The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made

Overview
Walter Isaacson and Evan Thomas chart a narrative history of six American statesmen whose careers and close friendships shaped the structure of the post–World War II international order. The book follows their transition from private influence to public policymaking amid moments of crisis and reconstruction, showing how personal judgment, shared values, and institutional skill produced a coherent U.S. foreign policy during the early Cold War. The account links individual temperaments to sweeping decisions that established alliances, economic programs, and strategic doctrines still resonant today.

The Six Men
The central figures are Dean Acheson, Charles Bohlen, W. Averell Harriman, George F. Kennan, Robert A. Lovett, and John J. McCloy. Each brought different talents: Acheson's rhetorical and organizational gifts, Bohlen's linguistic and diplomatic refinement, Harriman's managerial skill and business ties, Kennan's intellectual influence on containment, Lovett's administrative steadiness, and McCloy's legal and institutional acumen. Their professional paths overlapped through government service, Harvard and diplomatic circles, and wartime collaboration, creating an informal network that advised presidents and shaped key policies.

Key Policies and Moments
The narrative emphasizes defining initiatives such as the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe, the formation of NATO, the articulation of containment as a guiding strategy, and management of crises like Berlin and Korea. These men played roles in designing and implementing economic aid, building transatlantic institutions, and calibrating the use of military force and diplomacy against Soviet expansion. Their decisions about alliances, intelligence, and military posture reflected a conviction that collective strength and American leadership could stabilize the postwar world while deterring aggression.

Personal Dynamics and Elite Consensus
A central theme is how friendship and shared social background forged consensus. Their interactions, formal meetings, private counsel, mutual trust, helped smooth disagreements and present a unified policy front. That cohesion also reveals limits: a tendency to favor continuity, technocratic solutions, and reliance on networks of like-minded elites. Personality clashes and ideological debates appear, but the book stresses how personal bonds often tempered rivalry and enabled pragmatic compromises.

Method and Tone
The account combines archival research, interviews, and narrative portraiture to render public events through human character. Emphasis is on storytelling: anecdotes, dialogues, and profile sketches illuminate strategic choices and the atmospheres of meetings and decision rooms. The prose aims to balance biography and diplomatic history, making complex policy debates accessible by tying them to the motives and habits of the principal actors.

Legacy and Assessment
The book argues that this small circle left a durable imprint on American foreign policy, embedding institutional arrangements and habits of mind that governed U.S. conduct for decades. It presents their achievements as products of prudence, expertise, and a shared sense of responsibility, while inviting reflection on the strengths and shortcomings of elite-driven policymaking. The account remains a useful window into the origins of the Cold War consensus and a reminder of how relationships and judgment can shape international order.