Leslie H. Gelb
Les Gelb | |
---|---|
Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs | |
In office February 23, 1977 – June 30, 1979 | |
President | Jimmy Carter |
Preceded by | George S. Vest |
Succeeded by | Reginald Bartholomew |
Personal details | |
Born | Leslie Howard Gelb March 4, 1937 New Rochelle, New York, U.S. |
Died | August 31, 2019 New York City, New York, U.S. | (aged 82)
Political party | Democratic |
Education | Tufts University (BA) Harvard University (MA, PhD) |
Leslie Howard "Les" Gelb (March 4, 1937 – August 31, 2019)[1] was an American academic, correspondent and columnist for The New York Times who served as a senior Defense and State Department official and later the President Emeritus[2] of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Background
Leslie Gelb was born in
He married Judith Cohen on August 2, 1959, and lived in New York City. They had three children. He received the American Father of the Year award in 1993.[4][5]
Career
Gelb was Executive Assistant for Senator Jacob Javits from 1966 to 1967.[2] He was director of Policy Planning and Arms Control for International Security Affairs at the Department of Defense from 1967 to 1969, winning the Pentagon's highest award, the Distinguished Service Medal. Robert McNamara appointed Gelb as director of the project that produced the controversial Pentagon Papers on the Vietnam War; Gelb led the team of 36 analysts, including Daniel Ellsberg, Paul Warnke, Morton Halperin, Richard Holbrooke, John Galvin, Paul F. Gorman, Richard Moorstein, Hans Heymann and Melvin Gurtov, in drafting the 47-volume, 7,000-page study of the war's history, presenting it to McNamara and his successor Clark Clifford in early 1969, only for them to not read it.[6][7][8] From 1969 to 1973, Gelb was a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution.
He was diplomatic correspondent at The New York Times from 1973 to 1977.
He served as an
He returned to the Times in 1981. Until 1993, he was in turn its national security correspondent, deputy editorial page editor, editor of the
Gelb became President of the Council on Foreign Relations in 1993 and as of 2003[update] and until his death in 2019 was its President Emeritus.[11] From 2003 to 2015, he served as Board Senior Fellow there. In addition to his work at Council on Foreign Relations, Gelb was also a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies and was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
He served as the chairman of the advisory board for the
Gelb was a contributor to
Iraq War
Gelb initially supported the Iraq War but later said[18][19] that his "initial support for the war was symptomatic of unfortunate tendencies within the foreign policy community, namely the disposition and incentives of supporting wars to retain political and professional credibility."
Selected publications
- Power Rules: How Common Sense Can Rescue American Foreign Policy (2009) ISBN 978-0-06-171454-2
- Anglo-American Relations, 1945–1950: Toward a Theory of Alliances (1988)
- Claiming the Heavens: The New York Times Complete Guide to the Star Wars Debate (coauthor, Crown Publishing Group, 1988)
- Our Own Worst Enemy: The Unmaking of American Foreign Policy (1984, co-author with I. M. Destler and Anthony Lake)
- The Irony of Vietnam: The System Worked (1979)
References
- ^ a b Roberts, Sam (August 31, 2019). "Leslie H. Gelb, 82, Former Diplomat and New York Times Journalist, Dies". Retrieved September 1, 2019 – via NYTimes.com.
- ^ a b "Leslie H. Gelb – Council on Foreign Relations". Archived from the original on August 11, 2014.
- ^ "Wesleyan's Government Department: A Brief History". Wesleyan University. Retrieved September 21, 2017.
- ^ "Leslie H. Gelb-Editorial Board of Advisors". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on April 14, 2012. Retrieved May 10, 2012.
- ^ About the Father of the Year Awards - Winners 1942-2017. momanddadday.com.
- ^ Gladstone, Brooke (January 12, 2018). "What the Press and "The Post" Missed - On the Media". WNYC Studios. Retrieved June 27, 2023.
- ^ Goldsmith, Rick (June 11, 2011). "Opinion - Tale of the Pentagon Papers". The New York Times. Retrieved June 27, 2023.
- ^ "Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award" (PDF). American Political Science Association.
- ^ "News & Documentary Emmy Awards". imdb.com. Retrieved July 5, 2015.
- ^ "Leslie H. Gelb President Emeritus & Board Senior Fellow". Council on Foreign Relations. May 6, 2012. Retrieved May 10, 2012.
- ^ "NSN website". Archived from the original on March 4, 2016.
- ^ "America Abroad Media – Board of Advisors". americaabroadmedia.org. Retrieved April 18, 2017.
- ^ "Board of Directors – Center for the National Interest". Retrieved April 18, 2017.
- ^ "DCF - Board of Directors". diplomacycenterfoundation.org. Retrieved July 5, 2015.
- ^ "Democracy Journal". democracyjournal.org. Archived from the original on July 14, 2015. Retrieved July 5, 2015.
- ^ "Masthead". The National Interest. Retrieved July 5, 2015.
- ^ Gelb, Leslie H.; Zelmati, Jeanne-Paloma (2009). "Mission Not Accomplished". Democracy: A Journal of Ideas (Summer): 1–24. Archived from the original on March 20, 2012.
- ^ Logan, Justin (September 22, 2009). "The International Relations Academy and the Beltway "Foreign Policy Community"–Why the Disconnect?". Cato Institute. Archived from the original on January 3, 2011. Retrieved August 25, 2021.
External links
- Leslie Gelb's Blog at The Daily Beast
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- Leslie H. Gelb at IMDb
- 1982 interview at WGBH Open Vault
- June 1991 interview for The New York Times News Service: Gelb, Leslie H. (October 13, 2005). "Remembering the genesis of the Pentagon Papers". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved June 27, 2023.
- January 2018 interview for the WNYC Studios series On the Media with Brooke Gladstone: What the Press and "The Post" Missed. Archived August 1, 2019, at the Wayback Machine.
- Biographies