The Wise Men

A captivating blend of personal biography and public drama, The Wise Men introduces six close friends whose towering intellects, outsized personalities, and decisive actions shaped America’s role in the dangerous years following World War II. Known as the original “best and brightest,” they brought order to postwar chaos and left a legacy that continues to influence U.S. policy today. The book tells the stories of Averell Harriman, Roosevelt’s freewheeling envoy to Churchill and Stalin; Dean Acheson, the secretary of state instrumental to the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan; George Kennan, the self-cast outsider and intellectual darling of Washington; Robert Lovett, who served as assistant secretary of war, undersecretary of state, and secretary of defense during the formative Cold War years; John McCloy, one of the nation’s most influential private citizens; and Charles Bohlen, an adroit diplomat and ambassador to the Soviet Union.