Les Gelb
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Leslie Howard "Les" Gelb (March 4, 1937 – August 31, 2019) 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 of the
Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, mi ...
.


Background

Leslie Gelb was born in
New Rochelle, New York New Rochelle (; older french: La Nouvelle-Rochelle) is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the southeastern portion of the state. In 2020, the city had a population of 79,726, making it the seventh-largest in the state of ...
in 1937. His parents were Max and Dorothy (Klein) Gelb. He received a B.A. from Tufts University in 1959, and an M.A. in 1961 and Ph.D. in 1964 from Harvard University. Starting in 1964 and ending in 1967 he was Assistant Professor of Government at Wesleyan University. 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 American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...
in 1993.


Career

Gelb was Executive Assistant for Senator Jacob Javits from 1966 to 1967. 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 Distinguished Service Medal (DSM) is a high award of a nation. Examples include: *Distinguished Service Medal (Australia) (established 1991), awarded to personnel of the Australian Defence Force for distinguished leadership in action * Distinguishe ...
. Robert McNamara appointed Gelb as director of the project that produced the controversial Pentagon Papers on the Vietnam War. 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 Assistant Secretary of State in the
Carter Administration Jimmy Carter's tenure as the 39th president of the United States began with his inauguration on January 20, 1977, and ended on January 20, 1981. A Democrat from Georgia, Carter took office after defeating incumbent Republican President ...
from 1977 to 1979, serving as director of the
Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs The Bureau of Political-Military Affairs (PM) is an agency within the United States Department of State that bridges the Department of State with the Department of Defense. It provides policy in the areas of international security, security assist ...
and winning the
Distinguished Honor Award The Distinguished Honor Award is an award of the United States Department of State. Similar versions of the same award exist for the former U.S. Information Agency, Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, and USAID. It is presented to groups or i ...
, the highest award of the US State Department. In 1980 he co-authored ''The Irony of Vietnam'' which won the Woodrow Wilson Foundation Book Award in 1981. From 1980 to 1981, he was also a Senior Associate at the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) is a nonpartisan international affairs think tank headquartered in Washington D.C. with operations in Europe, South and East Asia, and the Middle East as well as the United States. Founded in ...
. He returned to the ''Times'' in 1981. Until 1993, he was in turn its national security correspondent, deputy editorial page editor, editor of the
op-ed An op-ed, short for "opposite the editorial page", is a written prose piece, typically published by a North-American newspaper or magazine, which expresses the opinion of an author usually not affiliated with the publication's editorial board. O ...
page, and columnist. The period included his leading role on the ''Times'' team that won a
Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
for
Explanatory Journalism Explanatory journalism or explanatory reporting is a form of reporting that attempts to present ongoing news stories in a more accessible manner by providing greater context than would be presented in traditional news sources. The term is often a ...
in 1986 for a six-part comprehensive series on the Star Wars
Strategic Defense Initiative The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), derisively nicknamed the "''Star Wars'' program", was a proposed missile defense system intended to protect the United States from attack by ballistic strategic nuclear weapons (intercontinental ballistic ...
. In 1983, he worked as a producer on the ABC documentary ''The Crisis Game'', which received an
Emmy award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
in 1984. Gelb became President of the
Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, mi ...
in 1993 and and until his death in 2019 was its President
Emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...
. 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
National Security Network The National Security Network (NSN) was a non-profit foreign policy organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, that focused on international relations, global affairs and national security. Characterizing itself as " progressive ...
, which identifies itself as a "progressive" think tank, and served on the boards of directors of several non-profit organizations including Carnegie Endowment, the
School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University The School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University (SIPA) is the List of schools of international relations in the United States, international affairs and public policy school, public policy school of Columbia University, a pri ...
, the
James Baker Institute Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy, also known as the Baker Institute, is an American think tank on the campus of Rice University in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1993, it functions as a center for public policy research. It is named ...
at Rice University, the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University, and the
John F. Kennedy School of Government The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...
Center on Press, Politics and Public Policy. He served on the board of directors of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and was a member of the board of advisors of the
Truman Project The Truman National Security Project is a United States Democratic Party-aligned national security and leadership development organization based in Washington, D.C. It serves to organize center-left to progressive Americans on issues of national ...
and
America Abroad Media ''America Abroad'' was a monthly documentary radio program produced by America Abroad Media (AAM), a Washington D.C.-based non-profit organization. The program was distributed by Public Radio International (PRI) and broadcast on public radio stati ...
. Gelb served on the board of directors of the Center for the National Interest and of the Diplomacy Center Foundation. He also sat on the editorial advisory committee of Democracy magazine, on the advisory council of The National Interest magazine, and on the advisory board of the
Peter G. Peterson Foundation The Peter G. Peterson Foundation is an American foundation established in 2008 by Peter G. Peterson, former US Secretary of Commerce in the Nixon Administration and co-founder of the Blackstone Group, an American financial-services company. ...
. Gelb served on several commercial boards including Legg Mason closed end funds (since 2003), Aberdeen India and Asia Tigers funds (since 2003), and Centre Partners (since 2005). He was Trustee Emeritus of Tufts University. Gelb was a contributor to The Daily Beast, a
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site.


Iraq War

Gelb initially supported the Iraq War but later said 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) * ''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


External links


Leslie Gelb's Blog
at '' The Daily Beast'' * * *
1982 Interview at WGBH Open Vault
; Biographies:
CFR
(
Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, mi ...
)
EB
('' Encyclopædia Britannica'') {{DEFAULTSORT:Gelb, Leslie 1937 births 2019 deaths Jewish American journalists American columnists American foreign policy writers American male journalists American political scientists Harvard University alumni Journalists from New York (state) The New York Times writers Writers from New Rochelle, New York Political science educators Tufts University alumni Wesleyan University faculty Political realists Presidents of the Council on Foreign Relations 21st-century American Jews New Rochelle High School alumni