George Ball (diplomat)
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George Wildman Ball (December 21, 1909 – May 26, 1994) was an
American diplomat A Foreign Service Officer (FSO) is a commissioned member of the United States Foreign Service. Foreign Service Officers formulate and implement the foreign policy of the United States. FSOs spend most of their careers overseas as members of U. ...
and banker. He served in the management of the US State Department from 1961 to 1966 and is remembered most as the only major dissenter against the escalation of the Vietnam War. He refused to publicize his doubts, which were based on calculations that
South Vietnam South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of th ...
was doomed. He also helped determine American policy regarding trade expansion, Congo, the
Multilateral Force The Multilateral Force (MLF) was an American proposal to produce a fleet of ballistic missile submarines and warships, each crewed by international NATO personnel, and armed with multiple nuclear-armed Polaris ballistic missiles. Its mission would ...
, de Gaulle's France, Israel and the rest of the Middle East, and the
Iranian Revolution The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynas ...
.


Early life

Ball was born in Des Moines, Iowa. He lived in Evanston, Illinois and graduated from Evanston Township High School and Northwestern University with a B.S. and a
Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...
(JD). Ball joined a Chicago law firm in which Adlai Stevenson II was one of the partners, and became a protégé of Stevenson.


Early career

During 1942, he became an official of the Lend Lease program. During 1944 and 1945, he was director of the
Strategic Bombing Survey The United States Strategic Bombing Survey (USSBS) was a written report created by a board of experts assembled to produce an impartial assessment of the effects of the Anglo-American strategic bombing of Nazi Germany during the European theatre o ...
in London. During 1945, Ball began collaboration with
Jean Monnet Jean Omer Marie Gabriel Monnet (; 9 November 1888 – 16 March 1979) was a French civil servant, entrepreneur, diplomat, financier, administrator, and political visionary. An influential supporter of European unity, he is considered one of the ...
and the French government in its economic recovery in its negotiations regarding the Marshall Plan. In 1946, Ball co-founded the law firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, along with
Henry J. Friendly Henry Jacob Friendly (July 3, 1903 – March 11, 1986) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as a circuit judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1959 until his death in 1986. Friendly was one of the most p ...
, later the chief judge of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. During 1950 he helped draft the
Schuman Plan The Schuman Declaration, or Schuman Plan, was a proposal to place French and West German production of coal and steel under a single authority that later became the European Coal and Steel Community, made by the French foreign minister, Robert ...
and the
European Coal and Steel Community The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was a European organization created after World War II to regulate the coal and steel industries. It was formally established in 1951 by the Treaty of Paris, signed by Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembo ...
Treaty. Ball had a major role in Stevenson's presidential campaign during 1952. He was the liaison between Stevenson and President Truman and helped publicize Stevenson's opinions in major magazine articles. He was also the executive director of the Volunteers For Stevenson, concerned mainly with enlisting independent and Republican voters. He was also a speechwriter in the Stevenson campaign. Ball likewise had a major role in Stevenson's 1956 presidential campaign and unsuccessful 1960 bid to gain the Democratic nomination.


State Department

Ball was the Under Secretary of State for Economic and Agricultural Affairs for the administrations of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. He is known for his opposition to escalation of the Vietnam War. After Kennedy decided to send 16,000 "trainers" to Vietnam, Ball, the one dissenter in Kennedy’s entourage, pleaded with JFK to recall France’s devastating defeat in 1954 at Dien Bien Phu and throughout Indochina. Ball raised the question with President Kennedy. (November 7, 1961) "Within five years we'll have 300,000 men in the paddies and jungles and never find them again. That was the French experience. Vietnam is the worst possible terrain both from a physical and political point of view."George Ball, The Past Has Another Pattern, Memoirs, (New York, Norton, 1982), p366. In response to this prediction, the President seemed unwilling to discuss the matter, responding with an overtone of asperity: "George, you're just crazier than hell. That just isn't going happen." As Ball later wrote, Kennedy's "statement could be interpreted in two ways: either he was convinced that events would so evolve as not to require escalation, or he was determined not to permit such escalation to occur." Ball was one of the endorsers of the 1963 coup which resulted in the death of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother. As President Johnson was urged by his closest foreign policy and defense advisors to initiate a sustained bombing campaign against North Vietnam during the winter of 1964–1965, Ball forcefully warned Johnson against such an action. In a February 24, 1965, memorandum he passed to the President through his aide Bill Moyers, Ball provided an accurate analysis of the situation in South Vietnam, and of the US stake in it, as well as a startlingly prescient description of the disaster any escalation of American involvement would entail. Urging Johnson to re-examine all the assumptions inherent in the arguments for increasing US involvement, Ball stood alone among the upper echelons of Johnson's policymakers when he attacked the prevailing notion, virtually unquestioned at the time in Washington, that America's fundamental strategic interest in escalating the conflict was in protecting US international prestige and the reliability of its commitments to allies. He observed that other international actors, including both allies and enemies, were concerned not whether the US could live up to its promise but rather whether the US could avert a disaster in time instead of squandering strategic capital in a struggle to assist a failed regime. If the US continued in its course, Ball argued, US loyalty would be less questioned than US strategic judgement would. Although Johnson considered the memorandum seriously, Ball had waited too long to deliver it. The decision had already been made, and sustained US bombing operations against North Vietnam commenced on March 2, 1965. Ball also served as
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations The United States ambassador to the United Nations is the leader of the U.S. delegation, the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. The position is formally known as the permanent representative of the United States of America to the United Nations ...
from June 26 to September 25, 1968. During August 1968 at the UN Security Council, he endorsed the Czechoslovaks' struggle against the Soviet invasion and their right to live without dictatorship. During the Nixon administration, Ball helped draft American policy proposals on the Persian Gulf.


Arguments

Ball was long a critic of Israeli policies toward its Arab neighbors. He "called for the recalibration of America’s Israel policy in a much noted ''
Foreign Affairs ''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and ...
'' essay" during 1977 and, during 1992, co-authored ''
The Passionate Attachment ''The'' () is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite ...
'' with his son, Douglas Ball. The book argued that American aid to Israel has been morally, politically and financially costly. Elsewhere in the book, referring to the Israeli attack on the USS ''Liberty'', Ball asserted, "... the ultimate lesson of the ''Liberty'' attack had far more effect on policy in Israel than in America. Israel's leaders concluded that nothing they might do would offend the Americans to the point of reprisal. If America's leaders did not have the courage to punish Israel for the blatant murder of American citizens, it seemed clear that their American friends would let them get away with almost anything." He often used the aphorism (perhaps originally invented by
Ian Fleming Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer who is best known for his postwar ''James Bond'' series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., a ...
in the novel '' Diamonds Are Forever'') "Nothing propinks like propinquity," later dubbed the Ball Rule of Power. It means that the more direct access one has to the president, the greater one's power regardless of title. Ball was an advocate of free trade, multinational corporations and their theoretical ability to neutralize what he considered to be "obsolete" nation states. Until and after his ambassadorship, Ball was employed by the banking company
Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. ( ) was an American global financial services firm founded in 1847. Before filing for bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States (behind Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, an ...
. He was a senior managing director at Lehman Brothers until his retirement during 1982. Ball was among the first North American members of the Bilderberg Group, attending every meeting except for one before his death. He was a member of the Steering Committee of the group.


Death

Ball died in New York City on May 26, 1994. He was buried in
Princeton Cemetery Princeton Cemetery is located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. It is owned by the Nassau Presbyterian Church. John F. Hageman in his 1878 history of Princeton, New Jersey refers to the cemetery as "The Westminster Abbey of the United State ...
.


Popular culture

George Ball was portrayed by John Randolph in the 1974 made-for-TV movie '' The Missiles of October'', by
James Karen James Karen (born Jacob Karnofsky; November 28, 1923 – October 23, 2018) was an American character actor of Broadway, film and television. Karen is known for his roles in '' Poltergeist'', ''The China Syndrome'', '' Wall Street'', ''The Retu ...
in the 2000 movie '' Thirteen Days'' and by Bruce McGill in the 2002 TV movie ''
Path to War ''Path to War'' is a 2002 American biographical television film, produced by HBO and directed by John Frankenheimer. It was the final film directed by Frankenheimer, who died seven weeks after the film debuted on HBO. It was also the last film pr ...
''.


Books

*
The Passionate Attachment: America's Involvement With Israel, 1947 to the Present
', with Douglas B. Ball, .


Media

Appearances * ''Cuban Missile Crisis Revisited''. Produced for The Idea Channel by the
Free to Choose Network Free To Choose Network, sometimes referred to as Free to Choose Media, is a Pennsylvania nonprofit corporation headquartered in Erie, Pennsylvania. Free To Choose Network has three main initiatives: * Free To Choose Media, which produces televis ...
, 1983. *
Phase II, Part I (U1016)
(June 27, 1983) *** Featuring
McGeorge Bundy McGeorge "Mac" Bundy (March 30, 1919 – September 16, 1996) was an American academic who served as the U.S. National Security Advisor to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson from 1961 through 1966. He was president of the Ford Founda ...
, Richard Neustadt, Robert S. McNamara &
U. Alexis Johnson Ural Alexis Johnson (October 17, 1908 – March 24, 1997) was a United States diplomat. Background Ural Alexis Johnson was born in Falun, Kansas, into a family of Swedish descent. His mother named him for Ural Mountains, the mountain range, of w ...
in Washington D.C. *
Phase II, Part II (U1017)
(June 27, 1983) *** Featuring
McGeorge Bundy McGeorge "Mac" Bundy (March 30, 1919 – September 16, 1996) was an American academic who served as the U.S. National Security Advisor to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson from 1961 through 1966. He was president of the Ford Founda ...
, Richard Neustadt, Robert S. McNamara &
U. Alexis Johnson Ural Alexis Johnson (October 17, 1908 – March 24, 1997) was a United States diplomat. Background Ural Alexis Johnson was born in Falun, Kansas, into a family of Swedish descent. His mother named him for Ural Mountains, the mountain range, of w ...
in Washington D.C.


See also

* ''
The Best and the Brightest ''The Best and the Brightest'' (1972) is an account by journalist David Halberstam of the origins of the Vietnam War published by Random House. The focus of the book is on the foreign policy crafted by academics and intellectuals who were in Pr ...
''


Explanatory notes


References


Further reading

* * * Brands Jr, H. W. "America enters the Cyprus tangle, 1964." ''Middle Eastern Studies'' 23.3 (1987): 348–362
online
h2>

Primary sources

*


External links


George W. Ball Papers at the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University
*

* – The Center for Cooperative Research

* ttp://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon4/doc258.htm Memo from George Ball to McNamara * * * *George W. Ball
How to save Israel in spite of herself
Foreign Affairs ''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and ...
, The
Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, mi ...
, April 1977. *George W. Ball
The Coming Crisis in Israeli-American Relations
Foreign Affairs ''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and ...
, The
Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, mi ...
, Winter 1979. *George W. Ball
The conduct of American foreign policy
Foreign Affairs ''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and ...
, The
Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, mi ...
, 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. *William Engdahl
George Ball's role in the 1979 Iranian Revolution
Payvand News, March 10, 2006.
Book review of biography on George Ball
* * – WGBH Open Vault * , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Ball, George Wildman United States Under Secretaries of State Permanent Representatives of the United States to the United Nations Lyndon B. Johnson administration cabinet members Lyndon B. Johnson administration personnel Kennedy administration personnel American people of the Vietnam War Members of the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group Recipients of the Four Freedoms Award Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law alumni Evanston Township High School alumni Businesspeople from Des Moines, Iowa Burials at Princeton Cemetery 1909 births 1994 deaths People associated with Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton