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Here's Norman Dodd (RIP), chief investigator of the Reece Committee on Tax Exempt Foundations



Here's an extract of what he says in the interview

"We're back in nineteen hundred and eight, and the trustees meet, and they raise this question among themselves: Namely, is there any means besides war, known to man, more capable, assuming you wish to alter the life of entire people."

Question: Now these are the trustees of the Carnegie Foundation?

"Mr. Dodd: "That's right, and they discuss this question in a very learned fashion for approximately a year, and come up with a conclusion that: War is the most effective means known to man assuming you wish to alter the life of an entire people.

"So then they bring up a second question namely: How do we involve the United States in a war? And I doubt in nineteen hundred and nine there was any subject more removed from the minds of us as a people, than our involvement in a war. There were shows going on in the Balkans and most of the people of this country hardly knew the Balkans were. And they conclude that: They must control the diplomatic machinery of the United States.

"And that raises question number 3, namely how do we secure that control? and the answer comes out we must control the State Department. And, from that time on, their activities were centered on: securring control of the State Department. Now as a means to that end, the Endowment founded and instrumentality called the Council for Learned Society. And that Council was assigned the task of passing on every high official appointment of the State Department before the appointment was confirmed. At that point this finding linked up with what we had already suspected. But nevertheless here was confirmation of it.

"Well this happened, and, pretty soon the country was in a war which became to be known, of course, as World War I. And this group of trustees at one point congratulated themselves on the wisdom of the original decision. Because, as they put it, war has demonstrated a power to alter the life of the people of this country already.

"And then their interest went on seeing to it we as a people did not revert to our customs and our practices which prevailed prior to the outbreak of World War I. And they decided after the war was over that that meant we had to control education of the United States.

"And so they realized this was a very prodigious task. So they approached the Rockefeller Foundation and made the suggestion that the Rockefeller Foundation take on half the problem, and they retained the other half. They divided it between those subjects which were domestic in their significance and those which were international.

"And they, together, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Carnegie Endowment, decided that the crux of the matter lay in their ability to alter the teaching of American History in this country. So they approached the then three of the most prominent historians, with that suggestion and they were turned down flat. So then they decided they would have to build their own stable of historians. And so they then approached the Guggenheim Foundation which specialized in awarding fellowships, and said figuratively, 'When we find a likely young man who's headed to become a teacher of American history, and will you grant him on our say so a fellowship?' And the answer was, yes we will. So they gradually assembled twenty. And they took these twenty to England, London. And there they briefed them to what was expected of them. And that became the nucleus of the American Historical Association. To which ultimately the Endowment made a grant of four hundred thousand dollars for a study to be made, which would conclude what the future of this country was to be.

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