In the years after World War II, Georgetown's leafy streets were home to an unlikely group of Cold Warriors: a coterie of affluent, well-educated, and connected civilians who helped steer American strategy from the Marshall Plan through McCarthyism, Watergate, and the endgame of Vietnam. The Georgetown set included Phil and Kay Graham, husband-and-wife publishers of The Washington Post; Joe and Stewart Alsop, odd-couple brothers who were among the country's premier political pundits; Frank Wisner, a driven, manic-depressive lawyer in charge of CIA covert operations; and a host of other diplomats, spies, and scholars responsible for crafting America's response to the Soviet Union from Truman to Reagan. This was a smaller, cozier Washington--utterly unlike today's capital--where presidents made foreign policy in consultation with reporters and professors over martinis and hors d'oeuvres, and columnists like the Alsops promoted those policies in the next day's newspapers. Together, they navigated the perilous years of the Cold War, yielding triumphs--and tragedies--with very real consequences for present-day America and the world.--From publisher description.
- ISBN10 0307271188
- ISBN13 9780307271181
- Publish Date 28 October 2014
- Publish Status Remaindered
- Out of Print 7 March 2017
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Knopf Publishing Group
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 494
- Language English