Leo Cherne

Leo M. Cherne (September 8, 1912 – January 12, 1999) was an American attorney, economist, and public servant who advised presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt to George H. W. Bush. He served as chairman of the International Rescue Committee for four decades and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Ronald Reagan in 1984.

Early life

Cherne was born in New York City in The Bronx on September 8, 1912. His father, Max Cherne, was a Romanian-Jewish compositor who emigrated from Bessarabia to New York in 1904. He attended Morris High School, where he received the Harvard Book Award. Cherne graduated from New York University in 1931 and from New York Law School in 1934. This venture grew into the Research Institute of America (RIA), founded to translate complex government legislation for business people. It came in response to the pro-union Deadline for Action. Carl Marzani of Union Films had made the 40-minute documentary Deadline for Action on behalf of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE). The film "severely criticized powerful corporations such as General Electric and Westinghouse," whose workers the UE had organized. Cherne presented his film at a press conference on 1 October 1947, claiming "Avoidance of another major depression by steadily increasing productivity is the surest means to thwart Communist designs against the American economic and social system." Cambodia in 1975, and Kenya in 1977. Eventually, Cherne succeeded theologian Reinhold Niebuhr as IRC chairman in 1951. He resigned in 1991.

Cherne was a public policy expert who became a principal co-anchor of ABC-TV's All-Star News, the first hour-long prime-time nightly network news broadcast, in the 1952–1953 television season. While not a ratings success against entertainment programs on NBC and CBS, All-Star News is credited as pointing the way toward the format later used by long-form local news broadcasts in cities across America in the 1960s and beyond and by CNN and other national and international cable news networks since 1980. Cherne served as chairman of the executive committee of Freedom House, established to advance the struggle for freedom at home and abroad.

Cherne advised presidents by serving as a member of the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board from 1973 to 1991.

William F. Buckley Jr. called Cherne "one of the most combative men ever bred... If he thought he was right about something, he would spend from now until doomsday pressing his view."

1984: US President Ronald Reagan awarded Cherne the Medal of Freedom for his "moral passion" in the service of refugees.