In the spring of 1918, a group of people met at the Metropolitan Club in
New York City to form the Council on Foreign Relations. The group
was made up of “high-ranking officers of banking, manufacturing,
trading, and finance companies, together with many lawyers ...
concerned primarily with the effect that the war and the treaty of peace
might have on post-war business.” The honorary Chairman was Elihu
Root, a Wall Street lawyer, former New York Senator, former Secretary
of War under McKinley, former Secretary of State under Theodore
Roosevelt, member of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
(who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1912), and the most recognized
Republican of his time. From June, 1918 to April, 1919, they held a
series of dinner meetings on a variety of international matters, but
soon disbanded.
In the fall of 1917, a group called ‘The Inquiry’ was assembled by Col.
Edward M. House to negotiate solutions for the Paris Peace
Conference in Versailles. They worked out of the American
Geographical Society doing historical research, and writing position
papers. The Inquiry was formed around the inner circle of the
Intercollegiate Socialist Society, which was a group of American
Is the Council on Foreign Relations legit?
The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank, and publisher dedicated to being a resource for its members, government officials, business executives, journalists, educators and students, civic and religious leaders, and other interested citizens in order to
