THE HAWKS OF WORLD WAR II

Now when citizen concern with our foreign policy is at such a fever pitch, this exceedingly detailed accounting of the activities of the interventionist elite before World War II may find a more extended audience than it might otherwise have had. The book concerns itself with a hard core group which advocated a declaration of war or steps leading to involvement. These people, who made up the Century Group in 1940 and the Fight for Freedom Committee in 1941, were leaders such as Acheson, Lewis Douglas, Hemy Luce, Allen Dulles, Robert Sherwood, etc. They identified with England, were not radical, and engaged in every skirmish the transfer of destroyers to Britain, lend-lease, to convey or not, Russia after the Nazi attack, Finland and Vichy. Theirs was a public information thrust; the effect on government policy was practically nil; but by nullifying much of the isolationist program. Washington could react to the realities. . . . However special, a window opened on a vital phase of the recent historical past.