Council on Foreign Relations Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==History== ===Origins, 1918 to 1945=== [[File:Elihu Root, bw photo portrait, 1902.jpg|thumb|right|[[Elihu Root]] (1845โ1937) served as the first honorary president (1921โ1937) of the Council on Foreign Relations.<ref name=CFR/> (Pictured 1902, age 57).]] In September 1917, near the end of [[World War I]], President [[Woodrow Wilson]] established a working fellowship of about 150 [[scholar]]s called "[[The Inquiry]]", tasked with briefing him about options for the postwar world after Germany was defeated. This academic group, directed by Wilson's closest adviser and long-time friend "Colonel" [[Edward M. House]], and with [[Walter Lippmann]] as Head of Research, met to assemble the strategy for the postwar world.<ref name=Shoup>{{cite book|author1=Shoup, Lawrence H. |author2=Minter, William |title=Imperial Brain Trust: The Council on Foreign Relations and United States Foreign Policy|url=https://archive.org/details/imperialbraintru0000shou|url-access=registration|publisher=Monthly Review Press|year=1977|isbn=0-85345-393-4}}</ref>{{rp|13โ14}} The team produced more than 2,000 documents detailing and analyzing the political, economic, and social facts globally that would be helpful for Wilson in the peace talks. Their reports formed the basis for the [[Fourteen Points]], which outlined Wilson's strategy for peace after the war's end. These scholars then traveled to the [[Paris Peace Conference 1919]] and participated in the discussions there.<ref name=Grose>{{cite book|author=Grose, Peter|title=Continuing the Inquiry: The Council on Foreign Relations from 1921 to 1996|publisher=Council on Foreign Relations Press|year=2006|isbn=0876091923|url=https://archive.org/details/continuinginquir0000gros|url-access=registration}}</ref>{{rp|1โ5}} [[File:DAVIS, JOHN W. HONORABLE LCCN2016857882.jpg|thumb|left|[[John W. Davis]] was the first elected CFR president<ref name=CFR/>]] As a result of discussions at the Peace Conference, a small group of British and American diplomats and scholars met on May 30, 1919, at the [[Hotel Majestic (Paris)|Hotel Majestic]] in Paris. They decided to create an Anglo-American organization called "The Institute of International Affairs", which would have offices in London and New York.<ref name=Shoup/>{{rp|12}}<ref name=Grose/>{{rp|5}} Ultimately, the British and American delegates formed separate institutes, with the British developing the Royal Institute of International Affairs (known as [[Chatham House]]) in London. Due to the [[isolationist]] views prevalent in American society at that time, the scholars had difficulty gaining traction with their plan and turned their focus instead to a set of discreet meetings which had been taking place since June 1918 in New York City, under the name "Council on Foreign Relations". The meetings were headed by [[corporate lawyer]] [[Elihu Root]], who had served as [[United States Secretary of State|Secretary of State]] under President [[Theodore Roosevelt]], and attended by 108 "high-ranking officers of banking, manufacturing, trading and finance companies, together with many lawyers". [[File:Paul Drennan Cravath.png|thumb|First CFR vice-president, attorney [[Paul Drennan Cravath]]]] The members were proponents of Wilson's [[Internationalism (politics)|internationalism]], but they were particularly concerned about "the effect that the war and the treaty of peace might have on postwar business".<ref name=Grose/>{{rp|6โ7}} The scholars from the inquiry saw an opportunity to create an organization that brought diplomats, high-level government officials, and [[Academy|academics]] together with lawyers, bankers, and [[Business magnate|industrialists]] to influence government policy. On July 29, 1921, they filed a certification of [[incorporation (association)|incorporation]], officially forming the Council on Foreign Relations.<ref name=Grose/>{{rp|8โ9}} Founding members included its first honorary president, [[Elihu Root]], and first elected president, [[John W. Davis]], vice-president [[Paul D. Cravath]], and secretaryโtreasurer [[Edwin F. Gay]].<ref>[https://www.cfr.org/sites/default/files/pdf/cfrcentennialbook.pdf "The Council on Foreign Relations A Short History"] by George Gavrilis, Council on Foreign Relations, 2021, page 10. Retrieved November 29, 2021. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211130221730/https://www.cfr.org/sites/default/files/pdf/cfrcentennialbook.pdf |date=November 30, 2021 }}.</ref><ref name=CFR>[https://www.cfr.org/historical-roster-directors-and-officers "Directors and Officers"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211209051526/https://www.cfr.org/historical-roster-directors-and-officers |date=December 9, 2021 }} cfr.org. Retrieved November 29, 2021.</ref> [[File: Edwin Francis Gay in 1908.jpg|thumb|left|[[Harvard Business School]] economist [[Edwin Francis Gay|Edwin F. Gay]], 1908.]] In 1922, Gay, who was a former dean of the [[Harvard Business School]] and director of the [[Shipping Board]] during the war, headed the Council's efforts to begin publication of a magazine that would be the "authoritative" source on foreign policy. He gathered US$125,000 ({{Inflation|US|125000|1922|fmt=eq}}) from the wealthy members on the council, as well as by sending letters soliciting funds to "the thousand richest Americans". Using these funds, the first issue of ''[[Foreign Affairs]]'' was published in September 1922. Within a few years, it had gained a reputation as the "most authoritative American review dealing with international relations".<ref name=Shoup/>{{rp|17โ18}} In the late 1930s, the [[Ford Foundation]] and [[Rockefeller Foundation]] began financially supporting the Council.<ref>{{Cite book|author=O'Brien, Thomas F.|title=The Century of U.S. Capitalism in Latin America|publisher=UNM Press|year=1999|isbn=9780826319968|pages=105โ106|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EMVF8jtZy0oC&pg=PA105}}</ref> In 1938, they created various Committees on Foreign Relations, which later became governed by the American Committees on Foreign Relations in [[Washington, D.C.]], throughout the country, funded by a grant from the [[Carnegie Corporation]]. Influential men were to be chosen in a number of cities, and would then be brought together for discussions in their own communities as well as participating in an annual conference in New York. These local committees served to influence local leaders and shape public opinion to build support for the Council's policies, while also acting as "useful listening posts" through which the Council and U.S. government could "sense the mood of the country".<ref name=Shoup/>{{rp|30โ31}} During the [[Second World War]], the Council achieved much greater prominence within the government and the [[State Department]], when it established the strictly confidential ''[[War and Peace Studies]]'', funded entirely by the [[Rockefeller Foundation]].<ref name=Grose/>{{rp|23}} The secrecy surrounding this group was such that the Council members who were not involved in its deliberations were completely unaware of the study group's existence.<ref name=Grose/>{{rp|26}} It was divided into four functional topic groups: economic and financial; security and [[armament]]s; territorial; and political. The security and armaments group was headed by [[Allen Welsh Dulles]], who later became a pivotal figure in the [[CIA]]'s predecessor, the [[Office of Strategic Services]] (OSS). CFR ultimately produced 682 memoranda for the State Department, which were marked [[classified information|classified]] and circulated among the appropriate government departments.<ref name=Grose/>{{rp|23โ26}} === Cold War era, 1945 to 1979 === [[File:David Rockefeller - NARA - 195929 (cropped).jpg|thumb|[[David Rockefeller]] (1915โ2017) joined the Council in 1941 and was appointed as a director in 1949.]] A critical study found that of 502 government officials surveyed from 1945 to 1972, more than half were members of the Council.<ref name=Grose/>{{rp|48}} During the [[Eisenhower administration]] 40% of the top U.S. foreign policy officials were CFR members (Eisenhower himself had been a council member); under [[Truman Administration|Truman]], 42% of the top posts were filled by council members. During the [[Kennedy administration]], this number rose to 51%, and peaked at 57% under the [[Lyndon B. Johnson Administration|Johnson administration]].<ref name=Shoup/>{{rp|62โ64}} In an anonymous piece called "The Sources of Soviet Conduct" that appeared in ''Foreign Affairs'' in 1947, CFR study group member [[George F. Kennan|George Kennan]] coined the term "[[containment]]". The essay would prove to be highly influential in US foreign policy for seven upcoming presidential administrations. Forty years later, Kennan explained that he had never suspected the Russians of any desire to launch an attack on America; he thought that it was obvious enough and he did not need to explain it in his essay. [[William Bundy]] credited CFR's study groups with helping to lay the framework of thinking that led to the [[Marshall Plan]] and [[NATO]]. Due to new interest in the group, membership grew towards 1,000.<ref name=Grose/>{{rp|35โ39}} [[File:Harold Pratt House 004.JPG|thumb|CFR Headquarters, located in the former [[Harold Pratt House]] in [[New York City]]]] [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] chaired a CFR study group while he served as President of [[Columbia University]]. One member later said, "whatever General Eisenhower knows about economics, he has learned at the study group meetings."<ref name=Grose/>{{rp|35โ44}} The CFR study group devised an expanded study group called "Americans for Eisenhower" to increase his chances for the presidency. Eisenhower would later draw many Cabinet members from CFR ranks and become a CFR member himself. His primary CFR appointment was Secretary of State [[John Foster Dulles]]. Dulles gave a public address at the [[Harold Pratt House]] in New York City in which he announced a new direction for Eisenhower's foreign policy: "There is no local defense which alone will contain the mighty land power of the communist world. Local defenses must be reinforced by the further deterrent of massive retaliatory power." After this speech, the council convened a session on "Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy" and chose [[Henry Kissinger]] to head it. Kissinger spent the following academic year working on the project at Council headquarters. The book of the same name that he published from his research in 1957 gave him national recognition, topping the national bestseller lists.<ref name=Grose/>{{rp|39โ41}} CFR played an important role in the creation of the [[European Coal and Steel Community]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Ciappi |first=Enrico |date=2023 |title=A Reappraisal of the Origins of European Integration: From Wartime Planning to the Schuman Plan |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00220094231200453 |journal=Journal of Contemporary History |volume=58 |issue=4 |pages=676โ696 |language=en |doi=10.1177/00220094231200453 |s2cid=262030757 |issn=0022-0094}}</ref> CFR promoted a blueprint of the ECSC and helped [[Jean Monnet]] promote the ESCS.<ref name=":0" /> On November 24, 1953, a study group heard a report from political scientist William Henderson regarding the ongoing conflict between [[France]] and Vietnamese Communist leader [[Ho Chi Minh]]'s [[Viet Minh]] forces, a struggle that would later become known as the [[First Indochina War]]. Henderson argued that Ho's cause was primarily [[nationalism|nationalist]] in nature and that Marxism had "little to do with the current revolution." Further, the report said, the United States could work with Ho to guide his movement away from Communism. State Department officials, however, expressed skepticism about direct American intervention in Vietnam and the idea was tabled. Over the next twenty years, the United States would find itself allied with anti-Communist [[South Vietnam]] and against Ho and his supporters in the [[Vietnam War]].<ref name=Grose/>{{rp|40, 49โ67}} The Council served as a "breeding ground" for important American policies such as [[mutual deterrence]], [[arms control]], and [[nuclear non-proliferation]].<ref name=Grose/>{{rp|40โ42}} In 1962 the group began a program of bringing select Air Force officers to the Harold Pratt House to study alongside its scholars. The Army, Navy and Marine Corps requested they start similar programs for their own officers.<ref name=Grose/>{{rp|46}} A four-year-long study of [[ChinaโUnited States relations|relations between America and China]] was conducted by the Council between 1964 and 1968. One study published in 1966 concluded that American citizens were more open to talks with China than their elected leaders. Henry Kissinger had continued to publish in ''Foreign Affairs'' and was appointed by President [[Richard Nixon]] to serve as [[National Security Advisor (United States)|National Security Adviser]] in 1969. In 1971, he embarked on a secret trip to Beijing to broach talks with Chinese leaders. Nixon went to China in 1972, and diplomatic relations were completely normalized by [[Jimmy Carter|President Carter]]'s Secretary of State, another Council member, [[Cyrus Vance]].<ref name=Grose/>{{rp|42โ44}} The Vietnam War created a rift within the organization. When [[Hamilton Fish Armstrong]] announced in 1970 that he would be leaving the helm of ''Foreign Affairs'' after 45 years, new chairman [[David Rockefeller]] approached a family friend, [[William Bundy]], to take over the position. Anti-war advocates within the Council rose in protest against this appointment, claiming that Bundy's hawkish record in the State and Defense Departments and the CIA precluded him from taking over an independent journal. Some considered Bundy a [[war criminal]] for his prior actions.<ref name=Grose/>{{rp|50โ51}} In November 1979, while chairman of CFR, David Rockefeller became embroiled in an international incident when he and Henry Kissinger, along with [[John J. McCloy]] and Rockefeller aides, persuaded President Jimmy Carter through the State Department to admit the Shah of Iran, [[Mohammad Reza Pahlavi]], into the US for hospital treatment for [[lymphoma]]. This action directly precipitated what is known as the [[Iran hostage crisis]] and placed Rockefeller under intense media scrutiny (particularly from ''[[The New York Times]]'') for the first time in his public life.<ref>[[Murray Rothbard|Rothbard, Murray]], [http://archive.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/ir/Ch27.html Why the War? The Kuwait Connection] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160205132652/http://archive.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/ir/Ch27.html |date=February 5, 2016 }} (May 1991)</ref><ref>Scrutiny by NYT over the Shah of Iran โ David Rockefeller, ''Memoirs'' (pp. 356โ75)</ref> In his book, ''[[White House Diary]]'', Carter wrote of the affair, "April 9 [1979] David Rockefeller came in, apparently to induce me to let the shah come to the United States. Rockefeller, Kissinger, and [[Zbigniew Brzezinski|Brzezinski]] seem to be adopting this as a joint project".<ref>{{cite book|last=Carter|first=Jimmy|title=White House Diary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IDKNVdWVMlEC|year=2010|publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux|isbn=978-1-4299-9065-3|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=IDKNVdWVMlEC&pg=PA312 312]}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page