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pivotal meeting in March 1968 they expressed the conviction that the war could not be won and American troops should be withdrawn.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] Origins and present-day "wise men"

The phenomenon of the "wise man" - an individual who divides his time between business, legal and/or corporate life and government service - is almost uniquely American. While there have been similar instances in other democracies, notably Lord Beaverbrook in the United Kingdom in the 1940s, these tend to be isolated examples. Its prevalence in the United States is probably a function in part of the structure of the U.S. government, whereby the holders of important executive offices are not required to be elected members of Congress. It also reflects the central place of commerce in the life of the American republic.

Some have called John Jay the first "wise man." In the modern sense, however, Elihu Root has a better claim to the title. Edward M. House, who worked with Woodrow Wilson, was one of the most powerful "wise men" of all.

While the original "wise men" fell out of favor after the Vietnam War, the concept of the public/private man has not, though it has undergone some significant changes. Dramatically tightened government ethics and disclosure rules now make such once-seamless transitions between public and private life vastly more complex and difficult. The reorientation of the American economy toward the Sun Belt also means that such men now tend to be drawn from places other than New York. Former Secretaries of State George Schultz of California and James A. Baker of Texas, as well as Robert Strauss, also of Texas, are modern-day examples of "wise men."

[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