William Bundy

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William Putnam Bundy (* 24 September 1917 in Washington, DC , † 6. October 2000 in Princeton , New Jersey ) was an American journalist and government official, among others 1963-1964 Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs and Between 1964 and 1966, as Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs and Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, he was a key advisor to US Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson in the Vietnam War . Between 1972 and 1984 he was the editor of the foreign policy journal Foreign Affairs published by the Council on Foreign Relations .

Life

Studies and World War II

Bundy, son of the lawyer and politician Harvey Hollister Bundy , attended Groton High School in Massachusetts , which he graduated from the top of his class in 1935. He then began a history course at Yale University , which he finished in 1939 with a Bachelor of Arts (BA History). During his studies he worked for the Yale Daily News and played for the university on the hockey team. He was also president of the Yale Political Union debating club . After completing his postgraduate studies in history at Harvard University with a Master of Arts (MA History) in 1940 , he began studying law at Harvard Law School.

However, he interrupted this after the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Forces on December 7, 1941 and joined the US Army Signal Corps , the communications force of the US Army. In the following years he worked until the end of the Second World War in Great Britain at the Government Code and Cypher School in Bletchley Park on the deciphering of the communications of the German Wehrmacht . Most recently he was promoted to major and was honored for his services with the Legion of Merit and the Order of the British Empire (MBE).

Employees of the CIA and McCarthy era

After the war ended, Bundy continued his studies and graduated in 1947 with a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.). After his admission to the bar, he worked as a lawyer with the law firm Covington and Burling in Washington, DC until 1950 . After the outbreak of the Korean War , he initially intended to rejoin the US Army, but instead became an employee of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 1951 . Shortly thereafter, he became chief of staff for the preparation of national intelligence services' assessments of the situation and politics in other countries. It was one of his tasks, the preparation and coordination of reports for the meeting of the National Security ( National Security Council ) by President Dwight D. Eisenhower .

1953 he was during the McCarthy era of the Republican senator from Wisconsin , Joseph McCarthy as part of its anti-communist accused investigations, $ 400 for the defense of spying for the Soviet Union suspected lawyer Alger Hiss to have donated. He stated that one of Covington and Burling's junior partners was David Hiss, the brother of Alger Hiss, and that he only wanted to support a fair trial for Alger Hiss. The then Secretary of State Allen Welsh Dulles and Vice President Richard Nixon defended Bundy, so McCarthy's allegation was ultimately dropped.

Commission on National Goals and Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs

At this time, Bundy began to deal with the situation in Vietnam after the Indochina War . Unlike many other analysts, however, he refused to hold democratic elections in South Vietnam and instead advocated that Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm should remain in power without elections and was thus able to convince Foreign Minister Dulles. In 1959 he became the chief of staff of the Commission on National Goals set up by President Eisenhower , which dealt with questions of future national goals and programs. This privately funded group, chaired by Henry Wriston, consisted of Frank Pace, Jr. , Erwin D. Canham , James Bryant Conant , Colgate Darden , Crawford Greenewalt , Alfred M. Gruenther , Learned Hand , Clark Kerr , James R. Killian, and alongside him George Meany . Among other things, the commission dealt with the draft of the Civil Rights Act of 1960 , the fight against poverty and the strengthening of workers' rights for women, and its issues ultimately made it a preliminary draft of the reform programs later known as the Great Society by President Lyndon B. Johnson.

In 1961, Bundy became deputy to Paul Nitze , Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs . After Nitze took over the office of Minister of the Navy ( US Secretary of the Navy ) on November 29, 1963 , Bundy himself became Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs as his successor and thus dealt with foreign and military policy issues.

Assistant Secretary of State and Vietnam War

On March 16, 1964, Bundy replaced Roger Hilsman as Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs , becoming head of the Department of Far East Affairs in the US State Department. In this function, he significantly shaped the foreign policy orientation of the USA in the Vietnam conflict and advised the foreign minister and deputy foreign minister on the basis of the reports of the experts from his presentation.

In the fall of 1964 he tried to stem the escalation of the Vietnam War with his memorandum published on October 19, 1964, namely by a heavy bombing of North Vietnam for less than a week. With this strategic proposal he hoped to create an international crisis, because of which the United States could ask the United Nations to revive the Indochina Conference of 1954 in order to negotiate a ceasefire. As a possible outcome, Bundy hopes for a coalition government that might later be communist. However, the memorandum was ignored. In a second memorandum from late November 1964, he proposed a largely similar strategy, but one that was more peaceful and also included negotiations for a withdrawal. However, this was rejected by both Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and Secretary of State Dean Rusk .

Before the decision to send larger US troops to Vietnam, another proposal for a possibly less aggressive course was made in the summer of 1965. The United States Under Secretary of State ( United States Under Secretary of State ) George Wildman Ball advocated a milder course and tried to win Bundy for support, but this refused. As part of a ministerial decree, his official title was changed to Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs on November 1, 1966 , making him head of the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs .

On May 4, 1969, Bundy resigned from the government and was replaced on May 5, 1969 as Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs by the previous ambassador to Indonesia Marshall Green .

University professor, columnist, and editor of Foreign Affairs

William Bundy's younger brother, McGeorge Bundy, was National Security Advisor to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson from 1961 to 1966

Bundy was in addition to his government activity between 1964 and 1984 member of the think tank The American Assembly founded by Dwight D. Eisenhower and from 1964 to 1972 also a member of the board of the private think tank Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). He also became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1964 . In May 1969, he became a professor at the Center for International Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). At that time, anti-Vietnam War prostests were growing in the US , leading to Bundy being labeled a "murderer" and a "liar" at college and a bomb exploding in the bathroom of his office. At the same time he worked as a columnist for the news magazine Newsweek from 1970 to 1972 .

In October 1972 Bundy became editor of the foreign policy journal Foreign Affairs, published by the Council on Foreign Relations, and held this position until 1984. In this capacity, he also enabled anti- Vietnam war opponents such as Richard Barnet to publish articles accusing war promoters of "bureaucratic homicide". In addition to this, he was a visiting professor at Princeton University .

Bundy was married to Mary Acheson Bundy, a daughter of former Secretary of State Dean Acheson . From this marriage the sons Michael Bundy and Christopher Bundy and the daughter Carol Bundy were born. His younger brother McGeorge Bundy was National Security Advisor to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson between 1961 and 1966 .

publication

  • A Tangled Web: The Making of Foreign Policy in the Nixon Presidency , 1998

Background literature

  • Kai Bird: The Color of Truth: McGeorge Bundy and William Bundy: Brothers in Arms , 1998

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Bundy, William
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bundy, William Putnam (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American diplomat, journalist and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH September 24, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Washington, DC
DATE OF DEATH October 6, 2000
Place of death Princeton , New Jersey