Harvey H. Bundy

Harvey Hollister Bundy (born March 30, 1888) was a Boston lawyer born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, who served as Assistant Secretary of State under Henry L. Stimson from 1931 to 1933, as Stimson's special assistant at the War Department from April 1941 to September 1945, and as chairman of the board of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace from December 1952. He was the father of William P. Bundy and McGeorge Bundy.¹²

Grand Rapids, Yale and Holmes

Bundy was the son of McGeorge Bundy, a Grand Rapids attorney, and Mary Goodhue (Hollister) Bundy.²³ He attended the Hackley School and entered Yale University, where he took the B.A. in 1909.¹ A Grand Rapids profile of his son William, written after August 1953, recalls Harvey and his elder brother Nathan as state doubles tennis champions in Michigan in the early 1900s, and says that Harvey won the west Michigan singles title in 1910 from Earle S. Irwin in the finals at the Kent Country Club.³

Antony C. Sutton's index of Skull and Bones lists "Harvey Hollister Bundy (1909)" among the society's members, and his text states that Bundy was initiated in 1909.⁴

After Yale, Bundy taught at St. Mark's School in Southborough, Massachusetts, in 1909 and 1910, and then, according to his Who's Who entry, was a "traveling companion" from 1910 to 1914.² He took the LL.B. at Harvard Law School in 1914. The Register of the Department of State records him as secretary to a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1914 to 1915, and Who's Who names the justice as Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.; Sutton names Holmes as well and notes, as a coincidence, that Alger Hiss held the same post with Holmes in 1929 and 1930.¹²⁴ Hiss himself testified in 1948 that, immediately after graduating from Harvard Law School, he served as secretary to one of the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court, and he named the justice as Oliver Wendell Holmes.⁵ He was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1915 and, from 1915 to 1917, was an assistant in a law office.¹²

Marriage and family

Bundy married Katharine Lawrence Putnam on April 17, 1915. Who's Who gives the date in his own entry; the Danvers Historical Society's genealogy of the descendants of Judge Samuel Putnam gives the same date, records that she was born December 5, 1890, and places her as the daughter of William Lowell Putnam, son of the Rev. George Putnam, and Elizabeth Lowell, who married on June 9, 1888.²⁶ The genealogy lists Elizabeth Lowell among the children of Augustus Lowell and Katherine Bigelow Lawrence, whose other children it names as the astronomer Percival Lowell, Abbott Lawrence Lowell, president of Harvard University, and the author Amy Lowell.⁶ A newspaper clipping forwarded to Senator Joseph McCarthy in 1953 described Bundy's son as having "married Dean Acheson's daughter," a reference to the marriage of William P. Bundy to the daughter of Dean Acheson.⁷

Sutton lists five children of Harvey Hollister Bundy: Harvey Hollister Bundy Jr., who graduated from Yale in 1938; William Putnam Bundy, born in Washington in 1917 and initiated into Skull and Bones in 1939; McGeorge Bundy, initiated in 1940; Harriet Lowell Bundy, who married Gaspar d'Andelot Belin of Covington & Burling; and Katherine Lawrence Bundy, who married Hugh Auchincloss Jr.⁴ Sutton's family table also lists a Frederick McGeorge Bundy, initiated in 1921.⁴ The Who's Who entry gives McGeorge Bundy's birth in Boston on March 30, 1919.²

Food Administration and Boston practice

From 1917 to 1919 Bundy was assistant counsel to the United States Food Administration; the Grand Rapids profile states that William Bundy was born in Washington in 1917 while Harvey was with the Food Administration. From 1919 to 1931 he practiced law in Boston.¹³ The Who's Who entry gives his firm as Choate, Hall & Stewart, of which he was a member from 1933 to 1941 and again from 1945.² A Congressional Record insert describes him as a partner in that firm, which had its offices at 30 State Street, Boston.⁸⁹

Assistant Secretary of State, 1931 to 1933

The Register of the Department of State records that Bundy was commissioned Assistant Secretary of State on June 10, 1931, entered on duty on July 13, 1931, and retired on March 4, 1933.¹⁰ Stimson was Secretary of State throughout that period. James Grafton Rogers held the other assistant secretaryship in the same years, commissioned February 27, 1931 and retired March 6, 1933.¹⁰ Stimson's memoir records that the death of the Under Secretary in March 1931 had left the department "without a senior officer experienced in economic matters," and that Stimson appointed "Harvey H Bundy, a Boston lawyer with experience in finance, as Assistant Secretary." Bundy was assigned first to "defaulted foreign loans of American private investors" and later to the problems of war debts.¹¹ The memoir adds that Bundy and Herbert Feis "were appointed only after other men more familiar to Stimson had regretfully refused to serve," and that on leaving office Stimson counted "in Rogers and Bundy, two new and dear friends."¹²¹³

The Foreign Relations volume for 1931 prints correspondence over the Dominican Republic bonds that carries Bundy's signature. The correspondents were Lee, Higginson & Company, the Boston banking house that acted as fiscal agent for the bonds and that tried in 1931 to arrange a loan for the Dominican government, and the department.¹⁴ The firm wrote to the department on the loan in June 1931, and the department's letter of June 30 expressed its disinclination to take on increased responsibility for Dominican finances. On November 9, 1931 Lee, Higginson asked the Secretary of State for a statement of United States policy that the firm could send to the bondholders.¹⁴

The department's reply of November 10, 1931 is signed "For the Secretary of State: Harvey H. Bundy, Assistant Secretary." It states that the Dominican government had adopted emergency legislation giving priority to interest on the foreign loans and temporarily diverting customs revenue from amortization, and that the United States was not disposed at that time to take any action beyond the position described in the letter.¹⁴ On November 12 Lee, Higginson sent Bundy the draft introductory comments for its letter to bondholders and asked for suggestions before mailing. The comments state that all interest and sinking fund payments had been made in full until September 20, 1931.¹⁴

Special Assistant to the Secretary of War, 1941 to 1945

In April 1941 Stimson, by then Secretary of War, "acquired a fourth assistant in Harvey H. Bundy," and with the title of Special Assistant to the Secretary Bundy became "my closest personal assistant." The memoir describes him as "a man of unusual tact and discretion" who "handled many of Stimson's troubling problems of administration and correspondence and served as his filter for all sorts of men and problems," and who "also became the Secretary's personal agent in dealings with scientists and educators."¹⁵ The memoir says that in 1947 Stimson looked back with nostalgia on the days when he had "fumed at Bundy's constant advice not to act on impulse." It also quotes Stimson's diary for December 17, 1941, on a discussion with McCloy, Lovett and Bundy of whether to make "every effort possible in the Far East" or treat it, "like the Navy," as doomed.¹⁶

The memoir's chapter on science describes Bundy as Stimson's "principal assistant" in organizing contact between the Army and scientists, "not a scientist but possessed the lawyer's talent for appreciation of the other man's problem." With Bundy and Vannevar Bush, Stimson "worked out in the spring of 1942 an organization, in which the Navy joined, whereby Bush and an officer from each service department became a committee of three for the education of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in scientific problems." In September 1943, the memoir states, Stimson "responded quickly to the suggestion of Bush and Bundy" that new weapons become an independent section of the General Staff.¹⁷ On the atomic project the memoir says that "Stimson's direct agent was Bundy, who maintained constant contact with the work of General Groves and served as American secretary of the Combined Policy Committee."¹⁸ Sutton wrote that Bundy was "the key Pentagon man on the Manhattan Project" and that he accompanied Stimson to conferences in North Africa, Italy and Germany.⁴

London, July 1943

On July 22, 1943, at 10 Downing Street, Winston Churchill opened the question of Anglo-American exchange of information on S-1 to Stimson, Bush and Bundy, with Sir John Anderson and Lord Cherwell present. Bundy wrote the record, which the Foreign Relations volume for the Washington and Quebec conferences prints from the Stimson files. It records Churchill saying that "it would never do to have Germany or Russia win the race for something which might be used for international blackmail," that Russia "might be in a position to accomplish this result unless we worked together," and that at the peace conference "the United States could never take the position that it alone should have control of this matter." Churchill proposed an agreement with five points, including that neither government use the invention against the other or give information to third parties without the consent of both. The record closes: "After the adjournment of the meeting, Dr. Bush and I waited with Lord Cherwell ... and I pointed out to Lord Cherwell the great difficulty of the President making any promises which were not strictly within the war powers," signed "H[arvey] H. B[undy]."¹⁹ Bush's own account of the same meeting states that on returning from the earlier conference with the Prime Minister he "reported to Mr. Bundy the general nature of the conference in order that he might inform the Secretary," and that he cabled Bundy the President's instruction on the interchange of information.²⁰

After the conference Bundy wrote a memorandum for Stimson dated August 6, 1943: "I know your views about the S-1 project and the advisability of its ultimately being the joint possession of the U.K. and the U.S.A." He told Stimson that if the matter went to the President, it was "vital that he should understand that what Dr. Bush and Dr. Conant are really trying to do is to work out the agreement for interchange of information so that nobody, including the political opponents of the President, will be in a position to say that he acted otherwise than under the war powers." The source text carries a covering note from Bundy to the Chief of Staff, General George Marshall, reading "I hope the attached is what you had in mind for me to say to the Secretary," and Marshall's penciled reply: "Mr. Bundy: I think it is o.k."²¹

Combined Policy Committee

The Combined Policy Committee was the body through which the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada coordinated the atomic project. The minutes of its meetings of January 22, 1945 and March 8, 1945 list Bundy as a joint secretary with Dr. William L. Webster. The minutes of July 4, 1945 list him as joint secretary with Roger Makins.²² At the July 4 meeting the British Field Marshal Henry Maitland Wilson stated that the British government concurred in the use of the weapon against Japan, and the committee "Took note that the Governments of the United Kingdom and the United States had agreed that T. A. weapons should be used by the United States against Japan."²³

Item 6 of the July 4 minutes, headed "Allocation of Material," records Bundy speaking: he "said that the supplies of material from the Belgian Congo received by the Trust, as well as some captured material which had been turned over to the Trust, were on their way to the United States, but it was appropriate that the position in regard to the allocation of material should be on record." Lord Halifax observed that the decision to allocate to the United States all the material usable in the American plants "would leave Great Britain without any reserve of supplies," and the committee agreed that material in excess of the quantity needed for weapons against Japan would be held by the Combined Development Trust.²⁴

On July 27, 1945, at Prestwick in Scotland, Colonel John Lansdale of Groves's staff met Stimson and Bundy and told them of the impending negotiations with the Netherlands and Swedish governments over uranium supplies.²⁵

San Francisco and the trusteeship dispute, April 1945

Bundy represented the War Department on the trusteeship question before the United Nations Conference on International Organization. A memorandum of April 7, 1945 by Benjamin Gerig of the State Department records a meeting with Bundy and Major Correa of the Navy Department at which the two officers read the State Department's draft memorandum for the President. The Gerig memorandum states that the position of the Secretaries of War and Navy was that trusteeship machinery could not be discussed without reference to specific territories, and that they proposed a policy statement "so that the public would clearly understand that strategic rights, especially with respect to the Pacific areas, are fully safeguarded and that the trusteeship principle in these areas is applied in form but not in substance." Gerig added that "within an hour after this conversation, Mr. Bundy telephoned a supplementary statement to our draft."²⁶

At the twelfth meeting of the United States delegation on April 18, 1945, Bundy told the delegates that he had shown the revised trusteeship statement to Stimson the night before and that Stimson found it "generally satisfactory." He suggested adding the word "namely" and, when Admiral Willson questioned the use of "shall," said "that the Secretary of War prefers the word 'shall' in a policy statement." John Foster Dulles, also present, said the statement was a directive for the delegation and, if published, "might need some changes" because of "somewhat too much emphasis on United States interests and on the Pacific."²⁷

The Interim Committee

R. Gordon Arneson, who became the recording secretary of the Interim Committee, stated in a Truman Library oral history interview of June 21, 1989 that he was introduced to the project through Bundy. Colonel Dillon Anderson told him to "go see Harvey Bundy. He's a very special friend and associate of the Secretary of War." Arneson said that Bundy hired him to replace a captain, that for two weeks he drafted replies to correspondents, and that Bundy then pointed to a safe: "See the safe over here in the corner? I want you to familiarize yourself thoroughly with its contents. It has to do with a weapon that's going to win the war." When Stimson formed the Interim Committee, Arneson said, "Bundy said, 'I guess Gordon maybe you had better be the committee's Recording Secretary.'" Arneson worked for George L. Harrison, whom he called the committee's deputy chairman.²⁸

On May 31, 1945 Bundy attended the Interim Committee meeting as one of the people present by invitation. The notes of that meeting, signed by Arneson as secretary, list the members (Stimson, Chairman; Ralph A. Bard; Vannevar Bush; James F. Byrnes; William L. Clayton; Karl T. Compton; James B. Conant; George L. Harrison), the "Invited Scientists" (J. Robert Oppenheimer, Enrico Fermi, Arthur H. Compton and E. O. Lawrence) and, under "By Invitation," "General George C. Marshall," "Major Gen. Leslie R. Groves," "Mr. Harvey H. Bundy" and "Mr. Arthur Page."²⁹ The meeting ran from 10:00 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. The notes record Stimson's opening statement that the committee would make recommendations on "temporary war-time controls, public announcement, legislation and post-war organization"; Oppenheimer's estimate that one first-stage bomb would have "the explosive force of 2,000 - 20,000 tons of TNT"; the discussion of informing the Russians, in which Byrnes expressed the fear that Stalin would ask to be taken into partnership; and, in the afternoon, the discussion of targets, at which "the Secretary expressed the conclusion, on which there was general agreement, that we could not give the Japanese any warning" and "At the suggestion of Dr. Conant the Secretary agreed that the most desirable target would be a vital war plant employing a large number of workers and closely surrounded by workers' houses."³⁰ The next meeting was scheduled for June 1, 1945, at 11:00 a.m. in the office of the Secretary of War, "to secure the views of four representatives from industry."³¹

Arneson's memorandum to Harrison of June 6, 1945 summarized the Thursday and Friday meetings as recommending that the bomb be used against Japan "as soon as possible," on a dual target, and "without prior warning."³² The documents of the committee are filed in the Manhattan Engineer District records as the Harrison-Bundy Files, Record Group 77; the National Security Archive's index places the May 31 notes and the June 6 and June 25 Arneson memoranda in folder 100, the Bush-Conant memorandum of September 30, 1944 in folder 69, and the Franck report and scientific panel papers in folders 76 and 77, and identifies Harrison as Stimson's special assistant on Manhattan Project matters.³³

After the atomic attacks, Stimson retreated to the Adirondacks, where, the memoir says, "at the other end of the secret telephone were Harrison and Bundy," as the War Department civilian staff "was thinking long and painful thoughts about the atomic triumph."³⁴

Potsdam, July 1945

The Foreign Relations volume for the Potsdam Conference lists Bundy as "Special Assistant to the Secretary of War; Joint Secretary, Combined Policy Committee (on atomic energy)." A War Department memorandum of July 8, 1945 lists Stimson's party for the flight to Gibraltar on July 14 as Stimson, Assistant Secretary of War John J. McCloy, and "Special Assistant to Secretary of War Harvey H. Bundy, Sr.," with the Surgeon General and six other officers.³⁵

Bundy went to the conference with Stimson. The Foreign Relations volume prints Stimson's diary summaries for three conversations at which Bundy was present. On July 19 Stimson's diary records that Cherwell "and Bundy and I sat out under the trees" and discussed the notification of the Russians about the project.³⁶ On July 21 Stimson's diary says that he "picked up Bundy, and went to the Prime Minister's house," where he turned over a paper to Churchill.³⁷ On July 22 the diary records: "At ten-forty Bundy and I again went to the British headquarters and talked to the Prime Minister and Lord Cherwell for over an hour. Churchill read Groves' report in full." The diary adds that Churchill said Truman had been "evidently much fortified by something that had happened," and that "the sentiment of the four of us was unanimous in thinking that it was advisable to tell the Russians at least that we were working on that subject." The volume's editors state that no official record of the substance of these conversations has been found.³⁶³⁷³⁸

The same volume records Bundy's own account of Churchill's reaction. In "Remembered Words," an article in the March 1957 issue of The Atlantic, Bundy wrote that Churchill, after learning the contents of the report of the first atomic test, exclaimed: "Stimson, what was gunpowder? Trivial. What was electricity? Meaningless. This atomic bomb is the Second Coming in Wrath."³⁹

Stimson wrote the citations for the Distinguished Service Medals awarded to Patterson, McCloy, Lovett and Bundy.⁴⁰

On Active Service in Peace and War

Stimson's memoir, On Active Service in Peace and War, was published in 1948 under the names of Stimson and McGeorge Bundy. Its introduction credits the writing to McGeorge Bundy and says that the style and composition are his.⁴¹ Sutton wrote that the joint authorship gave McGeorge Bundy "a quick start in his career," and that Stimson brought McGeorge into the Pentagon to work on the manuscript while Stimson was still Secretary of War.⁴

Hoover Commission task force, 1949

The Commission on the Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government, known as the Hoover Commission, issued a report to Congress on foreign affairs dated February 18, 1949. Its recommendation No. 20 proposed that the permanent State Department establishment and the Foreign Service above certain levels be amalgamated over a short period into a single foreign affairs service.⁴²

A Congressional Record insert, reproduced in a CIA memorandum dated February 28, 1951, states that the task force that prepared the foreign affairs study was headed "not by Secretary Acheson as Congressman Bussey suggests, but by two former Republican Assistant Secretaries of State" who were James Grafton Rogers and Harvey Bundy, "with Henry R. Stimson as principal adviser." The same insert describes Bundy as "a partner in the conservative Boston firm of Choate, Hall & Stewart, who was also an assistant to the Secretary of War in World War II," and describes Rogers as "President of the Foreign Bondholders Council, and a former deputy director of OSS."⁴²

World Peace Foundation

The 1948 edition of American Foundations and Their Fields lists the Board of Trustees of the World Peace Foundation, 40 Mount Vernon Street, Boston, for the fiscal year ended December 31, 1947, as "Harvey H. Bundy, President," with Frank Aydelotte, James Phinney Baxter III, Percy W. Bidwell, George H. Blakeslee, Leonard W. Cronkhite, John S. Dickey, Christian Herter, "Alger Hiss," Bruce C. Hopper, Manley O. Hudson, Jacob J. Kaplan, J. Grafton Rogers, Kenneth C. M. Sills, Payson S. Wild and Henry M. Wriston. The foundation's donor is given as Edwin Ginn and its director as Raymond Dennett.⁴³

The 1953 Grand Rapids profile describes Bundy as president of the World Peace Foundation Memorial Association, alongside his trusteeship at Wellesley College and his membership in the Boston Bar Association.³ The Who's Who entry for 1956-57 lists him as president of the Foreign Bondholders Protective Council, Inc., and chairman of the trustees of the Boston Personal Property Trust.²

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

The Carnegie Endowment's president Alger Hiss testified before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1948 that the board elected him in December 1946 and that he assumed office on February 1, 1947. Asked by Representative F. Edward Hebert whether John Foster Dulles was the person who first approached him, Hiss answered: "He first approached me." Hiss said Dulles was "the chairman of my board of trustees" and that he was in the position through Dulles's urging "and other members of the board of trustees." Hiss checked with Byrnes before accepting, to learn whether a charge first raised in March 1946 had been laid to rest; Representative Mundt put to Hiss that he had not raised the matter with the endowment's directors when they employed him, and Hiss answered by describing his conversations with Byrnes.⁴⁴⁴⁵ The 1948 foundation directory shows Hiss and Bundy as fellow trustees of the World Peace Foundation in the same period.⁴³

The 1953 Grand Rapids profile states that Bundy became a member of the endowment in 1948, vice president in 1951, and chairman of the board and trustee in 1952.³ The endowment's own minutes fix the later dates. The executive committee minutes of August 8, 1951 list Bundy among the five members present.⁴⁶ At the board meeting of December 10, 1951, "Mr. Harvey H. Bundy, Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees, presided in the absence of the Chairman, Mr. John Foster Dulles." The annual meeting of May 8, 1952 at Princeton, New Jersey, was chaired by Bundy as Vice-Chairman and reelected Dulles as chairman and Bundy as vice chairman, with David Rockefeller as vice president and treasurer and Joseph E. Johnson as president.⁴⁷

The nominating committee for Johnson's presidency, as described in the endowment's 1952 reply to the House tax-exempt foundations committee, consisted of "John Foster Dulles, Chairman, Harvey Bundy, David Rockefeller, Earl Harrison, and Dr. James T. Shotwell." Johnson was elected on May 11, 1950.⁴⁸ In 1951, as part of a Federal Bureau of Investigation loyalty inquiry on Johnson's application for a consultancy, Bundy told agents that he and John Foster Dulles "were members of a committee chosen to nominate a president for the Carnegie Endowment" and that "he, Bundy, nominated and supported Johnson." James T. Shotwell, the president emeritus, told agents that Johnson "was not known to the Board of Trustees and that he was backed by Harvey H. Bundy of Boston," that it was his understanding that Dulles "selected Bundy to head the Nomination Committee," that Johnson and Bundy "had been active in the World Peace Foundation," and that "apparently Bundy was able to influence Dulles in this matter and that between them they were able to carry Johnson's election." The same memorandum records Shotwell's remark that "the Foundation, and particularly Dulles, is quite sensitive regarding the Alger Hiss" matter.⁴⁹

The August 1951 executive committee minutes record Johnson's report of an invitation to a peace conference at Zagreb, and Bundy's suggestion that the president telephone the executive committee members before answering. Johnson's letter to Allen Dulles of mid-August 1951, which asks for his advice on attending, states that Johnson had raised the question at the executive committee and that "Harvey Bundy" made the suggestion that Johnson ascertain Allen Dulles's reaction; he had previously discussed it with John Foster Dulles, who "was not at the Executive Committee meeting."⁴⁶⁵⁰

Following Dulles's designation as Secretary of State, the board of trustees on December 8, 1952 adopted a resolution on his resignation as chairman. The minutes record that Mr. Wriston presided while Dulles left the room, and that the committee on nominations "recommended that Mr. Harvey H. Bundy be elected to fill Mr. Dulles' unexpired term as Chairman of the Board." The acting secretary cast a single vote for Bundy, who "resumed the chairmanship of the meeting and made a brief statement concerning his interpretation of the role of the office." The vice chairmanship was left vacant until the May 1953 annual meeting.⁵¹ At the annual meeting of May 7, 1953, at which "The Chairman of the Board, Harvey H. Bundy, presided," the members elected Bundy chairman of the board and Rockefeller vice chairman and treasurer. He was elected chairman again at the annual meeting of May 6, 1954.⁵²⁵³

As chairman Bundy presided over the board meetings of December 7, 1953, May 6, 1954, December 12, 1955 and (per the agenda) December 10, 1956. He chaired the executive committee on November 23, 1954 and on January 24, April 5 and April 27, 1955, and the nominating committee proposed his reelection as chairman in May 1955.⁵³⁵⁴ A letter from Johnson to Edward R. Murrow, a trustee, reports that Bundy as chairman had asked David L. Cole to chair the nominations committee on an acting basis after Murrow lapsed from the board for non-attendance.⁵⁵ The roster printed in International Conciliation lists Bundy as a trustee and "Chairman of the Board" in November 1953, September 1954 and November 1957; by March 1961 the listing carries Bundy among the honorary trustees and gives the chairmanship to Whitney North Seymour.⁵⁶⁵⁷

The Cox Committee, the House select committee that investigated tax-exempt foundations in 1952, sent the endowment a questionnaire in October 1952. Johnson wrote to Murrow on October 7, 1952 that the executive committee had established a special committee of trustees to work with him on the replies, consisting of Dulles, Bundy, Harrison, Murrow and Rockefeller. In July 1954, when the later Reece committee prepared its hearings, Johnson wrote that his statement for the record had been prepared "in full consultation with Mr. Bundy" and with the endowment's general counsel.⁵⁸⁵⁹ The Cox Committee's report states: "there remains the ugly unalterable fact that Alger Hiss became the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. And this despite the fact that his nomination and election came about through the efforts of men of proven loyalty and broad experience in public affairs. So far as the committee can learn, during his term as president of the Carnegie Endowment, Hiss took no official action to further the Communist cause."⁶⁰

In April 1953 the Federal Bureau of Investigation sent the Department of Justice material on Bundy that had come from Senator McCarthy's office: a December 1952 letter from a reader in Clanton, Alabama, enclosing a clipping from the Union Banner that stated that Bundy "has a post in Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and with Alger Hiss' background" and that Bundy's son had married Dean Acheson's daughter, so that "it may be possible that it was this influence that was brought to bear on Acheson to stand back of Hiss." The bureau replied with Bundy's Who's Who record, and added "According to unverified information received in February 1953, Harvey H. Bundy is now Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace," and that no further action would be taken regarding Bundy.⁷ In July 1953 McCarthy wrote to Allen Dulles about a $400 contribution by William P. Bundy to the defense of Hiss. According to the Grand Rapids profile, Dulles conceded the contribution but denied the reasons Bundy had described for it in his 1951 application to the CIA.³

International Friendship League

Bundy was a director of the International Friendship League, a Boston organization that its letterhead describes as incorporated in 1936 as "An educational organization to promote better understanding among the youth of the world through personal pen friendships and travel exchanges." The Carnegie Endowment's 1952 questionnaire reply lists him as "Director, International Friendship League, Inc." among his affiliations, with his trusteeship at Wellesley College, directorship of the Foreign Bondholders Protective Council, presidency and trusteeship of the World Peace Foundation, and directorship of the Boston Metropolitan Chapter of the American Red Cross. A letter of April 28, 1955 to Allen Dulles from the league's Mount Vernon Street office encloses the minutes of the annual meeting of April 20, 1955, and reports that two men had accepted invitations to the board.⁶¹⁶²

The minutes of April 20, 1955 list Bundy among the directors present and among the directors elected. They record a suggestion that Bundy invite his son McGeorge Bundy to the board, and list McGeorge Bundy among the directors elected at that meeting. The same minutes record the league's approaches to foundations. They report a $3,000 grant from the Carnegie Corporation, a suggestion that Bundy or William Phillips approach Whitney Shepardson, formerly a director of the Carnegie Corporation, for advice on another grant, and a second application to the Ford Foundation, which the minutes say had made a first grant to the league.⁶³

Yale Political Union

A July 1987 CIA public affairs memorandum about an invitation to speak to the Yale Political Union describes the union as follows: "Since its founding in 1934, by Dean Acheson and Harvey Bundy among others, it has evolved into a national forum for nonpartisan political discussion." The description gives no middle initial for Bundy.⁶⁴