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they were facing, and they took on the problems in order and in stride. They also knew how to mix hard work and fun. Working under sometimes grueling conditions in hot and humid village regions worldwide, with few amenities, these field-workers gathered periodically for meetings where humor and the shared sense of being part of something important carried the day.
    This book tells the story of one of those workers, and, like the accounts of any single team member, it is subject to memory defects, biases, and faulty interpretations. One advantage is that I was involved in the eradication effort from the beginning. I did keep rudimentary notes, but errors in my account are probable and I am responsible for them.
    My gratitude goes first to the countless workers around the world who achieved smallpox eradication. I am especially grateful for my colleagues in India, including Drs. P. Diesh, M.I.D. Sharma, Mahendra Dutta, and C.K. Rao. There is no way to adequately thank the World Health Organization (WHO) and CDC people I worked with: in New Delhi, especially Drs. Nicole Grasset, Zdeno Jezek, Larry Brilliant, Don Francis, Don Hopkins, Prem Gambhiri, and Harcharn Singh; in Geneva, the WHO staff, led by D.A. Henderson; and in Atlanta and around the world, the CDC workers, especially Dave Sencer, Bill Watson, Stu Kingma, Don Millar, Bill Griggs, Stan Foster, Joan Davenport, Jeff Koplan, Don Eddins, Frances Porcher, Ann Mather, Maudine Ford, and Carol Walters—and at least one hundred others.
    Countless colleagues in Nigeria helped make the early days productive. These include Wolfgang Bulle, David Thompson, Paul Lichfield, and the missionaries who helped during the first smallpox outbreak in Ogoja, among them Annie Voigt, Hector Ottemüller, Harold Meissner, and Wally Rasch. The support staff in Lagos included George Lythcott, Rafe Henderson, Jim Hicks, and Stan Foster.
    Institutions help provide the structure, the resources, and the ability to develop objectives, coalitions, and programs. I am especially thankful for the support and assistance of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Carter Center, Emory University, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It is an honor to have been involved with any one of the four. To be involved with all of them is beyond any expectations.
    Many assisted with the collection of materials and with organizing and writing this book, especially Stu Kingma, M. I. D. Sharma, Frances Porcher, and Ann Mather. I am grateful to Mark Rosenberg for his help and his persistence in urging me to complete the manuscript, and to Sam Verhovek, Don Hopkins, and Dan Fox for their reviews and suggestions. Polly Hogan gave invaluable assistance in turning numbers into graphs, concepts into maps, and ideas into written text.
    Ordering the material into a logical sequence with understandable sentences was the special contribution of Carolyn Bond, whose own experience living in India enriched her grasp of the material at hand. At the University of California Press, Lynne Withey, Hannah Love, Jacqueline Volin, and Sue Carter provided valuable ideas and guidance throughout the manuscript preparation process.
    I also want to acknowledge countless mentors and friends, some mentioned in the book, and some mentioned, as it were, only in my mind. Truly, the book’s coauthor is my wife, Paula. For over fifty years she has played a key part in my engagement in global health interests, and as I wrote these chapters, she not only compensated for my failing eyesight but also shared her acute sense for where the real story lay. When you are writing, it’s often difficult to discern the wheat from the chaff; I thank Paula for her unerring instinct about what to leave in, and what to take out—as well as for her excellent suggestion for the book’s title. To David, Michael, and Robert, I give heartfelt thanks for your sacrifices over the years.

PART ONE Africa
IDENTIFYING THE KEY STRATEGY

ONE A