Creature From Jekyll Island by G. Edward

The Report from Iron Mountain states that it was produced by a Special Study Group of fifteen men whose identities were to remain secret and that it was not intended to be made public. One member of the group, however, felt the report was too important to be kept under wraps. He was not in disagreement with its conclusions. He merely believed that more people should read it. He delivered his personal copy to Leonard Lewin, a well-known author and columnist who, in turn, negotiated its publication by Dial Press. It was then reprinted by Dell Publishing.

This was during the Johnson Administration, and the President's Special Assistant for National Security Affairs was CFR

member Walt Rostow. Rostow was quick to announce that the report was a spurious work. Herman Kahn, CFR director of the Hudson Institute, said it was not authentic. The Washington Post—

which is owned and run by CFR member Katharine Graham—

called it "a delightful satire." Time magazine, founded by CFR-member Henry Luce, said it was a skillful hoax. Then, on November 26, 1967, the report was reviewed in the book section of the Washington Post by Herschel McLandress, which was the pen name for Harvard professor John Kenneth Galbraith. Galbraith, who also had been a member of the CFR, said that he knew

firsthand of the report's authenticity because he had been invited to participate in it. Although he was unable to be part of the official group, he was consulted from time to time and had been asked to keep the project a secret. Furthermore, while he doubted the wisdom of letting the public know about the report, he agreed totally with its conclusions. He wrote:

As I would put my personal repute behind the authenticity of thisdocument, so would I testify to the validity of its conclusions. Myreservations relate only to the wisdom of releasing it to an obviouslyunconditioned public.

Six weeks later, in an Associated Press dispatch from London, Galbraith went even further and jokingly admitted that he was "a member of the conspiracy."2

1. "News of War and Peace You're Not Ready For," by Herschel McLandress, BookWorld, in The Washington Post, November 26,1967, p. 5.

2. "The Times Diary," London Times, February 5,1968, p. 8.

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That, however, did not settle the issue. The following day, Galbraith backed off. When asked about his "conspiracy" statement, he replied: "For the first time since Charles II The Times has been guilty of a misquotation.... Nothing shakes my conviction that it was written by either Dean Rusk or Mrs. Clare Booth Luce."1

The reporter who conducted the original interview was em-

barassed by the allegation and did further research. Six days later, this is what he reported:

Misquoting seems to be a hazard to which Professor Galbraith isprone. The latest edition of the Cambridge newspaper Varsity quotesthe following (tape recorded) interchange:

Interviewer: "Are you aware of the identity of the author of Reportfrom Iron Mountain?"

Galbraith: "I was in general a member of the conspiracy but I wasnot the author. I have always assumed that it was the man who wrotethe foreword—Mr. Lewin."

So, on at least three occasions, Galbraith publicly endorsed the authenticity of the report but denied that he wrote it. Then who did? Was it Leonard Lewin, after all? In 1967 he said he did not. In 1972 he said that he did. Writing in the New York Times Book Review Lewin explained: "I wrote the 'Report/ all of it.... What I intended was simply to pose the issues of war and peace in a provocative

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way.

But wait! A few years before that, columnist William F. Buckley told the New York Times that he was the author. That statement was undoubtedly made tongue-in-cheek, but who—and what are we to believe? Was it written by Herman Kahn, John Kenneth Galbraith, Dean Rusk, Clare Booth Luce, Leonard Lewin, or William F.

Buckley?