Walt Whitman Rostow
Encyclopedia
Walt Whitman Rostow (October 7, 1916 – February 13, 2003) was a United States
economist
and political theorist who served as Special Assistant for National Security Affairs
to U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson
.
Prominent for his role in the shaping of US foreign policy in Southeast Asia
during the 1960s, he was a staunch anti-communist, and was noted for a belief in the efficacy of capitalism
and free enterprise
. Rostow served as a major adviser on national security
affairs under the Kennedy
and Johnson administrations. He strongly supported US involvement in the Vietnam War. In his later years he taught at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs
at the University of Texas at Austin
with his wife, Elspeth Rostow
, who later became dean of the school. He wrote extensively in defense of free enterprise economics, particularly in developing nations. Rostow wrote a book The Stages of Economic Growth: A non-communist manifesto (1960) which was used in several fields of social sciences.
His older brother, Eugene Rostow
, also held a number of high government foreign policy posts.
to a Russian Jewish immigrant family. His parents, Victor and Lillian Rostow, were active socialists and their three sons, Eugene Victor Debs Rostow, Ralph Waldo Emerson Rostow and Walt Whitman Rostow, were named after Eugene V. Debs
, Ralph Waldo Emerson
, and Walt Whitman
. Rostow entered Yale University
at age 15 on a full scholarship, graduated at 19, and completed his Ph.D.
there in 1940. He also won a Rhodes Scholarship
to study at Balliol College, Oxford
, where he completed a B.Litt. degree. In 1936, during the Edward VIII abdication crisis
, he assisted the broadcaster Alistair Cooke
, who reported on the events for the NBC
radio network. After completing his education he started teaching economics
at Columbia University
.
he served in the Office of Strategic Services
under William Joseph Donovan
. Among other tasks, he participated in selecting targets for U.S. bombardment. (Nicholas Katzenbach
would later joke, "I finally understand the difference between Walt and me[...] I was the navigator who was shot down and spent two years in a German prison camp, and Walt was the guy picking my targets.") Rostow became Assistant Chief of the German-Austrian Economic Division in the United States Department of State
in Washington, D.C.
, immediately after the war. From 1946 to 1947, he returned to Oxford to teach as the Harmsworth Professor of American History. Rostow became the Assistant to the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Europe in 1947, and was involved in the development of the Marshall Plan
.
He spent a year in 1949 at Cambridge University
as the Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions
. Rostow was Professor of Economic History at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
from 1950 to 1961 and a staff member of the Center for International Studies, MIT, from 1951 to 1961. In 1958, he became a speechwriter for President Dwight D. Eisenhower
.
In 1960 Rostow joined John F. Kennedy
's presidential campaign, helping to coin such memorable campaign phrases as "Let's get this country moving again," "The New Frontier," and "The Development Decade." His ability to couch concepts in terms accessible to the layman was a strong suit.
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed Rostow as Deputy Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
, reporting to McGeorge Bundy
. Late in 1961, he was then appointed as counselor of the Department of State and Chairman
of the Policy Planning Council, Department of State. Rostow was appointed by Johnson in May 1964 to be U.S. Member of the Inter-American Committee on the Alliance for Progress (CIAP).
In early 1966, he was named special Assistant for National Security Affairs (the post now known as National Security Advisor) where he was a main figure in developing the government's policy in the Vietnam War
, and where he remained until February 1969. Pulitzer Prize
-winning journalist David Halberstam
noted of Rostow's time as Assistant for National Security Affairs,
"He became the president's national security adviser at a time when criticism and opposition to the war were beginning to crystallize, and he eventually served the purpose of shielding the president from criticism and from reality."
His anti communist and pro-free enterprise
views made him highly unpopular in the social sciences
sector of US academia, which has mostly left wing beliefs. Because of his hawkish stance, Rostow was a pariah in many academic quarters, and was not invited back to MIT after his government service. Instead he landed at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs
at the University of Texas, where he served as the Rex G. Baker Jr. Professor Emeritus of Political Economy
. He and his wife Elspeth Rostow, created "The Austin Project", a model for at risk, low income youth. He continued to teach history and economics until his death in 2003 at the age of 86.
of economic growth
, one of the major historical models of economic growth. The model argues that economic modernization occurs in five basic stages of varying length—traditional society, preconditions for take-off, take-off, drive to maturity, and high mass consumption. This became one of the important concepts in the theory of modernization in the social evolutionism. He received the Order of the British Empire
(1945), the Legion of Merit
(1945), and the Presidential Medal of Freedom
(1969).
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
economist
Economist
An economist is a professional in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...
and political theorist who served as Special Assistant for National Security Affairs
National Security Advisor (United States)
The Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, commonly referred to as the National Security Advisor , serves as the chief advisor to the President of the United States on national security issues...
to U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
.
Prominent for his role in the shaping of US foreign policy in Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
during the 1960s, he was a staunch anti-communist, and was noted for a belief in the efficacy of capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
and free enterprise
Free enterprise
-Transport:* Free Enterprise I, a ferry in service with European Ferries between 1962 and 1980.* Free Enterprise II, a ferry in service with European Ferries between 1965 and 1982....
. Rostow served as a major adviser on national security
National security
National security is the requirement to maintain the survival of the state through the use of economic, diplomacy, power projection and political power. The concept developed mostly in the United States of America after World War II...
affairs under the Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
and Johnson administrations. He strongly supported US involvement in the Vietnam War. In his later years he taught at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs
Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs
The Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs is a graduate school at The University of Texas at Austin that was founded in 1970 to offer professional training in public policy analysis and administration for students interested in pursuing careers in government and public affairs-related areas...
at the University of Texas at Austin
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
with his wife, Elspeth Rostow
Elspeth Rostow
Elspeth Rostow was born as Elspeth Vaughan Davies in Manhattan. She graduated from Barnard College in 1938...
, who later became dean of the school. He wrote extensively in defense of free enterprise economics, particularly in developing nations. Rostow wrote a book The Stages of Economic Growth: A non-communist manifesto (1960) which was used in several fields of social sciences.
His older brother, Eugene Rostow
Eugene V. Rostow
Eugene V. Rostow , influential legal scholar and public servant, was Dean of Yale Law School, and served as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs under President Lyndon B...
, also held a number of high government foreign policy posts.
Early life
Walt Rostow was born in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
to a Russian Jewish immigrant family. His parents, Victor and Lillian Rostow, were active socialists and their three sons, Eugene Victor Debs Rostow, Ralph Waldo Emerson Rostow and Walt Whitman Rostow, were named after Eugene V. Debs
Eugene V. Debs
Eugene Victor Debs was an American union leader, one of the founding members of the International Labor Union and the Industrial Workers of the World , and several times the candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States...
, Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...
, and Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman
Walter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse...
. Rostow entered Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
at age 15 on a full scholarship, graduated at 19, and completed his Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
there in 1940. He also won a Rhodes Scholarship
Rhodes Scholarship
The Rhodes Scholarship, named after Cecil Rhodes, is an international postgraduate award for study at the University of Oxford. It was the first large-scale programme of international scholarships, and is widely considered the "world's most prestigious scholarship" by many public sources such as...
to study at Balliol College, Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
, where he completed a B.Litt. degree. In 1936, during the Edward VIII abdication crisis
Edward VIII abdication crisis
In 1936, a constitutional crisis in the British Empire was caused by King-Emperor Edward VIII's proposal to marry Wallis Simpson, a twice-divorced American socialite....
, he assisted the broadcaster Alistair Cooke
Alistair Cooke
Alfred Alistair Cooke KBE was a British/American journalist, television personality and broadcaster. Outside his journalistic output, which included Letter from America and Alistair Cooke's America, he was well known in the United States as the host of PBS Masterpiece Theater from 1971 to 1992...
, who reported on the events for the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
radio network. After completing his education he started teaching economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
.
Professional and academic career
During World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
he served in the Office of Strategic Services
Office of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services was a United States intelligence agency formed during World War II. It was the wartime intelligence agency, and it was a predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency...
under William Joseph Donovan
William Joseph Donovan
William Joseph Donovan was a United States soldier, lawyer and intelligence officer, best remembered as the wartime head of the Office of Strategic Services...
. Among other tasks, he participated in selecting targets for U.S. bombardment. (Nicholas Katzenbach
Nicholas Katzenbach
Nicholas deBelleville Katzenbach is an American lawyer who served as United States Attorney General during the Lyndon B. Johnson administration.-Early life:...
would later joke, "I finally understand the difference between Walt and me[...] I was the navigator who was shot down and spent two years in a German prison camp, and Walt was the guy picking my targets.") Rostow became Assistant Chief of the German-Austrian Economic Division in the United States Department of State
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, immediately after the war. From 1946 to 1947, he returned to Oxford to teach as the Harmsworth Professor of American History. Rostow became the Assistant to the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Europe in 1947, and was involved in the development of the Marshall Plan
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was the large-scale American program to aid Europe where the United States gave monetary support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II in order to combat the spread of Soviet communism. The plan was in operation for four years beginning in April 1948...
.
He spent a year in 1949 at Cambridge University
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
as the Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions
Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions
The Pitt Professorship of American History and Institutions was established on 5 February 1944 from a sum of £44,000 received from the Syndics of the Cambridge University Press in 1943 and augmented by a further £5,000 in 1946...
. Rostow was Professor of Economic History at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
from 1950 to 1961 and a staff member of the Center for International Studies, MIT, from 1951 to 1961. In 1958, he became a speechwriter for President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
.
Government service
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
's presidential campaign, helping to coin such memorable campaign phrases as "Let's get this country moving again," "The New Frontier," and "The Development Decade." His ability to couch concepts in terms accessible to the layman was a strong suit.
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed Rostow as Deputy Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
Deputy National Security Advisor
The Assistant to the President and National Security Advisor is a member of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, serving as deputy to the President's National Security Advisor....
, reporting to McGeorge Bundy
McGeorge Bundy
McGeorge "Mac" Bundy was United States National Security Advisor to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson from 1961 through 1966, and president of the Ford Foundation from 1966 through 1979...
. Late in 1961, he was then appointed as counselor of the Department of State and Chairman
Director of Policy Planning
The Director of Policy Planning is the United States Department of State official in charge of the Department's internal think tank, the Policy Planning Staff. The position of Director of Policy Planning has traditionally been held by many members of the U.S. foreign policy establishment...
of the Policy Planning Council, Department of State. Rostow was appointed by Johnson in May 1964 to be U.S. Member of the Inter-American Committee on the Alliance for Progress (CIAP).
In early 1966, he was named special Assistant for National Security Affairs (the post now known as National Security Advisor) where he was a main figure in developing the government's policy in the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, and where he remained until February 1969. Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winning journalist David Halberstam
David Halberstam
David Halberstam was an American Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author and historian, known for his early work on the Vietnam War, his work on politics, history, the Civil Rights Movement, business, media, American culture, and his later sports journalism.-Early life and education:Halberstam...
noted of Rostow's time as Assistant for National Security Affairs,
"He became the president's national security adviser at a time when criticism and opposition to the war were beginning to crystallize, and he eventually served the purpose of shielding the president from criticism and from reality."
His anti communist and pro-free enterprise
Free enterprise
-Transport:* Free Enterprise I, a ferry in service with European Ferries between 1962 and 1980.* Free Enterprise II, a ferry in service with European Ferries between 1965 and 1982....
views made him highly unpopular in the social sciences
Social sciences
Social science is the field of study concerned with society. "Social science" is commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to a plurality of fields outside of the natural sciences usually exclusive of the administrative or managerial sciences...
sector of US academia, which has mostly left wing beliefs. Because of his hawkish stance, Rostow was a pariah in many academic quarters, and was not invited back to MIT after his government service. Instead he landed at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs
Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs
The Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs is a graduate school at The University of Texas at Austin that was founded in 1970 to offer professional training in public policy analysis and administration for students interested in pursuing careers in government and public affairs-related areas...
at the University of Texas, where he served as the Rex G. Baker Jr. Professor Emeritus of Political Economy
Political economy
Political economy originally was the term for studying production, buying, and selling, and their relations with law, custom, and government, as well as with the distribution of national income and wealth, including through the budget process. Political economy originated in moral philosophy...
. He and his wife Elspeth Rostow, created "The Austin Project", a model for at risk, low income youth. He continued to teach history and economics until his death in 2003 at the age of 86.
Contribution to economics
Rostow developed the Rostovian take-off modelRostovian take-off model
The Rostow's Stages of Growth model is one of the major historical models of economic growth. It was developed by W. W. Rostow...
of economic growth
Economic growth
In economics, economic growth is defined as the increasing capacity of the economy to satisfy the wants of goods and services of the members of society. Economic growth is enabled by increases in productivity, which lowers the inputs for a given amount of output. Lowered costs increase demand...
, one of the major historical models of economic growth. The model argues that economic modernization occurs in five basic stages of varying length—traditional society, preconditions for take-off, take-off, drive to maturity, and high mass consumption. This became one of the important concepts in the theory of modernization in the social evolutionism. He received the Order of the British Empire
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(1945), the Legion of Merit
Legion of Merit
The Legion of Merit is a military decoration of the United States armed forces that is awarded for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievements...
(1945), and the Presidential Medal of Freedom
Presidential Medal of Freedom
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is an award bestowed by the President of the United States and is—along with thecomparable Congressional Gold Medal bestowed by an act of U.S. Congress—the highest civilian award in the United States...
(1969).
Works
- "Investment and the Great Depression", 1938, Econ History Review
- Essays on the British Economy of the Nineteenth Century, 1948.
- "The Terms of Trade in Theory and Practice", 1950, Econ History Review
- "The Historical Analysis of Terms of Trade", 1951, Econ History Review
- The Process of Economic Growth, 1952.
- The Dynamics of Soviet Society (with others), Norton and Co. 1953, slight update Anchor edition 1954.
- "Trends in the Allocation of Resources in Secular Growth", 1955, in Dupriez, editor, Economic Progress
- An American Policy in Asia, with R.W. Hatch, 1955.
- "The Take-Off into Self-Sustained Growth", 1956, EJ
- A Proposal: Key to an effective foreign policy, with M. Millikan, 1957.
- "The Stages of Economic Growth", 1959, Econ History Review
- The Stages of Economic Growth: A non-communist manifesto, 1960.
- The United States in the World Arena: An Essay in Recent History (American Project Series), 1960, 568 pages.
- Politics and the Stages of Growth, 1971.
- How it All Began: Origins of the modern economy, 1975.
- The World Economy: History and prospect, 1978.
- Why the Poor Get Richer and the Rich Slow Down: Essays in the Marshallian long period, 1980.
- Theorists of Economic Growth from David Hume to the Present, 1990.
- The Great Population Spike and After, 1998
See also
- The Best and the BrightestThe Best and the BrightestThe Best and the Brightest is an account by journalist David Halberstam of the origins of the Vietnam War published by Random House. The focus of the book is on the foreign policy crafted by the academics and intellectuals who were in John F...
by David HalberstamDavid HalberstamDavid Halberstam was an American Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author and historian, known for his early work on the Vietnam War, his work on politics, history, the Civil Rights Movement, business, media, American culture, and his later sports journalism.-Early life and education:Halberstam... - Rostovian take-off modelRostovian take-off modelThe Rostow's Stages of Growth model is one of the major historical models of economic growth. It was developed by W. W. Rostow...
Further reading
- America's Rasputin: Walt Rostow and the Vietnam War (New York: Hill and Wang, 2008), by David Milne.
External links
- Rostow's obituary
- Hodgson, Godfrey. "Walt Rostow: Obituary", in The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, February 17, 2003. - "Walt Rostow: Obituary", in The Times, February 19, 2003.
- In Memoriam, The University of Texas at Austin.
- Oral History Interviews with Walt Rostow, from the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library