Paul Nitze Paul Henry Nitze ( January 16 , 1907 – October 19 , 2004 ) was a high - ranking United States government official who helped shape Cold War defense policy over the course of numerous presidential administrations . Early life , education , and family . Nitze was born in Amherst , Massachusetts . His German ancestor s came from the region of Magdeburg . Paul Nitze ' s father , William Nitze was a professor of Romance Linguistics who concluded his career at the University of Chicago . In his memoir , " From Hiroshima to Glasnost " , Paul Nitze describes how as a young boy he witnessed the outbreak of World War I while traveling in Germany with his father , mother , and sister , arriving in Munich just in time to be struck by the city crowds ' patriotic enthusiasm for the imminent conflict . Nitze attended the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools and graduated from Harvard University in 1928 and entered the field of investment banking . In 1928 – 1929 the Chicago brokerage firm of Bacon , Whipple and Company sent Nitze to Europe . Upon his return , he heard Clarence Dillon predict the depression and the decline of the importance of finance . Having attained financial independence through the sale to Revlon of his interest in a French laboratory producing pharmaceutical products in the United States , Nitze took an intellectual sabbatical that included a year of graduate study at Harvard in sociology , philosophy , and constitutional and international law . In 1929 he joined investment bank Dillon , Read & Co . where he remained until founding his own firm , P . H . Nitze & Co , in 1938 . He returned to Dillon , Read as Vice - President from 1939 through to 1941 . In 1932 he married Phyllis Pratt , daughter of John Teele Pratt , a Standard Oil financier , and Ruth Baker Pratt , Republican Congresswoman for New York . She died in 1987 . They had four children : Heidi , Peter , William , and Phyllis Anina ( Nina ) . The journalist Nicholas Thompson , who wrote a biography of Nitze and George F . Kennan , is his grandson . He was married to Elisabeth Scott Porter from 1993 until his death in 2004 . Nitze ' s brother - in - law Walter Paepcke founded the Aspen Institute and Aspen Skiing Company . Nitze continued to ski in Aspen until well into his 80s . Political career . Nitze entered government service during World War II , serving first on the staff of James Forrestal when Forrestal became an administrative assistant to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt . In 1942 , he became finance director of the Office of the Coordinator of Inter - American Affairs , working for Nelson Rockefeller . In 1943 he became chief of the Metals and Minerals Branch of the Board of Economic Warfare , until he was named director , Foreign Procurement and Development Branch of the Foreign Economic Administration later that year . From 1944 to 1946 , Nitze served as director and then as Vice Chairman of the " Strategic Bombing Survey " for which President Harry S . Truman awarded him the Legion of Merit . One of his early government assignments was to visit Japan in the immediate aftermath of the nuclear attacks and assess the damage . This experience framed many of his later feelings about the power of nuclear weapons and the necessity of arms control . In the early post - war era , he served in the Truman Administration as Director of Policy Planning for the State Department ( 1950 – 1953 ) . He was also principal author in 1950 of a highly influential secret National Security Council document ( NSC - 68 ) , which provided the strategic outline for increased U . S . expenditures to counter the perceived threat of Soviet armament . From 1953 to 1961 , Nitze served as president of the Foreign Service Educational Foundation while concurrently serving as associate of the Washington Center of Foreign Policy Research and the School of Advanced International Studies ( SAIS ) of the Johns Hopkins University . Nitze co - founded SAIS with Christian Herter in 1943 and the world renowned graduate school , based in Washington , D . C . , is named in his honor . His publications during this period include " U . S . Foreign Policy : 1945 – 1955 " . In 1961 President Kennedy appointed Nitze Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs and in 1963 he became the Secretary of the Navy , serving until 1967 . According to the US Navy " as the Navy secretary , he raised the level of attention given to quality of Service issues . His many achievements included establishing the first Personnel Policy Board and retention task force ( the Alford Board ) , and obtaining targeted personnel bonuses . He lengthened commanding officer tours and raised command responsibility pay . " Following his term as Secretary of the Navy , he served as Deputy Secretary of Defense ( 1967 – 1969 ) , as a member of the U . S . delegation to the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks ( SALT ) ( 1969 – 1973 ) , and Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Affairs ( 1973 – 1976 ) . Later , fearing Soviet rearmament , he opposed the ratification of SALT II ( 1979 ) . Paul Nitze was a co - founder of Team B , a 1970s intelligence think tank that challenged the National Intelligence Estimate s provided by the CIA . The Team B reports became the intellectual foundation for the idea of " the window of vulnerability " and of the massive arms buildup that began toward the end of the Carter administration and accelerated under President Ronald Reagan . Team B came to the conclusion that the Soviets had developed new weapons of mass destruction and had aggressive strategies with regard to a potential nuclear war . Team B ' s analysis of Soviet weapon systems was later proven to be largely exaggerated . According to Anne Cahn of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency ( 1977 – 1980 ) " if you go through most of Team B ' s specific allegations about weapons systems , and you just examine them one by one , they were all wrong " . Nonetheless , some still claim that its conclusions about Soviet strategical aims were largely proven to be true , although this hardly squares with the elevation of Gorbachev in 1985 . Nitze was President Ronald Reagan ' s chief negotiator of the Intermediate - Range Nuclear Forces Treaty ( 1981 – 1984 ) . In 1984 , Nitze was named Special Advisor to the President and Secretary of State on Arms Control . For more than forty years , Nitze was one of the chief architects of U . S . policy toward the Soviet Union . President Reagan awarded Nitze the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1985 for his contributions to the freedom and security of the United States . In 1991 he was awarded the prestigious United States Military Academy ' s Sylvanus Thayer Award for his commitment to the Academy ' s ideals of " Duty , Honor , Country " . Awards and Honors . In 1989 Nitze received the U . S . Senator John Heinz Award for Greatest Public Service by an Elected or Appointed Official , an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards . In 1997 Nitze was awarded the Naval Heritage Award by the U . S . Navy Memorial Foundation for his support of the U . S . Navy while Secretary of the Navy . Notes and references . " This article incorporates public domain text from the United States Navy . "