The Mighty Wurlitzer

After it was mentioned in class today – and with the discussion of unpublicized acts of courage  - I thought I would share some more information about Professor Elliott, Sr. This comes from Hugh Wilford’s very interesting biography of the CIA and its role in American culture, The Mighty Wurlitzer.

“Kissinger had been put in touch with the Office of Policy Coordination by Harvard professor William Y. Elliott. An all-American tackle at Vanderbilt, poet of the southern Fugitive school, and Roosevelt braintruster, Elliott had done his best academic work, on European political relations, in the 1920s, thereafter living off his reputation as the “grand seigneur” of Harvard’s Government Department and trusted counselor of six U.S. presidents. […] In addition to regularly advising Frank Wisner, Elliott helped the CIA by sitting on the board of the émigré organization AMCOMLIB, overseeing student front groups, and steering promising Harvard graduates toward secret government service.

[…] It was Elliott who provided the future National Security Advisor and Secretary of State [Kissinger] with his principal power base at Harvard – and Launchpad for his rise to global celebrity – in the shape of the university’s International Summer School.”