Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.
The book was originally intended to be no more than a college thesis. It was rated "magna cum laude" by Professor Henry A. Yeomans and "cum laude plus" by Professor Carl J. Friedrich. However, Kennedy's father, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., keen to elevate his son's reputation, encouraged Kennedy to convert the thesis into book form and publish it. He then enlisted the highly influential publishing magnate Henry Luce to write the foreword, and his friend Arthur Krock, former bureau chief of "The New York Times", to assist in redrafting the thesis, which had originally been titled "Appeasement At Munich."