Wednesday, December 13, 2000

from Rebecca

Re: **Rescuing the World: The Life and Times of Leo Cherne**

Andrew Smith writes that State University of New York Press has contracted to publish the above.

Smith formally asks your permission to publish your memorial remarks in this book and future editions and related advertising and promotional materials. He asks for nonexclusive world rights for its use in all languages and all editions.

SUNY Press is nonprofit. Smith will receive no compensation.

The manuscript has been reviewed by Lionel Olmer, John Richardson and several close friends of Leo Cherne and all are satisfied with the publication.

Your remarks were edited by you for the book in Dec., 1999. Smith received your edited remarks. Attached are your remarks with 2 additional edit points by Smith.

I agree to the request and approve my remarks as edited by Smith

Other

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# Preface

By Henry A. Kissinger

In the Jewish religion, it is said that at any one point in time, God preserves the world because there exist ten just men who, without claiming themselves that they are just, give Him a motive for leaving the world intact. Leo Cherne was surely one of those ten just men.

I met Leo in the 1950s before I was Henry Kissinger, when I was still writing short books. He had read one of them and invited me to visit him at the Research Institute of America in New York. He thought that what I had written about foreign policy was important and I should devote myself to it. He gave me a copy of the bust of Abraham Lincoln, which he had sculpted, and he asked, of course, nothing for himself except my best performance.

To me he was a mythic figure, because he had been at the Hungarian border the year before I met him. And having been a refugee myself before there was an IRC, I knew how much it meant to have individuals who looked after refugees, not as an act of charity, but as an act of inner necessity. And Leo, in those days, was dedicated, above all, to the care of the down-trodden. He opposed Communism, not on the grounds of a foreign policy strategy, but as a contribution to the liberation of the human spirit—as a necessity for the liberation of the human spirit.

6

Every once in a while he would give me a call and give me some assignment which he thought needed to be done in the field of the humane impact of foreign policy, or express some concern he deeply felt. And he became an important part of the fixture of my life.

It was one of these curious phenomena that I, as time went on, became involved in so many struggles and in so many concerns on the more sheer political side that I felt I could always come and take Leo for granted, because he would know when I needed to hear from him. And indeed he did.

I served in government in a very tragic period of the American spirit, when American perfectionism turned on itself and conceived the idea that we had to be humiliated before we could be worthy of conducting foreign affairs. Leo never made this assumption. Leo always believed, as I believe, that America has a duty to stand for freedom and to make sure that the weak can be secure and the just can be free.

In the tragic period when the helicopters lifted off the roofs in Vietnam in 1975, we thought, above all, of the hundreds of thousands that were being left behind. It was a slight solace to know that there was Leo, who would worry about them and make sure that whoever could be saved would be saved.

When I was Secretary of State, my friend Liv Ullmann honored me at one point by saying that she had been asked to do something for the International Rescue Committee and she

7

wanted to know whether it was a CIA agency. Of course if there was any person who
could not have told her the truth, it was I. But I knew she was going to be in the care of
Leo, and he removed any doubts about what the IRC was about. And what the issues of
our period were about.

I admired Leo's intensity, his passion, his faith, his unselfishness, his nobility, and the purity of his soul. To be active in the political arena; to be head of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, where I had the privilege of working with him; to know the tactics but never to be submerged by them; never to raise any question about his motives; never to be engulfed in the discussions of the short term, so characteristic of our political life. And to do this for over half a century is a record that has ennobled all of us who had the privilege of knowing him.

At one point, Liv told me I had to call Leo, that he wasn't very well. And so I did. But he
didn't want to speak about his problems. He didn't want to hear my commiseration. He
talked about what moved him. The causes in which he believed. And he honored me by
thinking I might play a small role in supporting them.

Surely there is one less just man in the world today, and none of us can claim his mantle.
But perhaps if all of us try a little harder, maybe we'll help fulfill his mission which will
continue as long as there are free people and suffering humanity.

5

Preface

By Henry A. Kissinger

6

7

KISSINGER ASSOCIATES, INC.

350 PARK AVENUE
NEW YORK, NY 10022

TELEPHONE: 212-719-7919
FACSIMILE: 212-759-0042

FACSIMILE TRANSMITTAL SHEET

TO: Andrew Smith
FROM: Rebecca A. Nelson
COMPANY: 
DATE: 12/20/99
FAX NUMBER: 212-624-1412
TOTAL NO. OF PACES INCLUDING COVER: 3
PHONE NUMBER: 212-624-1300
RE: Leo Chernc

NOTES/COMMENTS:

Mr. Smith -

I circled the piece which Dr. Kissinger would like left as is, without your edits.

Please let me know if you need further clarification.

Thank you.

Rebecca

****************** -COMM.JOURNAL- ****************** DATE DEC-20-1999 **** TIME 11:10 **** P.01

MODE = MEMORY TRANSMISSION

START=DEC-20 11:09
END=DEC-20 11:10

FILE NO. = 137

NO.      COM      ABBR/NTUK      STATION NAME/
         TELEPHONE NO.
001       OK      8             6241412
         003/003

*************************** - ********- ***************************

171717

Henry Kissinger:

In the Jewish religion, it is said that at any one point, God preserves the world because there exist ten just men who, without claiming themselves that they are just, give him a motive for leaving the world intact. Leo Cherne was surely one of those ten just men.

I knew him less intimately than many here. He played a very important role in my life.

I met Leo in the 1950's, before I was Henry Kissinger. When I was still writing short books. He had read one of them and invited me to visit him at the Research (Institute) of America, in New York. He thought that what I have written about foreign policy was important and I should devote myself to it. He gave me a copy of the bust of Abraham Lincoln, and he asked, of course, nothing for himself except my best performance.

To me he was a mythic figure, because he had been at the Hungarian border the year before I met him. And having been a refugee myself before there was an IRC, I knew how much it meant to have individuals who looked after refugees, not as an act of charity, but as an act of love. And Leo, in those days, now unbelievably over forty years ago, was dedicated, above all, to the care of the down-trodden. He opposed Communism, not on the grounds of a foreign policy strategy, but as a contribution to the liberation of the human spirit. As a necessity for the liberation of the human spirit.

And so, every once in a while he would give me a call, and give me some assignment which he thought needed to be done in the field of foreign policy, or express some concern he deeply felt. And he became an important part of the furniture of my life.

It was one of these curious phenomena that I, as time went on, became involved in so many struggles and in so many concerns on the more shear political side that I felt I could always come and take for granted Leo, because he would know when I needed to hear from him. And indeed he did.

I served in government in a very tragic period of the American spirit, when American perfectionism turned on itself, and conceived the idea that we had to be humiliated

02/10/99

13:38

FAX 912125513180

IRC

003

181818

believe

Leo always believed, as I believed, that America has a duty
to stand for freedom and to make sure that the weak can be
secured and the just can be free.

In the 70's, in the tragic period when the helicopters
lifted off the roofs in Vietnam and we thought, above all,
of the hundreds of thousands that were being left behind.
It was a slight solace to know that there was Leo, who would
worry about them, and make sure that whatever could be saved
would be saved.

When I was Secretary of State, my friend Liv honored me at one point by saying that she had been asked to do something for the International Rescue Committee and she wanted to know whether it was a CIA agency. And of course if there was any person who could not have told her the truth, if it had been, it was I. But I knew she was going to be in the care of Leo, and he removed any doubts about what the IRC was about. And what the issues of our period were about.

(REMOVE
BRACKETS)

I admired Leo's intensity, his passion, his faith, his unselfishness, his nobility, and the purity of his soul. To be active in the political arena; to be head of the [President's] Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, where I had the privilege of working with him; to know the tactics but never to be submerged by them; never to raise any question about his motives; never to be engulfed in the discussions of the short term, so characteristic of our political life. And to do this for over half a century is a record that has a noble ------ who had the privilege of knowing him.

ennobled all of us

At one point, Liv told me I had to call Leo, that he wasn't very well. And so I did. But he didn't want to hear from... He didn't want to hear my commutation. And he didn't want to talk about himself. And he didn't talk about himself. He talked about what moved him. The causes in which he believed. And he honored me by thinking I might play a small role in supporting them.

help

Surely there is one less just man in the world today, and
none of us can claim his mantle. But perhaps if all of us
try a little harder, maybe we'll have fulfilled his mission
which will continue as long as there are free people and
suffering humanity.

Commencement,

18

Andrew Smith

135 Eastern Parkway #11A
Brooklyn, New York 11238

Home: (718) 783-0915;
Office: (212) 624-1300, ext 341
E-mail: ASMITH1946@AOL.COM

F: 212-624-1412

DEC 13 1999

December 10, 1999

Dr. Henry A. Kissinger
350 Park 26th floor
New York, NY 10022

Dear Dr. Kissinger:

Just a short belated note to thank you for the interview about Leo Cherne last September.

As I mentioned in our interview, I would like to use your statement about Leo in the biography, currently titled: *Rescuing the World: The Life and Times of Leo Cherne*. I have made minor revisions in the transcription of your memorial, which I enclose for your review and revision.

For your information, I enclose a draft of my introduction which summarizes the book. I am most willing to forward a complete draft manuscript in January if you are interested in reviewing it.

Two university presses have already expressed interest in publishing it. I am still hoping to acquire a trade publisher. I will keep you posted on progress.

DRAFT

[lc]

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# Introduction to Rescuing the World: The Life and Times of Leo Cherne

Andrew F. Smith

I first met Leo Cherne in May 1998. I had heard about him for years, but our paths had not crossed previously. This meeting had been arranged by John Richardson, a mutual friend. Richardson had confided that Cherne had wanted to write his autobiography for years, but needed some advice. I was dubious about what role, if any, I could play to assist him. However, I knew many writers and thought that I might recommend someone who could help.

Cherne's reputation was both eminent and contradictory. He was identified variously as a dynamic orator, a behind-the-scenes power broker, a thoughtful advisor to nine presidents, a flamboyant economic futurist, a playboy closely connected with the nation's rich and famous, a high level fund-raiser for humanitarian causes, a master spy in the service of one intelligence service or another, a highly successful businessman, or a powerful conservative Cold Warrior.

When I first met him, he was physically immobile, had difficulty seeing and hearing, and was suffering from a host of medical complications: I'm sure he was in pain. Yet, his eyes danced and his smile flashed when he remembered an event or a person in his life. He patiently responded to my questions, as if he had all the time in the world. Despite his deteriorating physical condition and his occasional lapse of memory, what shined through was his courage and his inner strength, those basic elements of his personality that had served him so well in the first eight-six years of his life.

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Cherne had tried to write his own autobiography on several occasions, but failed. I wondered why. He mumbled something about being a shy person: he did not want to take credit for his successes. My first impulse was to dismiss this explanation. When I shared it with his friends, they too dismissed it: Leo Cherne had frequently taken credit for many things. No one believed that he had suddenly turned bashful in his old age. There had to be another explanation. I couldn't attribute his reticence to a lack of writing skills: he was a skilled wordsmith, who had published best-selling books and numerous articles in popular magazines. His writing style was clear and forceful. Neither was it lack of documentation. He had kept extensive records about most of the important events of his life, and he had easy access to them. Neither was it his inability to structure the proposed work as he was highly organized. Nor could I perceive a time problem: the last ten years of his life was one of the few periods of his life during which he could have written his autobiography. In the end I concluded that the public extroverted Leo Cherne was really an introvert: he simply could not write a book about himself, because it was unseemly to do so.

However, Cherne did not shy away from the prospect of someone else writing about him. He wasn't interested in a vanity publication about his life and he didn't want a blow by blow description of everything he did. He did want to focus on particular events of his life that he thought were meaningful. He willingly answered my questions and opened up his files. There were few topics he was unwilling to discuss, and those matters basically dealt with his personal life.

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When I told my friends that I was considering writing a biography about Leo Cherne, many asked what was a life-long liberal Democrat doing writing about Leo Cherne, who actively supported the presidential campaigns of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan? I offered several justifications in return. The part of Cherne's life that he wanted told revolved mainly around international issues on which we shared basic values. He was strongly anti-isolationist and for active American involvement in the world, as am I. He was strongly pro-democracy, anti-totalitarian, pro-human rights, anti-demagoguery, and pro-civil rights, as I am also. On those specific international issues on which we disagreed, I believed that his positions were legitimate ones.

Cherne worked to help America and the world survive and thrive during difficult periods of our history. He tried to accomplish what appeared intractable and impossible. He was never paid for his humanitarian endeavors or most of his public activities. He did them because he believed they were the right thing to do. His life demonstrated that an individual without family contacts or money can make a difference in the world. For this, he had my deepest respect.

Finally, Leo Cherne's life was simply a great story—a story that I wanted to tell. Considered by some a Renaissance man and by others a light-weight gadfly, his story brimmed with paradox and improbability. Born into a poor, secular Jewish family, who had just immigrated from Russia, Cherne rose to the pinnacle of economic and political power in WASP America. While educated as a lawyer, he left the practice of law to launch a business venture in the midst of the Depression. Although not a trained economist, he annually lectured America's business elite and

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successfully prognosticated future economic trends for fifty years. With his business thriving, Cherne devoted his time and talents to humanitarian causes, particularly rescuing political refugees. Without a formal art background, Cherne became a successful sculptor, and his works graced the Cabinet Room in the White House, the Smithsonian Institution, and numerous museums. Although not a member of any intelligence organization, Cherne received the Director's Medal from the Central Intelligence Agency. While Cherne was never elected to public office, he had more influence on American foreign policy than did most elected officials, or so President Ronald Reagan proclaimed when he gave Cherne the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Behind this mystifying facade, Leo Cherne was an intelligent, creative, talented man who exuded public confidence and charisma. He was a consummate networker with the uncanny ability to attract and cultivate talented people before they became prominent, such as William Casey, Ronald Reagan, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Thomas Dooley, John F. Kennedy, John Whitehead, Claiborne Pell, and Henry A. Kissinger. Simultaneously, Cherne befriended a diverse set of prominent Americans, including Reinhold Niebuhr, William Donovan, Liv Ullmann, Bayard Rustin, Eleanor Roosevelt, Gerald Ford, Lyndon Johnson, Nelson Rockefeller, James Michener, Albert Schweitzer, Joan Baez, Richard Nixon, Elie Wiesel, William Buckley, and Marilyn Monroe.

Cherne's most important quality was his willingness to take courageous stands, which others

10

considered inappropriate at the time. More often than not, Cherne's actions eventually proved
right:

* When America was engulfed in isolationism during the Depression, Cherne brashly declared war on Adolph Hitler. Before World War II broke out in Europe, he developed the United States's Industrial Mobilization Plan, which he turned into a best-selling book. Weeks before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he predicted a Japanese attack. After the United States entered the war, Cherne's plan served as a blueprint for the economic transition from a consumer-based to a war-time economy.

* When the war was won, influential Americans and Europeans wanted to demolish the German and Japanese economies. Cherne urged President Truman to build up Germany and advised Douglas MacArthur to restructure the tax system of post-war Japan to make its economy more equitable and viable.

* When most Americans wanted to return to peaceful pursuits after the conflict against fascism was won, Cherne declared war on Communism. Although a confirmed anti-Communist, Cherne debated Joseph McCarthy on two occasions well before it was safe or popular to do so.

* While Cherne was a successful entrepreneur, his real love was humanitarian work, particularly his efforts with the International Rescue Committee (IRC), which he chaired

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for forty years.

* Through his efforts on behalf of Indochinese refugees, Cherne befriended Tom Dooley and helped promote him into a national legend. He also became a confidant of Ngo Dinh Diem, the South Vietnamese premier and later president. When South Vietnam began to disintegrate in 1960, Cherne demanded that Diem reform his government. Diem promised compliance, but when the agreed-upon reforms did not materialize, Cherne withdrew his support from the Diem regime.

* When Hungarians revolted against Communist control in 1956, Cherne journeyed to Budapest in the midst of a chaotic revolution against the wishes of the U.S. Government. His subsequent activities elevated the visibility of the Hungarian freedom fighters and generated millions of dollars for refugee relief and resettlement.

* When other observers proclaimed Cuba's Fidel Castro to be a progressive reformer in 1959, Cherne visited Cuba, interviewed prominent leaders, and concluded that Castro was a dedicated Communist. As Cuban refugees fled to the United States, Cherne helped rescue and resettle them.

* When most Americans washed their hands of Indochina after the fall of Vietnam in 1975, Cherne persuaded Congress to help rescue and resettle Vietnamese refugees and boat people. When most Americans ignored genocide in Cambodia, Cherne marched to its

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border with prominent Americans and demanded entry to help those who had escaped the killing fields. The visibility he generated contributed to shifts in American refugee policy by the Carter and later the Reagan administrations.

Cherne received no pay for his humanitarian work, although he was rewarded with hundreds of honorary degrees and awards from around the world, including the Federal Republic of Germany's Commander's Cross and France's Legion of Honor. He was proudest of the Presidential Medal of Freedom bestowed upon him by President Ronald Reagan.

Despite the awards and good works, Leo Cherne was certainly no angel. But the underlying theme of his life is that one person can make a world-wide political and humanitarian difference. It is an important message for us today as neo-isolationism rears its head again and as even deeply committed Americans give up on difficult and apparently intractable global problems.

The first chapter, "Refugees Are We All," looks at Cherne's early life. His father and mother fled Czarist Russia and immigrated to America. Cherne was born in the Bronx and grew up in a radical-socialist, secular-Jewish environment. After uninspiring academic work at New York University, Cherne decided to become a lawyer. After graduation, Cherne met Carl Hovgard and together they established the Research Institute of America. During the 1930s, Cherne was deeply concerned with the rise of Adolph Hitler to power in Germany. Cherne believed that the best way he could fight Hitler was to attack isolationism in the United States. His anti-isolationist blitz brought him to the attention of the Assistant Secretary of the Army Louis Johnson, who

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asked Cherne to develop an Industrial Mobilization Plan in the event America entered into war. At no expense to the government, Cherne developed the plan, and then published it as his first book, *Adjusting Your Business to War*, which turned into a best seller with over a million copies in print. The book served as a wake-up call for American business leaders to plan for converting a consumer economy into war production. During the World War II, Cherne was a frequent contributor to newspapers and magazines and hosted a radio program focusing on the war and on economic issues affecting the United States. Before the end of the war was in sight to most Americans, Cherne wrote his second best selling book, *The Rest of Your Life*, which focused on how to convert from war production to a peace-time economy.

The second chapter, "Saving the Post-War World," focuses on the role Cherne assumed in Europe and Japan after World War II, and Cherne's connection with the International Rescue Committee. When World War II ended, Cherne visited Europe at the behest of President Truman to assess Soviet intentions. Under the cloak of a war correspondent, Cherne scooped out the political landscape in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. What Cherne found alarmed him. He recommended against the destruction of the German economy and for containment of Soviet power. When he completed this task, General Douglas MacArthur requested Cherne's assistance in Japan. This was cut short when Cherne refused MacArthur's request to assist Chiang Kai-shek restore the Chinese economy. After Cherne returned to the United States, he joined the Board of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), whose roots went back to 1933 when Albert Einstein urged Reinhold Niebuhr, John Dewey, and others to form an American committee to help European refugees flee fascism. Cherne became Chairman of the IRC in 1951,

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a position he held for forty years. In this capacity, he visited Berlin, where he befriended two great West Berlin mayors, Ernst Reuter and Willy Brandt, future Chancellor of West Germany.

The third chapter, "Spontaneous Combustion," examines Cherne's connection with the dramatic events in Hungary in 1956. No one expected a revolution to break out in Communist-controlled Hungary in 1956. When it did, Cherne flew to Vienna and traveled to Budapest, where he met with leaders of the freedom fighters and conversed with Cardinal Mindszenty. Cherne returned to the United States and undertook a whirlwind campaign on behalf of the Hungarian revolutionaries. When the Soviet military forces crushed the rebellion, Cherne helped raise $2 million to help resettle the refugees.

The fourth chapter, "Hidden Communists," focuses on Cherne's relationship with internal Communism. Cherne believed that totalitarianism was wrong in any form. As he railed against fascism before World War II, so did he oppose Communism, Soviet power, and the American Communist Party after the war. Through these anti-Communist activities, he first met Ronald Reagan, then president of the Screen Actors Guild. Despite Cherne's fierce anti-Communism, he loathed demagoguery. Specifically, he detested Senator Joseph McCarthy whom he debated on two occasions before it was safe or popular to do so. He became a leader on the board of Freedom House, an organization founded by Wendell Wilkie and Eleanor Roosevelt, working for human rights at home and abroad.

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The fifth chapter, "Indochina Quagmire," examines Cherne's relationship with Ngo Dinh Diem and South Vietnam. Within months of the signing of the Geneva accords, which ended the French Indochinese War in 1954, Cherne visited South Vietnam, where he befriended South Vietnamese leader Diem. Cherne subsequently joined other prominent Americans, such as Senator John F. Kennedy and Cardinal Spellman to support the fledgling anti-Communist government. Through these activities, Cherne met Thomas Dooley, and helped Dooley establish his MEDICO clinic in Laos. When things started to fall apart in South Vietnam in 1960, Cherne walked into Diem's office and urged him to reform his government. Diem agreed to do so, but failed to carry out his agreement. As the chaos increased, Cherne suspended IRC operations in South Vietnam. When President Johnson asked Cherne's help in 1965, he reversed his position to support American policy.

The sixth chapter, "Confronting Genocide," concentrates on the events in Southeast Asia after the fall of South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia in 1975. When the Communists were victorious in South Vietnam, Cherne believed that America owed it to the South Vietnamese to help in any way possible. When the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia, Cherne dramatized the "killing fields" so effectively that U.S. refugee policy was reversed and thousands of refugees were resettled in America. To achieve this shift, Cherne mobilized prominent political and social leaders and entertainers—such as Liv Ullmann, Bayard Rustin, and Joan Baez—to march on the Cambodian border. Although the Citizens Commission did not gain entrance into Cambodia, the plight of the refugees in Thailand became front page news in the United States. American policy toward these refugees changed dramatically as a direct result of public pressure.

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The seventh chapter, "Sculpting the World," examines Cherne's achievements in the arts. When Cherne was suffering from exhaustion in 1955, his doctor told him to take up a quiet hobby. Cherne had always been interested in the arts. As a youth Cherne had performed at the Metropolitan Opera and acted in several plays. In the 1930s Cherne had written a number one hit song. But in the 1950s, Cherne selected sculpture. His first work, a bust of Albert Schweitzer, was acquired by the Smithsonian. He completed twelve more: his bust of Abraham Lincoln was displayed in the Oval Office and the Cabinet Room at the White House, and reproductions were given to many visiting prime ministers by several presidents. His best-known sculptures include likenesses of Winston Churchill, Boris Pasternak, and Robert Frost. His sculpture of President Kennedy greeted visitors to the 1964 New York World's Fair. President Lyndon Johnson asked Cherne to come to the White House to sculpt him. President Nixon wanted Cherne to sculpt him as well, but this Cherne refused. Through the Kennedys Cherne met Marilyn Monroe. Cherne was in process of making a full-length clay model of her when she died.

The eighth chapter, "The Cuban Catastrophe," concerns Cherne's visits to Cuba. Shortly after Castro's rise to power in 1959, Cherne visited Cuba and concluded that Castro was a dangerous Communist. When refugees began to flee Cuba, Cherne helped establish programs to resettle them in the United States. When the American-inspired Bay of Pigs invasion failed, Cherne fought to gain the release of those captured. When boat people fled Cuba, Cherne led the International Rescue Committee's national campaign to resettle them in the United States.

The ninth chapter, "Guiding Intelligence," focuses of Cherne's connections with the CIA and