Discover the Best Books Written by McGeorge Bundy

McGeorge "Mac" Bundy was born on March 30, 1919, to attorney Harvey Hollister Bundy and Katharine Lawrence [Putnam] Bundy in Boston, Massachusetts. Bundy was educated at Dexter School, where he was a classmate of John F. Kennedy, Groton School, and Yale University. Mentored by his father’s contemporaries-Secretary of State and Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, Undersecretary of State Dean Acheson, and Justice Felix A. Frankfurter, Bundy was tapped into the Skull and Bones Society during his senior year at Yale. 

After graduating in 1939 with a B.A. in mathematics, Bundy became a Junior Fellow at Harvard University before entering the United States Navy. Trained as an intelligence officer, Bundy was discharged with the rank of Captain in 1946. During his post-service employment, Bundy worked as a research assistant for Henry L. Stimson, assisting him in the writing, editing, and publishing of his book of memoirs, On Active Service in Peace and War. 

Bundy also worked as a political analyst for the Council on Foreign Relations (1948-1949) and as assistant to Allen W. Dulles. In May 1949, Bundy began working as a Visiting Lecturer of Government at Harvard University. He taught courses on U.S. Government and international politics and was promoted to Associate Professor of Government in May 1951. 

In addition to lecturing at Harvard, Bundy maintained his personal work on various scholarly and political projects. He gave public lectures, participated in several committees and organizations, and wrote essays and reviews for publication, including The Pattern of Responsibility (1951). In 1953, Bundy was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard College, a position he held for nearly a decade.

On December 31, 1960, President-Elect John F. Kennedy appointed Bundy to be the Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. Bundy’s assignment granted him status as an informal cabinet member for the Kennedy administration, a key advisor to the President, and an insider to the inner workings of the National Security Council.

 Bundy worked alongside the President and assisted him with decisions and policy-making during the Bay of Pigs Invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis. After Kennedy’s assassination, Bundy continued serving under the Johnson administration as an adviser to President Lyndon Johnson, who was involved in strategy and planning during the Vietnam War. Bundy was also involved in developing and planning the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum and Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.

Bundy left politics in 1966 to become the president of the Ford Foundation. Despite his official change of institutions, Bundy maintained a close relationship with President Johnson, serving as a Special Consultant to the President for several years after his departure. As Foundation President, Bundy pursued interests in population control, civil rights, foreign policy, arms control, and the Vietnam conflict.