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Leslie Gelb, Son of Impoverished Immigrants Who Rose to Be US Foreign Policy
Giant

Natalie Liu

   WASHINGTON - His was a classic example of the American Dream, a rise
   from a humble childhood with immigrant parents to prestigious positions
   within U.S. government institutions and think tanks and a reputation as
   one of the nation's most respected foreign policy thinkers.

   In the weeks since the death last month of Leslie H. Gelb, a number of
   his friends and former colleagues have shared their recollections about
   the man and his legacy with VOA , in particular his impact on U.S.
   foreign policy thinking.

   Gelb, best known to his friends and colleagues as "Les," was 82when he
   passed away in New York City on Aug. 31.

   The next day's obituaries detailed his career highlights, including his
   Ph.D. in government from Harvard University, his decorated service at
   the Defense and State departments, his work as an influential columnist
   atThe New York Timesand his decade at the helm of one of America's most
   prestigious think tanks, the Council on Foreign Relations.

   Child of immigrants

   Fewer people knew that he was a child of immigrants, that his parents
   worked seven days a week to sustain their corner deli, never read
   newspapers, and counted The Bible as one of the two books they owned.

   "My parents were immigrants from originally Hungary, but by the time
   they left it, it was the Czech Republic, today it's Ukraine," Gelb once
   said in an interview about his family's ancestral hometown. He
   described the town of Mukachevo as "this little piece of property in
   the far east part of the Austro-Hungarian empire up against the
   Carpathian Mountains."

   Gelb once said his parents were "essentially uneducated immigrants,
   fifth-grade education," who came to America "and worked in a corner
   grocery store their whole lives."

   Asked whether his interest in international politics was inspired by
   dinner table conversations, he replied that there wasn't much of a
   dinner table to speak of, even less of dinnertime conversations
   revolving around geopolitics.

   "We ate at the back of the store, one at a time," he chuckled while
   answering the question. "My father was interested in politics, but it
   was not a passion."

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