13 - The Council on Foreign Relations

The Rockefeller World, Council on Foreign Relations, and the
Trilateral Commission

by Andrew Gavin Marshall

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]

The Council also has extensive ties to the other major American
think tanks, most especially the Brookings Institution, as well as
the RAND Corporation, the Hudson Institute, the Foreign Policy
Association, and of course, the special-purpose foundations such as
the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, of which fifteen of
its twenty-one trustees (as of 1971) were also Council members, and
its president from 1950 to 1971, Joseph E. Johnson, was also a
director of the Council during the same time period.[5]

The Council and the major philanthropic foundations have had
extensive ties not only to each other, but in working together in
constructing research and programs of study in foreign affairs. The
State Department undertook a study of 191 university-connected
centers for foreign affairs research, which revealed that the
largest sources of funding came from the Ford Foundation (which
funded 107 of the 191 centers), the federal government (which
funded 67 centers), the Rockefeller Foundation (18 centers), and
the Carnegie Corporation (17 centers), and that, “for eleven of the
top twelve universities with institutes of international studies,
Ford is the principal source of funding.”[6] These foundations,
aside from being major sources of funding for the Council
throughout the years from its origins, also share extensive
leadership ties with the Council. At the top of the list is the
Rockefeller Foundation, which in 1971 had fourteen out of nineteen
of its directors also being members of the Council; the Carnegie
Corporation followed with ten out of seventeen; then came the Ford
Foundation with seven out of sixteen; and the Rockefeller Brothers
Fund with six out of eleven board members also being members of the
Council. It should also be noted that the Carnegie network extended
beyond the Carnegie Corporation, and also included the Carnegie
Endowment, the Carnegie Institute of Washington, and the Carnegie
Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. From its founding until
1972, one-fourth of all the Council’s directors had served as
trustees or directors of at least one of the several Carnegie
foundations. John J. McCloy had served as chairman of both the
Council and the Ford Foundation at the same time, from the 1950s
until the late 60s.[7]