George Wildman Ball

George Wildman Ball (December 21, 1909–May 26, 1994) was an American diplomat

Ball was born in Des Moines, Iowa. He lived in Evanston, Illinois and graduated from Northwestern University. 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. 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. [ [http://www.wrmea.com/backissues/0794/9407020.htm George Ball's Mideast Views Were Muffled by U.S. Media] , Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, July/August 1994.]

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. [Hugh Sidey, "Learning How to Build a Barn," Time, Oct. 17, 1983 (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,952191,00.html)] 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. [ [http://www.library.northwestern.edu/archives/exhibits/alumni/ball.html George Ball : Alumni Exhibit: Northwestern University Archives] ]

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.

References

Bibliography

* [http://www.amazon.com/dp/0393029336 The Passionate Attachment: America's Involvement With Israel, 1947 to the Present] , with Douglas B. Ball, ISBN 0-393-02933-6.

Further reading

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ee also

* The Best and the Brightest

External links

* [http://www.historycentral.com/Bio/people/ball.html Photo: George Ball]
* [http://www.coldwarfiles.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=people.details&thisunit=0&peopleid=102 Cold War International History Project's Cold War Files]
* [http://www.library.northwestern.edu/archives/exhibits/alumni/ball.html Bio at Northwestern University]
* [http://www.dartmouth.edu/~montfell/biographies/a_f/ballg.html Bio at Montgomery Endowment]
* [http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/entity.jsp?entity=george_ball Profile: George Ball] , The Center for Cooperative Research
* [http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon4/doc260.htm Memorandum for the President from George Ball, "A Compromise Solution in South Vietnam"]
* [http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon4/doc258.htm Memo from George Ball to McNamara]
* [http://www.jfklibrary.org/fa_ball.html Personal papers at National Archives Records]
* [http://infoshare1.princeton.edu/libraries/firestone/rbsc/finding_aids/ball/ Personal papers at Princeton University]
*George W. Ball. [http://www.foreignaffairs.org/19770401faessay9816/george-w-ball/the-middle-east-how-to-save-israel-in-spite-of-herself.html How to save Israel in spite of herself] , Foreign Affairs, The Council on Foreign Relations, April 1977.
*George W. Ball. [http://www.foreignaffairs.org/19791201faessay8214/george-w-ball/the-coming-crisis-in-israeli-american-relations.html The Coming Crisis in Israeli-American Relations] , Foreign Affairs, The Council on Foreign Relations, Winter 1979.
*George W. Ball. [http://www.foreignaffairs.org/19810201faessay8166/george-w-ball/the-conduct-of-american-foreign-policy-reflections-on-a-heavy-year.html The conduct of American foreign policy] , Foreign Affairs, The Council on Foreign Relations, 1980.
*James A. Bill. [http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=0300069693 George Ball: Behind the Scenes in U.S. Foreign Policy]
*Robert Dallek. [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1316/is_n7_v29/ai_19596319/print George Ball: Behind the Scenes in U.S. Foreign Policy] , The Washington Monthly, July 1997.
*Richard Curtiss. [http://www.washington-report.org/backissues/0794/9407020.htm George Ball's Middle East views were muffled by U.S. media] , Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, July 1994.
*William Engdahl. [http://www.payvand.com/news/06/mar/1090.html George Ball's role in the 1979 Iranian Revolution] , Payvand News, March 10, 2006.
* [http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jah/86.3/br_99.html Book review of biography on George Ball]
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C01E2D7143BF93BA15756C0A962958260 New York Times obituary]