The Chairman (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Kai Bird
- First Published: 1992
- Type of Work: Biography
- Time of Work: Mid-twentieth century
- Setting: New York and Washington
- Principal Characters: John J. McCloy, Henry L. Stimson, Konrad Adenauer, Dean Acheson, Joseph McCarthy, Henry Kissinger
- Genres: Nonfiction, History, Biography
- Subjects: United States or Americans, Twentieth century, Vietnam War, War, Wealth, Banks, bankers, or banking, Intelligence service, Oil wells or oil-well drilling
- Locales: New York, Washington
The premise of this earnestly written, well-researched book is that during the middle decades of the twentieth century an elite group of Wall Street insiders known as the Establishment came to wield great political power, especially over the nation’s foreign policy. In order to win the Cold War and expand the international operations of America’s most powerful corporations, these self-proclaimed public servants helped transform their country (to its ultimate detriment, Bird believes) into a national security state, with most important operations carried out unobserved and...
[The entire page is 2335 words long]
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