Allied troops were still fighting in Europe when the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) began to discuss and to study possibilities for economic and political rehabilitation of the liberated countries after the fighting ceased. The war in Europe was almost won - but in March 1945, peace remained a task of the future. Walter Mallory, executive director of the CFR, put it more bluntly a couple of months later: “As the struggle to make a just and lasting peace proceeds, it becomes clear that few problems have been finally resolved by the cessation of hostilities, and that peace will need to be worked out as diligently as war has been.”

Officers and members of the council were certain that they were to play a major part in this process. Together they represented a great wealth of experience, knowledge, and influence in domestic affairs and, even more, in foreign affairs. Authorities in banking and finance, experts on foreign policy, former politicians and government aides, clergymen, and professors, they believed in commitment to international organizations and in a strong and active American foreign policy. They were certain that the United States, in its capacity as the most powerful industrial and military nation, had no choice but to play a major role in the international arena.