David A. Korn

1930 - 2022

David A. Korn, a retired foreign service officer, author, father, and loving husband died on September 7, 2022, at the age of 92 at Dignitas in Zurich, Switzerland.
Born in 1930 in Wichita Falls, Texas to Thomas and Iris Korn (a television actress), he served in the US Army in Germany and France (1951-1953), earned a bachelor's degree from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques (Sciences Po) in Paris in 1956, and a master's degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), 1957. That same year, he joined the State Department and spent thirty-one years engaged with foreign policy issues, primarily in the Middle East and Africa.
As director for Israel and Arab-Israeli Affairs and acting deputy assistant secretary at the Department of State in the late 1970s, he participated in Camp David, West Bank/Gaza and Sinai Multinational Force negotiations. From 1982 to 1985, he served as chief of mission (permanent Charge d'Affaires) in Addis Ababa during a time of strained relations between the US and Ethiopia. He directed a substantial program to save lives during the great famine of 1984-85 while at the same time, negotiating the release of an American CIA officer detained by Ethiopian security and helped Ethiopian Jews to exit the country for Israel. For his work in Ethiopia, he was awarded a Presidential Meritorious Honor Award. According to the New York Times, his book Ethiopia, the United States and the Soviet Union (Croom Helm)""set the record straight on many important points."" His novel, The Disappearance of Harry Davis, under the pen name TN Davey was based on the secret arrest of the CIA officer in Addis. To devote himself to writing, he retired in 1988 after serving as Ambassador to Togo from 1986 to1988.
David wrote seven books, including Assassination in Khartoum (Institute of Diplomacy Georgetown University and Indiana University Press) in 1993 about the murder of two senior foreign service officers Cleo Noel and George Curtis Moore by the Black September terrorist group in 1973. The Washington Post described the book as ""superbly informed"" in challenging US policy on American hostages. His book Stalemate: The War of Attrition and Great Power Diplomacy in the Middle East, 1967-1970 (Westview Press) was one of the first to trace the conflict between Israel and Egypt following the six-day war. As a consultant to Human Rights Watch, he wrote that organization's first human rights report on Iraq and also served as a consultant to Kurdish groups, drawing attention to the plight of Kurds in newspaper stories, essays and Congressional hearings. He was a member of the Board of Editors of the Middle East Quarterly, Associate Scholar at the Middle East Council, and a contributing editor for Freedom Review. He published numerous articles in The World Today, The New Republic, Freedom Review, the Middle East Quarterly, the Middle East Journal as well as opeds in the New York Times and Washington Post.
A voracious reader, David was fluent in French, Hebrew and Arabic and had residences in Washington, DC, Harper's Ferry, and for eleven years in Pollensa, Mallorca together with his beloved wife of more than 41 years, Roberta Cohen. The two met at the State Department during the Carter Administration in what has been described as a storied relationship and traveled and worked together for years. In addition, he is survived by four children from an earlier marriage -- Marie Reinsdorf, David S. Korn, Philip Korn and Stephen Korn, 11 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren, a sister Katherine and a brother Nicholas. He was predeceased by daughter, Elizabeth Weigle. A private memorial for family and friends will be held at Oak Hill Cemetery in Georgetown.