Samuel Belk; CIA Expert On Soviet Foreign Policy

Samuel Ellison Belk III, 87, a retired Soviet foreign policy expert with the CIA and a former member of the National Security Council staff, died Dec. 23 of throat cancer at his home in the District.

Mr. Belk was born in Union County, N.C., and served as an Army infantry captain during World War II, fighting in Normandy with the 35th Infantry Division. He saw action in the battles of St. Lo, Vire and Mortain, France.

While on patrol behind enemy lines, he was wounded and taken prisoner at Mortain by German SS Airborne troops. With gangrene threatening Mr. Belk's life, the Germans amputated his right leg. He was liberated by the Belgian underground Armee Blanche in its raid on the German hospital in Antwerp and became the first American soldier to "enter" Antwerp. The Armee Blanche handed Mr. Belk over to the British, who were engaged in the battle for the port of Antwerp.

He was awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart. He subsequently was awarded the French Legion of Honor.

After the war, he returned to North Carolina, where he received an undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1947. He received a master's degree in Slavic and European studies from the University of California at Berkeley in 1949.

He also did extensive graduate study and research in history at the University of London and the London School of Economics, where he studied under Harold Laski, the renowned English political theorist and economist.

Mr. Belk joined the CIA in 1951 and for the next eight years monitored Soviet external policy toward the Middle East and Africa.

In 1959, he became a member of the staff of the National Security Council during the Eisenhower administration and stayed on during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. His areas of expertise included the United Nations, Africa, the Soviet Union and international education. He also served as liaison to a number of private organizations.

In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Mr. Belk government coordinator for the White House Conference on International Cooperation, under the chairmanship of Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey. He was awarded a Presidential Commendation for his work.

As a senior officer in the State Department, Mr. Belk served in the War on Hunger program in 1967 and later as assistant director of international education and training. The program assisted 8,000 young people from developing nations who were enrolled in more than 300 U.S. colleges and universities. He received the Meritorious Honor Award in 1974 and 1976 and a Special Achievement Award in 1977.

Mr. Belk's interests were wide-ranging, from aquatic sports and ornithology to music and other areas of culture and the arts. He served on the council of the Friends of the Folger Shakespeare Library and on the board of the American University in Rome. He was a founder of the Committee to save Rhodes Tavern in the District and a member of the 1925 F Street Club.

In England, shortly before the invasion of Normandy, Mr. Belk visited Canterbury Cathedral and fell in love with the 900-year-old edifice. In 1976, he founded the Save Canterbury Cathedral Appeal in Washington, D.C., and served as a member of the U.S. National Committee to help rescue the structure from ruin.

Mr. Belk's marriage to Joanne Hebb Belk ended in divorce.

Survivors include a son, Samuel Ellison Belk IV of Tokyo; and two grandchildren.