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Photo courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive Center.
Gerald Ford, left, Nelson Rockefeller, center, and former Special Studies Project director Henry Kissinger, right, in the Oval Office, 1974.
The Special Studies Project, which ran from 1956 to 1961, was one of the first of the Fund’s direct operating activities. Created in response to Cold War tensions, Special Studies convened leaders from a wide variety of fields including government, business, and academia, to explore and define the “problems and opportunities” the United States would face in the coming 10 to 15 years. The brainchild of Nelson Rockefeller, Special Studies was directed by Dr. Henry Kissinger. It produced six specialized reports on various aspects of U.S. foreign and domestic policy as well as a book geared toward a general audience that sold over 400,000 copies.
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Prospect for America, published by Doubleday in 1961, compiled the reports of the Special Studies Project in a volume intended for a general audience.
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Image courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive Center.
A lantern slide from the Special Studies Project showing the six topics for its reports.
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Image courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive Center.
A lantern slide from the Special Studies Project.
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Photo courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive Center.
Henry Kissinger, left, and Nelson Rockefeller, right, would remain closely associated throughout their political careers.
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