Isaacson & Thomas, The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made (1986; 2012)

Walter Isaacson and Evan Thomas.
The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made.
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986; 2012.

Book Information: Publisher; Wikipedia; Google Books; Amazon.com.

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Author Information: Walter Isaacson

• Walter Isaacson (b. 1952), Wikipedia.
• Walter Isaacson, Amanpour & Company, PBS.
• Walter Isaacson, The Aspen Institute.
• Walter Isaacson, Department of History, Tulane University.
• Walter Isaacson, C-SPAN.org.
• Walter Isaacson, Simon & Schuster.
• Walter Isaacson, Penguin Random House.

Author Information: Evan Thomas

• Evan Thomas (b. 1951), Wikipedia.
• Evan Thomas, Newsweek.
• Evan Thomas, C-SPAN.org.
• Evan Thomas, Simon & Schuster.
• Evan Thomas, Penguin Random House.

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Video: Walter Isaacson

• Walter Isaacson and Richard D. Heffner, "An American Aristocracy," The Open Mind, 1986.
  • Richard Heffner (1925–2013), Wikipedia.

Video: Evan Thomas

• Evan Thomas and Brian Lamb, "The Wise Men," C-SPAN.org, 22 December 1986.
  • Iran–Contra affair, Wikipedia.
  • Council on Foreign Relations.
  • Conspiracy theory, Wikipedia.
  • Norman Thomas (1884–1968), Wikipedia.

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Wikipedia Articles, Primary Documents, etc.:

The Wise Men mostly deals with U.S. foreign policy during the decades of the 1940s through the 1960s, roughly from World War II to the Vietnam War, especially the early Cold War during the Truman administration, via a group biography of six men who became leading policy-makers:

• Dean Acheson (1893–1971), Assistant Secretary of State, 1941 – 1945; Under Secretary of State, August 1945 – June 1947; Secretary of State, January 1949 – January 1953;
• Charles E. Bohlen (1904–1974), Foreign Service officer posted in Moscow, 1933–1939; posted in Tokyo, 1940–1941; head of the East European Division, Department of State, 1943–1949; posted in France, 1949–1951; U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union, April 1953 – April 1957;
• W. Averell Harriman (1891–1986), U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union, October 1943 – January 1946; U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, April – October 1946; Secretary of Commerce, October 1946 – April 1948; Director of the Mutual Security Agency, October 1951 – January 1953; Governor of New York, January 1955 – December 1958; Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, December 1961 – April 1963; Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, April 1963 – March 1965;
• George F. Kennan (1904–2005), Foreign Service officer posted in Moscow, 1933–1938, 1944–1947; Director of Policy Planning at Department of State, April 1947 – December 1948; U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union, May – September 1952; U.S. Ambassador to Yugoslavia, May 1961 – July 1963;
• Robert A. Lovett (1895–1986), Assistant Secretary of War for Air, April 1941 – December, 1945; Under Secretary of State, July 1947 – January 1949; Deputy Secretary of Defense, October 1950 – September 1951; Secretary of Defense, September 1951 – January 1953;
• John J. McCloy (1895–1989), Assistant Secretary of War, April 1941 – December 1945; President of the World Bank, March 1947 – July 1949; U.S. High Commissioner for Germany, September 1949 – August 1952.

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• Henry L. Stimson (1867–1950), Secretary of State, March 1929 – March 1933; Secretary of War, May 1911 – March 1913 and July 1940 – September 1945.
• Biographies of the Secretaries of State: 46. Henry Lewis Stimson (1929–1933), Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State.
• Henry Morgenthau Jr. (1891–1967), Secretary of the Treasury, January 1934 – July 1945.
• Morgenthau Plan for post-war Germany, 1944.
• United States Strategic Bombing Survey, report released on 30 September 1945.

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• Presidency of Harry S. Truman, April 1945 – January 1953.
• Archibald MacLeish (1892–1982), Librarian of Congress 1939–1944; Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs 1944–1945; Professor at Harvard University 1949–1962.
• Clark Clifford (1906–1998), White House Counsel, February 1946 – January 1950; Chair of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board, April 1963 – February 1968; Secretary of Defense, March 1968 – January 1969.
• James F. Byrnes (1882–1972), U.S. Representative from South Carolina, March 1911 – March 1925; U.S. Senator from South Carolina, March 1931 – July 1941; Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, June 1941 – October 1942; Director of the Office of Economic Stabilization, October 1942 – May 1943; Director of the Office of War Mobilization, May 1943 – July 1945; Secretary of State, July 1945 – January 1947; Governor of South Carolina, January 1951 – January 1955.
• Biographies of the Secretaries of State: 49. James Francis Byrnes (1945–1947), Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State.
• Winston Churchill, "Sinews of Peace," Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri, 05 March 1946, Wikisource.
  Iron Curtain: Iron Curtain speech.
  National Churchill Museum, Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri.
• James Forrestal (1892–1949), Secretary of the Navy, May 1944 – September 1947; Secretary of Defense, September 1947 – March 1949.
• Stuart Symington (1901–1988), Secretary of the Air Force, September 1947 – April 1950; U.S. Senator from Missouri, January 1953 – December 1976.
• George F. Kennan, "The Sources of Soviet Conduct," 1947, Wikisource.
  X Article.
• Harry S. Truman, "Special Message to the Congress on Greece and Turkey: The Truman Doctrine," March 12, 1947. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project.
• Truman Doctrine, March 1947.
• Arthur Vandenberg (1884–1951), U.S. Senator from Michigan, March 1928 – April 1951; Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, January 1947 – January 1949.
• George Marshall (1880–1959), Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, September 1939 – November 1945; Secretary of State, January 1947 – January 1949; Secretary of Defense, September 1950 – September 1951.
• Biographies of the Secretaries of State: 50. George Catlett Marshall (1947–1949), Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State.
• The George C. Marshall Foundation, Lexington, Virginia.
• Marshall Plan (European Recovery Program, ERP), announced June 1947, funded April 1948.
• Omar Bradley (1893–1981), Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, February 1948 – August 1949; Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, August 1949 – August 1953.
• National Security Act of 1947, effective 18 September 1947.
• Cominform, October 1947 – April 1956.
• 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état, February 1948.
• The 1948 Yugoslavia-Soviet split –– Tito–Stalin Split.
• Lucius D. Clay (1897–1978), Office of Military Government, United States (OMGUS) and U.S. High Commissioner for Germany, 1945–1949.
• Hoyt Vandenberg (1899–1954), Director of Central Intelligence, June 1946 – May 1947; Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force, April 1948 – June 1953.
• Curtis LeMay (1906–1990), Commander-in-Chief of the Strategic Air Command, 1948–1957.
• Berlin Blockade, June 1948 – May 1949.
• United States presidential election, 1948, Truman versus Dewey versus Thurmond.
• Louis A. Johnson (1891–1966), Secretary of Defense, March 1949 – September 1950.
• North Atlantic Treaty, April 1949.
  History of NATO.
• Chinese Civil War, 1927–1937 and 1946–1950.
• China–United States relations: Civil War in Mainland China.
• Lyman Van Slyke, editor. The China White Paper: August 1949. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1967.
  (United States Relations with China: With Special Reference to the Period 1944-1949, Department of State Publication 3573, Far Eastern Series 30.)
  [Archive.org; Google Books.]
• Dean Acheson, "Speech on the Far East," National Press Club, 12 January 1950.
• "Secretary Acheson and the Defense of Korea," undated, Harry S. Truman Library and Museum.
• James I. Matray, "Dean Acheson's Press Club Speech Reexamined," The Journal of Conflict Studies, Volunme XXII, Number 1, Spring 2002.
• Alger Hiss, convicted of perjury January 1950.
  McCarthyism.
• European Coal and Steel Community, proposed by French foreign minister Robert Schuman in May 1950.
• Jean Monnet (1888–1979), President of the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community, August 1952 – June 1955.
• Paul Nitze (1907–2004), Director of Policy Planning at Department of State, 1950–1953; Secretary of the Navy, November 1963 – June 1967; Deputy Secretary of Defense, July 1967 – January 1969.
• NSC 68, "United States Objectives and Programs for National Security," April 1950.
• NSC 68 [PDF], Harry S. Truman Library & Museum.
• Ideological Foundations of the Cold War, Harry S. Truman Library & Museum.
• Origins of the Cold War.
• History of United States foreign policy: Cold War: 1947–91.
• Cold War.
• Cold War (1947–1953).
• History of Korea: Modern history.
• Division of Korea.
• Korean War, June 1950 – July 1953.
• Douglas MacArthur (1880–1964).
• Battle of Inchon, September 1950.
• Korean War: China intervenes (October–December 1950).
• Matthew Ridgway, assumed command of the U.S. Eighth Army on 26 December 1950; Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, 1953–1957.
• President Truman's relief of General Douglas MacArthur, 11 April 1951.

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• Nuclear arms race.
• History of the Teller–Ulam design, the "Super" or Thermonuclear weapon.
• Soviet atomic bomb project.
• Joe-1, first Soviet nuclear weapon test, 29 August 1949.
• Ivy Mike, first U.S. test of a full-scale thermonuclear device, 01 November 1952.
• Announcement of the successful U.S. "hydrogen bomb" (Thermonuclear weapon), 07 January 1953.
• Joe 4, RDS-6s, first Soviet test of a thermonuclear weapon, 12 August 1953.

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• United States presidential election, 1952, Eisenhower versus Stevenson.
• Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower: Foreign affairs, January 1953 – January 1961.
• New Look (policy).
• Massive retaliation.
• John Foster Dulles (1888–1959), Secretary of State, January 1953 – April 1959.
• Biographies of the Secretaries of State: 52. John Foster Dulles (1953–1959), Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State.
• Allen Dulles (1893–1969), Director of Central Intelligence, February 1953 – November 1961.
• Charles Erwin Wilson ("Engine Charlie") (1890–1961), Secretary of Defense, 1953–1957.
• Arthur W. Radford (1896–1973), Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1953–1957.
• Cold War (1953–1962).
• 1953 Iranian coup d'état, August 1953.
• First Indochina War, December 1946 – July 1954.
• Battle of Dien Bien Phu, March – May 1954.
• 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état, June 1954.
• Suez Crisis, October – November 1956.
• Hungarian Revolution of 1956, October – November 1956.
• Sino-Soviet split, 1956–1966.
• George F. Kennan, "Russia, the Atom and the West," The Reith Lectures, BBC, 1957.
  Transcripts.
• Cuban Revolution, 1953–1959.
• 1960 U-2 incident, May 1960.
• Bay of Pigs Invasion, April 1961.

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• Presidency of John F. Kennedy: Foreign affairs, January 1961 – November 1963.
• Foreign policy of the John F. Kennedy administration.
• New Frontier.
• Flexible response.
• Dean Rusk (1909–1994), Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs, March 1950 – December 1951; Secretary of State, January 1961 – January 1969.
• Biographies of the Secretaries of State: 54. David Dean Rusk (1961–1969), Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State.
• Robert McNamara (1916–2009), Secretary of Defense, January 1961 – February 1968; President of the World Bank, April 1968 – July 1981.
• Lyman Lemnitzer (1899–1988), Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1960–1962; Supreme Allied Commander Europe (NATO), 1963–1969.
• Maxwell D. Taylor (1901–1987), Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, October 1962 – July 1964; U.S. Ambassador to South Vietnam, July 1964 – July 1965; Chair of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board, February 1968 – May 1970.
• McGeorge Bundy (1919–1996), National Security Advisor, January 1961 – February 1966.
• Walt Rostow (1916–2003), Deputy National Security Advisor, January 1961 – December 1961; Director of Policy Planning at Department of State, December 1961 – March 1966; National Security Advisor, April 1966 – January 1969.
• William Bundy (1917–2000), Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, March 1964 – May 1969.
• George Ball (1909–1994), Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment, February 1961 – December 1961; Under Secretary of State, December 1961 – September 1966; U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, June 1968 – September 1968.
• Berlin Crisis of 1961, June – November 1961.
  Berlin Wall, 1961–1989.
• International Agreement on the Neutrality of Laos, signed 23 July 1962.
  History of Laos.
  History of Laos since 1945.
• Cuban Missile Crisis, October 1962.
  EXCOMM, Executive Committee of the National Security Council.
• Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, signed 05 August 1963.
• Vietnam War, November 1955 – April 1975.
• Role of the United States in the Vietnam War.
• Cold War (1962–1979).

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• Presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson: Foreign affairs, November 1963 – January 1969.
• French withdrawal from NATO, 1966-1967.
  France in the twentieth century: Post-war period (1945–1999).
• Paris peace negotiations, 1968.

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• Soviet Union–United States relations.
• History of the United States (1918–1945).
• History of the United States (1945–1964).
• History of the United States (1964–1980).
• History of United States foreign policy: Interwar years, 1919-41.
• History of United States foreign policy: World War II: 1941–45.
• History of United States foreign policy: Cold War: 1947–91.

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