On August 23, 1961, Mr. George S. Franklin, Jr., Executive Director of the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote a letter answering a question about President Kennedy's membership. Mr. Franklin said:
"I am enclosing the latest Annual Report of the Council with a list of members in the back. You will note that President Eisenhower is a member, but this is not true of either President Kennedy or President Truman."
President Kennedy is not listed as a member in the 1960-61 Annual Report of the CFR.
The complete roster of CFR members, as set out in the 1960-61 Annual Report, is in [Appendix I] of this volume. Several persons, besides President Kennedy, whom I have called CFR members are not on this roster. I have called them CFR members, if their names have ever appeared on any official CFR membership list.
The Council is actually a small organization. Its membership is restricted to 700 resident members (American citizens whose residences or places of business are within 50 miles of City Hall in New York City), and 700 non-resident members (American citizens who reside or do business outside that 50-mile radius); but most of the members occupy important positions in government, in education, in the press, in the broadcasting industry, in business, in finance, or in some multi-million-dollar tax-exempt foundation.
An indication of overall accomplishments of the Council can be found in its Annual Report of 1958-59, which reprints a speech by Walter H. Mallory on the occasion of his retiring after 32 years as Executive Director of the Council. Speaking to the Board of Directors of the Council at a small dinner in his honor on May 21, 1959, Mr. Mallory said:
"When I cast my mind back to 1927, the year that I first joined the Council, it seems little short of a miracle that the organization could have taken root in those days. You will remember that the United States had decided not to join the League of Nations.... On the domestic front, the budget was extremely small, taxes were light ... and we didn't even recognize the Russians. What could there possibly be for a Council on Foreign Relations to do?
"Well, there were a few men who did not feel content with that comfortable isolationist climate. They thought the United States had an important role to play in the world and they resolved to try to find out what that role ought to be. Some of those men are present this evening."
The Council's principal publication is a quarterly magazine, Foreign Affairs. Indeed, publishing this quarterly is the Council's major activity; and income from the publication is a principal source of revenue for the Council.
On June 30, 1961, Foreign Affairs had a circulation of only 43,500; but it is probably the most influential publication in the world. Key figures in government–from the Secretary of State downward–write articles for, and announce new policies in, Foreign Affairs.
Other publications of the Council include three volumes which it publishes annually (Political Handbook of the World, The United States in World Affairs and Documents on American Foreign Relations), and numerous special studies and books.