![Google](http://www.google.com/images/poweredby_transparent/poweredby_FFFFFF.gif)
Final Warning: A History of the New World Order-=-Illuminism and the Master Plan for World Domination
David Rivera,
-- by David Rivera, 1994 source: View From the Wall
.: with hyperlinks to entries from the MHP database :.
Chapter 9.1: The Trilateral Commission
The Trilateral Commission, the CFR, and control of the White House
[Editor's note: This chapter has been condensed. The original text is available at the Author's website.]
- Founding of the Trilateral Commission (1972)
- Structure of the Trilateral Commission
- Jimmy Carter: The Trilateral President (1976-80)
- Trilateral Foreign Policy
- The Election of Ronald Reagan (1980)
- The Bohemian Club
- Ronald Reagan: Another Trilateral President (1980-88)
- Trilateralists in Recent Administrations
Founding of the Trilateral Commission (1972)
In July, 1944, during World War II, economist John Maynard Keynes of England and Harry Dexter White of the United States, organized the United Nation's Monetary and Financial Conference (or Bretton Woods Conference) in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire to lay out a plan for stabilizing the world economy. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was signed; and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) were established.
In the early 1960's, the American economy began declining, and the international situation became unbalanced again. On August 15, 1971, President Nixon announced a new economic policy. The dollar was devalued, and its convertibility to gold was suspended. He initiated a 90-day wage price freeze, stimulative tax and spending cuts, and placed a temporary 10% tariff on most U.S. imports. Japan and Western Europe were pressured into relaxing their trade barriers, in order to give the United States more access to them; and Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan were requested to decrease the flow of goods and textiles into the country. These moves offered relief to the country's economic woes, but was an indication that Nixon was retreating from the global policies which were formulated during the 1960's.
This series of drastic changes in the U.S. international policy motivated David Rockefeller (a Director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and head of the Illuminati in the U.S.), who, after attending the Bilderberg Conference and consulting with Zbigniew Brzezinski, wanted to "bring the best brains in the world to bear on problems of the future." Speaking at the Chase Manhattan International Financial Forums in London, Brussels, Montreal, and Paris, he proposed the creation of an International Commission of Peace and Prosperity in early 1972 (which would later become the Trilateral Commission). At the 1972 Bilderberg meeting, the idea was widely accepted, but elsewhere, it got a cool reception. According to Rockefeller, the organization could "be of help to government by providing measured judgment."
Zbigniew Brzezinski, a professor at Columbia University and a Rockefeller advisor who was a specialist on international affairs, left his post to organize the group along with:
- Henry Owen (a Foreign Policy Studies Director with the Brookings Institution)
- George S. Franklin
- Robert Bowie (of the Foreign Policy Association and Director of the Harvard Center for International Affairs)
- Gerard Smith (Salt I negotiator, Rockefeller in-law, and its first North American Chairman)
- Marshall Hornblower
- William Scranton (former Governor of Pennsylvania)
- Edwin Reischauer (a professor at Harvard)
- Max Kohnstamm (European Policy Centre)
Brzezinski was the author of the book Between Two Ages, which was published in 1970, in which he called for a new international monetary system, and it was considered to be the 'Bible' of the Trilateralists. On page 72, he said: "Marxism is simultaneously a victory of the external, active man over the inner, passive man and a victory of reason over belief." He called for "deliberate management of the American future" (pg. 260), a "community of nations" (pg. 296), and a "world government" (pg. 308). He became its first Director (1973-76), drafted its Charter, and became its driving force.
Funding for the group came from David Rockefeller, the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, and the Ford Foundation.
In July, 1972, Rockefeller called his first meeting, which was held at Rockefeller's Pocantico compound in New York's Hudson Valley. It was attended by about 250 individuals who were carefully selected and screened by Rockefeller and represented the very elite of finance and industry.
Within a year, after their first full meeting of the Executive Committee in Tokyo, the Trilateral Commission, considered to be an off-shoot of the Bilderberg group, was officially initiated, holding biannual meetings. Because of a heavy cross-membership, some researchers have said that they appear to be an inner circle of the Council on Foreign Relations, with ties to the Atlantic Institute for International Affairs (established in 1961), and the Bilderberg Group.
The Trilateral Commission represents a union of experts and transnational elite from the three noncommunist industrial regions of the world: North America, Japan, and Western Europe (excluding Austria, Greece, and Sweden). Rockefeller saw the need for such a private consultation among these three democratic areas. With the demise of the Bretton Woods system, they believed an overhaul was needed. The theory was that America's role should be diminished, and made equal to the Common Market [E.U.] and Japan, because together, the three represent 70% of the world's trade.
In 1973, David Rockefeller met with 27 heads of state, including representatives from the Soviet Union and China; and in 1974, had a meeting with Pope Paul VI, who afterward called for the nations to form a world government.
A Trilateral Commission Task Force Report, presented at the 1975 meeting in Kyoto, Japan, called An Outline for Remaking World Trade and Finance, said: "Close Trilateral cooperation in keeping the peace, in managing the world economy, and in fostering economic development and in alleviating world poverty, will improve the chances of a smooth and peaceful evolution of the global system." Another Commission document read:
"The overriding goal is to make the world safe for interdependence by protecting the benefits which it provides for each country against external and internal threats which will constantly emerge from those willing to pay a price for more national autonomy. This may sometimes require slowing the pace at which interdependence proceeds, and checking some aspects of it. More frequently however, it will call for checking the intrusion of national government into the international exchange of both economic and non-economic goods."
Structure of the Trilateral Commission
In his 1979 book Who's Running America?, Thomas Dye said that Rockefeller was the most powerful man in America. Journalist Bill Moyers (a CFR member), wrote about the power of David Rockefeller in 1980:
"David Rockefeller is the most conspicuous representative today of the ruling class, a multinational fraternity of men who shape the global economy and manage the flow of its capital ... Private citizen David Rockefeller is accorded privileges of a head of state ... He is untouched by customs or passport offices and hardly pauses for traffic lights."
The Trilateral Commission is actually controlled by the Rockefellers, who oversee its activities and provide guidance for their policies. Much of the funding is provided by corporations and foundations, including the Rockefeller foundations.
Their membership consists of over 300 members (with membership ceilings of 107 from North America, 150 from Western Europe, and 117 from Pacific-Asian), made up of top bankers, industrialists, businessmen, labor leaders, scholars, politicians, senators, and governors. They only consider people interested in promoting close international cooperation, especially among non-communist industrial nations. There is a Chairman, Deputy Chairman, and Director for each of the three areas, as well as a 44 member Executive Committee. Many Cabinet level officers and advisors from [every recent administration] have served on the Commission.
Each branch of the organization (in Washington, Paris and Tokyo) has a small full-time staff. The Commission holds an annual three-day meeting, rotated among the three areas, to discuss the world monetary situation, and other economic and military issues. The meetings are closed to the public, and the media is denied access.
Until 1985, the Commission published a quarterly magazine called the Trialogue. The first three issues were devoted to significant international matters, while the fourth covered in detail their annual meeting. They still publish a report about their annual meeting. Their Task Force Reports usually take up to a year to prepare, and they are always written by at least three experts, representing each region. [Many of these publications are available at their website. --ed]
David Rockefeller said in a Saturday Evening Post article he wrote to defend his group:
"My point is that far from being a coterie of international conspirators with designs on covertly ruling the world, the Trilateral Commission is, in reality, a group of concerned citizens interested in fostering greater understanding and cooperation among international allies."
However, those who have penetrated the inner workings of the organization say the real purpose of the Commission is to take over all key policy-making positions in the government. Antony Sutton wrote in the Trilateral Observer that the Trilateralists have rejected the U.S. Constitution and the democratic political process; and their objective is to obtain the wealth of the world for their own use, under the guise of "public service", and to have, ultimately, a one-world socialist government, with them in control.
Conservative critics claim the "Commission constitutes a conspiracy seeking to gain control of the U.S. Government to create a new world order." Mike Thompson, Chairman of the Florida Conservative Union, said: "It puts emphasis on interdependence, which is a nice euphemism for one-world government." Sen. Barry Goldwater wrote in his book With No Apologies:
"In my view, the Trilateral Commission represents a skillful, coordinated effort to seize control and consolidate the four centers of power: political, monetary, intellectual, and ecclesiastical. All this is to be done in the interest of creating a more, peaceful, more productive world community. What the Trilateralists truly intend is the creation of a worldwide economic power superior to the political governments of the nation-states involved. They believe the abundant materialism they propose to create will overwhelm existing differences. As managers and creators of the system they will rule the future."
Jimmy Carter: The Trilateral President (1976-80)
Late in 1972, W. Averell Harriman (known at that time as the "grand old man of the Democrats"), Establishment strategist and CFR member, told Milton Katz (also a CFR member and Director of International Studies at Harvard): "We've got to get off our high horses and look at some of those southern governors." Carter was mentioned, and Katz informed Rockefeller, who had actually met with Carter in 1971, when they had lunch in the Chase Manhattan's Board of Director's dining room, and he was impressed with the fact that Carter had opened trade offices for the state of Georgia in Tokyo.
In February, 1973, while former Secretary of State Dean Rusk (a Bilderberger) was having dinner with Gerald Smith (U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Non-Proliferation Matters), Rusk suggested that Carter would be a good candidate for the Commission. In April, while Robert Bowie (former professor of International Affairs at Harvard, who later became Deputy Director of the CIA), George S. Franklin (Rockefeller assistant, CFR member, and Coordinator for the Commission), and Smith were discussing the recruitment of candidates, it was decided that they needed better representation from the South. Franklin went to Atlanta to talk to Carter, and then proposed his name for membership. It had been a choice between Carter, and Gov. Reuben Askew of Florida.
In the fall of 1973, after having dinner with David Rockefeller in London, Carter's political momentum began. From that point on, he was groomed for the Presidency by Zbigniew Brzezinski, and the Trilateralists. Just to be on the safe side, they also brought in Minnesota Senator Walter Mondale (a protege of Hubert Humphrey, whose eventual withdrawal from the Presidential race guaranteed the Democratic nomination for Carter), and Rep. Elliot Richardson (former U.S. Attorney General; Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare and Secretary of Defense, and Under Secretary of State under Nixon; former Secretary of Commerce under Ford; and former Ambassador to Great Britain) as possible candidates, and even considered Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts.
Brzezinski said in an October, 1973 speech: "The Democratic candidate will have to emphasize work, family, religion, and increasingly, patriotism, if he has any desire to be elected." Carter campaigned by stressing those very virtues, as he asked America to elect him, an "outsider," to clean up the mess in Washington.
In December, 1975, seven months before the Democratic National Convention, the Gallup Poll indicated that only 4% of the country's Democrats wanted Carter. Even the Atlantic Constitution in his own state, ran a headline which said: "Jimmy Carter Running For What?". However, within six months the nomination was his because of the most elaborate media campaign in history. Carter was glorified as the new hope of America as the media misrepresented his record as Governor in Georgia. This led former Georgia Governor Lester Maddox to say: "Based on false, misleading and deceiving statements and actions ... Jimmy Carter in my opinion, neither deserves or should expect one vote from the American people."
Even though Carter later resigned from the Trilateral Commission, he was hardly an "outsider." He was supported by the Trilateral Commission, the Rockefellers, and Time magazine. Early contributions came from Dean Rusk, C. Douglas Dillon, Henry Luce, and Cyrus Eaton. Leonard Woodcock of the United Auto Workers Union, and Henry Ford II, both of whom are CFR members, endorsed Carter on the same day.
Carter's two major foreign policy speeches during the primary campaign were made to the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations and the Foreign Policy Association. He used terms like "a just and peaceful world order," and "a new international order." In another primary campaign speech, Carter talked about "world-order politics."
A Los Angeles Times article in June, 1976, identified the advisors that helped Carter prepare his first major speech on foreign policy, all of whom were all members of the CFR and most were also members of the Trilateral Commission:
- Zbigniew Brzezinski
- Richard Cooper
- Richard Gardner
- Henry Owen
- Edwin O. Reischauer
- Averell Harriman
- Anthony Lake
- Robert Bowie
- Milton Katz
- Abram Chayes
- George Ball
- Cyrus Vance
During his acceptance speech, after winning the nomination at the Democratic National Convention, Carter attacked the
"...unholy, self-perpetuating alliances [that] have been formed between money and politics ... a political and economic elite who have shaped decisions and never had to account for mistakes nor to suffer from injustice. When unemployment prevails, they never stand in line for a job. When deprivations results from a confused welfare system, they never do without food, or clothing or a place to sleep. When public schools are inferior or torn by strife, their children go to exclusive private schools. And when bureaucracy is bloated and confused, the powerful always manage to discover and occupy niches of special influence and privilege."
Carter's religious convictions became a big part of his campaign, but things weren't really what they seemed. Carter claimed that his favorite theologian was Reinhold Niebuhr (a pro-communist), former professor at the Union Theological Seminary (which had been funded by the Rockefellers), who founded the Americans for Democratic Action. He denied the virgin birth, and the resurrection of Christ. Carter also admired Karl Barth (who said the Bible was "fallible" and filled with "historic and scientific blunders" and "theological contradictions"), Paul Tillich, and Soren Kierkegaard, all liberals who led the 'God is Dead' movement during the 1960's.
After Carter beat Gerald Ford, Hamilton Jordan, his chief aide, said: "If, after the inauguration, you find Cy Vance (former President of the Rockefeller Foundation) as Secretary of State and Zbigniew Brzezinski as head of National Security, then I would say we have failed." In an interview with Playboy magazine, Jordan said he would quit if they were appointed. They were; he didn't.
Brzezinski, whom Henry Kissinger had called his "distinguished presumptive successor", had become Carter's biggest influence. It was Brzezinski who said:
"The approaching two-hundredth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence could justify the call for a national constitutional convention to re-examine the nation's formal institutional framework. Either 1976 or 1989 -- the two-hundredth anniversary of the Constitution -- could serve as a suitable target date culminating a national dialogue on the relevance of existing arrangements..."
When James Earl Carter took the oath of office, he said that the "United States will help erect ... a world order." This self-proclaimed "outsider" filled many of his administrative posts with establishment insiders from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Brookings Institution, and the Coca-Cola Company [whose headquarters are in Atlanta, Georgia]. Extracted from Coke were George Ball, Clark Clifford, Samuel P. Huntington, Marshall Shulman, Richard Gardner, Henry Owen, Robert Roosa, and J. Paul Austin. Because of the extent to which he used the company when he was governor, he called the Coca-Cola company his "own State Department."
The Trilateral Commission had accomplished its goal of controlling the Presidency, and it heralded that fact by making Jimmy Carter Time magazine's Man of the Year in January, 1977. The Editor-in Chief for Time was Hedley Donovan, a Rhodes Scholar and a member of the Commission.
Commission members must resign when they accept positions in the Executive branch, but they remain loyal, and usually rejoin the group when their service is complete. About 40% of the American Trilateral members joined the Carter Administration. In all, 291 members of the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations joined the Administration. Among the Carter Administration officials who have been members:
- Jimmy Carter (President)
- Walter F. Mondale (Vice President)
- Cyrus Vance (Secretary of State, nephew of John W. Davis, of the J. P. Morgan bank who was the first President of the CFR)
- W. Michael Blumenthal (Secretary of Treasury)
- Harold Brown (Secretary of Defense)
- Zbigniew Brzezinski (National Security Advisor)
- Andrew Young (Ambassador to the United Nations)
- Paul A. Volcker (Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board)
- Sol Linowitz (Chief Negotiator on the Panama Canal Treaties/Mid-East Envoy)
- John C. Sawhill (Deputy Secretary of Energy/Head of the Synthetic Fuels Corp.)
- Hedley Donovan (Special Assistant to the President)
- Lloyd N. Cutler (Counsel to the President)
- Gerald C. Smith (Ambassador at Large for Nuclear Power Negotiations)
- Richard N. Gardner (Ambassador to Italy)
- Elliot L. Richardson (Delegate to the UN Law of the Sea Conference)
- Henry Owen (Special Representative of the President for Economic Summits/Economic Advisor)
- Warren Christopher (Deputy Secretary of State)
- Paul C. Warnke (Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency)
- Richard N. Cooper (Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs)
- Lucy Wilson Benson (Under Secretary of State for Security Affairs)
- Anthony Solomon (Deputy Secretary of State for Monetary Affairs)
- Robert R. Bowie (Deputy Director of Intelligence for National Estimates)
- W. Anthony Lake (Under Secretary of State for Policy Planning)
- Richard Holbrooke (Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs)
- C. Fred Bergsten (Assistant Secretary of Treasury for International Affairs)
- Leslie Gelb (Director of the Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs)
- Theordore C. Sorenson (Director of the Central Intelligence Agency)
- Richard Moose (Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs)
- Brock Adams (Secretary of Transportation)
- Leonard Woodcock (U.S. Ambassador to Peking)
- Joseph Califano (Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare)
Trilateral Foreign Policy
In the July, 1977 issue of Atlantic Monthly, Jeremiah Novak wrote:
"Although the Commission's primary concern is economic, the Trilateralists pinpointed a vital political objective: to gain control of the American Presidency... For the third time in this century, a group of American schools, businessmen, and government officials is planning to fashion a new world order..."
Craig S. Karpel wrote in a November, 1977, Penthouse magazine article Cartergate: The Death of Democracy:
"The presidency of the United States and the key cabinet departments of the federal government have been taken over by a private organization dedicated to the subordination of the domestic interests of the United States to the international interests of the multi-national banks and corporations. It would be unfair to say that the Trilateral Commission dominates the Carter Administration; the Trilateral Commission is the Carter Administration."
U.S. News and World Report stated:
"The Trilateralists have taken charge of foreign policy-making in the Carter Administration, and already the immense power they wield is sparking some controversy. Active or former members of the Trilateral Commission now head every key agency involved in mapping U.S. strategy for dealing with the rest of the world."
Being dominated by the chief advisors of the Commission, almost every aspect of Carter's foreign policy reflected a Trilateral viewpoint. They took advantage of Carter's ignorance of foreign policy, which resulted in a series of concessions to Cuba, Panama, Red China, and Russia.
The Panama Canal was given away by the Carter Administration in a treaty negotiated by Sol Linowitz of the Commission. The reason? Marxist Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos owed the International Bankers $2 billion in loan payments, so income received from the Canal could help pay them back. The U.S. also guaranteed a 5-year program of loans and credits, which amounted to $295 million; and a 10 year, $50 million arms sale agreement to bolster the defense of the Canal.
In Asia, Carter withdrew a large number of troops from South Korea and granted full diplomatic relations with Red China, so American industry could begin trade with the communist government. When Carter broke off diplomatic relations with the government of Taiwan, Sen. Goldwater said at a news conference:
"I have no idea what motivated him other than the Trilateral Commission, composed of bankers in this country and others, want to expand big business ... He did it for the big banks of the world– Chase Manhattan and the French bankers and for companies like Coca-Cola."
In a 1978 meeting with 200 Trilateralists at the White House, Carter said that if the Commission had been in existence after World War I, they would have prevented World War II. In his book Why Not the Best, Carter said: "Membership on this Commission has provided me with a splendid learning opportunity, and many other members have helped me in my study of foreign affairs."
Carter's membership in the organization was the only foreign policy experience he had, and that was limited to attending a couple of conferences in Europe and Japan. Congressman John Anderson, himself a member, said that Carter became a member just to improve his image. Carter's indoctrination made him a willing pawn in furthering the goals of the Trilateral Commission. In a personal letter to the Commission, who was meeting in Tokyo, Japan, in January, 1977, he wrote:
"We share economic, political, and security concerns that make it logical we should seek ever increasing cooperation and understanding. And this cooperation is essential not only for our three regions, but in the global search for a more just and equitable world order."
The Commission, which operates in literal secrecy, made news in the fall of 1979, when David Rockefeller, Henry Kissinger, and John J. McCloy (former President of the Ford Foundation, former President of the World Bank, Chairman of the Chase Manhattan Bank, former High Commissioner to Germany, and on the Advisory Board of Foreign Affairs magazine) pressured Carter into allowing the deposed Shah of Iran (who had financial dealings with the Chase Manhattan) into the country for medical treatment. The move caused the Iranian government, under the leadership of the Ayatollah Khomeini, to storm the American Embassy, and hold 52 American hostages for nearly 1-1/2 years. Carter's inadequacy in dealing with this situation certainly cost him the election.
The Election of Ronald Reagan (1980)
The Presidential election of 1980 saw two other former Trilateralists running for President. Jimmy Carter was running for re-election, and Illinois Rep. John Anderson was running as an Independent. Republican George Bush had resigned his post on the Council on Foreign Relations because they were "too liberal"; however, he didn't resign his seat on the Commission.
The son of Sen. Prescott Sheldon Bush (R-CT, who during the 1930's was on the Board of Directors of Union Banking Corp. of New York which helped finance the Nazis), George Bush had been born in Maine, raised in Connecticut, and attended Yale, where he was a member of the secret organization known as "Skull and Bones" (or "The Order"). He had been a two-term Republican Representative from Houston, Texas; Ambassador to the U.N.; Chairman of the Republican National Committee; and Director of the CIA. The Bushes were closely associated with the international banking firm of Brown Brothers, Harriman who helped finance the growth of the Soviet Union.
On March 17, 1980 during the campaign Ronald Reagan was asked if he would allow Trilateral Commission members to serve in his cabinet, and he responded by saying:
"I don't believe that the Trilateral Commission is a conspiratorial group, but I do think its interests are devoted to international banking, multinational corporations, and so forth. I don't think that any Administration of the U.S. Government should have the top nineteen positions filled by people from any one group or organization representing one viewpoint. No, I would go in a different direction."
After a bitter Primary fight, Reagan chose Bush to be his Vice Presidential running mate, over the likes of Rep. Philip Crane from Illinois, and Sen. Jack Kemp from New York. Reagan had originally wanted former President Ford to be his Vice-President; however, Ford wanted the power to appoint people to the National Security Council and the Cabinet. He also wanted to prepare "position papers" on foreign policy matters. This situation would have been almost like a co-Presidency, making Reagan more of a figurehead, which he refused to be, so his only other option was Bush.
Manchester Union Leader publisher William Loeb made the Commission a campaign issue during the New Hampshire Primary by saying: "It is quite clear that this group of extremely powerful men is out to control the world." He accused them of advocating a "world order in which multinational corporations ... can thrive without worrying about so-called national interests." During the campaign, Reagan attacked Carter's ties to David Rockefeller, and other Trilateral financiers; while Edwin Meese, a Reagan advisor, said that Trilateral influence was responsible for a "softening of defense."
Although Reagan appeared to be anti-Commission, it was only a front. Reagan's Campaign Manager, William J. Casey (former Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, who Reagan later appointed as Director of the CIA) was a Trilateralist. His campaign was controlled by such Trilateralists as David Packard, George H. Weyerhauser, Bill Brock, Anne Armstrong, Philip M. Hawley, William A. Hewitt, Caspar Weinberger, and others who were CFR members.
Reagan received a great deal of support by such Christian political action groups as the Moral Majority, Round Table, and Christian Voice, and on November 6, 1980 said:
"I think there is an elite in this country and they are the very ones who run an elitist government. They want a government by a handful of people because they don't believe the people themselves can run their lives ... Are we going to have an elitist government that makes decisions for people's lives, or are we going to believe as we have for so many decades, that the people can make these decisions for themselves?"
This sounds a lot like what Carter said. Maybe Reagan was still acting -- just on a far bigger stage. After the election, the November 24th issue of the U.S. News and World Report revealed:
"Top officials of the Reagan team have sent a message to the Moral Majority: 'It isn't your Administration' ... '[To] Hell with them', Vice-President-elect George Bush declared on November 10th in Houston, referring to right-wing groups that supported the President-elect."
The Bohemian Club
Reagan also had the personal support of David Rockefeller and belonged to the elitist Bohemian Club in San Francisco.
The Bohemian Grove is the site of an annual two-week summer retreat [in July] on a 2,700 acre redwood estate about 75 miles north of San Francisco near the town of Monte Rio along the Russian River. It was established in 1872 by five reporters of the San Francisco Examiner as a social club "to help elevate journalism to that place in the popular estimation to which it is entitled." By 1878, when the first Grove-fest took place, reporters were being pushed out. Newsweek(August 2, 1982) called it "the world's most prestigious summer camp".
There is a $2,500 initiation fee, and annual dues of $600. Nearly every Republican President since Calvin Coolidge has been a member of this "conservative" club, and President Herbert Hoover called it the "greatest men's party on Earth." Among its 2,000 members are other high level government officials, and the very elite of America's corporate power, who sit on a variety of organizations such as the Trilateral Commission, CFR, and the Committee for Economic Development.
Some of the Bohemian Club members have included:
- Alexander Haig
- Caspar Weinberger
- Richard Nixon
- Henry Kissinger
- George P. Shultz
- Newt Gingrich
- Stephen Bechtel, Jr.
- Alan Greenspan
- Gerald R. Ford
- Jack Kemp
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
- Colin Powell
- William F. Buckley, Jr.
- Merv Griffin
- Joseph Coors
- Edward Teller
- Malcolm Forbes
- Ronald Reagan
- A. W. Clausen
- George H. W. Bush
- William French Smith
- Richard Cheney
- William E. Simon.
Members "...own 25-30% of all privately held wealth in America, own 60-70% of the privately held corporate wealth ... direct the large corporations and foundations, and dominate the federal government in Washington." The bottom line, is that the Grove provides "one of the most influential meetings of the powers-that-be" and a setting for policy-making on specific issues.
It has been said that the Manhattan Project (which created the first atomic bomb) was first discussed at the Grove. One of the few stories to emerge was about a 1967 agreement by Ronald Reagan over a drink with Nixon to stay out of the upcoming Presidential primaries.
More recently, in June of 1993, the Washington Timesreported:
"[Clinton] Presidential counselor David Gergen resigned yesterday from the all-male Bohemian Club, three days after saying he would not run around naked at its annual Bohemian Grove encampment and insisting he would not[?] quit. White House spokeswoman Dee Dee Myers announced the resignation along with Mr. Gergen's departure from 17 other interest groups, charities and public boards ranging from the Trilateral Commission, the Bilderberg Group and Council on Foreign Relations."
Ronald Reagan: Another Trilateral President (1980-88)
Reagan's 59-member "transition team" who would pick, screen, and propose appointees for major administrative posts, consisted of 28 CFR members, 10 Bilderbergers, and 10 Trilateralists. The CFR members included William Simon (former Secretary of Treasury under Nixon and Ford), Alexander Haig, George P. Shultz (former Secretary of Treasury under Nixon), Donald Rumsfeld (former Secretary of Defense under Ford), Alan Greenspan (former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors), and Henry Kissinger; and the Trilateralists included William Casey and Anne Armstrong.
A note about George Pratt Shultz. His father was Dr. Birl Earl Shultz, who from 1918-23 was Personnel Director of the American International Corporation in New York which was located in the same building as the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. They [AIC] had offered $1,000,000 in credits to the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution. Shultz was a close friend of Armand Hammer's father, Julius Hammer, co-founder of the U.S. Communist Party. George was a member of the Pratt family, who were related to the Rockefellers, and who donated the Pratt mansion to the CFR [for their headquarters]. According to The Oregonian (1/3/87), George Shultz was quoted as saying: "The New Age has already dawned, and a new financial World Order is fast taking shape."
Reagan had 287 CFR and Trilateral Commission members in his Administration. Trilateral member, Caspar W. Weinberger (Reagan's Finance Director when he was Governor of California, former Vice President of Bechtel Corp., and former Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare under Nixon and Ford), became Secretary of Defense. Weinberger said:
"The Trilateral Commission is performing a very valuable service in strengthening the ties between the United States and our natural allies."
Other Trilateral members who joined the Administration included:
Note that all of these (except Brady) were also CFR members.
- Alexander Haig (Secretary of State)
- George Shultz (Secretary of State)
- Nicholas Brady (Secretary of Treasury)
- Donald Regan (Secretary of Treasury)
- John C. Whitehead (Deputy Secretary of State)
- Caspar Weinberger (Secretary of Defense)
- Frank Carlucci (Deputy Secretary of Defense)
- Winston Lord (Ambassador to China)
- Malcolm Baldridge (Secretary of Commerce)
- William Brock (Secretary of Labor)
- Alan Greenspan (Chairman of the Federal Reserve)
Seemingly, Reagan was the Establishment's candidate all along, because he played ball with them. Republican Presidential candidate (during the 1980 Primary) John Connally, said that if he was elected, he wouldn't appoint any Trilateralists to his Administration. His campaign quickly ran out of steam -- and money.
The 1984 Presidential campaign included Trilateralists Walter Mondale, Sen. John Glenn from Ohio, and Sen. Alan Cranston from California, fighting for the Democratic nomination among a slate of seven candidates. Cranston had been the President of the United World Federalists. After World War II, he traveled the country saying that disarmament "must be done by an international army and a world court." However, he changed his tune when he became a Presidential candidate, and said: "I do not feel that world federalism is a realistic objective" and that disarmament "does not require world government." When asked about his membership with the United World Federalists, he said: "I would point out that at the time I was national president of the United Federalists, one of its more noted members was one Ronald Reagan."
Winston Lord, former president of the CFR, U.S. Ambassador to China during the Reagan Administration and Assistant Secretary of State for Asian and Pacific Affairs under Clinton is reported to have said:
"The Trilateral Commission doesn't run the world, the Council on Foreign Relations does that!"
Trilateralists in Recent Administrations
Regardless of the election outcome, members of the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations have continued to dominate the White House and U.S. policy making. Among the Trilateralists in the George H.W. Bush Administration (1988-92) were Brent Scowcroft (National Security Advisor), and Nicholas F. Brady (Secretary of Treasury). Bush himself later rejoined.
Trilateralists in the Bill Clinton Administration (1992-2000) include:
- Bill Clinton
- Al Gore (Vice President)
- Donna E. Shalala (Secretary of Health and Human Services)
- Alice M. Rivlin (Deputy Budget Director)
- Madeleine Albright (UN Ambassador)
- Peter Tarnoff (Under Secretary of State for International Security of Affairs)
- Warren M. Christopher (Secretary of State)
- Ronald H. Brown (Secretary of Commerce)
- Henry G. Cisneros (Secretary of Housing and Urban Development)
- Bruce Babbitt (Secretary of Interior)
- Walter Mondale (U.S. Ambassador to Japan)
- William J. Crowe (Chairman of the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board)
- William S. Cohen (Secretary of Defense)
- William J. Perry (Secretary of Defense)
- Lloyd N. Cutler (Counsel to the President)
Trilateralists in the George W. Bush Administration (2000-2004) include:
- Richard B. Cheney (CFR, Vice President)
- Robert B. Zoellick (CFR)
- Brent Scowcroft (past member)
- Richard N. Haass (CFR)
- Henry A. Kissinger (CFR)
- Stephen J. Friedman (CFR)
- Richard N. Perle (CFR)
- Colin L. Powell (Secretary of State)
- Donald H. Rumsfeld (Secretary of Defense)