direct-mail effort to build our subscriber base. The first people to endorse the paper were friends Reverend Moon had made on Capitol Hill over the years, and we used their endorsements in our direct-mail campaign. These people were grateful that Reverend Moon and his church were willing to put their fortune on the line to take a stand for worldwide freedom and democracy.

Within a year Dr. Pak asked me to be his special assistant. I worked with Bruce Brown to assist Dr. Pak and Col. Han, the senior vice president of the paper. Politics in a paper with several hundred employees was always interesting, to say the least; however, Dr. Pak was respected by the business side as well as the editorial side of the paper and ran a pretty smooth ship. The editorial people liked the fact that Dr. Pak just let them do their job and didn't meddle in the content of the paper. His door was always open, and people would visit him to make suggestions or give their opinion on issues of the day. He made periodic rounds of the various departments and was appreciated for his warmth and interest in all areas of the paper. Pressmen, photographers, reporters, circulation people, and those in the advertising department all had contact with Dr. Pak. Reverend Moon periodically visited the paper, and it was his custom to visit every department, meeting everyone each time he visited. Dr. Pak and Reverend Moon were always like that. People saw them, spoke to them, knew them, and liked them.

Dr. Pak could be tough when he had to be. The paper's first editor-in-chief came to think of himself as indispensable, that the paper rose and set on him like the sun. He demanded a big raise and memberships in expensive clubs and other perks from Dr. Pak. He thought quite a bit of himself. To make a long story short, Dr. Pak would not give him what he wanted, so he resigned, stating that most people would leave that "Moonie" paper with him. It's funny but he was the only one to leave, and even though he voiced his dissatisfaction loudly at a press conference, no one paid much attention. Dr. Pak went out and found Arnaud de Borchgrave to replace him and the paper grew stronger. Threatening Dr. Pak didn't work. Congressman Fraser found that out and so did the former editor-in-chief.

Church members on the Times staff all loved Dr. Pak. He spent time with the members and knew everyone by name. They were his people and he loved everyone. People would come to his office or house to speak to him about all kinds of things. He always listened and helped many people, as a spiritual counselor, a family counselor, a job counselor, etc. He was there when people needed him, and it wasn't just people from the Times. People came to him from Atlantic Video, the Universal Ballet Academy, and other enterprises he had worked with Reverend Moon to create, as well as members from the local church. Although Dr. Pak had an enormous workload, he always made time to talk to and help out members. When Reverend Moon visited Washington, D.C., Dr. Pak often publicly praised church members' work and made it possible for them to report to Reverend Moon about their achievements. Dr. Pak was a living bridge for many people to Reverend Moon, and people deeply appreciated his efforts.

Dr. Pak in his capacity as president of the Washington Times Corporation met important people within and outside government all the time. People from the Reagan White House, heads of government departments, members of Congress, business leaders, various well-known religious leaders, and foreign VIPs would visit Dr. Pak. He held people's respect not only because he was Reverend Moon's special assistant and president of the Washington Times Corporation but because of his character and his charm as a person. He always treated everyone with dignity and respect. He listened to everyone very attentively and helped others whenever he possibly could. Dr. Pak often made it possible for many of these people to meet with Reverend Moon to express their gratitude to him for upholding freedom and democracy through the Washington Times.

While an officer in the South Korean Army during the Korean War, Dr. Pak came to America for special training, and during the war U.S. tanks saved him and his comrades from near-certain death. Dr. Pak always spoke about his love for and deep debt of gratitude to the people of America. In many ways he is more patriotic toward America than many Americans. At CAUSA conferences (an organization founded by Reverend Moon and led by Dr. Pak), he taught local and national leaders the counterproposal to the communist doctrine and pro-democracy principles that upheld those of America's founders. Dr. Pak motivated Americans to be better citizens and stand up to the threat of international communism. At the Washington Times he often spoke to visitors about these ideas and garnered their respect and admiration. Because of his passion for these ideas, people came to understand why Reverend Moon had established and continued to support the pro-democratic, pro-God, and pro-American Washington Times.

Actually Reverend Moon launched the Washington Times while defending himself against charges relating to the first tax return he had ever filed in the United States. Over the years Reverend Moon and our church had been persecuted by certain elements within the U.S. government and other institutions. Reverend Moon had enemies in and out of government that wanted to put him out of action because of his strong stand against communism and his unorthodox theological teachings. Reverend Moon's attitude was that there is nothing you can do about bigotry and persecution; you just have to keep on doing what is right and let God take care of sorting it all out. Dr. Pak and other members of the church just kept on working and prayed for the lawyers and the judicial system.

Dr. Pak dropped everything else when Reverend Moon was convicted. Since the justice system had failed to uphold justice, Dr. Pak and members of our church went to the people of conscience, the religious community. Dr. Pak bridged the gap between the Unification Church and other churches in the United States and launched a religious freedom movement that was unlike anything our country has ever seen. The Religious Freedom Coalition was made up of every faith, every race, and every culture in America. The outcry was "today they jail Reverend Moon, tomorrow it will be us." The undeserved conviction of Reverend Moon made many friends and allies during this period, and Dr. Pak was in the forefront of this new movement.

There were theological disagreements but no disagreement on how unfairly Reverend Moon had been treated by the government. Because of the CAUSA work over the years, Dr. Pak and the CAUSA staff had educated thousands of church leaders from every denomination. Many of these ministers were civil rights leaders like Reverend Ralph Abernathy and Reverend Joseph Lowery, and they knew what racial persecution was all about and could see that Reverend Moon's case was one of racial and religious persecution. Dr. Pak also made new friends from the religious right like Dr. Tim LaHaye and Reverend Jerry Falwell, as well as civil libertarians like former Senator Eugene McCarthy from Minnesota.

Thousands of these Americans marched and demonstrated on behalf of Reverend Moon in every major city of the United States and thousands more marched on the White House, demanding justice for Reverend Moon. Dr. Pak was everywhere, meeting with key leaders, building relationships, and desperately working to keep Reverend Moon out of jail. When Reverend Moon went to prison, Dr. Pak continued to lead the religious freedom movement. Behind the scenes he worked with political and religious leaders to petition for a presidential pardon. From seeing Dr. Pak in private, I knew how tortured he was that Reverend Moon was in prison. Nothing mattered to him other than the safety and security of his spiritual father, Reverend Moon.

I accompanied Dr. Pak to Danbury prison many times to visit Reverend Moon. Whenever possible Dr. Pak brought a congressman, a religious leader, or other prominent American to meet with Reverend Moon. It broke Dr. Pak's heart to see Reverend Moon in prison, and he wanted to do anything possible to inspire him during that period. One minister broke down crying in front of Reverend Moon as he apologized to him for what our government had subjected him to. Reverend Moon ended up comforting the minister and challenging him to love America more and work harder for the salvation of his country. Dr. Pak always wanted to lift up Reverend Moon, bring him a good report or another visitor to inspire him during that time.

Senator Orrin Hatch was a ranking minority member on the Senate Judiciary Committee whom Dr. Pak went to for advice and assistance. Dr. Pak spent hours briefing him on Reverend Moon's case and Senator Hatch took action. As chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution, he launched an investigation into the justice Department's treatment of Reverend Moon. After his investigation, Senator Hatch held a hearing on religious freedom, July 25, 1985, shortly after Reverend Moon had been released from prison. An hour before the hearing began, Senator Hatch, Reverend and Mrs. Moon, Dr. Pak, and I met privately in his office. Senator Hatch apologized to Reverend Moon for the treatment he and his family had been subjected to by our country.

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