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 Invasion , helped determine strategy during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis , 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).

See K. Bird, The Color of Truth (1998) G. G. Goldstein, Lessons in Disaster: McGeorge Bundy and the Path to War in Vietnam (2008).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

See more Encyclopedia articles on: U.S. History: Biographies