the Council's own roots, in the deep discontent felt by the participants in the Inquiry of 1917-19 about the inadequate depth of knowledge and understanding that had been available to President Wilson and to the American government generally in that postwar period.

At any rate, literally within a week of the outbreak of war in early September 1939, Armstrong and his strong right hand, Walter Mallory, were in Washington offering to put the Council's organizational skills and ability to select good people to work for the government. Four study groups were formed and funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, to assess how the war might develop, where it would leave the world, and especially the United States, and what analyses would be useful for contingency planning.

In December 1939 the StateDepartment, which in those simpler days had literally no planning or research units or capacity and no money to pay for them anyway latched on to the offer and set up liaison with the study groups. These set to work, meeting once a month in New York, with at first six or so members each, later more, on economic, financial, security and territorial problems, with an additional group formed later to discuss peace aims.

Two years later, of course, the United States did go to war and cooperation intensified. Several of the secretaries of the groups went to work directly for State. But the impetus came all along from the participants, who churned out a stream of papers, eventually something like 700. Those on economic matters highlighted the fundamental