Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made (Acheson; Bohlen; Harriman; Kennan; Lovett; McCloy)

852 pp. Six close friends shaped the role their country would play in the dangerous years following World War II. They were the original best and brightest, whose towering intellects, outsize personalities, and dramatic actions would bring order to the postwar chaos, and whose strong response to Soviet expansionism would leave a legacy that dominates American policy to this day.