"I believe that one of the most telling witnesses with whom I have ever talked regarding Mr. Holmes is Mr. Henry Wriston, formerly president of Brown University, now chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, in New York, and chairman of the American Assembly. Mr. Wriston not only holds these distinguished offices, but he has also made a special study of the State Department and the career service in the State Department.
"He is credited with having 'Wristonized' the Foreign Service of the United States. He told me a few years ago ... [that] 'Julius Holmes is the ablest man in the Foreign Service Corps of the United States.'"
Dr. Wriston was (in 1961) President (not Chairman, as Senator Bush called him) of the Council on Foreign Relations. But Senator Bush was not exaggerating or erring when he said that the State Department has been Wristonized–if we acknowledge that the State Department has been converted into an agency of Dr. Wriston's Council on Foreign Relations. Indeed, the Senator could have said that the United States government has been Wristonized.
Here, for example, are some of the members of the Council on Foreign Relations who, in 1961, held positions in the United States Government: John F. Kennedy, President; Dean Rusk, Secretary of State; Douglas Dillon, Secretary of the Treasury; Adlai Stevenson, United Nations Ambassador; Allen W. Dulles, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency; Chester Bowles, Under Secretary of State; W. Averell Harriman, Ambassador-at-large; John J. McCloy, Disarmament Administrator; General Lyman L. Lemnitzer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; John Kenneth Galbraith, Ambassador to India; Edward R. Murrow, Head of United States Information Agency; G. Frederick Reinhardt, Ambassador to Italy; David K. E. Bruce, Ambassador to United Kingdom; Livingston T. Merchant, Ambassador to Canada; Lt. Gen. James M. Gavin, Ambassador to France; George F. Kennan, Ambassador to Yugoslavia; Julius C. Holmes, Ambassador to Iran; Arthur H. Dean, head of the United States Delegation to Geneva Disarmament Conference; Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., Special White House Assistant; Edwin O. Reischauer, Ambassador to Japan; Thomas K. Finletter, Ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development; George C. McGhee, Assistant Secretary of State for Policy Planning; Henry R. Labouisse, Director of International Cooperation Administration; George W. Ball, Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs; McGeorge Bundy, Special Assistant for National Security; Paul H. Nitze, Assistant Secretary of Defense; Adolf A. Berle, Chairman, Inter-Departmental Committee on Latin America; Charles E. Bohlen, Assistant Secretary of State.
The names listed do not, by any means, constitute a complete roster of all Council members who are in the Congress or hold important positions in the Administration.
In the 1960-61 Annual Report of the Council on Foreign Relations, there is an item of information which reveals a great deal about the close relationship between the Council and the executive branch of the federal government.
On Page 37, The Report explains why there had been an unusually large recent increase in the number of non-resident members (CFR members who do not reside within 50 miles of New York City Hall):
"The rather large increase in the non-resident academic category is largely explained by the fact that many academic members have left New York to join the new administration."
Concerning President Kennedy's membership in the CFR, there is an interesting story. On June 7, 1960, Mr. Kennedy, then a United States Senator, wrote a letter answering a question about his membership in the Council. Mr. Kennedy said:
"I am a member of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City. As a long-time subscriber to the quarterly, Foreign Affairs, and as a member of the Senate, I was invited to become a member."