He attended Deerfield Academy and then graduated from Amherst College in 1944 and enlisted in the U.S. Army for a three-year term during World War II.
Within the framework of America's pro-Israel lobby (see American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Seelye has often been portrayed as an anti-Zionist Arabist.
Critics include Steven Emerson (The American House of Saud: The Secret Petrodollar Connection), Daniel Pipes, Martin Kramer, David Horowitz, and Robert D. Kaplan.
After the September 11 attacks in 2001, Seelye again found himself in the spotlight as an expert on Middle Eastern affairs and continued to advise think tanks and policy making groups.
He also continues to be strongly criticized by writers who do not agree with his views on the Middle East, such as an Atlantic Monthly article Robert D. Kaplan in which he wrote of Seelye that such "Arabists and other area specialists may be emotionally involved, through marriage or friendship, with host countries – often causing them to dislike the policies that Washington orders them to execute."