George Ball

Who was George Ball?

George Wildman Ball was an American diplomat and banker. He was a protégé of Adlai Stevenson and played a major role in his unsuccessful presidential campaigns of 1952 and 1956. He served in the top rank of the States Department, 1961-66, where he is most remembered as the only dissenter against the escalation of the Vietnam war. He refused to go public with his doubts, which were based on realistic calculations that South Vietnam was doomed. He also helped shape American policy regarding trade expansion, the Congo, the Multilateral Force, policy toward de Gaulle' France, Israel and the Middle East, and the Iranian revolution. Critics complain about his Eurocentrism, his elitism, and his indifference to social justice.