George Ball | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Ball in 1966 | |
| 7thUnited States Ambassador to the United Nations | |
| In office June 26, 1968 – September 25, 1968 | |
| President | Lyndon B. Johnson |
| Preceded by | Arthur Goldberg |
| Succeeded by | James R. Wiggins |
| 23rdUnited States Under Secretary of State | |
| In office December 4, 1961 – September 30, 1966 | |
| President | John F. Kennedy Lyndon B. Johnson |
| Preceded by | Chester Bowles |
| Succeeded by | Nicholas Katzenbach |
| 3rdUnder Secretary of State for Economic Affairs | |
| In office February 1, 1961 – December 3, 1961 | |
| President | John F. Kennedy |
| Preceded by | C. Douglas Dillon |
| Succeeded by | Thomas C. Mann |
| Personal details | |
| Born | George Wildman Ball (1909-12-21)December 21, 1909 Des Moines,Iowa, U.S. |
| Died | May 26, 1994(1994-05-26) (aged 84) New York City,New York, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Education | Northwestern University (BS,JD) |
George Wildman Ball (December 21, 1909 – May 26, 1994) was anAmerican diplomat and banker. He served in the management of theUS State Department from 1961 to 1966 and is remembered by most as the only cabinet member of PresidentsJohn F. Kennedy andLyndon B. Johnson who was a major dissenter against the escalation of theVietnam War. Ball advised against deploying U.S. combat forces, as he believed it would lead the United States into an unwinnable war and result in a prolonged conflict. Instead, he argued that the United States should prioritize allocating its resources to Europe rather than engaging in expensive military ventures. However, he refused to publicize his doubts.
He helped determine American policy regarding trade expansion, Congo, theMultilateral Force,de Gaulle's France,Israel and the rest of theMiddle East, and theIranian Revolution.
Ball was born inDes Moines, Iowa. He lived inEvanston, Illinois, and graduated fromEvanston Township High School andNorthwestern University with aBachelor of Science (BS) and aJuris Doctor (JD). Ball joined a Chicago law firm in whichAdlai Stevenson II was one of the partners, and became a protégé of Stevenson.
During 1942, he became an official of theLend Lease program. During 1944 and 1945, he was director of theStrategic Bombing Survey in London.[1]
In 1945, together withJohn Kenneth Galbraith, Ball interrogatedAlbert Speer, who was the economics minister in the short livedFlensburg Government. Their notes from the interrogation were used in many histories of the 3rd Reich. When Ball and Galbraith visited Albert Speer after his arrest, Speer asked Ball to be his lawyer for the upcomingNuremberg trials. Ball declined.[2]
During 1945, Ball began collaboration withJean Monnet and the French government in its economic recovery in its negotiations regarding theMarshall Plan. In 1946, Ball co-founded the law firm ofCleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, along withHenry J. Friendly, later the chief judge of theSecond Circuit Court of Appeals.[3] During 1950 he helped draft theSchuman Plan and theEuropean Coal and Steel Community Treaty.
Ball had a major role in Stevenson's presidential campaign during 1952. He was the liaison between Stevenson and President Truman and helped publicize Stevenson's opinions in major magazine articles. He was also the executive director of the Volunteers For Stevenson, concerned mainly with enlisting independent and Republican voters. He was also a speechwriter in the Stevenson campaign. Ball likewise had a major role in Stevenson's 1956 presidential campaign and unsuccessful 1960 bid to gain the Democratic nomination.[4]
Ball was theUnder Secretary of State for the administrations ofJohn F. Kennedy andLyndon B. Johnson. He is known for his opposition to escalation of theVietnam War.
After Kennedy decided to send 16,000 "trainers" to Vietnam, Ball, the one dissenter in Kennedy’s entourage, pleaded with JFK to recall France’sdevastating defeat in 1954 at Dien Bien Phu and throughout Indochina. Ball raised the question with President Kennedy. (November 7, 1961) "Within five years we'll have 300,000 men in the paddies and jungles and never find them again. That was the French experience. Vietnam is the worst possible terrain both from a physical and political point of view."[5][note 1] In response to this prediction, the President seemed unwilling to discuss the matter, responding with an overtone of asperity: "George, you're just crazier than hell. That just isn't going happen."[7] As Ball later wrote, Kennedy's "statement could be interpreted in two ways: either he was convinced that events would so evolve as not to require escalation, or he was determined not to permit such escalation to occur."[8]
Ball was one of the endorsers of the1963 coup which resulted in the death of South Vietnamese PresidentNgo Dinh Diem and his brother.
As President Johnson was urged by his closest foreign policy and defense advisors to initiate a sustained bombing campaign againstNorth Vietnam during the winter of 1964–1965, Ball forcefully warned Johnson against such an action. In a February 24, 1965, memorandum he passed to the President through his aideBill Moyers, Ball provided an accurate analysis of the situation in South Vietnam, and of the U.S. stake in it, as well as a startlingly prescient description of the disaster any escalation of American involvement would entail. Urging Johnson to re-examine all the assumptions inherent in the arguments for increasing U.S. involvement, Ball stood alone among the upper echelons of Johnson's policymakers when he attacked the prevailing notion, virtually unquestioned at the time in Washington, that America's fundamental strategic interest in escalating the conflict was in protecting U.S. international prestige and the reliability of its commitments to allies.
He observed that other international actors, including both allies and enemies, were concerned not whether the U.S. could live up to its promise but rather whether the U.S. could avert a disaster in time instead of squandering strategic capital in a struggle to assist a failed regime. If the U.S. continued in its course, Ball argued, U.S. loyalty would be less questioned than U.S. strategic judgement would. Although Johnson considered the memorandum seriously, Ball had waited too long to deliver it. The decision had already been made, andsustained U.S. bombing operations against North Vietnam commenced on March 2, 1965.[9]
Ball also served asU.S. Ambassador to the United Nations from June 26 to September 25, 1968. During August 1968 at the UN Security Council, he endorsed the Czechoslovaks' struggle against the Soviet invasion and their right to live without dictatorship.
During theNixon administration, Ball helped draft American policy proposals on thePersian Gulf.
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 Booknotes interview with Ball onThe Passionate Attachment: America's Involvement in Israel, 1947 to the Present, May 23, 1993,C-SPAN |
Ball was long a critic of Israeli policies toward its Arab neighbors. He "called for the recalibration of America’s Israel policy in a much notedForeign Affairs essay" during 1977[10] and, during 1992, co-authoredThe Passionate Attachment with his son, Douglas Ball. The book argued that American aid toIsrael has been morally, politically and financially costly, and described theweaponization of antisemitism for political purposes.[11] Elsewhere in the book, referring to the Israeliattack on the USSLiberty, Ball asserted, "... the ultimate lesson of theLiberty attack had far more effect on policy in Israel than in America. Israel's leaders concluded that nothing they might do would offend the Americans to the point of reprisal. If America's leaders did not have the courage to punish Israel for the blatant murder of American citizens, it seemed clear that their American friends would let them get away with almost anything."[12][13][14]
He often used the aphorism "Nothing propinks likepropinquity," later dubbed the Ball Rule of Power.[15] It means that the more direct access one has to the president, the greater one's power regardless of title.
Ball was an advocate of free trade,multinational corporations and their theoretical ability to neutralize what he considered to be "obsolete" nation states. Until and after his ambassadorship, Ball was employed by the banking companyLehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb. He was a senior managing director at Lehman Brothers until his retirement during 1982.[16] Ball was among the first North American members of theBilderberg Group, attending every meeting except for one before his death.[17] He was a member of the Steering Committee of the group.[18]
Ball died in New York City on May 26, 1994.
George Ball was portrayed byJohn Randolph in the 1974 made-for-TV movieThe Missiles of October, byJames Karen in the 2000 movieThirteen Days and byBruce McGill in the 2002 TV moviePath to War.
Appearances
| External videos | |
|---|---|
| Presentation by James Bill onGeorge Ball: Behind the Scenes in U.S. Foreign Policy, April 17, 1997,C-SPAN |
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment 1961 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | United States Under Secretary of State 1961–1966 | Succeeded by |
| Diplomatic posts | ||
| Preceded by | United States Ambassador to the United Nations 1968 | Succeeded by |
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Italics indicates acting | |||
