William Griffith

William Griffith (academic, spook?)
Born	19 February 1920
Died	28 September 1998 (Age 78)
Nationality	US
Alma mater	Hamilton College, Harvard
Interests	anti-communism
Spooky US academic. "A very dedicated anti-Communist" and "Zbig's idea man." Helped introduce discussion on Domestic Developments In Eastern Europe:Policy Implications For The West for the 1989 Bilderberg  Head of Center for International Studies' International Communist Project In office 1959 - 1990 Employer MIT "Zbig's idea man." Attended Bilderberg/1985 and Bilderberg/1989  Chief political adviser In office 1950 - 1958 Employer Radio Free Europe,  CIA Location Munich,  Bavaria  Chief of the Denazification Branch of the US Military Government for Bavaria In office 1947 - 1948 Employer US/Military Location Allied-occupied Germany

William E. Griffith was a spooky US MIT academic described as "a very dedicated anti-Communist" and "Zbigniew Brzezinski's idea man". He attended the 1985 Bilderberg meeting, and helped introduce discussion on Domestic Developments In Eastern Europe:Policy Implications For The West for the 1989 Bilderberg.

Education

Griffith, born on February 19, 1920 in Remsen, NY, received a BA in liberal arts from Hamilton College in 1940 and the MA in history from Harvard in 1941. He received the PhD in history from Harvard in 1950.

Career

Griffith's career began as a US Army officer in France and Germany during World War II, after which he became chief of the Denazification Branch of the US Military Government for Bavaria from 1947-48. He was awarded the Commander's Cross of the German Order of Merit.

After his tour of duty in Bavaria, he returned to the United States to complete work on his PhD in German history at Harvard, then moved back to Germany as chief political adviser to the CIA's Radio Free Europe (RFE) in Munich from 1950-58, the height of the Cold War.

He returned to an offical government position in 1979 as National Security Council advisor to President Carter's national security advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, a longtime colleague. Professor Griffith commuted to Washington once a week from Massachusetts and was described to The New York Times by a White House aide as "Zbig's idea man." He collaborated with Brzezinski on several books.

A RFL obituary said "In the years when Western observers often saw the Communist world as uniformly black, and Soviet power as invincible, Bill Griffith discerned nuances. He was among the first to analyze the conflict between the Soviet Union and Communist China. He wrote about the conflicts among Communist states and among Communist leaderships. He understood that national interests -- and passions -- had been submerged but not suppressed by Soviet power."

He worked as senior advisor to the US ambassador in Bonn from 1985-86. Upon his retirement, he moved to Germany for four years and continued to do research there and at MIT.

 

Events Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Bilderberg/1985	10 May 1985	12 May 1985	New York US Arrowwood of Westchester Rye Brook	The 33rd Bilderberg, held in Canada
Bilderberg/1989	12 May 1989	14 May 1989	Spain Galicia La Toja Island	37th Bilderberg meeting, 110 guests

Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.