In the latter assignment, he helped Costa Rican president Oscar Arias propose a peace plan to end the region's civil wars.

[3] Born in Brooklyn, New York, Habib was the son of Lebanese Maronite Catholic parents and was raised in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood of the Bensonhurst section.

[9] Habib graduated from New Utrecht High School in Brooklyn[10] and worked as a shipping clerk before starting his undergraduate study in forestry at the University of Idaho.

[11] After graduating in 1942 from the UI's College of Forestry (now Natural Resources),[10][12][13] he served in the U.S. Army during World War II and attained the rank of captain.

He held the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs from 1967–1969 and was chief of staff for the U.S. delegation to the Paris Peace Talks from 1968 to 1971.

[19] The CIA station chief in Korea at the time, Donald P. Gregg, remembered that Habib forcefully emphasized to the Park Chung-hee regime that keeping Kim in captivity would damage U.S.–Korean relations.

[21] He was presented the Distinguished Honor Award by Secretary Henry Kissinger for his "important role in the development of American foreign policy and furthering the county's interests overseas.

[22] That same year, a massive heart attack forced Habib to resign as Under Secretary, the top post possible for a career Foreign Service Officer.

[citation needed] In March 1986, Reagan appointed him as a special envoy to Central America with the intention of furthering U.S. interests in the conflict in Nicaragua.

While he viewed the Arias plan as riddled with loopholes, Habib worked to help revise it, and promoted it to other Central American governments.

[30] Speakers at his memorial service in Washington at the National Cathedral the following week included two former Secretaries of State, Henry Kissinger and Cyrus Vance, and a future one, former colleague Lawrence Eagleburger.