Vladimir Zelman, M.D., was a Protected Political Refugee, when I met him in the late 1970's. He had been the top Anesthesiologist in the Soviet Union and practiced out of the Moscow Clinic that treated all of the most important people in the USSR. An incident in which a Russian friend who was a Chess master told him that the KGB was trying to get him committed because he left money in a Canadian Bank, made him conclude that he had to defect the next time his family was allowed to travel with him to an international medical meeting. The next year, when they were all in Rome, he looked up Dr. Armand Hammer's office. Dr. Hammer had told him to just ask, any time he needed a favor, when he attended to him in Moscow, in the past.
Dr. Zelman ended up in a required one year residency to get a California Medical License, at UCLA. They created a slot for him at the Sepulveda VA where I was the Administrative Officer for Surgical Services. One day he came into my office and told me that he found out that I did not serve him alcohol when we met, because I didn't serve anyone alcohol. I told him that I preferred sober Doctors, and we laughed. I agreed to teach him about "Our American Ways." He came to me when he had questions. I helped him get on staff, after he got his license. A few months later, I let him out of his contract, so that he could accept a much better offer with USC. He said he thought I was a great person for putting his interests ahead of my own. I think he might disagree with your assessments. Call him. He still has a practice in LA and might still remember me.
