Konrad Kellen

Konrad Kellen (born Konrad Moritz Adolf Katzenellenbogen; December 14, 1913 – April 8, 2007) was a German-born American political scientist, intelligence analyst, and author.

At different points in his career, Kellen analyzed postwar German soldiers, defectors from behind the Iron Curtain, Viet Cong who had been captured, and terrorists. He was among the first intelligence analysts to conclude that, contrary to prevailing U.S. administration assessments, enemy morale in the Vietnam War was, in fact high and the war was not winnable. While at the RAND Corporation, he co-authored an open letter to the U.S. government urging withdrawal of troops.

Early life Kellen was a member of a prominent Jewish family in Berlin, the son of Ludwig Katzenellenbogen. He was a distant relative of Albert Einstein and a cousin of economist Albert Otto Hirschman. in Europe, For his compensation, he received one of the Chagall paintings, which he sold in the 1950s. Contrary to his forecast, the communists launched the bigger than ever Easter Offensive in South-Vietnam in March 1972. In 1972, months before the U.S. pullout pursuant to the Paris Peace Accords, investigative journalist Jack Anderson cited the open letter authored by Kellen as authority for the assertion that communist military morale in Vietnam was high.

<-- could not be archived -->