[1] Born in Winsted, Connecticut, his family soon moved to Springfield, Massachusetts, where he grew up and attended the public schools there before entering Harvard University in 1915.

His excellent academic performance enabled him to win a Rhodes Scholarship to attend Oxford University, receiving a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in 1923.

During World War II he was for a time Chief of Research and Analysis in London in the Office of Strategic Services.

After the war, he was commended by the United States Army for "Conspicuous Contribution to the Liberation of France" and was chairman of the Harvard Society of Fellows in the late 1940s.

[5] Membership during that period included McGeorge Bundy and Ray Cline, who would go on to become quite influential in national security and intelligence.