George Wildman Ball
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| George W. Ball | |
| In office June 26, 1968 – September 25, 1968 | |
| President | Lyndon B. Johnson |
| Preceded by | Arthur J. Goldberg |
| Succeeded by | James Russell Wiggins |
| In office 1961 – 1968 | |
| President | John F. Kennedy Lyndon B. Johnson |
| Preceded by | Chester Bowles |
| Succeeded by | Nicholas Katzenbach |
| Born | December 21, 1909 Des Moines, Iowa, U.S. |
| Died | May 26, 1994 (aged 84) |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Alma mater | Northwestern University |
| Profession | American diplomat |
George Wildman Ball (December 21, 1909 – May 26, 1994) was an American diplomat
Contents |
Biography
Ball was born in Des Moines, Iowa. He lived in Evanston, Illinois and graduated from Northwestern University.
During 1944 - 45 he was director of the Strategic Bombing Survey in London.[1]
He was the Under Secretary of State for Economic and Agricultural Affairs in the administrations of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. He is well known for his opposition to escalation in the Vietnam War. "When George Ball, another dissenter in his entourage, conservatively predicted that Vietnam might one day demand as many as 300,000 troops, JFK laughed and replied, "Well, George, you're supposed one of the smartest guys in town, but you're crazier than hell. That will never happen."" [2]
Ball also served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations from June 26 to September 25, 1968. During the Nixon Administration, George Ball helped draft American policy proposals in the Persian Gulf. He was buried in Princeton Cemetery.
Long a critic of Israeli policies toward its Arab neighbors, Ball co-authored The Passionate Attachment with his son, Douglas Ball. The 1992 book argued that American support for Israel has been morally, politically and financially costly.[3]
He often used the aphorism (perhaps originally coined by Ian Fleming in Diamonds are Forever) "Nothing propinks like propinquity," later dubbed the Ball Rule of Power.[4] It means that the more direct access you have to the president, the greater your power, no matter what your title actually is.
Ball was an avowed socioeconomic elitist and an advocate of free trade, multinational corporations and the latters' theoretical ability to neutralize what he considered to be "obsolete" nation states. He was also associated with the secretive Bilderberg Group. Prior to and following his ambassadorship, Ball was employed by Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb. He was a senior managing director at Lehman Brothers until his retirement in 1982.[5]
Portrayal in popular culture
Ball was played by actor Bruce McGill in the 2002 HBO movie Path to War about the formation of Vietnam policy in the Johnson Administration. During the Kennedy era, when military advisers were sent to Vietnam, Ball was the strongest skeptic about the mission within the administration.
References
- ^ Rpbert D. McFadden (May 28, 1994). "George W. Ball Dies at 84; Vietnam's Devil's Advocate". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1994/05/28/obituaries/george-w-ball-dies-at-84-vietnam-s-devil-s-advocate.html?pagewanted=all.
- ^ Stanley Karnow, in "Vietnam, A History," 1983.
- ^ George Ball's Mideast Views Were Muffled by U.S. Media, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, July/August 1994.
- ^ Hugh Sidey, "Learning How to Build a Barn," Time, Oct. 17, 1983 (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,952191,00.html)
- ^ George Ball : Alumni Exhibit: Northwestern University Archives
Bibliography
- The Passionate Attachment: America's Involvement With Israel, 1947 to the Present, with Douglas B. Ball, ISBN 0-393-02933-6.
Further reading
- Ball, George W. (1983). The Past Has Another Pattern: Memoirs. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-30142-7.
- Ball, George W. and Douglas B. (1992). The Passionate Attachment: America’s Involvement With Israel, 1947 to the Present. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-02933-6.
- Dileo, David L. (1991). George Ball, Vietnam, and the Rethinking of Containment. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-4297-4.
- Bill, James A. (1997). George Ball: Behind the Scenes in U.S. Foreign Policy. Yale University Press.
See also
External links
- Photo: George Ball
- Cold War International History Project's Cold War Files
- Bio at Northwestern University
- Bio at Montgomery Endowment
- Profile: George Ball, The Center for Cooperative Research
- Memorandum for the President from George Ball, "A Compromise Solution in South Vietnam"
- Memo from George Ball to McNamara
- Personal papers at National Archives Records
- Personal papers at Princeton University
- George W. Ball. How to save Israel in spite of herself, Foreign Affairs, The Council on Foreign Relations, April 1977.
- George W. Ball. The Coming Crisis in Israeli-American Relations, Foreign Affairs, The Council on Foreign Relations, Winter 1979.
- George W. Ball. The conduct of American foreign policy, Foreign Affairs, The Council on Foreign Relations, 1980.
- James A. Bill. George Ball: Behind the Scenes in U.S. Foreign Policy
- Robert Dallek. George Ball: Behind the Scenes in U.S. Foreign Policy, The Washington Monthly, July 1997.
- Richard Curtiss. George Ball's Middle East views were muffled by U.S. media, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, July 1994.
- William Engdahl. George Ball's role in the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Payvand News, March 10, 2006.
- Book review of biography on George Ball
- New York Times obituary
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Chester Bowles | Under Secretary of State 1961 – 1966 | Succeeded by Nicholas Katzenbach |
| Diplomatic posts | ||
| Preceded by Arthur J. Goldberg | U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations 1968 | Succeeded by James Russell Wiggins |
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