ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, April 18, 1997 TAG: 9704180053
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-13 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: JERUSALEM
TYPE: NEWS OBIT
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
In his rich and varied life, he landed with Allied troops at Normandy, founded Israel's intelligence service and won an Irish boxing crown.
Chaim Herzog was Israel's man for all occasions: diplomat, soldier, spymaster, lawyer, author and the nation's longest-serving president.
Herzog died Thursday from complications of pneumonia contracted during a recent visit to the United States, said Rachel Sofer, spokeswoman of Tel Hashomer Hospital in Tel Aviv. He was 78.
Herzog was ``a man of war who loved peace,'' according to Shimon Peres, the former premier and Labor Party leader.
``Herzog was the most statesmanlike man in Israel. He was a military man, a president, son of rabbis and man of the modern age,'' Peres said on Israel radio.
Herzog's military career included serving as a British officer during World War II, when he landed with allied troops on the beaches of Normandy. He later founded Israel's military intelligence service in 1948.
He chronicled Israel's wars in historical works that were critically acclaimed, including ``The War of Atonement,'' about Israel's 1973 Middle East War, and ``Israel's Finest Hour'' about the Six-Day War in 1967.
As a politician, he joined the Labor Party and became a member of Israel's parliament before he was chosen to be Israel's sixth president from 1983-93.
As a diplomat, Herzog served as U.N. ambassador and earned fame campaigning, unsuccessfully, to halt passage of a U.N. resolution that equated Zionism with racism. During one debate in 1975, he dramatically tore up the resolution.
When he became president in 1983, the nation was divided by the war in Lebanon and facing international isolation. During his 10 years in office, Herzog made 45 visits abroad and addressed 13 foreign parliaments - and was credited with helping to shape Israel's image internationally.
He got mixed reviews, however, when he set free Shin Bet agents in 1986 who were accused of murdering two Palestinian bus hijackers. Four years later, he pardoned members of the Jewish underground convicted of attacking Palestinians. Herzog said the pardons restored the morale and esprit de corps of the Shin Bet secret service.
Born Vivian Herzog in Belfast on Sept. 17, 1918, he was Ireland's bantamweight boxing champion before immigrating to pre-state Palestine in 1935. His father, Isaac Herzog, became the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi when Israel gained independence in 1948.
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. (headshot) Herzog. color. 2. AP FILE 1987. In Aprilby CNB1987, Chaim Herzog, then president of Israel, unveiled a monument
during a visit to the site of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
in Germany.