Leslie Gelb

Leslie (Les) Howard Gelb (born March 4, 1937) is a former correspondent for "The New York Times" and is currently President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is a member of the editorial board of Encyclopædia Britannica that was re-established in 2005 after a 10-year hiatus.

Background

Gelb, born into a Jewish family, attended New Rochelle High School, in New Rochelle, New York, graduating in 1955. He received a B.A. from Tufts University in 1959, and an M.A. in 1961 and Ph.D. in 1964 from Harvard University. From 1964-1967 he was Assistant Professor of Government at Wesleyan University. ref|Wesleyan He married his wife, Judith Cohen, on 2 August 1959 and lives in New York City. They have three children.

Career

Gelb 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 Award. Robert McNamara appointed Gelb as director of the project that produced the controversial Pentagon Papers on the Vietnam War.

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 from 1977 to 1979, serving as director of the Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs and winning the Distinguished Honor Award, the highest award of the US State Department.

He returned to the "Times" in 1981; from then until 1993, he was in turn its national security correspondent, deputy editorial page editor, editor of the Op-Ed Page, and columnist. This period included his leading role on the "Times" team that won a Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism in 1986 for a six-part comprehensive series on the "Star Wars" Strategic Defense Initiative).

Gelb became President of the Council on Foreign Relations in 1993 and as of 2005 is its President Emeritus.

He also serves as the Chairman of the Advisory Board for the progressive foreign policy think tank, National Security Network

Advocacy for the 2003 Iraq invasion

Glen Greenwald reportsGlen Greenwald, [http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/03/25/war_opponents/ The ongoing exclusion of war opponents from the Iraq debate] , Tuesday March 25, 2008 07:14 EDT] that when Gelb was interviewed on Fox News in 2003 prior to the invasion he explained his support saying: "But frankly, except for The Cuban Missile Crisis, I don't think more has been at stake than today. Our country really is at risk in a way we've never been at risk before." Three days before the invasion, the Associated Press quotes Gelb saying: "I'm in favor of this.... It's the best medicine for anti-Americanism around the world I can imagine."

Criticism of "Israel lobby" paper

In the New York Times, Gelb wrote a stinging piece, "Dual Loyalties," which criticised John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt's book The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy. [Leslie Gelb. " [http://www.cfr.org/publication/14278/dual_loyalties.html Dual Loyalties] ", New York Times Book Review, 2007-09-23.]

Selected Publications

* "The Irony of Vietnam: The System Worked" (1980)
* "Our Own Worst Enemy: The Unmaking of American Foreign Policy" (1984, co-author with I. M. Destler and Anthony Lake)
*"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)

Notes

# [http://www.wesleyan.edu/gov/history.html Department of Government at Wesleyan University]

External links

* [http://www.asiasource.org/news/special_reports/gelb.cfm Interview with Nermeen Shaikh at Asia Society]
* [http://asmeascholars.com Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa ] (ASMEA)

* Biographies:
** [http://www.cfr.org/bio.php?id=3325 CFR] (Council on Foreign Relations)
** [http://www.mssu.edu/international/China/gelb.htm MSSU] (Missouri Southern State University)
** [http://www.nndb.com/people/814/000079577/ NNDB] (Notable Names Database)
** [http://corporate.britannica.com/board/gelb.html EB] (Encyclopædia Britannica)