IS IT A CLUB? SEMINAR? INVISIBLE G....

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01314R000100540006-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 1, 2006
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: November 21, 1971
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

Approved For R ~r8i .:&Q ~u4 ., 4 88-013'
21 NOV. 19'(1
N March 26, 1689, eleven places
were set for lunch at the
oval table in the Council on
Foreign Relations' stately meeting
room overlooking Park Avenue. The
guest list was not quite so distin-
guislied as some (rein the past, judg-
ing by the photographs hanging 01
the _black walnut paneling: Harrold
Macmillan chatting with 1Ienry,
Wriston; Jelin Foster I)vIies wedged
stiffly between John J. McCloy and
Avcrell Harriman; John W. Davis
towering over the King of Siam. lint
for a weekday working lunch, It was
an irmpressive asseinblae.
There .was Cyrus Vance, recently
returned deputy negotiator at the
Paris peace talks; Robert Roosa,
former Under Secretary or the Treas-
ury; Chester Cooper, former special
assistant to I3arrirna.n; James. Grant,
former assistant administrator for
Vietnam in the Agency for I'nter-
natioiial Development; Roy Wehrle,
former deputy assistant AID ad-
ministratof for. Vietnaiti; Paul War-.
n.ecke, former. Assistant Secretary of
Defense; Robert Bowie, director of
Harvard's Center for International
Affairs; Samuel Huntington, profes-
sor ? of government at Harvard; Lu-
clan Pye, professor of political sci-
ence at and f-tarry Poardrnan
P-lid David MacEcichron, Council
staff -members.
The luncliers all' knew each other.
Most had worked together in Gov-
ernment;' all except NVelirie were
Council members. So they wasted
little time on small tall. over the
soup; plunging right into their sub
ject: an effort to devise P. fo-miula
.thet, tnig lit break the deadlock in
Paris. The sug;est:ion that, the Council
might help evolve such a formula
had come from Harriman. Although
the Council's staff rejected any for
meal role; it permitted Poarclinan to.
invite appropriate members to a'
lunch at which the matter might be
discussed.
Over the next five weeks, ' the
group met several tinges at the
Council's headquarters at 58 East.
?)1D
68th Street, at the Center for Inter-
national Affairs in Cambridge and
the Cosmos 'Club in Washington.
Fro :7 its deliberations grew a pro-
posal endorsed by eight members. It
envisioned a standstill cease-fire
and a division of power based on a
recognition of territory controlled by
the Saigon Government and the
Vietcong---a formula the framers
conceded was "rigged" to favor the
Government.
In May, the remaining participants
met for dinner at the . Cosmos Club
with Elliott Richardson, then Under
Secretary of State, and Henry Nis-
singer, Special Assistant to the
President for National. Security Af-
fairs (and the Council's most influ-
cnti;'1. member). A participant recalls:
"Elliott seemed.interested; Henry ob-
viously wasn't,. and it's Henry who
counts." An official says: "The pro-
posal was received with all the pomp
and circumstance accorded a com-
munication from a foreign govern-
ment, then filed and largely for-
gotten."
Put apparently not completely
forgotten. At Richardson's request,
Boardman, Cooper, Huntington and
Wehrle submitted further elabora-
tions. Vance continued to push the
concept. with his many influential
friends in Washington. For 18.
months there was no sign of accept-
ance. But when President Nixon an-
nounced a five-point peace initiative
on Oct. 7, 1970, it included the first
American call for a standstill cease-
fire as a prelude to a? political settle-
ment based on "the existing rela-
tionship of political forces in South
Vietnam." Although many aspects
of the Council group's plan were
clearly absent, the concepts bore
sufficient similarity that a year later
Cyrus Vance could say, "I think we
had some influence."
!,H}. "peace initiative," altliou ;h
in some respects unusual, illustratc?
the intricate fashion in which the
powerful . men who make up the
Council' still influence the develop-
ment of American foreign policy.
.1. AN'i UUC.~~1 T LUKAS, a stc,ff writer for In an administration that often
J1.
f ' Ill-
raq.
'
fall (
dark
the C
meat'
foreicr
dente
tutior
Wash
ever
Bill
mind(
ships
then
influc
intrici
forge(
have
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ulty
room,
and 1:
influe
that it dogs---then it is the influence
its members bring to, bear through
such channels.
In an age when most traditional
institutions are being challenged, the
network -of . influence the Council
symbolizes is increasingly corning
under attack. Critics, within - and
without, are asking whether Amer-
ica call' any longer afford such a
cozy, clubby approach to the making
of foreign policy. In recent months,
the attack has focused on the ap-
pointnient of William Fundy -- a
leading member of the "club," but
also a prime imsiplermenter? of a dis-
credited. Vietna.i:n policy--as editor
..of the Council's journal, Foreign Af-
fairs. But, the challenge goes well
beyond the l]undy appolntrne-it. And,
ironic-:'.Ily, as the Col.inci_'s leadership
moves to head it off by admitting
younger, dissident members, it only
intensifies the internal debate. In
months to come, the organization
that has coolly analyzed-power strug-
gles in the Kremlin and Leopoldville
may face an increasingly bitter
struggle of its own. -
I~Is of the most remarkable as-'
pacts of this remarkable organiza-.
c 3 r,~sa,inz, is tie aA' rP66v&
ar'For F ftE,Z~Q~Yb .l I
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