The Wise Men

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The Wise Men were a group of six government officials, who during the Truman administration developed the containment policy of dealing with the Communist bloc. They were featured in a book by that title written by Walter Isaacson and Evan Thomas, published in 1986. The main characters in the book were:

These six friends -- two lawyers, two bankers, two diplomats -- came together when Harry Truman became President of the United States in 1945 and helped create a bipartisan foreign policy based on the resistance of the expansion of Soviet power. They were exemplars of the American foreign policy establishment, and as such tended to be practical, realistic, and non-ideological. They had generally known each other since their days at prep school or college, and on Wall Street. After they had retired, they and a group of like-minded establishment elders were dubbed The Wise Men and summoned back by President Lyndon Johnson. At first they supported the Vietnam War, but in a pivotal meeting in March 1968 they expressed the conviction that the war could not be won and American troops should be withdrawn.

[edit] References

Isaacson, Walter & Thomas, Evan (1986). The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made: Acheson, Bohlen, Harriman, Kennan, Lovett, and McCloy. Simon & Schuster, New York. ISBN 0-68-483771-4

Jenkins, Roy (1989). Gallery of 20th Century Portraits and Oxford Papers. David & Charles. ISBN 0-71-539299-9