Chapter 5: Business Advisory Council

• FT: 1962-Dan Smoot: The Invisible Government

Whereas the Foreign Policy Association-World Affairs Center is primarily interested in fostering the foreign policy desired by the CFR, and the Committee for Economic Development is primarily interested in formulating economic and other policies which, through governmental controls, will lead us into total socialism–another, smaller (but, in some ways, more powerful) organization has (or, until mid-1961, had) the primary responsibility of infiltrating government: of selecting men whom the CFR wants in particular jobs, and of formulating, inside the agencies of government, policies which the CFR wants.

This small but mighty organization was the Business Advisory Council.

Daniel C. Roper, F. D. Roosevelt’s Secretary of Commerce, formed the Business Advisory Council on June 26, 1933. Roper set it up as a panel of big businessmen to act as unofficial advisers to President Roosevelt. He was disappointed in it, however. The biggest businessmen in America did, indeed, join; but they did not support the total New Deal as Roper had expected they would when he made them „advisers.“

Roper, however, was a figurehead. The brains behind the formation of the Business Advisory Council were in the head of Sidney J. Weinberg, Senior Partner of the New York investment house of Goldman, Sachs & Co.–and also on the boards of directors of about thirty of the biggest corporations in America.

Weinberg helped organize the BAC. He recruited most of its key members. He was content to let America’s big businessmen ripen for a while in the sunshine of the New Deal’s „new“ philosophy of government, before expecting them to give that philosophy full support.

Secretary of Commerce Daniel C. Roper pouted and ignored the Business Advisory Council when he discovered that the big businessmen, enrolled as governmental „advisors,“ tried to advise things that governmental leaders did not like. But Sidney Weinberg was shrewd, and had a definite, long-range plan for the Business Advisory Council. He held the BAC together as a kind of social club, keeping the big business men under constant exposure to the „new“ economic philosophies of the New Deal, waiting for the propitious moment to enlist America’s leading capitalists on the side of the socialist revolutionaries, determined to destroy capitalism and create a one-world socialist society.

The right time came in 1939, when World War II started in Europe and Roosevelt developed his incurable ambition to get in that war and become President of the World. Plans for America’s frenzied spending on national defense began in 1939. With mammoth government contracts in the offing, Weinberg had no trouble converting the Business Advisory Council of leading businessmen into an agency for helping governmental leaders plan the policies for war and for the post-war period.

In September, 1960, Harper’s Magazine published an article by Hobart Rowen, entitled „America’s Most Powerful Private Club,“ with a sub-title, „How a semi-social organization of the very biggest businessmen–discreetly shielded from public scrutiny–is ‚advising‘ the government on its top policy decisions.“ Here are passages from the article: „The Business Advisory Council meets regularly with government officials six times a year…. On two of these six occasions … the BAC convenes its sessions at plush resorts, and with a half-dozen or more important Washington officials and their wives as its guests, it indulges in a three-day ‚work and play‘ meeting….

„The guest list is always impressive: on occasion, there have been more Cabinet officers at a … BAC meeting than were left in the Capital…. „These meetings cost the BAC anywhere from $6,000 to $12,000 or more, paid out of the dues of members … which have been judged tax-deductible by the Internal Revenue Service…. „After the 1952 election, the BAC was having its fall ‚work and play‘ meeting at the Cloister, just off the Georgia coast and a short distance from Augusta, where Ike was alternating golf with planning his first-term Cabinet. [Sidney] Weinberg and [General Lucius D.] Clay [members of the BAC executive committee] … hustled … to Augusta, conferred with Ike [a ‚close, intimate, personal friend‘ of both men]…. „The result was historic: Ike tapped three of the BAC leaders … for his Cabinet. They were Charles E. Wilson of General Motors as Defense Secretary; [George M.]

Humphrey, then boss of the M. A. Hanna Co., as Treasury Secretary; and Robert T. Stevens of the J. P. Stevens & Co., as Army Secretary….  „Afterwards, [Secretary] Humphrey himself dipped into the BAC pool for Marion Folsom of Eastman Kodak as Under Secretary of the Treasury [later Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare]…. „Membership in the Council gives a select few the chance to bring their views to bear on key  overnment people, in a most pleasant, convivial, and private atmosphere….

„The BAC, powerful in its composition and with an inside track, is thus a special force. An intimation of its influence can be gleaned from its role in the McCarthy case…. BAC helped push Senator Joe McCarthy over the brink in 1954, by supplying a bit of backbone to the Eisenhower Administration at the right time. McCarthy’s chief target in the Army-McCarthy hearings was the aforementioned Robert T. Stevens–a big wheel in the BAC who had become Secretary of the Army. The BAC didn’t pay much–if any–attention to Joe McCarthy as a social menace until he started to pick on Bob Stevens.

Then, they burned up. „During the May 1954 meeting at the Homestead [expensive resort hotel in Hot Springs, Virginia, where the BAC often holds its ‚work and play‘ sessions with high government officials and their wives], Stevens flew down from Washington for a weekend reprieve from his televised torture. A special delegation of BAC officials made it a point to journey from the hotel to the mountaintop airport to greet Stevens. He was escorted into the lobby like a conquering hero. Then, publicly, one member of the BAC after another roasted the Eisenhower Administration for its McCarthy-appeasement policy. The BAC’s attitude gave the Administration some courage, and shortly thereafter former Senator Ralph Flanders (a Republican and BAC member) introduced a Senate resolution calling for censure.“

Active membership in the Business Advisory Council islimited to about 70. After a few years as an „active,“ a member can become a „graduate,“ still retaining his full voting and membership privileges. I have obtained the names of 120 „active“ and „graduate“ members of the BAC, listed below. Those who are members of the Council on Foreign Relations are identified by „CFR“ after their names.

• Winthrop W. Aldrich (CFR)
• William M. Allen (President of Boeing Airplane Company; member Board of Directors of Pacific National Bank of Seattle) S. C. Allyn (CFR)
• Robert B. Anderson
• Clarence Avildsen (Chairman, Avildsen Tools &Machines, Inc.)
• William M. Batten (President, J. C. Penney Company)
• S. D. Bechtel (CFR)
• S. Clark Beise (President, Bank of America; member Board of Directors, National Trust and SavingsAssociation, San Francisco)
• Roger M. Blough (CFR)
• Harold Boeschenstein (President, Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corporation; Chairman of the Board, FiberglasCanada, Ltd.; member of the Board of Directors of National Distillers Products Corporation, InternationalPaper Company, Toledo Trust Company, Dow, Jones & Co.)
• Fred Bohen (President of Meredith Publishing Company–Better Homes and Gardens, Better Farming; member of Board of Directors of Meredith Radio & Television Stations, Iowa, Northwest Bancorporation, Central Life Assurance Society, Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Co., Northwestern Bell Telephone Co., Iowa-Des Moines National Bank)
• Ernest R. Breech (Executive Vice President, Ford Motor, Company; member of Board of Directors of Transcontinental & Western Air, Inc., Pan-American Airways; President of Western Air Express)
• George R. Brown (Chairman of the Board, Texas Eastern Transmission Corp.; Executive Vice President,Brown & Root, Inc. of Houston; President of Board of Trustees, Rice University)
• Carter L. Burgess (CFR)
• Paul C. Cabot (President of State Street Investment Corp.; partner in State Street Research & ManagementCo.; member of the Board of Directors of J. P. Morgan & Co., Continental Can Co., Inc., National Dairy Products Corp., Tampa Electric Co., The B. F. Goodrich Co.; Treasurer of Harvard University)
• James V. Carmichael (President, Scripto, Inc.; member of Board of Directors of Lockheed Aircraft Corp., TrustCompany of Georgia, Atlanta Transit Co., The Southern Co.)
• Walker L. Cisler (CFR)
• General Lucius D. Clay (CFR)
• Will L. Clayton (CFR)
• John L. Collyer (CFR)
• Ralph J. Cordiner (Chairman of the Board and President of General Electric Co.)
• John E. Corette (President of Montana Power Co.)
• John Cowles (CFR)
• C. R. Cox (CFR)
• Harlow H. Curtice (retired President of General Motors Corp.; Chairman of the Board of Directors of GeneseeMerchants Bank & Trust Co.; member of the Board of Directors of the National Bank of Detroit)
• Charles E. Daniel (head of Daniel Construction Co., member of Board of Directors of First National Bank of Greenville, South Carolina, La France Industries, J. P.Stevens Co., Inc., Textron, Inc.; Trustee of Clemson College)
• Donald K. David (CFR)
• Paul M. Davies (President and Chairman of the Board of Food Machinery & Chemical Corp.; member of Board of Directors of American Trust Company of California, National Distillers Products Corp., Caterpillar Tractor Co.; Professor at Stanford University; Director of Stanford Research Institute, San Jose State College, Pacific School of Religion; Trustee of Committee for EconomicDevelopment)
• Frank R. Denton (Vice Chairman and Director of Mellon National Bank and Trust Company, Pittsburgh; member of the Board of Directors of Swindell-Dressler Corp.,Westinghouse Electric Co., Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation, Pullman, Inc., National Union Fire Insurance Co., Shamrock Oil & Gas Corp., M. W. Kellogg Co., Pullman Standard Car Manufacturing Co., Trailmobile, Inc., National Union Indemnity Co.; Trustee of Pennsylvania State University, Kansas University Endowment Association)
• Charles D. Dickey (Vice President, member of the Board of Directors, and Chairman of the Executive Committee of Morgan Guaranty Trust Co.; member of the Board of Directors of General Electric Co., Beaver Coal, Kennekott Copper Corp., Braden Copper Co., Merck & Co., Inc., Panhandle Eastern Pipeline Co., New York Life Insurance Co., Church Life Insurance Corp., Church Fire Insurance Corp.)
• Frederick G. Donner (CFR)
• William Y. Elliott (CFR)
• Ralph E. Flanders (CFR)
• Marion B. Folsom (CFR)
• Henry Ford II (President of Ford Motor Co.; Chairman of the Board of American Heritage Foundation)
• William C. Foster (CFR)
• G. Keith Funston (President of New York Stock Exchange; member of the Board of Directors of Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.; Trustee of Trinity College of Connecticut, Virginia Theological Seminary, Samuel H. Kress Foundation)
• Frederick V. Geier (CFR)
• Elisha Gray II (President and Director of Whirlpool Corp.)
• Crawford H. Greenewalt (President and Director of E. I. du Pont de Nemours Company, Christiana Securities Company; member of the Board of Directors of Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Trustee of the Carnegie Institute, Washington)
• General Alfred M. Gruenther (CFR)
• Joseph B. Hall (President of Kroger Company, Manufacturers and Merchants Indemnity Co., Selective Insurance Co.; member of the Board of Directors of Robert A. Cline, Inc., AVCO Manufacturing Corp., Cincinnati and Suburban Bell Telephone Co., General Stores Corp.; member of the Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland)
• W. Averill Harriman (CPR)
• William A. Hewitt (President and member of the Board of Directors of Deere & Company)
• Milton P. Higgins (CFR)
• Paul G. Hoffman (CFR)
• Eugene Holman (CFR)
• John Holmes (President, member of the Board of Directors, and retired Chairman of Swift & Company; member of the Board of Directors of Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company, General Electric Corporation)
• Herbert Hoover, Jr. (CFR)
• Preston Hotchkis (Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors and Treasurer of Founders‘ Insurance Company; Executive Vice President and member of the Board of Directors of Fred H. Bixby Ranch Company; member of the Board of Directors of Metropolitan Coach Lines, Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Co., Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Co., Blue Diamond Corp.)
• Amory Houghton (CFR)
• Theodore V. Houser (retired Chairman of the Board of Sears, Roebuck & Co.; member of the Board of Directors of Sears, Roebuck & Co., Bell and Howell Co., Quaker Oats Co., Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Trustee of Northwestern University, Williams College)
• A. W. Hughes (Chairman of the Board of Directors, J. C. Penney Co.)
• Gilbert W. Humphrey (President of M. A. Hanna Company, Hanna Mining Company; Chairman of the Board of Hausand Steam Ship Company; member of the Board of Directors of Industrial Rayon Corp., General Electric Corp., National City Bank of Cleveland, Texaco, Inc.; Trustee of Committee for Economic Development)
• Eric A. Johnston (CFR) Alfred W. Jones (Chairman of the Board of Sea Island Company, Talbott Corp.; member of the Board of Directors of Seaboard Construction Co., Brunswick Paper & Pulp Co., The Mead Corp., Thompson Industries, Inc., First National Bank of Atlanta, Georgia Power Co., Florida-Georgia TV Co.)
• Devereux C. Josephs (CFR)
• Ernest Kanzler (retired Chairman of the Board of Universal C.I.T. Credit Corp,; member of the Board of Directors of C.I.T. Financial Corp., Bendix Aviation Corp.)
• Frederick Kappel (President and Director of American Telephone & Telegraph Company; retired President of Western Electric Co.; member of the Board of Directors of Chase Manhattan Bank, Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.)
• John R. Kimberly (CFR)
• E. H. Lane (Chairman of the Board of Lane Company, Inc.)
• Joseph L. Lanier (Chairman of the Board of Wellington Sears Company; President of West Point Manufacturing Company of Georgia; member of the Board of Directors of Cabin Crafts, Inc., First National Bank of Atlanta, Rivington Carpets, Ltd. of Britain)
• Barry L. Leithead (President and Director of Cluett, Peabody and Company, Inc.; Chairman of Cluett, Peabody and Company of Canada, Ltd.; member of the Board of Directors of B. F. Goodrich Company)
• Augustus C. Long (Chairman of the Board of Texaco, Inc.; member of the Board of Directors of Freeport Sulphur Co., Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States, Federal Reserve Bank of New York)
• Donold B. Lourie (President and Director of Quaker Oats Company; member of the Board of Directors of Northern Trust Co., International Paper Co., Pure Oil Co.; Trustee of Princeton University)
• George H. Love (Chairman of the Board of Pittsburgh-Consolidation Coal Company, M. A. Hanna Company; member of the Board of Directors of Union Carbide & Carbon Corp., Mellon National Bank & Trust Company of Pittsburgh, Pullman Co., General Electric Co., National Steel Corp., Hanna Mining Co.; Trustee of Princeton University, University of Pittsburgh)
• James Spencer Love (Chairman of the Board of Burlington Mills Corp.; Chairman and President of Burlington Industries, Inc.; Trustee of University of North Carolina, Davidson College)
• George P. MacNichol, Jr. (President and Director of Libbey-Owens-Ford Glass Company; member of the Board of Directors of Wyandotte Chemical Co., Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland)
• Roswell F. Magill (member of Cravath, Swaine & Moore, Lawyers; Trustee of Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, Macy Foundation, Guggenheim Foundation)
• Deane W. Malott (President, Cornell University; member of the Board of Directors of Pitney-Bowes, Inc., B. F. Goodrich Co., General Mills, Inc., Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp.; former Vice President of Hawaiian Pineapple Co.; Professor of Business at Harvard, Chancellor of University of Kansas)
• James W. McAfee (President of Union Electric Company of Missouri, Edison Electric Institute; member of the Board of Directors of St. Louis Union Trust Co., American Central Insurance Co., North American Co.)
• S. Maurice McAshan (President, Anderson, Clayton & Company)
• Thomas B. McCabe (CFR)
• John L. McCaffrey (retired Chairman of International Harvester Co.; member of the Board of Directors of Harris Trust & Savings Bank of Chicago, American Telephone & Telegraph Co., Corn Products Co., Midwest Stock Exchange; Trustee of the University of Chicago, University of Notre Dame, Eisenhower Exchange Fellowships, Inc.)
• Leonard F. McCollum (CFR)
• Charles P. McCormick (Chairman of the Board and retired President of McCormick & Co., Inc.; member of the Board of Directors of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., Equitable Trust Co. of Baltimore, Advertising Council; Chairman of the Board of Regents, University of Maryland)
• Neil H. McElroy (Chairman of the Board, Procter & Gamble Co.; Secretary of Defense 1957-1961)
• Earl M. McGowin (Vice President of W. T. Smith Lumber Co.; member of the Board of Directors of The Southern Company of New York, Alabama Power Co.)
• James H. McGraw, Jr. (CFR)
• Paul B. McKee (Chairman of Pacific Power & Light Co.)
• John P. McWilliams (retired President and Chairman of the Board of Youngstown Steel Door Co.; member of the Board of Directors of National City Bank of Cleveland, Eaton Manufacturing Co., Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Union Carbide & Carbon Corp.)
• George G. Montgomery (Chairman of Kern County Land Co.; member of the Board of Directors of American Trust Co., Bankers Trust Co., Castle & Cook, Ltd., General Electric Co., Matson Navigation Co., Matson Assurance Co., Oceanic Steam Ship Co., Pacific Lumber Co.)
• Charles G. Mortimer (Chairman and retired President of General Foods Corp.; member of the Board of Directors of National City Bank of New York, Union Theological Seminary)
• William B. Murphy (President of Campbell Soup Co.; member of the Board of Directors of Merck & Co.)
• Aksel Nielsen (President of Title Guaranty Co., Mortgage Investments Co.; member of the Board of Directors of C. A. Norgren Co., United American Life Insurance Co., Landon Abstract Co., Empire Savings & Loan Association, United Airlines)
• Thomas F. Patton (President and Director of Republic Steel Corp., Union Drawn Steel Co.; member of the Board of Directors of Air-Vue Products Corp., Maria Luisa Ore Co., Berger Manufacturing Company of Massachusetts, Iron Ore Company of Canada, Liberia Mining Co., Ltd., Liberian Navigation Corp., Union Commerce Bank, Tankore Corp., Standard Oil Company of Ohio; Trustee of Ohio State University)
• Charles H. Percy (President and Director of Bell & Howell Co.; member of the Board of Directors of Chase Manhattan Bank, Harris Trust & Savings Bank, Burroughs Corp., Fund for Adult Education of the Ford Foundation; Trustee, University of Chicago)
• Theodore S. Petersen (President and Director of Standard Oil of California; member of the Board of Directors of Pacific Mutual Insurance Co.; Trustee of Committee on Economic Development; consulting Professor, Stanford University)
• Gwilym A. Price (Chairman and President of Westinghouse Electric Corp.; member of the Board of Directors of Mellon National Bank & Trust Company of Pittsburgh, Eastman-Kodak Co., Carnegie Corp., National Union Fire Insurance Co., Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co.; Trustee of Allegheny College, The Hanover Bank, Carnegie Institute, Carnegie Institute of Technology; Chairman of the Board of Trustees, University of Pittsburgh; Chairman of Crusade for Freedom)
• Edgar Monsanto Queeny (Chairman of the Board, Monsanto Chemical Co.; member of the Board of Directors of American Airlines, Union Electric Co. of Missouri, Chemstrand Corp., Sicedison S.P.A. of Italy, World Rehabilitation Fund; Trustee Herbert Hoover Foundation)
• Clarence B. Randall (Chairman of the Board, Inland Steel Co.; member of the Board of Directors, Bell & Howell Co.; Trustee, University of Chicago)
• Philip D. Reed (CFR)
• Richard S. Reynolds, Jr. (President of Reynolds Metals Co.; Chairman of the Board of Robertshaw-Fulton Controls Co.; member of the Board of Directors of Manufacturers Trust Co., British Aluminum, Ltd., U. S. Foil Co., Central National Bank of Richmond)
• Winfield W. Riefler (CFR)
• William E. Robinson (Chairman of the Coca-Cola Co.; member of the Board of Directors of Manufacturers Trust Co.; Coca-Cola Export Co., Libbey-Owens-Ford Glass Co., Trustee of New York University; former Director and Publisher of New York Herald-Tribune)
• Donald J. Russell (President and Director of Southern Pacific Co.; Texas and New Orleans Railroad Co.; Chairman of the Board of St. Louis-Southwestern Railroad; Director of Stanford Research Institute; Trustee of Stanford University)
• Stuart T. Saunders (President of Norfolk and Western Railway; Director of First and Merchants National Bank of Richmond)
• Blackwell Smith (CPR)
• C. R. Smith (President, American Airlines)
• Lloyd B. Smith (President, A. O. Smith Corp.; Chairman, A. O. Smith of Texas)
• John W. Snyder (Executive Vice President, Overland Corp.; Secretary of Treasury of the United States 1946-1953)
• Joseph P. Spang, Jr. (retired President and Chairman of Gillette Co.; member of the Board of Directors of Gillette Co., Sheraton Corp. of America, First National Bank of Boston, U. S. Steel Corp., International Packers, Ltd.)
• A. E. Staley, Jr. (Chairman of A. E. Staley Manufacturing Co.; Trustee, Millikin University)
• Frank Stanton (President, Columbia Broadcasting System; Chairman of Center for Advanced Study in
• Behavioral Sciences; Trustee of Rand Corp.; member of the Board of Directors of New York Life Insurance Co.)
• Robert T. Stevens (President and former Chairman of the Board, J. P. Stevens & Co.; member of the Board of Directors of General Electric Co., Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp.; Trustee of Mutual Life Insurance Co. ofNew York; Secretary of the Army 1953-1955)
• Hardwick Stires (partner, Scudder, Stevens & Clark Investment Counsels)
• Lewis L. Strauss (CFR)
• H. Gardiner Symonds (Chairman and President of Tennessee Gas and Transmission Company of Houston; Vice Chairman of Petro-Texas Chemical Corp.; Chairman of Bay Petroleum Corp., Tennessee-Venezuela South America, Chaco Petroleum of South America, Tennessee de Ecuador, South America, Tennessee-Argentina, Midwest Gas Transmission Co.; member of the Board of Directors of General Telephone & Electronics Corp., Carrier Corp., Food Machinery & Chemical Corp., National Bank of Commerce of Houston, Southern Pacific Co., Advertising Council; Trustee of Committee for Economic Development; member of the Business School, Stanford University)
• A. Thomas Taylor (Chairman of International Packers, Ltd.; Vice President and Director of Swift & Company; member of the Board of Directors of Wedron Silica Co.)
• Reese H. Taylor (Chairman of Union Oil Company of California; member of the Board of Directors of Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Westinghouse Electric Corp., Collier Carbon & Chemical Corp., Manufacturers Trust Company; Trustee, University of Southern California, Cornell University Council)
• Charles Allen Thomas (President and member of the Board of Directors of Monsanto Chemical Co.; member of the Board of Directors of Chemstrand Corp., First National Bank of St. Louis, St. Louis Union Trust Co.; Trustee of Carnegie Corp.; member of the Corporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
• Juan T. Trippe (CFR)
• Solon B. Turman (President and Director of Lykes Brothers Steam Ship Co., Inc.; Vice Chairman of Lykes Brothers, Inc.; Chairman of Gulf and South American Steam Ship Co.)
• John C. Virden (Chairman and Director of Eaton Manufacturing Co.; member of the Board of Directors of Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co., Youngstown Steel Door Co., Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Interlake Iron Corp., Diamond Alkali Co.)
• J. Carlton Ward, Jr. (President of Vitro Corp., American Heavy Minerals Corp.; member of the Board of Directors of U. S. Manganese Co.; Trustee, Cornell University)
• Sidney J. Weinberg (partner in Goldman, Sachs & Co.; member of the Board of Directors of Cluett, Peabody & Co., Inc., Continental Can Co., Inc., General Cigar Co., General Electric Co., General Foods Corp., B. F. Goodrich Co., Ford Motor Co., McKesson & Robbins, Inc., National Dairy Products Corp., Champion Paper & Fibre Co., Van Raalte Co., Inc.; former Governor of New York Stock Exchange)
• Walter H. Wheeler, Jr. (CFR)
• John Hay Whitney (CFR)
• Langbourne M. Williams (CFR)
• Thomas J. Watson, Jr. (CFR)

Of these 120 BAC members, 41 are members of the Council on Foreign Relations. Most of those who are not CFR members have affiliations with foundations or other organizations that are interlocked with the CFR. Sidney Weinberg, for example (father of the BAC), is not listed (in any Council on Foreign Relations Annual Report in my files) as a member of the CFR; but he is a member of the board of many corporations which support the CFR; and has many close connections with CFR leaders through foundations and other CFR subsidiary agencies.

All Secretaries of Commerce since 1933 have served as ex-officio General Chairman of the BAC. On July 10, 1961, Roger M. Blough announced that the Business Advisory Council had changed its name to Business Council; had severed its connection with the Commerce Department; and would in the future give its consultative services to any governmental agency that asked for them.

The BAC had been under intense criticism for the expensive entertainment it had been giving to governmental officials it advised.