Where Have America’s ‘Wise Men’ Gone? 

A quarter of the way into this new century, our ship of state lacks anyone of consequence to chart its course through increasingly dangerous waters.

State Department via Wikimedia Commons
The Secretary of State between 1949 and 1953, Dean Acheson, was one of the 'Wise Men' who steered American foreign policy after World War II. State Department via Wikimedia Commons

When I return to my Wisconsin lake house every August, I have a summer ritual. I re-read several books that I first picked up out here as a teenager. “The Great Gatsby” and “East of Eden” are on the list. This summer of 2024 is different from any other year, though. I found myself drawn to a book that came out almost 40 years ago by Walter Isaacson and Evan Thomas — “The Wise Men.”

The book focuses on six men: Dean Acheson, Averell Harriman, George Kennan, Charles Bohlen, Robert Lovett, and John McCloy. Six men, all educated in the early 20th century at the country’s most elite schools, wealthy from huge inheritances or careers on Wall Street in the 1920s. Six men who had an oversize influence in charting America’s course through World War II and into the Cold War. 

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