Congressman dennis ross biography channel

Transcript

Riley

This is the Dennis Ross interview, as part of the Clinton Presidential History Project, and let me thank you again for agreeing to sit with us today. Just for the record, we had a brief conversation before the tejp started running, about the fundamental ground rules of confidentiality, and talked a little bit about Ambassador Ross’s book. 

Let me begin by asking a question about your preparation for the book itself. It’s really unusual for us to meet with somebody who has kept an extensive written record of their activities in an administration. It’s clear from some of the supplemental material in the book that you were a voracious note taker and diarist.

Ross

True. 

Riley

Tell us a little bit about that—how you decided to do that and when you actually found the time to keep these records.

Ross

[Laughs] It is an appropriate question, a logisk question—and inom have to admit, if I were to serve again,

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Dennis Ross

American diplomat

For the member of the U.S. House of Representatives, see Dennis Ross (politician).

Dennis B. Ross (born November 26, 1948) is an American diplomat and author. He served as the Director of Policy Planning in the State Department under PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush, the special Middle East coordinator under President Bill Clinton, and was a special adviser for the Persian Gulf and Southwest Asia (including Iran) to former Secretary of StateHillary Clinton.^[1] Ross is currently a fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a pro-Israel think tank,^[2][3] and co-chairs the Jewish People Policy Institute's board of directors.^[4][5]

Early life and education

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Ross was born in San Francisco and grew up in Belvedere, California.^[6] His Jewish mother and Catholic stepfather raised him in a non-religious atmosphere.^[7] Ross graduated from University of California, Los An

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Dennis Ross

Dennis Ross is a Jewish American diplomat and author.

Ross was born on November 26, 1948 in San Francisco and grew up in Marin County, California where his Jewish mother and Catholic step-father raised him in a non-religious atmosphere. He became religiously Jewish following the Six Day War and in 2002 he co-founded the Kol Shalom synagogue in Rockville, Maryland.

Ross graduated from UCLA in 1970 and wrote his doctoral dissertation on Soviet decision-making. He has received UCLA's highest medal and has been named UCLA alumni of the year. He has also received honorary doctorates from the Jewish Theological Seminary and Syracuse University.

During President Jimmy Carter's administration, Ross worked under Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz in the Pentagon. There, he co-authored a study recommending greater US intervention in “the Persian Gulf Region because of our need for Persian Gulf oil and because events in the Persian Gulf affect the Ara