Bundy, McGeorge
Bundy, McGeorge,
1919–96, U.S. educator and government official, b. Boston. An Army intelligence officer during World War II, he was on the Harvard faculty 1949–61, becoming the youngest dean of the faculty of arts and sciences in 1953. As the special assistant to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson for national security affairs (1961–66), Bundy supervised the staff of the National Security Council and played a major role in making foreign policy. He supported the 1961 Bay of Pigs InvasionBay of Pigs Invasion,1961, an unsuccessful invasion of Cuba by Cuban exiles, supported by the U.S. government. On Apr. 17, 1961, an armed force of about 1,500 Cuban exiles landed in the Bahía de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs) on the south coast of Cuba.
..... Click the link for more information. , helped determine strategy during the 1962 Cuban Missile CrisisCuban Missile Crisis,
1962, major cold war confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union. In response to the Bay of Pigs Invasion and other American actions against Cuba as well as to President Kennedy's build-up in Italy and Turkey of U.S.
..... Click the link for more information. , and strongly advocated increasing U.S. military involvement in Vietnam. He resigned from government to serve as president of the Ford Foundation (1966–79). Bundy was the author of The Strength of Government (1968) and Danger and Survival (1988).
Bibliography
See K. Bird, The Color of Truth (1998); G. G. Goldstein, Lessons in Disaster: McGeorge Bundy and the Path to War in Vietnam (2008).