Bill Gates was right to defend USAID amid Elon Musk’s attacks—take it from someone who experienced its impact

Butch Meily is president of the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation, IdeaSpace, and QBO Innovation. He is the author of the new memoir From Manila to Wall Street: An Immigrant’s Journey with America’s First Black Tycoon.

In 1961, U.S. President John F. Kennedy created a new federal agency, the United States International Agency for Development (USAID). Its purpose was “to extend assistance to countries recovering from disaster, trying to escape poverty, and engaging in democratic...