This outlook generally held throughout the upper reaches of both the CIA and the State Department, composed as they were largely of men—and in 1950, it was still almost all men—of socially tolerant backgrounds who had been educated at Ivy League schools grown increasingly inclusive. As such they had little in common with the kind of nativist reactionaries, most from the South or Midwest, who rallied to Joe McCarthy’s side. Indeed, from top to bottom, Washington’s so-called Georgetown set of well-heeled socialites and policy wonks, and of which Frank Wisner was a standing member, was almost
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