Welcome to Part 2 of Wall Street’s War Machine: the postwar era where “national security” and “net yield” rhymed perfectly.

The Establishment’s Grip: How Wall Street Bankers Ran the Show from Truman to Eisenhower

Let's go back to the 1950s. The Cold War is heating up, NATO is brand new, and the Korean War is turning into America’s first “forever conflict.” On the surface, presidents Truman and Eisenhower are calling the shots. Beneath the surface? A quiet cabal of bankers and their boardroom buddies are writing the script.

Murray Rothbard, the libertarian economist/historian with a scalpel-sharp pen, laid it all out long ago. His verdict? U.S. foreign policy wasn’t shaped in smoky Oval Office meetings — it was forged in the marble halls of Chase Manhattan, Dillon Read, and the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

Let’s start with the undisputed heavyweight: John J. McCloy, the man Rothbard crowned “Mr. Establishment.” This guy was everywhere. He helped run the War Department under FDR, pushed the Japanese internment policy (which he later defended with a shrug), then married into the Morgan family. Postwar? He hopped to the Rockefellers like it was a lateral move on a corporate ladder.

McCloy chaired the CFR for nearly two decades, ran the World Bank, served as High Commissioner of Germany under Truman, and later advised Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He even discovered a young Henry Kissinger and dropped him into Nelson Rockefeller’s orbit. As one observer quipped, McCloy was the unelected architect of American empire — the guy who made sure policy always aligned with the right balance sheets.

Truman’s entire national-security team read like a Wall Street yearbook. Defense Secretary James Forrestal came straight from Dillon Read (with Chase ties). His successor Robert Lovett was a Brown Brothers Harriman partner and Rockefeller trustee. Air Force boss Thomas Finletter? CFR insider. Averell Harriman — multimillionaire ambassador to Moscow, London, and Commerce Secretary — was pure Brown Brothers Harriman stock. Even the guy who mobilized industry for Korea, “Engine Charlie” Wilson of General Electric, sat on Morgan boards and Guaranty Trust.

Rothbard’s point lands like a ledger closing: the Korean War, NATO, the Berlin Airlift — none of it was accidental. It was Cold War choreography, courtesy of checkbooks.

Then Eisenhower took the stage in 1953, and the bankers didn’t miss a beat. They simply swapped Truman’s crew for their slightly more polished cousins.

The Dulles brothers became the face of the era. John Foster Dulles — Secretary of State — spent 15 years on the Rockefeller Foundation board and ran Sullivan & Cromwell, the law firm that represented Standard Oil of New Jersey. His brother Allen ran the CIA and had been CFR president. Their sister Eleanor handled the Berlin desk. Family reunions must have been fascinating.

Eisenhower himself was groomed at swanky dinners hosted by Clarence Dillon of Dillon Read. The guest list? Morgan partners, Kuhn Loeb scions, and even John D. Rockefeller Jr. himself. When Ike needed a foreign-policy brain trust, he turned to Christian Herter (married into Standard Oil royalty) and later Douglas Dillon (Clarence’s son and future Rockefeller trustee).

Defense secretaries? All Morgan men: Charlie Wilson (GM), Neil McElroy (Procter & Gamble), and Thomas Gates (who later became Morgan Guaranty president). Treasury and Navy roles went to Robert Anderson, who later borrowed $84,000 from Nelson Rockefeller to buy stock in… Rockefeller ventures. Even the Atomic Energy Commission was led by Lewis Strauss, a Kuhn Loeb partner and Rockefeller family consigliere.

The pattern was so blatant, Rothbard just tallied it like a scorecard. Foreign policy? A Rockefeller rout. CIA coups? Allen Dulles’s playground. Treaties and alliances? Drafted with Standard Oil ink.

Here’s the entertaining part that doubles as the educational gut punch: none of this was secret conspiracy. It was open networking.

The CFR, World Bank, Rockefeller Foundation, and big banks formed a revolving door so smooth you could drive a Brink’s truck through it. These men genuinely believed their interests and America’s interests were identical — and in many cases, they were right about the bottom line. Wars widened markets, bailouts protected deposits, and “bipartisan consensus” kept the public from asking awkward questions.

Rothbard’s bigger thesis still stings today: the state isn’t a neutral referee. It’s the syndicate’s stage, and bankers have been directing the show for generations. The Trilateral Commission, Kissinger’s endless influence, even modern endless interventions... all trace back to the same DNA.

So next time you hear “national interest,” try substituting “net yield” and see if the sentence still makes sense. It usually does.

Audit the architects. The interest, after all, accrues forever.