Bruce Campbell Hopper (August 24, 1892 – July 6, 1973) was a World War I aviator, newspaper reporter, author, historian, and lecturer who served as an associate professor of government at Harvard University from 1930 to 1961.

He was an early expert on the Soviet Union, authoring influential articles, informing US State department policy, and lecturing extensively for over thirty years.

[2][5][6] Hopper left Harvard in the spring of 1917 and volunteered for the "American Field Service" (AFS) as a truck driver, carrying supplies for the French Army on the Soissons and Reims fronts.

They supported themselves by taking jobs as reporters for various English language newspapers, journeying across Europe, the Middle East, Russia, India, Southeast Asia, and China.

[2][3][11] From 1927 to 1929 he continued his studies in the Soviet Union as a fellow of the Institute of Current World Affairs, sponsored by businessman/philanthropist Charles Richard Crane.

Harvard's president, Abbott Lawrence Lowell, encouraged him to publish articles and perform public speaking on the Soviet Union throughout the 1930s.

This had the effect of limiting his publishing opportunities, and his supporters felt that fact held back his academic advancement to full professorship.

US State Department officials such as George F. Kennan and Loy W. Henderson were in frequent contact with Dr. Hopper regarding policy towards Soviet Russia during the 1930s.

His writing in the early 1930s reflected his belief that the Bolsheviks were modernizing "backward" portions of Asia by advancing industrialization in the Far East, a positive improvement in his estimation.

In the early 1930s he correctly predicted that rising Soviet power and influence in the Far East would lead to conflict there with the United States.

JFK believed that giving aid to Britain and France was a moral imperative, no matter what risk it presented to dragging the United States into war.

The two men discussed JFK's thesis and the prospects for war at length, with Dr. Hopper's combat veteran background adding to his credibility.

[4] Dr. Hopper took a six-year sabbatical from teaching during (and immediately after) World War II to serve with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS, precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency) in Sweden, where he observed and interpreted Soviet activities in the Baltic region.

The classified nature of most of Hopper's research output did not help his prospects, as well as the extended time he spent away from academia with the military, two years more than most of his colleagues.