Serendipity is always a dear and welcome companion when entering an archive, especially during initial visits. The archive in question for today is the digitized historical archive of the Yale Daily News that I decided to probe with the search-term “Keynes”. I was curious to see when the ideas of the General Theory might have received first mention in this student newspaper.
I was surprised to see that already in November 1936 the young instructor of economics, Richard M. Bissell, spoke to the Yale Government Forum on “The Intellectual Implications of Mr. J. M. Keynes”. Next, I looked to see what else I might find in the Yale Daily News about Bissell, and we see below that he certainly appears to have been inclined to raise the theoretical level of undergraduate economics instruction, including the application of formal mathematical models. The title of Bissell’s 1939 Yale Ph.D. dissertation was “The Theory of Capital under Static and Dynamic Conditions.”
Something else of interest that I stumbled upon is that Bissell was involved in the America First movement and even spoke at a rally held at Yale October 12, 1940 that featured guest speaker Charles A. Lindbergh. Serendipity enters the picture when I next discovered that at the February 14, 1941 rally opposing the Lend-Lease Bill featuring guest speaker Philip F. LaFollette, Kingman Brewster, Jr. (President of Yale, 1963-1977) was also a speaker. Academically, Kingman Brewster was an expert on anti-trust law and international commerce and a research associate in the economics department at M.I.T. in 1949-50.
But wait, there is more…
In 1954 Richard Bissell joined the CIA [Official biographical page for Bissell at CIA] where he was a champion of high-tech data collection as seen in the U-2 spy plane program and use of satellites for gathering data. His CIA career crashed and burned with the failure of the Bay of Pigs operation. [Richard Bissell—The Connecticut Yankee Behind the Bay of Pigs from the New England Historical Society]
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Richard M. Bissell Jr. Biographical Note
from the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library
Richard Mervin Bissell Jr. (September 18, 1909 – February 7, 1994) was born in Hartford, Connecticut in a home formerly owned by author Mark Twain. His parents were Richard Mervin Bissell Sr. (Vice President of the Hartford Fire Insurance Company) and Marie Truesdale (National Director of Volunteer Services for the American Red Cross.) In childhood he attended the Kingswood School in his former childhood home and later the Groton School in Massachusetts. He entered Yale in 1928 and graduated with an A.B. in history in 1932. After studying at the London School of Economics, Bissell earned a PhD in economics from Yale in 1939 and remained as an active assistant professor through October 1941 and went on leave until April 1942. During this period and throughout the rest of his life, Bissell would serve as a business consultant to a variety of professional concerns.
Bissell entered public life by joining the Department of Commerce as Chief Economic Analyst of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce. He served in a variety of positions for federal agencies from 1942 until 1955 including the War Shipping Administration, the Office of War Mobilization and Reconversion, the Economic Cooperation Administration and the Mutual Security Agency. During this period Bissell returned to higher education as an associate professor (later professor) of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1946 until 1952. While at MIT, Bissell consulted for the Ford Foundation and authored “Notes on U.S. Strategy” following the preparation of National Security Council paper (NSC-141) on the allocation of resources to U.S. security programs. In writing the NSC paper, Bissell worked in conjunction with Frank Nash and Paul Nitze under the direction of the Secretary of State Dean Acheson, Secretary of Defense Robert Lovett, and Director of Mutual Security William Averell Harriman. Bissell described it in his autobiography as, “the Truman administration’s last will and testament on issues of national security.” Using what he had learned from authoring NSC-141, Bissell wrote “Notes on U.S. Strategy” which dealt with the international military, political, and economic policy of the United States in the atomic age.
Bissell joined the CIA in 1954 as Special Assistant to the Director. In 1959 he was made Deputy Director of Plans and remained so until he left the agency. Bissell was responsible for overseeing the U-2 program and the planning of the Bay of Pigs invasion among other projects. Bissell was offered a new position in the CIA following the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion that, in his estimation, amounted to a demotion. Faced with the prospect of having to accept a position he did not want, Bissell retired from federal service on February 28, 1962. Shortly afterwards he received the National Security Medal from President John F. Kennedy.
Bissell embarked on careers outside of the federal government following his departure from the CIA. He joined the Institute for Defense Analysis and eventually came to serve as president in July of 1962. The Institute of Defense Analysis (IDA) served (and continues to serve) as a federally-funded independent research organization responsive to the U.S. government on issues of national security. Bissell indicates in his autobiography that he encountered considerable obstacles and frustration in attempting to reshape IDA before he was eventually asked to resign. After carefully weighing his options and considering multiple opportunities, Bissell joined the United Aircraft Corporation in 1964 as director of Marketing and Planning. By his admission the work was not as stimulating as what he encountered in government service and he retired early in 1974. His UAC secretary, Francis T. Pudlo, left with him and continued to serve in the same capacity through the remainder of his life, eventually co-authoring his autobiography with Jonathan E. Lewis.
Bissell embarked on a variety of business consulting jobs after departing UAC both as an employee of others as well as a freelancer in his own right. In his final years he served as president of the Friends of Hill-Stead Museum and as treasurer of the board of directors of the Duncaster Life Care Center. He died in his home in Farmington Connecticut on February 7, 1994.
Bibliography:
Bissell, Richard M. Jr., with Jonathan E. Lewis and Frances T. Pudlo. Reflections of a Cold Warrior: From Yalta to the Bay of Pigs. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1996. [a review by H. Bradford Westerfield]
Biographical Chronology
| September 18, 1909 | Born in the Mark Twain House in Hartford, Connecticut |
| 1916 – 1922 | Kingswood School |
| 1922 – 1928 | Groton School |
| 1928 – 1932 | Yale University (A.B.) |
| 1932 – 1933 | London School of Economics |
| 1934 | Research assistant at Yale University |
| 1935 – 1938 | Instructor at Yale University |
| 1936 – 1941 | Economic Advisor to the Connecticut Public Utilities Commission |
| 1937 – 1939 | Consultant to Fortune magazine |
| 1939 | Ph.D. from Yale University |
| September 1939 – April 1942 | Assistant Professor at Yale University (On leave from October 1941 to April 1942) |
| July 6, 1940 | Married Ann Cornelia Bushnell |
| October 1941 – June 1942 | Chief Economic Analyst, Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, Department of Commerce |
| April 1942 – June 1942 | Assigned to the War Shipping Administration from the Department of Commerce |
| April 1942 – October 1942 | Assistant to the Deputy Administrator, War Shipping Administration |
| October 1942 – July 1943 | Director, Division of Economic Policy, War Shipping Administration |
| October 1942 – December 1945 | Economist to the Combined Shipping Adjustment Board and Assistant to the Deputy Administrator, War Shipping Administration |
| July 1943 – December 1945 | Director of Ship Requirements, War Shipping Administration |
| October 1944 – December 1945 | Executive Officer of the Combined Shipping Adjustment Board, War Shipping Administration |
| March 1945 – December 1945 | Secretary, Shipping Employment Policy, Committee of the United Maritime Authority, War Shipping Administration |
| December 1945 – March 1946 | Economic advisor to director of Office of War Mobilization and Reconversion |
| March 1946 – September 1946 | Deputy Director of Office of War
Mobilization and Reconversion |
| September 1946 – November 1946 | Consultant to the Cosmopolitan Shipping Company |
| September 1946 – August 1947 | Consultant to the United States Steel Corporation of Delaware |
| October 1946 – July 1948 | Associate Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) |
| April 1947 – July 1948 | Consultant to Scudder, Stevens and Clark |
| June 1947 – July 1947 | Consultant to the Coordinator of Exports |
| June 1947 – July 1948 | Consultant to the Brightwater Paper Company |
| July 1947 – January 1948 | Executive Secretary of the President’s
Committee on Foreign Aid (Harriman Committee) |
| January 1948 – July 1948 | Consultant to the Asiatic Petroleum Company |
| February 1948 – July 1948 | Consultant to the United States Steel Corporation of Delaware |
| February 1948 – July 1948 | Consultant to the Gray and Rogers Advertising Agency |
| April 1948 | Consultant, Economic Cooperation Administration (ECA) |
| May 1948 | Assistant Deputy Administrator, Economic Cooperation Administration (ECA) |
| July 1948 – July 1952 | Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) |
| 1949 | Honorary M.A. degree, Yale University |
| June 1949 | Assistant Administrator for Programs, Economic Cooperation Administration (ECA) |
| October 1950 – December 1951 | Deputy Administrator, Economic Cooperation Administration (ECA) |
| December 30, 1951 – January 18, 1952 | Deputy Director & Acting Director, Mutual Security Agency (MSA) |
| January 18, 1952 – January 1954 | Consultant to the Ford Foundation and director of a research project through the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) |
| September 29, 1952 – August, 22 1955 | Consultant to the Director, Mutual Security Agency (MSA) |
| February 1, 1954 – January 2, 1959 | Special Assistant to the Director, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) |
| January 2, 1959 – February 28, 1962 | Deputy Director of Plans, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) |
| September 1961 – February 1962 | Co-director of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) |
| March 1, 1962 | Awarded National Security Medal by President John F. Kennedy |
| March 1, 1962 – July 1962 | Executive Vice President, Institute for Defense Analysis (IDA) |
| July 1962 – September 1964 | President, Institute for Defense Analysis (IDA) |
| September 1964 – September 1974 | United Aircraft Corporation, Director of Marketing and Economic Planning |
| 1965 – 1971 | Regent, University of Hartford |
| 1973 | President of the Farmington Historical Society |
| 1974 – 1976 | Trustee, Mark Twain Memorial |
| 1974 – 1977 | Secretary of the Farmington Bicentennial Committee |
| 1974 – 1981 | Member, Board of Directors of Covenant Mutual and Covenant Life Insurance Company |
| 1974 – 1994 | Independent business consultant |
| 1975 – 1981 | Member, Board of Directors of the World Affairs Center |
| 1980 – 1984 | President, Friends of Hill-Stead Museum |
| 1981 – 1988 | Treasurer, Board of Directors of Duncaster Life Care Center |
| February 7, 1994 | Died in his home in Farmington, Connecticut |
Source: Dwight Eisenhower Library. Papers of Richard Bissell. Finding Aid.
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Bissell Addresses Government Forum
Government Must Regulate Usury, Says Economist
(November 17, 1936)
Richard M. Bissell, 1928 [sic, class of 1932 is correct], instructor of economics, addressed the Government Forum in the Hall of Graduate Studies last night. His subject was “The Intellectual Implications of Mr. J. M. Keynes,” which resolved itself into an interpretation of Mr. Keynes’ theories and the delineation of his conceptions of ideal economic government.
Mr. Bissell illustrated the trade cycle, as applied to the recent depression. “In the boom years there was extensive investment; gradually, however, the more flagrant holes in the producing equipment of the nation were filled in, and there was a great slackening in the demand for capital. The rate of interest for borrowing money, however, continued at the same standard.”
Depression Ended Itself
“With the falling off of investment,” he went on, “there was a falling off in the demand for consumers’ goods, and the effect became cumulative. But the depression brought itself to an end. The goods bought before the onset of the depression wore out, and new products were invented all of which stimulated investment.”
“The government must see to it,” said Mr. Bissell, “that the rate of interest falls when the demand for capital falls; but in emergencies when this is an insufficient stimulating force, the government itself must invest. It should deliberately plan upon an unbalanced budget.
“In the ideal government,” the speaker concluded, “in which the rate of interest were completely controlled by the state, in the course of 20 years’ investment most of the opportunities for profitable borrowing would be used up, and the rate of interest would of course continue to fall with the demand for capital. The eventual rate would probably be under one per cent, a situation which would do away with many of the evils of capitalism resulting from usury.”
Source: The Yale Daily News (November 17, 1936), pp. 1, 3.
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Announcement
(May 6, 1936)
Meeting of the Undergraduate Math Club. “Mr. Richard Bissell will speak on ‘The nature of the applications of mathematics to economics.’”
Source: Yale Daily News, May 6, 1936 p. 8.
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Letter to the editor
(May 14, 1938)
To the Chairman of the News.
Dear Sir:The alumni have recently been receiving communications about new blood in undergraduate teaching. I want to put in a word on the economics department, which I think has a large hole in it, although it is the selection of such a large group for majors.
The department at Yale has excellent men on various select subjects, public control, railroads, international policy, banking, and supplementary Sheff courses in statistics and so forth. The integration of these courses however leaves much to be desired. Mr. Bissell teaches Theory, but apparently his course is for the select few; and the theory taught in the regular course is so weak and sparse that the institutional study of railroad rates etc., is far more valuable. Since the days of Irving Fisher, Yale has had no one teaching undergraduates with an up to date broad view of society.
The average undergraduate, I believe, goes through an economic major with only the sketchiest idea of theory to hang his facts upon; he regards the work of Keynes, Hawtrey, Pigou, Robbins and Cassell as graduate work. Rarely does Yale economics teach one to read these people intelligently. The size of their field is beyond the reach of static pictures, where demand is given, and purchasing power is discussed three weeks later. All Cambridge undergraduates are taught to criticize these men, perhaps at the expense of institutional knowledge, but I think they get more fun out of economics.
Someone is needed at Yale to teach a course in general theory as apart from distribution, and money as apart from banking alone (lack of broad training is partly what makes Mr. Rogers’ seem difficult), someone who knows geometry and calculus and can simplify theories enough to throw them at current problems to keep the work thrilling…
Very sincerely,
Carter C. Higgins,
Class of 1937
Source: The Yale Daily News (May 14, 1938), pp. 2, 3.
Image Source: The Yale Daily News (February 14, 1941), p. 1.