Show notes
In the years following World War II, the foreign
policy and national security strategy of the United States were
managed, decade after decade, by a remarkable group of public
servants who placed service to their country above partisan
politics or private interest. None of these distinguished public
servants enjoyed a longer career than Paul H. Nitze. Paul Nitze
advised presidents from Franklin Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan. The
titles he held -- Secretary of the Navy, Deputy Secretary of
Defense -- do not convey the breadth of his achievement.
Weathering criticism from left and right, and surviving the
political infighting of nine successive administrations, he
remained a strong, steady voice in the halls of power. He was one
of the principal authors of the Marshall Plan that rebuilt
postwar Europe, and a designer of the national security strategy
that saw the United States through the 40-year Cold War with the
Soviet Union. After advising presidents through crises such as
those over Berlin and Cuba that led the two superpowers to the
brink of nuclear war, Paul Nitze's career culminated with his
service as Ambassador-at-Large and Special Adviser for Arms
Control to President Reagan. Nitze negotiated the historic
agreements to control nuclear weapons that ended the long, deadly
competition between the superpowers. The School of Advanced
International Studies that Paul Nitze founded at Johns Hopkins
University was renamed in his honor, but the endurance of the
United States as the world's sole remaining superpower is his
greatest monument.



