Public Libraries of Suffolk County, New York

The last Brahmin, Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. and the making of the Cold War, Luke A. Nichter

eng

Includes notes, bibliographical references and index

illustrationsplates

index present

non fiction

The last Brahmin

bibliography

Luke A. Nichter

Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. and the making of the Cold War

"Few have enjoyed the degree of foreign-policy influence and versatility that Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. did -- in the postwar era, perhaps only George Marshall, Henry Kissinger, and James Baker. Lodge, however, had the distinction of wielding that influence under presidents of both parties. For three decades, he was at the center of American foreign policy, serving as advisor to five presidents, from Dwight Eisenhower to Gerald Ford, and an ambassador to the United Nations, Vietnam, West Germany, and the Vatican. Lodge's political influence was immense. He was the first person, in 1943, to see Eisenhower as a potential president; he entered Eisenhower in the 1952 New Hampshire primary without the candidates knowledge, crafted his political positions, and managed his campaign. As UN ambassador in the 1950s, Lodge was effectively a second secretary of state. In the 1960s, he was called twice, by John F. Kennedy and by Lyndon Johnson, to serve in the toughest position in the State Departments portfolio, as ambassador to Vietnam. In the 1970s, he paved the way for permanent American ties with the Holy See. Over his career, beginning with his arrival in the U.S. Senate at age thirty-four in 1937, when there were just seventeen Republican senators, he did more than anyone else to transform the Republican Party from a regional, isolationist party into the nations dominant force in foreign policy, a position it held from Eisenhowers time until the twenty-first century. In this book, historian Luke A. Nichter gives us a compelling narrative of Lodges extraordinary and consequential life. Lodge was among the last of the wellheeled Eastern Establishment Republicans who put duty over partisanship and saw themselves as the hereditary captains of the American state. Unlike many who reach his position, Lodge took his secrets to the graveincluding some that, revealed here for the first time, will force historians to rethink their understanding of Americas involvement in the Vietnam War."--, Book jacket

Part I. The making of a Brahmin -- Early life -- First political steps -- U.S. Senate -- Part II. The making of an internationalist -- World War II -- Return to the Senate -- Drafting Ike -- A Lodge-Kennedy rematch -- Part III. The Eisenhower years -- The UN (1953-1957) -- The UN (1957-1960) -- The 1960 campaign -- Part IV. The Kennedy years -- Saigon -- Diem -- A coup -- Part V. The Johnson years - Lodge for President -- LBJ and Vietnam -- West Germany and 1968 -- Part VI. The Nixon and Ford years -- The Paris peace talks -- Envoy to the Vatican -- Retirement and epilogue -- Appendix: President Ngo Dinh Diem's handwritten notes, November 1, 1963