David Klein

David Klein a retired Foreign Service officer, died on March 3, 2018, in San Diego, California. He was 98 years old.
Mr. Klein received a bachelor's degree from Brooklyn College in 1939 and graduate degrees from Columbia University in 1941 and later from the Graduate Business School of Harvard University. After service in the U.S. Army 1941-1946, Mr. Klein joined the Army Reserve, from which he retired with the rank of colonel. Mr. Klein's diplomatic career began in 1947. His first two assignments took him to Mozambique and, two years later, to Rangoon (now Yangon). In 1951, he was selected for the Soviet Area and Russian Language Program at the Foreign Service Institute. After studying at Cornell and Columbia Universities in 1952, he was posted to Moscow, where he served as an aide to Ambassadors George Kennan and Charles (Chip) Bohlen and as a consular and economic officer and transferred to Bonn in 1958 as the political officer. In 1955, Mr. Klein was assigned to the U.S. Mission in Berlin as an economic officer, and transferred to Bonn in 1958 as the Political Officer. He was transferred to Bonn in 1958 as a political officer. He returned to the Department of State in 1960 as a Soviet desk officer and member of the Berlin Task Force. In 1962, he was appointed to the National Security Council under National Security Adviser McGeorge (Mac) Bundy. He attended the former National War College in 1965 and graduated in 1966. On his second assignment to Moscow, from 1966 to 1968, he served as economic and then as political counselor. From Moscow, Mr. Klein went back to Berlin in 1968 as deputy chief of mission in the divided city. He left Berlin in 1974 with the rank of minister and deputy-commandant of the American sector of Berlin. He was named assistant director for international affairs as the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. It was in that capacity that he led the U.S. delegation to the first Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference. Following his retirement in 1975, Mr. Klein was the executive director of the American Council on Germany in NY to 1988. Living in Princeton, New Jersey, he was active in Democratic politics and headed the Democratic Party there from 1979 to 1981. He and his wife, Anne, moved in 1988 to La Jolla, California, where he was a visiting lecturer in political science at both the University of California at San Diego and the University of San Diego. He wrote The Basmachi: A Study in Soviet Nationalities Policy and, with the late FSO James Sutterlin, co-authored Berlin: From Symbol of Confrontation to Keystone of Security. Mr. Klein was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Century and University Clubs of New York, and the 12:30 Club of La Jolla, California.
Mr. Klein is survived by Anne L. Klein (nee Cochran), his wife of 65 years, his children, Steven C. (Marie), John W. (Trish) and Barbara J. and Suzanne G. Klein, and four grandchildren, Ruth, Michael, Matthew and Vincent (Zino) Klein. He was predeceased by his sons, Peter S. and Richard L. (Carmela) Klein and his brother, Dr. Lester Klein. Mr. Klein will be buried in Annapolis National Cemetery on April 20, 2018 at 11:00 AM.

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