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Hubert Humphrey, and win again in 1972, against George McGovern. Although not a CFR member in 1972, McGovern saw the light and joined afterwards.” There were more big names to come. Then a young Harvard scholar, Henry Kissinger was recommended by two CFR members – Arthur Schlesinger and McGeorge Bundy – to work at the CFR headquarters during the 1955/56 academic year, on a CFR project titled, “Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy”. A brilliant scholar, Kissinger pressed himself so much, using discussion notes and his own ideas, to write the first CFR publication to become a national bestseller – titled “Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy”. Twelve years later, Kissinger entered government as Nixon’s national security adviser, and the rest, as they say, is history. The CFR would go on to recruit another future national security adviser in the shape of the formidable Zbigniew Brzezinski. In 1970, the CFR entered a new dispensation when David Rockefeller became chairman of its board, replacing John J. McCloy. As head of Chase Manhattan Bank, David Rockefeller had been a CFR member since 1940, and he brought in Cyrus Vance to assist in the reorganisation of the secret society. Vance would later become secretary of state under President Jimmy Carter. In 1971, Bayless Manning was appointed into the new position of CFR president, and his new ideas saw the admission, for the first time, of women into the CFR. For nearly 50 years, the group had been a male reserve. “The public face of the CFR would change also,” say Burnett and Games. “Its mission statement was no longer to ‘guide’ American public opinion, but to ‘inform’ it. Rockefeller also wanted to reduce the average age of the membership. In the early 1970s, the average age of the 1,600 members was 58. By 1975, through active recruitment of younger scholars aged between 21 and 27, the average age of new members was 47.”

Trilateral Commission When Jimmy Carter became president in 1976, according to Burnett and Games, “something intriguing occurred among the puppetmasters. While still a Democratic candidate, Carter had produced a book, ‘I’ll Never Lie to You’, in which he stated: ‘The insiders have had their chance and they have not delivered. And their time has run out. The time has come for the great majority of Americans ... to have a president who will turn the government of this country inside out.’ “The ‘insiders’ was a reference to the CFR. Carter’s adviser, Hamilton Jordan, had this to say before Carter was elected: ‘If, after the inauguration, you find Cyrus Vance as secretary of state and Zbigniew Brzezinski as head of national security, then I would say that we have failed, and I would quit’. “Although both of these men were members of the CFR, evidently Carter did not view them as ‘insiders’ since he appointed them into the exact positions that Jordan had specified. Jordan himself failed to follow through on his threat and did not resign. “Perhaps Carter was confused by the fact that Cyrus Vance and Brzezinski were members of his own secret society, the Trilateral Commission. They were ‘insiders’ of a different breed, or so it might seem at first sight. In fact, they were of exactly the same breed as the CFR.” The Trilateral Commission (TC) goes back to 23/24 July 1972 when it was founded by David Rockefeller at his private estate, even though at the time he was still chairman of the CFR, and all the other eight founding members on the American side were also CFR members. The aim of the TC was to bring together the three industrial

engines of the world economy: the US, Europe and Japan. The TC’s own promotional material summarises the aim as: “Close Trilateral cooperation in keeping the peace in managing the world economy, in fostering economic re-development and alleviating world poverty will improve the chances of a smooth and peaceful evolution of the global system.” Senator Barry Goldwater, a critic of the TC, interpreted this to mean: “What the Trilaterals truly intend is the creation of a worldwide economic power superior to the political government of the nation states involved. As managers and creators of the system, they will rule the world.” Burnett and Games add that: “Whereas the Bilderberg group was a US-Europe alliance, the Trilateral Commission was merely adding another region of the world economy, in this case the Far East sector represented by Japan. It was David Rockefeller’s baby...” The TC would go on to recruit Jimmy Carter, then an obscure peanut farmer turned governor of Georgia, and tutor him in the skills of modern foreign policy. In 1976, Carter admitted in his book, Why Not The Best, that: “Membership on the Commission has provided me with a splendid learning opportunity and many of the other members

16n NEW AFRICAN February 2008
Above: The presidents and prime ministers met and discussed at the Versailles Peace Conference: (from left) Lloyd George (UK), Vittorio Orlando (Italy), Georges Clemenceau (France) and Woodrow Wilson (USA). But behind the scenes, doing the thinking and advising them were the secret societies – the Round Table, Inquiry and Council on Foreign Relations

have helped me in my study of foreign affairs.” No wonder, when he became president, Carter filled his administration with 13 TC members, including Walter Mondale who had run as his vice president. “The startling aspect of this,” say Burnett and Games, “was that the TC at the time had only 65 American members.” Interestingly, in 1980, the TC fielded two fellow members against Carter and Mondale – the Republican George Bush (Senior), who was a member of both the TC and CFR, and John Andersen, who run as an independent. Enter Ronald Reagan, a member of the Bohemian Grove, much like Richard Nixon. As Burnett and Games report, when asked who really ran America, Reagan admitted: “I think there is an elite in this country and they are the 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...”

Yet when Reagan entered the White House, out of the 59 people he appointed to his administration, 28 were CFR members, 10 were Bilderbergers, and another 10 from the TC. When George Bush Senior (CFR/TC) succeeded Reagan, his top appointments was solid CFR – Condoleezza Rice (CFR), Dick Cheney (CFR), Brent Scowcroff (CFR), Colin Powell (CFR), Paul Wolfowitz (CFR). “When Bill Clinton (CFR) became president,” reveal Burnett and Games, “he brought on board even more CFR members than Bush had – 16 members of his cabinet were from CFR (including women).” In 2004, when George Bush Junior and John Kerry contested the presidency, the Skull and Bones had a field day as both were members. Kerry, additionally, held CFR membership. Though Bush is not CFR, he yet surrounds himself with CFR members. As with all secret societies, CFR membership is by invitation only. “A recent breakdown of the 4,200 membership,” write Burnett and Games, “reveals that 31% come from the corporate sector, 25% from academia, 15% from charities, 13% from government, 8% from law, 6% from the media, and 2% from other professions.” Burnett and Games continue: “The CFR prohibits its members from discussing anything that has been said within its closed meetings to outsiders. It is this confidentiality that allows controversial subjects to be discussed within the Council and which helps define the CFR as a secret society. Since Allen Dulles left his position as president of the CFR in 1950 and became the director of CIA, almost all of the subsequent CIA directors have been CFR members... “The CFR is also a breeding ground for future presidents... It has reached the point where if someone wants to exert influence in Washington, they have to pass through the doors of the CFR. Its members control the world’s banking, the world’s largest intelligence gathering apparatus, most of the media giants, and most of the dominant American-based multinational corporations.” Burnett and Games add one more vital truth: “With such a global coverage, anti-CFR press reports are unlikely to see the light of day, and that may be why the general public is unaware of its influence.”

The Bilderberg The same can be said of the European version of the CFR, the Bilderberg, founded in 1952, which is very influential on this side of the Atlantic. Unlike the CFR, the Bilderberg’s membership is open to Europeans and Americans only. For more on the Bilderberg, please see Baffour’s Beefs (NA, February, April, May, July and Aug/Sept 2004). Why none of these groups care to admit Africans is the more reason why Africa must have its own. It is the way forward for the continent. As can be gleaned from the activities of the secret societies, they really are the backbone of their countries and their place in the world. Regarding ideas for national (and even international development), they provide the raw material by doing the original thinking, the research and analysis and handing the polished ideas over to their governments for implementation. They also provide forums for their leaders to meet, fraternise, bond together, support one another, and take collective decisions. This is the good side of the secret societies that Africa must borrow and implement. Our countries are in dire need of such services, our own secret societies. We may hate the Afrikaner Broderbund secret society for what it stood for in apartheid South Africa, but it did render useful services for the twisted cause of apartheid. It has shown the way in Africa – we must get on our bikes! g NA

February 2008 NEW AFRICAN n 17