Source:
Boiling Frogs Post
Andrew Gavin Marshall
‘The Ultimate Networking & Socializing institution among the American elite’
The following is a sneak peak from a chapter in Andrew Gavin Marshall’s upcoming book funded through The People’s Book Project.
It is quite apparent in the history of America from the late 19th century and into the 20th
century, that the Rockefeller family has wielded massive influence in
shaping the socio-political economic landscape of society. However, up
until the first half of the 20th century came to a close,
there were several other large dominant families with whom the
Rockefellers shared power and purpose, notably among them, the Morgans.
As the century progressed, their interests aligned further still, and
following World War II, the Rockefellers became the dominant group in
America, and arguably, the world. Of course, there was the
well-established business links between the major families emerging out
of the American Industrial Revolution going into the 20th
century, followed with the establishment of the major foundations
designed to engage in social engineering. It was with the Council on
Foreign Relations (CFR) that the changing dynamics of the
Morgan-Rockefeller clan became most apparent.
As discussed earlier in this book,
the Council on Foreign Relations is the ultimate networking and
socializing institution among the American elite. The influence of the
CFR is unparalleled among other think tanks. One study revealed that
between 1945 and 1972, roughly 45% of the top foreign policy officials
who served in the United States government were also members of the
Council, leading one prominent member to once state that membership in
the Council is essentially a “rite of passage” for being a member of the
foreign policy establishment. One Council member, Theodore White,
explained that the Council’s “roster of members has for a generation,
under Republican and Democratic administrations alike, been the chief
recruiting ground for Cabinet-level officials in Washington.”[1]
The CIA, as previously examined, is
also no stranger to this network, since more often than not in the first
several decades of the existence of the Agency, its leaders were drawn
from Council membership, such as Allen Dulles, John A. McCone, Richard
Helms, William Colby, and George H.W. Bush. As some researchers have
examined:
The influential but private Council,
composed of several hundred of the country’s top political, military,
business, and academic leaders has long been the CIA’s principal
“constituency” in the American public. When the agency has needed
prominent citizens to front for its proprietary (cover) companies or for
other special assistance, it has often turned to Council members.[2]
Roughly 42% of the top foreign policy
positions in the Truman administration were filled by Council members,
with 40% in the Eisenhower administration, 51% of the Kennedy
administration, and 57% of the Johnson administration, many of whom were
holdovers from the Kennedy administration.[3]
The Council has had and
continues to have enormous influence in the mainstream media, through
which it is able to propagate its ideology, advance its agendas, and
conceal its influence. In 1972, three out of ten directors and five out
of nine executives of the New York Times were Council members. In the same year, one out of four editorial executives and four of nine directors of the Washington Post
were also Council members, including its President, Katharine Graham,
as well as the Vice-President Osborn Elliott, who was also
editor-in-chief of Newsweek. Of both Time Magazine and Newsweek, almost half of their directors in 1972 were also Council members.[4]
