diplomat, was fluent in the Russian language, knowledgeable of Russian history and culture, and perceptive about the similarities and differences between tsarist Russia and Stalinist Russia. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-hec-12925. The man who fascinated me the most, however, was George F. Averill Harriman, a descendent of the Harriman railroad tycoon and later governor of New York, and Dean Acheson, who replaced Marshall as Secretary of State in 1950. Perhaps the best known of the six “Wise Men” are W. foreign policy toward international cooperation - abandoning America’s historical isolationism. policy toward communism, they created economic and political institutions that shifted U.S. These six men, plus Secretary Marshall, formed what may be the finest foreign policy team in American history. Averill Harriman, George Kennan, Charles E Bohlen, Robert Lovett, and John McCloy - shaped the post-war world. Isaacson and Thomas describe how six diplomats, working closely with then-Secretary of State George Marshall and President Harry Truman, formulated United States foreign policy in the early Cold War era. Still, one book that I read long after my college days- The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made, by Walter Isaacson and Evan Thomas, illuminated this side of government more than any other book I ever read. I learned a lot about the bureaucracy in my undergraduate political science classes. Still, I lacked an appreciation of the career officials’ role in the formulation of foreign policy-those highly educated men and women, devoted to public service and dedicated to life-long study of significant issues facing the nation and the world, advising the elected leaders from inside the State Department. I knew a lot about Harry before starting college. Harry Truman became my favorite president - in part because my grandmother claimed to be the only person in America, other than Truman himself, who believed Harry would win in 1948-in part because of a near miss chance to talk with him in 1968. Like many youngsters interested in history, I read only books about presidents and generals as a boy.
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