[7] The American cult of success was the dissertation's subject, informed in part by Griswold's brief time on Wall Street between his graduation and the stock market crash of 1929.

[9] Although Griswold He previously had shown little interest in world affairs, but in 1935 he joined the Yale Institute of International Studies and turned his attention to the history of foreign policy, working with Samuel Flagg Bemis.

Bemis however was a specialist on Latin America, so for insight on the Far East Griswold relied heavily on books by Tyler Dennett.

[10] He had changed from being an ardent internationalist in his undergraduate years to becoming a non-interventionist in the late 1930s—he avoided calling himself an isolationist because of its negative connotations.

Finally in summer 1941 he decided Hitler was America's greatest enemy and his alliance with Japan made any agreement with Tokyo impossible.

The day of his elevation, he told his wife, "Thank God we're not in that racket", after they had lunched with a friend, the president of Mount Holyoke College.

[14] He was arguably Yale's first modern president, and was widely quoted in the national media for his views on foreign affairs, amateur athletics, academic freedom, and in defense of the liberal arts against government intrusion.

[15] Griswold also worked in successful collaboration with Nathan Pusey, his counterpart at Harvard, to maintain amateurism in athletics among universities known now as the Ivy League.