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npov tag- entire article is basically conspiratorial polemic about how CFR is too powerful. Essentially every sentence is used to support the thesis of whoever wrote this article that CFR has an outsized influence on US policy, and there is no other content |
"the CFR" is incorrect |
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The '''Council on Foreign Relations''' ('''CFR'''), founded in 1921, is a [[United States]] [[nonprofit]] [[think tank]] specializing in U.S. [[foreign policy]] and [[International relations|international affairs]]. It is headquartered in [[New York City]], with an additional office in [[Washington, D.C.]] Its membership, which numbers 4,900, has included senior politicians, more than a dozen [[United States Secretary of State|secretaries of state]],{{Citation needed|date=August 2020|reason=more than a dozen former secretary of states are not currently alive}} [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] directors, bankers, lawyers, professors, and senior [[mass media|media]] figures.
==History==
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In the late 1930s, the [[Ford Foundation]] and [[Rockefeller Foundation]] began contributing large amounts of money to the Council.<ref>{{Cite book|author=O'Brien, Thomas F.|title=The Century of U.S. Capitalism in Latin America|publisher=UNM Press|year=1999|isbn=9780826319968|pages=105–106|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EMVF8jtZy0oC&pg=PA105}}</ref> In 1938 they created various Committees on Foreign Relations, which later became governed by the American Committees on Foreign Relations in [[Washington, D.C.]], throughout the country, funded by a grant from the [[Carnegie Corporation]]. Influential men were to be chosen in a number of cities, and would then be brought together for discussions in their own communities as well as participating in an annual conference in New York. These local committees served to influence local leaders and shape public opinion to build support for the Council's policies, while also acting as "useful listening posts" through which the Council and U.S. government could "sense the mood of the country".<ref name=Shoup/>{{rp|30–31}}
Beginning in 1939 and lasting for five years, the Council achieved much greater prominence within the government and the [[State Department]], when it established the strictly confidential ''[[War and Peace Studies]]'', funded entirely by the [[Rockefeller Foundation]].<ref name=Grose/>{{rp|23}} The secrecy surrounding this group was such that the Council members who were not involved in its deliberations were completely unaware of the study group's existence.<ref name=Grose/>{{rp|26}} It was divided into four functional topic groups: economic and financial, security and [[armament]]s, territorial, and political. The security and armaments group was headed by [[Allen Welsh Dulles]] who later became a pivotal figure in the [[CIA]]'s predecessor, the [[Office of Strategic Services]].
=== Cold War era, 1945 to 1979 ===
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A critical study found that of 502 government officials surveyed from 1945 to 1972, more than half were members of the Council.<ref name=Grose/>{{rp|48}} During the [[Eisenhower administration]] 40% of the top U.S. foreign policy officials were CFR members (Eisenhower himself had been a council member); under [[Truman Administration|Truman]], 42% of the top posts were filled by council members. During the [[Kennedy administration]], this number rose to 51%, and peaked at 57% under the [[Lyndon B. Johnson Administration|Johnson administration]].<ref name=Shoup/>{{rp|62–64}}
In an anonymous piece called "The Sources of Soviet Conduct" that appeared in ''Foreign Affairs'' in 1947, CFR study group member [[George F. Kennan|George Kennan]] coined the term "[[containment]]". The essay would prove to be highly influential in US foreign policy for seven upcoming presidential administrations. Forty years later, Kennan explained that he had never suspected the Russians of any desire to launch an attack on America; he thought that it was obvious enough and he did not need to explain it in his essay. [[William Bundy]] credited
[[File:Harold Pratt House 004.JPG|thumb|left|CFR Headquarters, located in the former [[Harold Pratt House]] in [[New York City]]]]
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Vietnam created a rift within the organization. When [[Hamilton Fish Armstrong]] announced in 1970 that he would be leaving the helm of ''Foreign Affairs'' after 45 years, new chairman [[David Rockefeller]] approached a family friend, [[William Bundy]], to take over the position. Anti-war advocates within the Council rose in protest against this appointment, claiming that Bundy's hawkish record in the State and Defense Departments and the CIA precluded him from taking over an independent journal. Some considered Bundy a [[war criminal]] for his prior actions.<ref name=Grose/>{{rp|50–51}}
In November 1979, while chairman of
In his book ''[[White House Diary]]'', Carter wrote of the affair, "April 9 [1979] David Rockefeller came in, apparently to induce me to let the shah come to the United States. Rockefeller, Kissinger, and [[Zbigniew Brzezinski|Brzezinski]] seem to be adopting this as a joint project".{{fact|date=April 2020}}
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====Board members====
Members of
*[[David M. Rubenstein]] (Chairman) – Cofounder and Co-Chief Executive Officer, [[The Carlyle Group]]. Regent of the [[Smithsonian Institution]], chairman of the board for [[Duke University]], co-chair of the board at the [[Brookings Institution]], and president of the [[The Economic Club of Washington, D.C.|Economic Club of Washington]].
* [[Blair Effron]] (Vice Chairman) – Cofounder, [[Centerview Partners]].
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===''Foreign Affairs''===
The council publishes the international affairs magazine ''[[Foreign Affairs]]''. It also establishes independent task forces, which bring together various experts to produce reports offering both findings and policy prescriptions on foreign policy topics.
==Charity rating==
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