The Wise Men
Subtitle: Six Friends and the World They Made: Acheson, Bohlen, Harriman, Kennan, Lovett, McCloy
By: by Walter Isaacson and Evan Thomas.
Contributors: Thomas, Evan, 1951-
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 1986
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 853
Subjects: Statesmen -- United States -- Biography; United States -- Foreign relations -- 20th century
Genres: Biography.
Description: A captivating blend of personal biography and public drama, The Wise Men introduces six close friends who shaped the role their country would play in the dangerous years following World War II. They were the original best and brightest, whose towering intellects, outsize personalities, and dramatic actions would bring order to the postwar chaos and leave a legacy that dominates American policy to this day: Averell Harriman, the freewheeling diplomat and Roosevelt’s special envoy to Churchill and Stalin; Dean Acheson, the secretary of state who was more responsible for the Truman Doctrine than Truman and for the Marshall Plan than General Marshall; George Kennan, self-cast outsider and intellectual darling of the Washington elite; Robert Lovett, assistant secretary of war, undersecretary of state, and secretary of defense throughout the formative years of the Cold War; John McCloy, one of the nation’s most influential private citizens; and Charles Bohlen, adroit diplomat and ambassador to the Soviet Union.
Notes: Bibliography: p. [809]-830.
Includes index.
Table of contents: title: Architects of the American Century; label: One
title: GATHERING; label: 1.
title: World fo Their Own / To the manor born; label: 2.
title: Tap Days / "To run with the swift"; label: 3.
title: Joint Ventures / Harriman and Lovett on wall Street; label: 4.
title: World Courts / McCloy and Acheson before the bar; label: 5.
title: A Pretty Good Club / Kennan and Bohlen in the Foreign Service; label: 6.
title: On Active Service / Enlisting in a noble cause; label: 7.
title: Heavenly Twins / McCloy and Lovett at the War Department; label: 8.
title: Missions to Moscow / Harriman, Acheson, Bohlen and Kennan wrestle with a biting bear; label: Two
title: CREATION; label: 9.
title: Words of One Syllable / The education of Harry Truman; label: 10.
title: Line down the Middle / Splitting Germany and the atom; label: 11.
title: The Blinding Dawn / Diplomacy in an atomic age; label: 12.
title: Containment / Sensitive to the logic of force; label: 13.
title: Order from Chaos / "Like apples in a barrel"; label: 14.
title: "Simple Honest Men" / The selling of the Marshall Plan; label: 15.
title: Crisis / "Will Russia move first?"; label: 16.
title: "A Different World" / Of Super bombs and primitives; label: 17.
title: War / "No weakness of purpose here"; label: 18.
title: Nadir / Disaster at the Yalu; label: 19.
title: Exile / The wilderness years; label: Three
title: WISE MEN; label: 20.
title: Passing the Torch / "No, sir, my bearings are burnt out"; label: 21.
title: Twilight Struggles / Reunion at the brink; label: 22.
title: LBJ's Establishment / "I told the President he was wholly right"; label: 23.
title: Judgment Days / Last Supper of the Wise Men; label: 24.
title: Legacy / "Never in such good company"; title: Acknowledgements; title: Notes; title: Sources; title: Index