Bundy, McGeorge (1919–1996), historian, educator, U.S. government official.Though associated with academic affairs and philanthropic enterprises for most of his career, McGeorge Bundy is best remembered for his years (1961–66) as special assistant for national security affairs to Presidents
John F. Kennedy and
Lyndon B. Johnson. During that time Bundy participated in many crucial foreign policy episodes, and effectively transformed the role of national security assistant from that of a behind‐the‐scenes coordinator, as it had developed in the 1950s, into a policy adviser operating on a par with cabinet officials.
Born into Boston Brahmin society, Bundy was educated at Groton School, Yale College, and Harvard University. Deemed unfit for military service because of nearsightedness, he memorized the eye chart in order to join the army as a private and rose to become a captain by the end of World War II. In 1949 he joined the Harvard government department, teaching a popular world affairs course, and in 1953, at age thirty‐four, he became dean of Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences. He was a foreign policy consultant to Kennedy's 1960 presidential campaign, and afterwards accepted Kennedy's invitation to come to Washington to reorganize and oversee the
National Security Council (NSC).
At Kennedy's request, Bundy adopted a broad view of his responsibilities at the NSC, and came to enjoy a close working relationship with the president and other senior officials. As a result, Bundy was at the center of practically all major foreign policy deliberations, including Kennedy's decision to launch the ill‐fated Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, the Berlin Wall episode, the
Cuban Missile Crisis, and the escalation of U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia.
As the United States became involved in
Vietnam War, Bundy emerged as a leading advocate of “sustained reprisals” against North Vietnam. When in January 1965 it appeared that the South Vietnamese were nearing collapse, he joined with Secretary of Defense
Robert S. McNamara in urging President Johnson to step up the use of U.S. military power and to expand the air war against the North. Many historians have since come to see this as a major turning point, setting the stage for the large‐scale U.S. intervention later that year. Much criticized for his role in Vietnam policy, Bundy left government in 1966 to become president of the Ford Foundation. In later years, Bundy devoted himself to research and writing on the threat of nuclear war and ways of curbing it.
Bibliography
David Halberstam , The Best and the Brightest, 1969.
McGeorge Bundy , Danger and Survival: Choices About the Bomb in the First Fifty Years, 1988.
Kai Bird , The Color of Truth: McGeorge and William Bundy, Brothers in Arms, 1998.
Steven L. Rearden
