Author: Carter McLellan – Date: April 14, 2025 – Updated: November 8, 2025

CONTENTS

1. Introduction
2. Early History
3. Modern Era
4. Appendix A: Timeline
5. Notes

INTRODUCTION

This article has attempted to briefly examine the historic prominence of the Dallas Council on World Affairs and continuity into modern times. The Council, today known as the World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth, has consistently had speakers from the superclass NGO environment. It is essentially a local version of the Council on Foreign Relations.

The leadership of the Council has included many prominent people from Dallas and its financiers have included numerous big businesses. Bankers, lawyers, industrialists, politicians, journalists have all been involved in the council.

We also examine connections to the JFK assassination, since Oswald knew a member of the Council in the 1962 to 1963. It is also interesting to note overlaps with the Dallas Petroleum Club and the Texas Crusade for Freedom during the 1950s and 1960s. The influence of the Hunt and Perot families in the World Affairs Council is underscored as well.

EARLY HISTORY

Origins: 1918-1950

At the end of WWI, in 1918, at the Astor Hotel in New York City, the League of Free Nations was founded, which supported President Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points and the creation of the League of Nations in 1920. In 1923, this organization was reconstituted as the Foreign Policy Association, which started to form FPA branches across the country in the 1930s and 1940s. The United Nations was formed in 1945, at the end of WWII. In the 1940’s, FPA branches across the US began to grow and became the forerunners of various independent membership councils, resulting in many foreign affairs and foreign policy councils being founded in major large cities of states in the 1950’s and 1960’s, and some in the 1980’s.

Founding and early years, 1951-1963

One of these council was founded in Dallas, during 1951, called the Dallas Council on World Affairs. There were several founders, but the primary driver and first President from 1951 to 1954 was H. Neil. Mallon, while the first Chairman of the Board, from 1951 to 1953, was J. Woodall Rodgers. The 17 founders were:

• J. Woodall Rodgers (Vanderbilt U. and UT; lawyer; Army; specialized in oil & gas law, represented Standard Oil of the Rockefellers; Dallas Petroleum Club, prepared incorporation papers and applied for a charter, 1934; Mayor of Dallas, 1939-1947; Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Trustee; Dallas Symphony, Director; State Fair of Texas, Director; Dallas Public Library, director; died in 1961; Freemason)
• H. Neil Mallon (Yale; friend of Prescott Bush; Skull & Bones; Army; Dresser Industries, chair of the board, president, director; hired and mentored George H. W. Bush at Dresser; Zapata Corporation, early investor; Bush named a son after him; Crusade for Freedom, Texas Chapter; said to be a contact and recruiter for CIA Director, from 1953-1961, Allen Dulles; [UPDATE: turns out that Mallon himself was a member of the Dallas Petroleum Club by 1952 and on)
• Frederick C. Hamilton (Hamilton Companies, chair, focused on oil production, real estate and education; Air Force; Smithsonian Institution, Board of Directors; Boys Scouts of America Denver Area Council, Board of Trustees; ITT Corporation)
• Brooks Keller
• John A. Steel
• Charles P. Storey
• M. Cullum Thompson
• George Parker, Jr.
• Harold F. Volk
• Mrs. H. R. Aldredge, Jr.
• Tom E. Braniff (Knights of Malta, SMOM; airline industry pioneer)
• Dr. Herbert Gambrell
• Oliver W. Hammonds
• Dr. J. C. Karcher (Dallas Petroleum Club, board 1937-1939, member 1936-)
• Stanley Marcus (Jewish; Harvard; Neiman Marcus, CEO; support Kennedy in 1960, urged him not to come to Dallas; close to LBJ; Amazon, consultant)
• General Robert J. Smith (Army Air Force; Operation Paperclip; National Security Resources Board; First National Bank of Dallas, Director; Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Director and Chairman; Dallas Chamber of Commerce, Director)
• Mrs. Alex W. Spence

The Dallas Council on World Affairs came about in a fascinating period. Reportedly, Mallon had conceived of the Council along “the guidelines of central intelligence.” With a prominent roster of founders, it immediately began hosting high profile individuals for speaking engagements. It certainly would have secured a prominent base of funding as well. In 1952, Paul-Henri Spaak, the 3x former Prime Minister of Belgium and John Foster Dulles, the soon-to-be Secretary of State in the Eisenhower administration, both came to Dallas to deliver speeches to the newly formed Council.

In 1953, Paul Carrington succeeded Rodgers as Chairman of the Board. Speakers that year included Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., then US Ambassador to the UN, Allen Dulles, Director of CIA from 1953 to 1961, and Celal Bayer, President of Turkey from 1950 to 1960. In 1954, Mallon step down as President to become the Chairman of the Board until 1956, being succeeded as President by Gerald C. Mann. In 1954, Lorrine Emery set up the Council’s International Visitor Program to coordinate State Department-sponsored visits of delegations and leaders from around the world.

In 1955, James M. Collins became President. Collins attended Woodrow Wilson High School, SMU and Harvard and later was a Republican at the US House of Representatives from 1968 to 1983. One speaker that year was General Alfred M. Gruenther, who had served under Eisenhower in the Army and served as the Supreme Allied Commander Europe from 1953 to 1956. Another speaker in 1955 appears to have been a young David Rockefeller.

In 1956, Chas E. Beard became President and W. W. Overton, Jr. succeeded Mallon as Chairman of the Board. Overton was a Navy veteran and a prominent banker of Dallas. He served as president of the Dallas Chamber of Commerce and was involved in the American Red Cross, Boy Scouts, State Fair and Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Speakers in 1957 included Navy Admiral Arleigh A. Burke and King Mohammed V of Morocco.

There is a decent amount of documentation about who was involved in the Council in 1958. That year, George C. McGhee became President. McGhee had served as Ambassador to Turkey for Presidents Truman and Eisenhower and would later hold several positions in the Kennedy administration. He had worked for Conoco in the oil industry, was a Rhodes Scholar and was a naval intelligence officer in WWII. McGhee was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) since 1953 and attended Bilderberg annually from 1954 to 1967. Several interesting names on the Council’s Board of Directors included, Earle Cabell, Trammell Crow, and Fred Florence. On the Executive Committee were former Presidents and Board Chairmen as H. Neil Mallon, George McGhee and his wife, J. Woodall Rodgers, Paul Carrington, Gerald C. Mann, James M. Collins, Charles E. Beard, W. W. Overton, Jr., Vice Presidents James W. Aston, Jerome K. Crossman, R. Randle Gilbert, Leonard M. Green.

In 1959, General Robert J. Smith succeeded McGhee was President, Jerome K. Crossman became Chairman of the Board and was succeeded by Erik Jonsson was Chairman of the Executive Committee. Jonsson later was the Mayor of Dallas, succeeding Earle Cabell, from 1964 to 1971. Jonsson had worked at Alcoa and helped Council co-founder J. C. Karcher in setting up Geophysical Service, Inc., which he co-founded with petroleum geologists Eugene McDermott and Everette De Goyler. Geophysical Services became Texas Instruments. It was Jonsson who had to tell the crowd a the Dallas Trade Mart that President Kennedy and Governor Connolly had been shot on November 22, 1963. The Council hosted two very prominent speakers in 1959, King Baudouin of Belgium and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands.

In 1960, Travis Wallace became President and Stanley Marcus become Chairman of the Board. Marcus was Jewish and involved in Neiman-Marcus. One speaker that year was Charles P. Cabell, brother of Earle Cabell, an Air Force veteran who was Deputy Director of the CIA from 1953 to 1962.

The year of 1961 was an important one for the Council. Succeeding Wallace as President was James F. Chambers, Jr., while Gen. Robert J. Smith succeeded Marcus as Chairman of the Board. The Council set up Les Femmes Du Monde (Women of the World), the committee for which was first chaired by Mrs. Charles P. Storey. One speaker that year was Walter Cronkite of CBS. Also, in 1961, the World Affairs Council of Fort Worth was founded.

In 1962, E. O. Cartwright became President, Dr. Willis Tate, the President of SMU, became Chairman of the Board and Mrs. W. W. Lynch became Chairman of the Executive Committee. Mrs. Ethan B. Stroud was Chairman of the Les Femmes Du Monde Committee. One speaker that year was General Carlos Remulo of the Philippines. In 1963, Tate became President and Carwright became Chairman of the Board, while Mrs. Joel T. Williams, Jr., became chair of the Femmes Du Monde.

Connections to the JFK assassination in 1963

The period from 1951 to 1963 presents a very intriguing set of connections at the Dallas Council on World Affairs. The number one connection to be found here in that period was George de Mohrenschildt. He was a White Russian emigre and petroleum geologist who had studied in Belgium. He allegedly had been involved in intelligence, as well as his brother, who helped set up Radio Free Europe. George arrived in Dallas in 1952, where he got a job working for Clint Murchison, Sr., and was invited by fellow white Russian Paul Raigorodksy to the Dallas Petroleum Club. Seemingly through this club, he made many connections with the top oil men in the area, from Clint Murchison, Sr., Sid Richardson, and H.L. Hunt, D. Harold Byrd, to John W. Mecom, Sr., Jean de Menil, George Brown, and others.

George not only joined the Dallas Petroleum Club, he also joined the newly formed Dallas Council on World Affairs, which as we know had numerous high level connections from the start. Little is known about what George did at the Council, but he was said to have been a regular there. It has even been reported that H. Neil Mallon put de Mohrenschildt in contact with George H. W. Bush. Before he left for Haiti in early 1963, George de Mohrenschildt had been in direct contact with Lee Harvey Oswald, from September 1962 to April 1963.

In mid-September 1962, a fellow named George Bouhe informed George de Mohrenschildt that the Oswald family had arrived in Fort Worth from the Soviet Union. This news was quickly spreading among the White Russian Emigre community, as Oswald had made contact with Peter Gregory, with regard to a manuscript of Russian life Oswald had smuggled out of the USSR and the desire for a Russian-English translation job. De Mohrenschildt visited the Oswalds at the Mercedes Street apartment. Allegedly, he had spoken to lawyer Max Clark and J. Walton Moore of the CIA, to inquire whether it was safe to contact the Oswalds. George later recounted a strange episode after this encounter:

“A strange event apparently occurred around this period. After returning home from a weekend trip to Houston, de Mohrenschildt became aware that someone had broken into his home and copied his personal papers and other documents. At the time, he also had a manuscript that Oswald had given him to read, and realized that the document might also have been photocopied in the search. His primary concern was that the CIA was behind the break-in. According to de Mohrenschildt, Moore flatly denied when confronted that the CIA was involved in any way.”

In October 1962, Oswald lost his job at the Leslie Welding Company, so George helped him get a job in Dallas at the photographic firm Jaggars-Chiles-Stovall. On February 22, 1963, George invited the Oswalds to attend a White Russian emigre party, where Marina became friends with a woman named Ruth Paine. In early April 1963, Oswald sent a photograph of himself to George, which was signed and self proclaimed himself a “hunter of fascists.” Later in April, shortly after Oswald nearly assassinated General Edwin Walker, the de Mohrenschildsts visited the Oswalds’ apartment in Dallas. While there, George’s wife had spotted Oswald’s rifle in a closet, prompting George to jokingly draw a connection with the recent Walter shooting. Allegedly, he spoke to the CIA about this on multiple occasions.

Shortly after this incident, the de Mohrenschildts left Dallas for Haiti, only to return in 1964 to give testimony to the Warren Commission, along with Paul Raigorodsky. George also gave testimony to Jim Garrison in 1966. Things started to get strange in George’s life during the HSCA in the mid 1970’s. He published a book in 1976, suggesting Oswald was innocent, much like he’d suggested to Garrison. He then attempted to get in touch with George H. W. Bush, then CIA director. Pleading for help, in the letter he wrote: “My wife and I find ourselves surrounded by some vigilantes; our phone bugged; and we are being followed everywhere.” Bush dismissed the claims, suggesting it was all part of the press attention on the HSCA. His ex-wife had him committed to a mental institution in Texas for three months, stating he attempted suicide four times, suffered from depression, heard voices, saw visions, and believed that the CIA and the Jewish Mafia were persecuting him.

In 1977. George was in contact with the strange Dutch researcher Willem Oltmans and traveled to the Netherlands, then Brussels, Belgium, where he ‘disappeared’, to return to the US. Staying with his daughter, he allegedly expressed desire to commit suicide, as he was deeply disturbed by certain matters. He gave an interview to Edward J. Epstein, on March 29, 1977, then got a request from Gaeton Fonzi to give testimony to the HSCA. The same die, George was found dead in an apparent suicide by a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head. While his death had been viewed with and without suspicion of foul play, he remains a central character in this story, providing a direct line between Oswald and the high profile organizations in Dallas at the time.

Besides the de Mohrenschildt overlap between the Dallas Petroleum Club and the Dallas Council on World Affairs, there are several other overlaps that developed after the assassination. For example, in 1964, Clint Murchison, Jr.’s wife was Chairman of Les Femmes Du Monde Committee. The Murchison family also has a number of highly intriguing connections. De Mohrenschildt worked for Murchison when he came to Dallas in 1952. The family had a number of connections to Dr. Alton Ochsner in New Orleans, funding his Ochsner Hospital Foundation, as well as the 1961 founded Information Council of the Americas (INCA), directed by Edward Butler, who debated Oswald in the radio in 1962. Murchison had created the Hotel de Charro, frequented by J. Edgar Hoover and others. Clint Sr.’s sons would later be linked to the 1001 Club and FIDCO.

The Hunt family has had a consistent influence, especially in modern times, within both the Dallas Petroleum Club and World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth. While H.L. Hunt has never been a totally verified member of the club, other members of his family have been. One such example was Herbert Hunt, who was President of the club in 1968. Another was Nelson Bunker Hunt, a 1001 Club member, who had a meeting at the club with Oliver North of Iran Contra fame, in 1985. Both Hunt Oil and Murchison Brothers had offices in the First National Bank of Dallas, where the club was located from 1965 to 1986.

In more modern times, Ray L. Hunt was the recipient of the World Affairs Council of DFW’s H. Neil Mallon Award, in 2001. Hunt Oil Company was a financial sponsor of the Dallas Council on World Affairs dating back to at least 1986. Ray L. Hunt, who was a President of the Dallas Petroleum Club, was a speaker at the Council in 2005, and the Hunt business has had representatives on the Council’s board of directors since 2006, when the Dallas and Fort Worth councils merged, including W. Herbert Hunt. From 2009 to 2013, Herbert L. Hunt was on the Council’s board of directors. Ray L. Hunt was on the council’s board of advisors from 2013 to 2023, with Herbert being in the Mallon Circle. What is also fascinating is that the Dallas Petroleum Club moved into the Hunt Oil Corporate HQ in 2023.

Before the Club moved into the Hunt building, they had been located at the Chase Tower from 1986 to 2023. It was Trammel Crow, Sr., who helped broker the deal that got the club to move there in 1986. Crow became a major patron of the club at that point. Trammel Crow had received that H. Neil Mallon Award in 1986, and he sat on the Council’s Board of Directors as early as 1958, while his company was a sponsor of the council in 1986. Crow’s son, Trammel S. Crow, has also been involved with the council, being a sponsor in 2017 and giving a speech there in 2019. Recall that Trammel Crow had owned and developed the Dallas Trade Mart (today the location of the World Trade Center of Dallas), where Kennedy was set to give a speech the day he was assassinated.

Another possible overlap between the club and the council may be George H. W. Bush, who reportedly worked at the First National Bank of Dallas between 1977 and 1981, after leaving his position as Director of the CIA. The Dallas Petroleum Club was located in the same building in that period. Although he’s never been confirmed as a member, it has been alleged that he was. He certainly knew George de Mohrenschildt and may have even been introduced to him by close Bush family friend H. Neil Mallon, the founder of the Dallas Council on World Affairs. George H. W. Bush was awarded the H. Neil Mallon award in 2002 and Jeb Bush gave a speech to the council in 2013.

Perhaps the biggest link between the Dallas Council on World Affairs and the Dallas Petroleum Club was the Texas Crusade for Freedom, which was set up in the 1950’s and primarily existed until 1960. Reports indicate that it was a CIA-tied private conduit for laundered money to be sent to “freedom fighters” in eastern Europe, later including anti-Castro Cubans. The national chapter, that raised money for Radio Free Europe, was set up in 1950 and co-founded by Dwight Eisenhower, Allen Dulles, and others. The Texas chapter had a number of intriguing supporters, key figures involved in the Dallas Council on World Affairs as H. Neil Mallon, Earle Cabell, R. Gerald Storey, MacNoughton, Everette DeGolyer, and Fred Florence. Other supporters were involved in the Dallas Petroleum Club, such as verified member Clint Murchison, Sr., and Paul Raigorodsky, as well as suspected [confirmed now] members as H.L. Hunt and D. Harold Byrd [We can now add Mallon, Storey, DeGolyer, Florence to this list of Dallas Petroleum Club members]. Other supporters of the Crusade were DeGoyler & MacNaughton, who were sponsors of the Council by at least 1958.

The intriguing founder of the Council, H. Neil Mallon, had long standing ties of interest. Born into a prominent family in Cincinnati, with ties to the Taft family, he attended Yale University from 1913 to 1917. He was initiated into the Skull & Bones fraternity, where he met many up and coming influential men, including Prescott Bush. He served in the Army during WWI, then went into business with the Continental Can Company and then US Can Company. In 1928, after a six month vacation in Switzerland, he was recruiter as President of S. R. Dresser Manufacturing Company, then just bought by W. A. Harriman Company. In 1945, Dresser Industries moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where Mallon got involved with the World Affairs Council of Cleveland. In 1950, Dresser relocated to Dallas, Texas, where Mallon quickly established himself as a prominent leader, founding the Dallas Council on World Affairs in 1951. He was close to Allen Dulles and said to have been a CIA recruiter for him. He served as the Council’s first President, from 1951 to 1954, then the third Chairman of the Board, from 1954 to 1956, then sat on the Executive Committee. He also invited Allen Dulles to give another speech to the Council in late October 1963. He was also an early investor in Prescott Bush’s Zapata Oil company. Mallon was a supporter of the Texas Crusade for Freedom in the 1950s and sat on the board of the Communities Foundation of Texas. He died from cancer in 1983, after which the Council started the Annual H. Neil Mallon award. [UPDATE: Dallas Petroleum Club member by 1952]

Another highly intriguing figure was Fred F. Florence, who was a on the Council’s Board of Directors in 1958, attended the 1951 meeting at Mallon’s home, and was a supporter of the Texas Crusade for Freedom in the 1950’s. Florence came from a Jewish family and got into banking early on. At just 15, he started working at the First National Bank in Rusk, then started working at the American Exchange Bank in Dallas, the First State Bank in Ratcliffe, then became vice president then president of the Alto State Bank, in 1915. He served in the Army during WWI. In 1920, he became the first vice president of Guaranty Bank and Trust Company, which became the Republic National Bank and Trust Company, in 1922. He was President of the bank, from 1929 to 1947, which changed its name to Republic National Bank of Dallas, in 1937. He was involved in the Dallas Council on World Affairs from the beginning and sat on its board of directors. The Republic National Bank of Dallas reportedly was a covert repository for CIA-connected ventures. Florence served as the Mayor of Dallas and was a 32nd degree Scottish Rite Freemason, as well as a Shriner. He sat on the board of many business, such as Neiman Marcus, Sanger Brothers, and Hotel Baker. Florence died in 1960, in Dallas. It is also interesting to note that the Republic National Bank of Dallas building, constructed in 1954, is at the same location that the World Affairs Council of DFW is located today. [UPDATE: Fred Florence turns out to have been a founding member of, yes you guessed it, the Dallas Petroleum Club]

Besides Rodgers, Jonsson, and Florence, another Dallas Mayor involved in the Council and support of the Texas Crusade for Freedom was Earle Cabell. The Cabell family had some prominence in Dallas, with Earle’s grandfather having served as Mayor of Dallas. Earle graduated from North Dallas High School in 1925, then attended one term at Texas A&M and SMU, then getting into the ice cream business. He moved to Arkansas where he bough an ice cream business and married his wife in 1932. The business failed that year, so they returned to Dallas, where Cabell and his brothers formed Cabell’s, Inc., which began a successful ice cream business in Dallas. Meanwhile, Earle’s brother, Charles P. Cabell, was rising in the ranks of military service. Charles held high level positions during WWII, and attended the Yalta Conference in 1945. In Air Force Intelligence, he had been involved, during the late 1940’s, in investigating the UFO phenomenon. In 1953, he was appointed Deputy Director of the CIA under Allen Dulles. During that time he was involved with the U2 program. Unsurprisingly, his brother Earle had reportedly been a CIA asset since 1956. Earle sat on the Dallas Council on World Affairs’ board of directors in 1958, and Charles gave a speech to the Council in 1960. Earle became Mayor of Dallas in 1961, while Charles was “sacked” along with Dulles from the CIA, following the Bay of Pigs, in 1962. On November 22, 1963, Earle greeted Kennedy at Love Field and was in the motorcade when the shots were fired, his wife spotting the rifle in the TSBD. Earle received death threats in the following months, and resigned in 1964 to join the House of Representatives. He served until 1973 and died in 1975. Notably, it was Erik Jonsson who succeeded Cabell as Mayor of Dallas. The Cabells also had connections in New Orleans. Earle Cabell was involved with the New Orleans Foreign Policy Association, alongside Clay Shaw. Charles Cabell was in contact with Edward Butler, Director of the 1961 Alton Ochsner founded Information Council of the Americas (INCA), who debated Oswald on the radio in 1962. Furthermore, Charles Cabell was in contact with Dr. George White, a spooky character reportedly involved in MKULTA and sexual blackmail type activity, including in New Orleans.

The CIA connections don’t end there, far from it. The Dulles brothers both gave speeches to the Dallas Council on World Affairs early on. John Foster Dulles gave a speech to the council in 1952, and Allen Dulles gave a speech in 1953, as well as in October 1963, a month before the Kennedy assassination. Allen Dulles, after being sacked from the CIA in 1962 after the Bay of Pigs, would end up on the Warren Commission, which investigated the Kennedy assassination concluding Oswald had acted alone. Of particular note here, Dallas Council board member and Texas Crusade for Freedom supporter, R. Gerald Storey, was made a liaison between Texas law enforcement and the Warren Commission. Intriguingly, Dulles was indirectly linked to Oswald through a mistress, Mary Bancroft, who knew the parents of Ruth Paine, the lady put into contact with the Oswalds through De Mohrenschidlt. It was also Ruth Paine who helped get Oswald a job at the Texas School Book Depository, with the building being owned by D. Harold Byrd, a supporter of the Texas Crusade for Freedom and possible member of the Dallas Petroleum Club. Byrd certainly knew de Mohrenschildt and Raigorodksy, because he sat on the board of the cystic fibrosis charity set up by George.

Allen Dulles had help create the Crusade for Freedom in 1950 and John Foster Dulles co-founded the earlier mentioned Foreign Policy Association (FPA), in 1918. John Foster was a founding member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in 1922, while Allen had been a member since 1927 and President from 1946 to 1950. John Foster and later Allen Dulles would join the Pilgrims Society, with Allen sitting on the Executive Committee. It’s also been reported that Allen Dulles was a member of the Knights of Malta. At Sullivan & Cromwell, the Dulleses did business with the Nazis. Suffice to say, the Dulles brothers had numerous intriguing connections. Their presence in the earliest years of the Dallas Council illustrates the kind of environment it operated in. Henry Neil Mallon was even said to have been a CIA recruiter for Allen Dulles.

As CIA Director from 1953 to 1961, Allen Dulles would be linked to multiple coups, from Vietnam to Guatemala, Thailand and the Congo, as well as the assassination plots against Castro. from It’s also important to note, in light of previous paragraphs, Dulles had been behind creating MKULTRA and reportedly the “pedophile academy”, which involved sexual blackmail operation type activities. John Foster Dulles had even been spotted in a network doing all kinds of sexual blackmail, again linked to the CIA, including in New Orleans.

Another great example of the closeness of the Dallas Council on World Affairs to this elite milieu is Gerald C. McGhee, President from 1958 to 1959, with he and his wife sitting on the Executive Committee. Quite interestingly, de Mohrenschildt had offered to show McGhee a slide show of his “walking tour” of Latin America, in October, 1962. McGhee was born in Waco, Texas, to a banker, in 1912. He went to Oklahoma University, joined Sigma Alpha Epsilon, worked for Conoco, then got a Rhodes Scholarship and went to Oxford University. When he came back to Texas, he started working for DeGolyer and MacNaughton, marrying DeGolyer’s daughter. In 1940, he started McGhee Production Company, making a fortune from the discovery of a major oil field in Louisiana. He also was later on the board of James and William F. Buckley’s Pantepec Oil, which would employ de Mohrenschildt. During WWII, he served in Naval intelligence on the staff of General Curtis LeMay. He started working at the State Department in 1946, serving as the 1st Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern, South Asian, and African Affairs, from 1949 to 1951. He was Ambassador to Turkey from 1952 to 1953, where he helped them join NATO. He was involved with the National Committee for a Free Europe, by 1952, which helped spawn the Crusade for Freedom campaign. He joined the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), remaining as a non-resident member for decades, from 1953 to 1991. He also attended many of the earliest Bilderberg meetings, from 1954 to 1958. He served as President of the Dallas Council on World Affairs from 1958 to 1959. He was a major supporter of LBJ, serving as chair of the LBJ for President Club in 1959. In 1961, he served as Counselor of US State Department of State, Director of Policy Planning and Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, from 1961 to 1963. He attended Bilderberg again in 1961, and from 1963 to 1967. Bobby Kennedy was said to have disliked McGhee, making him move out of the latter position to Ambassador to West Germany, from 1963 to 1968. He retired in 1969 and continued to be involved in many organizations. He even reportedly attended the Bohemian Grove at some point. In the 1970s, he was a donor to the African-American Institute, and was a director at the Atlantic Council. In the 1980s, he was a founding patron of the American European Community Association. He was involved with the Committee for Economic Development, and in 2001, he was on the Diplomatic Advisory Committee for the American Council on Germany. He died in 2005. [UPDATE: it turns out, like so many others mentioned here, that McGhee was another member of the Dallas Petroleum Club by the 1940s]

In addition to the above connections, some other highly intriguing persons came to speak a the Dallas Council on World Affairs in the early years. One such person was General Alfred Gruenther, who gave a speech in 1955. Born in Nebraska and a West Point graduate, Gruenther rose high in the rank in the US Army. Having served in Eisenhower in WWII, he was on the Joint Chiefs on Staff from 1947 to 1949, then as a Lieutenant General, he was Deputy Chief of Staff for Plans and Operations. In 1951, as a four star general, he was Chief of Staff at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), under Eisenhower, in Paris, France. He was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), in 1952 to 1972, and became Supreme Allied Commander, from 1953 to 1956. He gave a speech to the Dallas Council on World Affairs, in 1955, and attended Bilderberg in 1955 to 1956. He retired in 1956, then served as President of the American Red Cross, from 1957 to 1964. It was likely during his time at SHAPE, in Paris, that he came into contact with Jean-Eugene Violet, a key founder of Le Cercle. Violet was close to Antoine Pinay, and had been linked to the Synarchist La Cagoule and Opus Dei. Violet is a very familiar character, later on, in the Cercle complex. Gruenther was likely involved in setting up Operation Gladio, which went active in 1956 and was closely linked to the Cercle. The French connection is highly relevant to the JFK assassination, for example, INCA was linked to Georges Albertini, who was involved with Le Cercle. Ted Shackley, of JMWAVE, was later linked to Le Cercle and William Harvey had been involved in Gladio in Italy. Violet also was a key figure in the Sniffer Planes swindle of the 1970s, which also included a Moroccan connection. Perhaps it is noteworthy to mention King Mohammed V of Morocco gave a speech to the Dallas Council in 1957.

Another prominent military official to give a speech to the Council was Admiral Arleigh A. Burke, who was a speaker in 1955. A graduate of the US Naval Academy and University of Michigan, he was a decorated WWII Naval commander. In 1955, he was selected by Eisenhower as Chief of Naval Operations, serving until 1961. In 1961, he recommended the Navy establish a special forces, leading to the SEALS. He retired in 1961, then co-founded the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), in 1962. The CSIS would have many speakers at the Dallas Council in following decades. In 1963, he was on the board of the Citizens Committee for a Free Cuba (CCFC), alongside Claire Boothe Luce and Paul D. Behtel, who was part of the CIA’s JM/WAVE station. He was a director of Chrystler in 1967 and joined Freeport Sulphur, in 1969, which came up in connection with Jim Garrison’s JFK assassination investigation. He was a director of Texaco, in 1970, and sat on the Executive Committee of the Pilgrims Society, from 1970 to 1979. He attended Bohemian Grove in 1971, and passed away in 1996.

An important early connection to the council involves Belgium. In 1952, Paul Henri Spaak came to Dallas to give a speech to the council. He had been 3x Prime Minister of Belgium, from 1938 to 1939, 1946, and 1947 to 1949. He was President of the United Nations General Assembly, from 1946 to 1947. He participated in The Hague Congress, in 1948, which lef to the European Movement. President of the Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community, from 1952 to 1954. Spaak was the second Secretary General of NATO, from 1957 to 1961. He attended the Bilderberg conference in 1959, 1960, and 1963, where he would have met Gerald C. McGhee. He participated in the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in 1965, and was an early member of the International Club, founded in 1969. He died in 1972.

Perhaps, the most intriguing Belgian to give a speech to the Council was King Baudouin of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, who came to Dallas in 1959, while on a tour of the USA. Baudouin was King of the Belgians from 1951 to 1993. He attended JFK’s funeral in 1963. What’s highly intriguing about his visit to Dallas, is that a took place during a time period in which he was involved in an extreme child abuse network in Belgium, from 1950 to 1962, according to X-dossiers victim-witness X2. Other royals allegedly involved in the network were Prince Charles and then-Prince Albert II. Others implicated were Paul Vanden Boeynants, Charly De Pauw, Charles Ferdinand de Nothomb, and potentially a young Willy Claes. Vanden Boeynants and De Pauw were later connected to Jean Violet, all being members of the Belgian Cercle des Nations. VdB was the Minister of the Middle-Class, from 1958 to 1961, later serving as the Prime Minister of Belgium twice and Minister of Defense. Vanden Boeynants sidekick was Baron de Bonvoisin, whose father was an early Bilderberg attendee, a Le Cercle attendee in the 1980s.

Another interesting speaker at the Council in 1959 was Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands. He had participated in The Hague Congress alongside Paul Henri Spaak, and was the founding Chairman of Bilderberg, serving from 1954 to 1971. In this function, he likely would have known the Council’s President, McGhee. He also founded the 1001 Club in 1970, which would have many intriguing relevant connection. Prince Bernhard, like King Baudouin, was accused of involvement in a similar network in the Netherlands.

Post-assassination Cold War Era

From the very beginning, the Dallas Council on World Affairs counted elite members and speakers. It had early oil industry ties and numerous intelligence connections. These type of connections have persisted over the decades. Unfortunately, complete list of members, speakers and donors over the early/middle decades are not easily available. There is, however, some easily obtainable sources that shed an interesting light on these decades at the Council during the Cold War.

President of the Council from 1964 to 1965 was Ed Gossett, a former Democratic House Representative from Texas, from 1939 to 1951. It is interesting to note that Clint Murchison’s wife chaired the women’s group in 1964. Speakers at the council that year included W. Averell Harriman and General Earle G. Wheeler, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1964 to 1970. Harriman, part of a prominent New York railroad and banking family, was a member of Yale’s Skull & Bones fraternity, had been a member of the CFR since 1924 and was part of the Council of American Ambassadors (CAA), likely alongside McGhee. Harriman was also involved in the American Security Council (ASC) and would join the elite Pilgrims Society. It is highly intriguing to note the Ferenc Nagy of Permindex had been in contact with the Council by early 1964.

The next President of the Council, from 1965 to 1967, was Dr. Watrous H. Irons, the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, from 1954 to 1968. Gossett chaired the executive committee from 1965 to 1968. One known speaker in 1965 was Dean Rusk, Secretary of State from 1961 to 1969. Rusk’s background included being a Rhodes Scholar, member of CFR since 1951, and having served as President of the Rockefeller Foundation, from 1952 to 1961. He visited Bilderberg in 1955, 1957 and 1969, and joined the Pilgrims Society’s Executive Committee, in 1957; he was also a member of the Knights of Malta (SMOM). Later getting involved in many NGOs, he served as Honorary Chair of the International Management and Development Institute, in 1977, likely meeting McGhee, who sat on the advisory board.

The Council’s leadership was consistent through 1966. The next President was another banker, James W. Keay, who served from 1967 to 1968. A veteran and Harvard graduate, he joined the Republic National Bank of Dallas. He was also a member of the American Bankers Association. He was a devout Lutheran and held numerous positions in businesses and committees. Keay chaired the Council’s board from 1968 to 1970 succeeded as President by Maxwell A. Clampitt, from 1968 to 1970, founder of Clampitt Paper Company. Clampitt then served as Chair of the Board, from 1970 to 1972. Gossett chaired the executive committee from 1969 to 1970, then succeeded by General Paul D. Harkins, from 1970 to 1972. Harkins had retired from the Army in 1964 and became an advisor to the American Security Council Foundation. President of the Council from 1970 to 1972 was Russell H. Perry, who moved from New York to Dallas, in 1961, to become president of the Republic Insurance Company. Perry was known for being involved in numerous organizations, institutions, charities and civil projects. Perry chaired the board in 1972, and Clampitt chaired the executive committee in 1972. Documentation is currently lacking from the years 1973 to 1974.

Perry remained as Chairman of the Board from 1972 through 1978, becoming Chairman Emeritus by 1986 and into 1988. He Clearly had a lasting impact on the Council in those years. The President of the Council between 1975 to 1978 was William E. Cooper, a Catholic and an Army Air Corps veteran who met Trammell Crow and was appointed vice president of the Dallas Market Center in 1958, serving as President from 1969 to 1982. Cooper joined The Rotary Club in 1962 and was involved in many civic organizations including the Dallas Chamber of Commerce. Perry would later receive the H. Neil Mallon award in 1985, with Cooper receiving it the following year in 1985.

We also got a glimpse of the Vice Presidents at the Dallas Council in 1975. The Secretary-Treasurer by 1975 and into 1988, was Lee Drain, an Air Force veteran and eventual 33rd degree Scottish Rite Freemason, banker and served on boards as the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children, Dallas Crime Commission, Sate Fair of Texas, and others. He worked for the Republic Bank Corporation and in the 1990s, worked at NationsBank of Texas, a predecessor to Bank of America. Head of Programs was Frank Norton, who had been appointed to the Texas Committee on Atomic Energy in 1961, and first chairman of the Southern Interstate Nuclear Board. He was a member of the International Trade Association of DFW, English Speaking Union and Sertoma Club. Another vice president was Barry Mason, a veteran and bank who joined the First National Bank of New York and then joined the Republic Bank of Texas in 1969. Another Vice President was James M. Spellings, an Air Force veteran who worked at First National Bank of Dallas and Mercantile Bank. The Executive Director was retired Brigadier General John D. Torrey, Jr., who was involved between 1967 to 1981.

One known speaker at the Council, in 1975, was General Vernon Walters, then Deputy Director of the CIA, serving in that position from 1972 to 1976, with a brief stint as Acting Director in 1973, when Nixon resigned and was succeeded by Gerald Ford. Walters is a highly intriguing individual. He was born in New York, educated at a Jesuit college in England and was fluent in over half a dozen foreign languages. He joined Army intelligence in 1941 and served in WWII. He served as a military attache in Brazil from 1946 to 1948 and was said to have been mentored by Fritz Kraemer. From 1948 to 1954, he was an aide to W. Averell Harriman. From 1951 to 1956, Walters was assistant deputy chief of staff to SHAPE, in Paris. From 1956 to 1960, he was a staff assistant to President Eisenhower and was an aide to Vice President Richard Nixon. From 1960 to 1962, he was a military attache in Rome, Italy, where he has been linked to Operation Gladio. Reports indicate that he briefly worked with Bill Harvey. One report from South African intelligence pins Walters down as being behind the JFK assassination. In any case, he was an Army attache to Brazi between 1962 to 1967, then served in Vietnam, before becoming Defense attache to the American Embassy in Paris, from 1967 to 1972. He served as Deputy Director of the CIA from 1972 to 1976, briefly as acting director in 1973. He has been linked to Operation Condor in Latin America. He founded the National Military Intelligence Association in 1974, serving as its President until 1976. Between 1975 to 1976, he was involved in the American Security Council. He retired in 1976 to become a private consultant. He co-founded a private intelligence group, Safari Club, in 1976. He was a co-founder of Brian Crozier’s private intel group, 6I, a key element of the Cercle complex. It is interesting to note that Walters was reportedly a member of the Knights of Malta. He was said to have plotted to takeover the Whitehouse with Ted Shackley, Frank Carlucci and George H. W. Bush. In 1981, he was Senior Advisor to the US Department of State, then Ambassador at Large, from 1981 to 1985. He gave a speech to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs in 1983. He served as the Permanent US Representative to the UN, from 1985 to 1989, then as Ambassador to the UN, from 1989 to 1991. He was ambassador to West Germany in 1991, and gave a speech to the Bohemian Grove in 1992. He was an honorary director to the Atlantic Council in 1998. He was a member of the American Academy on Diplomacy, in 2000, and on the Diplomatic Advisory Committee of the American Council on Germany. He passed away in 2002.

Information from 1976 to 1977 is lacking, but we get another glimpse in 1978. By that point, Chairman of the Executive Committee was L. Frank Pitts, founder of Pitts Oil Co., he moved to Dallas in 1948, where he got involved in many organizations and industry associations. The Vice President’s had changed a bit, with William L. Schilling as First VP. One VP was Allen B. Clark, Jr., an Army intel veteran wounded in Vietnam and member of the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars. Clark went to SMU and then started working for Ross Perot, later getting involved in oil and gas, banking and real estate. He was appointed in 1979 as the Special Assistant for Administration to Texas Governor William P. Clements, Jr.  In 1981, Clark was President Ronald Reagan’s selection to be Deputy Administrator for the Veterans Administration, but chose to remain in Texas. In 1989, he was nominated by President George H.W. Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Assistant Secretary for Veterans Liaison and Program Coordination at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Another VP and President of the Women’s Group was the wife of Louis G. James Jr., an oil and gas man. One of the speakers in 1978 was Admiral Stansfield Turner, Director of the CIA from 1977 to 1981. Turner, an Oxford Rhodes scholar, was a CFR member since 1973 and gave a speech to the Commonwealth Club of California in 1977.

There is currently a lack of information between the years 1979 to 1983, when the first Annual H. Neil Mallon Award dinner began. The first recipient of the award was Lorinne Emery, wife of Clyde Emery, the dean of the SMU law school, was the founder of the Dallas CIV and was a founding member of the Interim Council for Community Services to International Visitors in 1958. One speaker at the Dallas Council that year was George Shultz, Secretary of State from 1982 to 1989. Shultz was a very influential man, having served prior in the Nixon administration and being involved in numerous organizations. He was a director at the Foreign Policy Association, advisory co-chair at the World Affairs Council of Northern California, member of speaker of the Commonwealth Club of California since 1970, a CFR member since 1974, joined the Bohemian Grove in 1975, was a speaker at the World Affairs Council of Boston. From 1968 to 1969, he was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, where he would have met MKULTRA-tried Dr. Joly West. Shultz was part of the Wilson Center, an honorary member of the American Academy of Diplomacy. He was a member of the Pilgrims Society, Director at the Atlantic Council by 1998. He was President and Director of the Bechtel Group, from 1974 to 1982, then 1989 to 2006. He was allegedly part of “the Joint.”

In 1984, one speaker was Kenneth W. Dam, Deputy Secretary of State under Shultz, from 1982 to 1985. He was a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy, a member of the CFR, a director of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, where Shultz spoke in 1983, later a director at the Atlantic Council, co-chair of the Aspen Institute from 1991 to 2001, a Bilderberg attendee in 1983, 1985-1997, and a World Economic Forum attendee in 1984. The 2nd Mallon award that year went to George Haddaway, an aviation historian who helped found the Civil Air Patrol in 1941.

The 3rd Mallon award recipient, in 1985, was to Russell H. Perry, a longtime leader at the Council, serving as President from 1970 to 1972, then Chairman of the Board after, until becoming Chairman Emeritus by 1986. One speaker at the Council in 1985 was William Casey, Director of the CIA from 1981 to 1987. Casey founded the National Strategy Information Center in 1962, spoke at the Commonwealth Club of California in 1972, a CFR member since 1973, a director of the Atlantic Council in 1977, spoke at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs in 1983, member of the Capital Hill Club in 1973, part of the International Rescue Committee, part of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, from 1974 to 1976, Arms Control and Disarmament Agency in 1970, was a member Bohemian Grove. He was a member of the Knights of Malta (SMOM), Le Cercle, the OSS Society, connected with the Nugan Hand Bank and BCCI scandal. Like Shultz, he was allegedly part of “the Joint.”

While clear leadership lists are lacking between 1979 to 1985, we do get a clear picture in 1986, including sources of funding. Perry by then was Chairman Emeritus, with L. Frank Pitts as Chairman of the Board and Dr. Marvin Watson as President. This was likely the Marine veteran, US Postmaster General, from 1968 to 1969, and President of Dallas Baptist University, from 1979 to 1987, who also had worked for Armand Hammer’s Occidental Petroleum. The Council’s Chairman of the Executive Committee was David C. Briggs and Major General Willard Latham as Executive Director. First Vice President was Dr. Norman Neureiter, who had worked for Humble Oil and Texas Instruments. The recepient of the fifth Mallon award was Trammell Crow, Sr., who served on the board decades ago and became a major patron of the Dallas Petroleum Club that year.

It is highly intriguing to examine the high profile sources of funding in 1986. Corporate Benefactors includes American Airlines, Dallas Market Center and Trammell Crow Company. Patrons included Neiman-Marcus, Texas Instruments and Vaught Petroleum, Inc. Among the Sponsors were DeGolyre & MacNaughton, Dresser Industries, Inc., Hunt Oil Company, Lone Star Gas Company, Pitts Oil Company, Republic Bank Dallas and Republic Bank Corporation. Major donors included American Petrofina, Fidelity Union Life Insurance and IBM Corporation. Among the many regular donors were the Bank of Dallas, Dallas Baptist University, E-Systems, First City Bank of Dallas, General Electric, Halliburton Company, Price Waterhouse, and Sheraton-Dallas Hotel. It is also worth noting that the World Affairs Councils of America (WACA) was founded in 1986.

Speakers at the Council in 1987 included Robert M. Gates, deputy director of the CIA from 1986 to 1989, acting director from 1986 to 1987, and Richard Nixon, former President. Gates was a CFR member since 1983 and member of the OSS Society. Gates would be involved in many NGOs in the future, including CSIS. President Nixon also was involved in many NGOs. He spoke at the Commonwealth Club of California in 1952, attended the Gridiron Club in 1970, visited Sunnylands in 1974, spoke at The Economic Club, member of the Alfalfa Club, first VP of the Capital Hill Club in 1973, and attended Le Cercle. The 1987 Mallon award went to Dalla Mayor J. Erik Jonsson, former chairman of the executive committee.

Robert Gates again gave a speech to the Council in 1988, during which time many of the leadership positions were held by the same persons as in 1986. The 1988 Mallon award recepient was Stanley Marcus, the Neiman Marcus CEO and co-founder of the Council. The President in 1988 was Jack G. Vaughn, Jr. Unfortunately, this writer is lacking leadership lists from 1989 to 2006, except for a full list of Mallon awardees and speaker lists beginning in 2003.

Some of the awardees of the Mallon award were particularly noteworthy during the last years of the Cold War. In 1989, it was awarded to two individuals, Ebby Halliday-Acers and Maurice Acers. One of he funders of the council back in 1986 was Acers Investment. Ebby was on of the first major female entrepreneurs in Dallas. She got married in 1965 to Maurice Acers, a former FBI agent.

The Mallon awardee in 1990 was Robert Crandall, CEO of American Airlines from 1985 to 1998. He was on the International Advisory Board of the British-American Business Council (BABC) in 1998, along with Margaret Thatcher and Dick Cheney. The Mallon award in 1991 went to R. Richard Rubottom, the Ambassador to Argentina in 1960-1961. He was born in Texas and went to SMU, then served in the Navy. He served as the Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs from 1957 to 1960, where he saw the changing perspective on Castro. He also had been supportive of the assassination of Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic. He lived in Dallas after retirement and was active in the Boy Scouts of America.

Post-Cold War era (1991-2000)

The Mallon award went to Robert Strauss in 1992. Born in Texas from a Jewish family, he attended UT, where he went to school with John Connolly, and joined the FBI during the 1940s. He settled in Dallas after the war then went into law practice. It was Strauss who urged Connolly to run for Governor of Texas. His mentor was also LBJ. Strauss served as the Treasurer for the DNC from 1970 to 1972. He was the US Trade Representative from 1977 to 1979, then US Special Envoy for the Middle East that year. He was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) since 1981. He was a founding patron of the American European Community Association (AECA), in 1981, along with George McGhee, Henry Kissinger, Etienne Davignon and many others. He was a member of the National Bipartisan Commission on Central America, chaired by Henry Kissinger. In 1991, he was the Ambassador to the Soviet Union, then Ambassador to Russia from 1991 to 1992. Strauss was part of the Miller Center of Public Affairs’ National Commission on Choosing and using Vice Presidents in 1992 alongside Donald Rumsfeld. He was involved with the Council of American Ambassadors (CAA), the Bretton Woods Committee (BWC) from 1985 to 1999, founding Governor in 1985 of the Reagan Foundation along with Trammel Crow, David Rockefeller and others. He attended the Forstmann Little Conferences, was a trustee in 2001 of the George Bush Presidential Library Foundation along with Dick Cheney, became chair of the US-Russia Business Council. He was a trustee of the Eurasia Foundation, on the board of Layalina Productions, Inc., in 2004, awarded in 1992 by the Appeal of Conscience Foundation (ACF). He’s been involved with the CSIS, Hollinger International, and other organizations.

The Mallon awardee in 1993 was David G. Fox, presumably the Army Brigadier General involved with Special Forces. The Mallon award went to L. Frank Pitts, in 1994, who had been involved in the council by 1978 and whose Pitts Oil Company funded the council. Pitts was involved in the Council for many years. In 1995, it went to Annette Strauss, Mayor of Dallas from 1987 to 1991. He brother-in-law was Robert Strauss, and she had been involved with the Dallas Symphony and United Jewish Appeal.

It appears there was not an award given in 1996, but in 1997 the Mallon award was given to Lester M. Alberthal, Jr., Chairman of the Board of the Electronic Data Systems (EDS), founded by Ross Perot. Alberthal was on the board of SMU, the Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research with Ray L. Hunt, and the State Fair of Texas. He was also a board member of the CSIS.

In 1998, the Mallon award was given to Albert V. Casey, the US Postmaster General in 1986. An Army veteran, he attended Harvard University and was CEO of American Airlines from 1974 to 1985. He was an executive at the Wilson Center and attended Bohemian Grove where he joined the Lost Angels, in 1991.

In 1999, the Mallon award went to soon-to-be Vice President Dick Cheney, with a keynote speech by Robert Gates. Cheney has a long history of involvement in various NGOs and in government. Cheney was a Yale dropout, studying political science at the University of Wyoming. He entered public service in 1969 as an assistant to Donald Rumsfeld. He was White House Chief of Staff from 1975 to 1977, then joined Congress from 1979 to 1989. He was chairman of the Republican Policy Committee from 1981 to 1987. He joined the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in 1982, serving as Director from 1987 to 1989, then 1993 to 1995. He served as Secretary of Defense from 1989 to 1993. He gave a speech to Bohemian Grove in 1991. From 1992 to 1999 he was Director of the Jamestown Foundation. From 1993 to 1999 he was director of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs. He was director of the American Enterprise Institute from 1995 to 2000. He was director of the Electronic Data Systems from 1996 to 2000, and an advisor at Lockheed Martin from 1997 to 2000. He was Director then CEO and chair of Halliburton from 1996 to 2000. He was involved with the Project for a New American Century in 1997. From 1997 to 2000, he was a member of the Trilateral Commission. In 1999, he attended the Bretton Woods Conference. From 2000 to 2008, he was Vice President. He’s been involved with many other organizations.

At the turn of the century it appears that no Mallon award was given in 2000. But in 2001, the award went to Ray L. Hunt, a prominent family in Dallas involved in both the Dallas Council on World Affairs and Dallas Petroleum Club. Ray has been involved with the American Petroleum Institute, National Petroleum Council in 1996, the World Economic Forum in 1987, the Wilson Center, and was a member of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board in the 2000s. The keynote speaker for Hunt was Don Evans, a Texas oilman who served as Secretary of Commerce from 2001 to 2005.

In 2002, the Mallon award was given to former President George H. W. Bush, who had been very close Henry Neil Mallon many decades ago in Skull & Bones. Bush was involved in numerous NGOs, he served as CIA Director and was a member of the CFR. Both Dick Cheney and George Bush attended the World Affairs Council of Boston. He was involved with the Council of American Ambassadors, the Bretton Woods Conference, the Appeal of Conscience Foundation, Trilateral Commission, Barrick Gold, The Carlyle Group, OSS Society, George Town Club, Nugan Hand Bank, Association of Former Intelligence Officers, AmeriCares, Safari Club and allegedly “the Joint”. The keynote speaker was Gary P. Nunn,

Modern Era

While there is currently a significant gap in the Council’s history, using Wayback machine we can find full speaker lists, for the first time, beginning in 2003. However, it is known that James N. “Jim” Falk became the Council’s President in 2001, serving for twenty years until 2021, then as President Emeritus. Falk attended Washington and Lee University from 1974 to 1977, getting a BA in Politics. He then attended the University of Virginia, from 1977 to 1979, obtaining an MA in International Law and Middle East Politics.

From 1978 to 1981, Falk was the Director of Education at the Middle East Institute (MEI), in Washington, DC. From 1982 to 1992, he was Vice President & Group Manager of the First City Bank of Houston. He then served as the southern Regional Director for the Institute of International Education (IIE), from 1992 to 1999. The IIE trustees in 1998 included Rodman Rockefeller and honorary Zbigniew Brzezinski and Vartan Gregorian. Funders have included the Ford Foundation, Chase Manhattan and J.P. Morgan. From 1999 to 2001, he was the Vice President for Development at the National Center for Policy Analysis. He then served for over 19 years as President of the World Affairs Council of DFW. From 2013 to 2024, he served as honorary consul for the states of New Mexico and Texas. Also in 2013 to 2019, he served on the board of directors at the World Affairs Councils of America. Since 2013, he has been a member of the Asia Society Texas Center Advisory Board. Falk became a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in 2016. He serves on the board of Global Santa Fe since 2020. He has been a trustee of World Neighbors since 2022. Additionally, he has hosted several podcasts and radio shows as well.

2003-2005

Examination of the speakers in 2003 reveals a consistent pattern of NGOs

• Condoleezza Rice (Brookings Institution; Hoover Institution; Council on Foreign Affairs (CFR); Wilson Center; Kennedy Center; Bretton Woods Conference; Pacific Council on International Policy; Atlantic Council; Appeal of Conscience Foundation; The Economic Club; Alfalfa Club; World Economic Forum; Trilateral Commission; Halifax International Security Forum; RAND Corporation; Vulcan Team; Friends of Abe; ADL; World Knowledge Forum; Association of Southeast Asian Nations)
• Alan Greenspan (Federal Reserve System; CFR; Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation; Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE); Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget; Renaissance Weekends; Reagan Foundation; Forstmann Little Conferences; Atlantic Council; American Council on Germany, speaker; European Banking Congress; World Knowledge Forum; Appeal of Conscience Foundation; The Economic Club; Alfalfa Club; Bank of International Settlements; International Monetary Conference; Trilateral Commission; Institute for International Finance; RAND Corporation; Mont Pelerin Society; Le Cercle; The Russia Forum)
• William Cohen (Commonwealth Club of California; Brookings Institution; CFR; World Affairs Council of Northern California; World Affairs Council, Washington, DC; United States Institute of Peace; Bretton Woods Committee; US Global Leadership Coalition; Partnership for a Secure America; Hart Center for Public Service; Munich Security Conference; Association of Southeast Asian Nations; US-China Business Council; US-India Business Council; US-Taiwan Business Council; China Development Forum; Alfalfa Club; CSIS; Barrick Gold; Israel Policy Forum)
• Michael Ledeen (ACPC; Bilderberg, 2005; New Atlantic Initiative; American Enterprise Institute; Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs; Jonathan Institute and conferences; Committee for a Free World; Foundation for the Defense of Democracies; Benador Associates; P2 Lodge; Jerusalem Foundation; Intelligence Summit)
• R. Nicholas Burns (Brookings Institution; Foreign Policy Association; CFR; World Affairs Council of Northern California; American Academy of Diplomacy; The Common Good; Royal Institute of International Affairs; Ditchley Foundation; Atlantic Council; Munich Security Conference; Appeal of Conscience Foundation; Trilateral Commission; Herzliya Conference)
• Gary Hart (Commonwealth Club of California; Foreign Policy Association; CFR; Pacific Council on International Policy; US Global Leadership Coalition; Church Committee; Defense Policy Board; Partnership for a Secure America; Hart Center for Public Service)
• Ray MacLaren (Canadian Institute of International Affairs, chair 2000-2006, director 2007; Bilderberg, 1972, 1985, 1992, 1994, 1999; World Economic Forum, 1995; Trilateral Commission)
• Daniel Poneman (CFR; Atlantic Council)
• Stuart Holliday (International Republican Institute; Milkin Institute; Concordia Summit)
• Dennis Ross (Director of Policy Planning, 1989-1992; U.S.-Muslim Engagement Project; Washington Institute for Near East Policy, fellow 1990s-2020s; Jewish People Policy Institute, co-chair 2022)
• Sidney Blumenthal (The Common Good, speaker; Commonwealth Club of California, speaker 2003)
• Isobel Coleman (CFR; Mckinsey & Co)
• Karim Kawar (Ambassador of Jordan to US, 2002-2007; World Economic Forum, Young Global Leader 2000)
• Don Oberdorfer (Paul N. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies)
• Roshaneh Zafar (World Economic Forum)
• Shafeeq Ghabra (Middle East Institute)
• Joseph Ralston (General; Lockheed Martin, board)
• Bob Schieffer (Star-Telegram, contacted by Marguerite Oswald; CBS)
• Raymond D. Nasher (Mallon awardee, 2003; CFR; UN Association)

Although this is a very unthorough an uncontextualized list, it does show that persons involved in giving speeches to the Dallas Council on World Affairs have often been involved in the same or similar NGOs. This is interesting because it illustrates a continuity as well, from its founding in 1951 to modern times.

Speakers in 2004

• James A. Baker (Bohemian Grove; Commonwealth Club of California; Foreign Policy Association (FPA); Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), member 1978-; World Affairs Council of Boston; WIlson Center; Sun Valley meetings; American Academy of Diplomacy (AAD); Bretton Woods Committee (BWC), 1999-2020; Richmond Forum; Atlantic Council; Layalina Productions; The Economic Club; Alfalfa Club; CSIS; The Carlyle Group)
• Robert E. Rubin (Commonwealth Club of California, speaker 1996; Carnegie Corporation of New York; Brookings Institution; CFR, member 1981-; World Affairs Council of Northern California; Council for National Policy; Pacific Council on International Policy; Goldman Sachs; Peter G. Peterson Foundation; Atlantic Council; The Economic Club; Aspen Institute; Bilderberg; Clinton Global Initiative)
• Richard Lugar (CFR; Aspen Institute; Carnegie Corporation of New York; Fullbright scholarship;’ National Endowment for Democracy (NED), director 1992-2001; American Academy of Diplomacy (AAD), member pre-2003; Rhodes Scholar)
• Felix Rohatyn (CFR; Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF), finance committee 1977; Williamsburg Conference; Council of American Ambassadors (CAA); American Academy of Diplomacy (AAD), member 2007; Bretton Woods Conference, 1985-, 2009, 2020; Financial Services Leadership Forum (FDLF), NYPL, speaker; America Abroad Media (AAM), advisory board 2004; New American Strategies for Security and Peace Congress; The Common Good, New York City, speaker; Pilgrims Society, guest; Asia Society, trustee in 2020; French-American Foundation, joined late 2001; French Institute for International Relations (IFR), speaker 2001; Century Association; International Rescue Committee (IRC); CSIS, trustee 2001-2015; Trilateral Commission (TC), 1985-1990; PlaNet Finance Group; FDR Four Freedoms Park; NM Rothschild & Sons; ITT Corporation; Task Force on State Department Reform
• Jean-David Levitte (Club of Three, Steering Committee; European Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), Council member; French Institute of International Relations, Member Strategic Advisory Board; Paris School of International Affairs, Member of Strategic Committee; World Economic Forum, Global Future Council on Geopolitics 2018-2019; Geneva Center for Security Policy, President of the Foundation Council, 2019-)
• Charles Kupchan (CFR; Atlantic Initiative; Wilson Center; International Institute for Strategic Studies; Centre d’Étude et de Recherches Internationales)
• Ray McGovern (‘Liberal CIA” asset)
• Chip Pitts (Amnesty International)
• Charles P. Ries (RAND Corporation)
• Martin Schain (NYU; Jean Monnet Center)
• Walter Mead (CFR, member 1980-; New American Foundation; Hudson Institute)
• Jim Lehrer (CFR; Commission on Presidential Debates; Richmond Forum)
• James Lilley (World Economic Forum, speaker 1995)
• Henry Cooper (National Institute for Public Policy)
• Lee R. Raymond (Mallon awardee; Exxon; CFR; Wilson Center; API; NPC; Trilateral Commission; AEI; JP Morgan Chase)
• Daniel Yergin (Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE), advisory board 2006-2016; Highlands Group / Highlands Forum, participant; Brookings Institution, trustee)

In 2005, the Dallas Council on World Affairs merged with the Fort Worth Council on World Affairs. Noteworthy speakers at the council in 2005 included:

• James Woolsey (Bohemian Grove; CFR; World Affairs Council, Washington DC; Rhodes Scholar; Pilgrims Society; Atlantic Council; MSC; Freedom House; Aspen Institute; CSIS; The Carlyle Group; Booz Allen Hamilton; General Dynamics; United Technologies; MITRE Corporation; DynCorp; OSS Society; AFIO; Jamestown Foundation; PNAC; Herzliya Conference; Intelligence Summit)
• David Rothkopf (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Foreign Policy Association (FPA), speaker; Council on Foreign Relations (CFR); World Affairs Council of Northern California, speaker; Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress (CSPC), National Council of Advisors, 2008; Roosevelt Institution; Truman National Security Project (TNSP); Munich Security Conference (MSC), 2017; World Economic Forum, 2014; US Committee to Expand NATO / US Committee on NATO; Center for Global Development (CGD), director; World Leaders Forum (WLF), Columbia University, speaker; Kissinger Associates, managing director; Intellibridge, chair and CEO)
• Ray L. Hunt (Dallas Petroleum Club, President; American Petroleum Institute; National Petroleum Council; World Economic Forum, 1987; Wilson Center; CSIS; Urban Institute, 1981-1985; George Bush Presidential Library Foundation)
• Thomas Friedman (Foreign Policy Association, speaker; Richmond Forum; Connecticut Forum; CEO Summit; Marshall scholarships; Group 50; World Economic Forum, 1995; Leaders for Business; American Renewable Energy Day; Highlands Group; Israel Policy Forum, speaker)
• Kurt Volcker (Foreign Policy Institute of John Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Center for Transatlantic Relations managing director 2010-2011; McCain Institute for International Leadership, executive director; Atlantic Council (AC), senior advisor; Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), US-Central European Strategy Forum, 2011-2014, 2017-2018; Kyiv Security Forum, 2019; Global Security Forum (Globesec), 2015-; Concordia Summit, New York City, 2015)
• Louis Freeh (Commonwealth Club of California, speaker, 2005; Richmond Forum, speaker; German-American Hall of Fame, New York; Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Georgetown University; Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC); Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, officer; Le Cercle)
• Michael A. McFaul (Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies; Yalta European Strategy)
• Amory Louis (Fortune’s Brainstorm tech conferences; American Council on Renewable Energy; American Renewable Energy Day; Oxford Martin School)
• Jack Welch
• Husain Haqqani (Hudson Institute; RIIA; Carnegie Endowment for International Peace)
• Tom D’Aquino (Business Council of Canada)
• Ari Fleischer (Fox News; Republican Jewish Coalition)
• Richard Fisher (Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas; Barclays; Brown Brothers, Harriman; PepsiCo; Inter-American Dialogue)
• Michael Werz (Center for American Progress; Munich Security Conference; German Marshall Fund; Wilson Center)
• Andreas Rosental (Trilateral Commission; Inter-American Dialogue)
• David McCullough (Skull & Bones)
• Pete Geren (Sid W. Richardson Foundation, President 2011-)
• Kathy Gannon (CFR, awardee 2003)
• Gerard Arpey (American Airlines)
• Frank McKenna (The Carlyle Group)
• Carlos Westendorp y Cabeza (Club of Madrid)
• Thomas J. Engibous (Mallon awardee)

Although these lists are very unorganized, it illustrates the type of superclass speakers that came to the Dallas Council on World Affairs in 2003. It also illustrates the recuring NGO networks these speakers have consistently been involved with. The following sections will be broken up into three periods.

2006-2009

Beginning in the year 2006, we get a clearer picture into the people running the World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth. The 2006 Board of Directors included Herbert Hunt, and Tom Meurer, Jeanne Johnson Phillips of Hunt Consolidated. There was also Patrick M. Murray of Dresser Inc. The Board of Advisors included Ray L. Hunt and the Perot family. I’ve chosen the to focus on the Hunt and Perot families because of their well known connections. We’ve already discussed the deep and long standing ties of the Hunt family. The Perots have been involved with the Commonwealth Club of California, CFR, Wilson Center, Bretton Woods Committee, Reagan Foundation, Richmond Forum, CEO Summit, Atlantic Council, Alfalfa Club, World Economic Forum, EastWest Institute, President’s Intelligence Advisory Board and the OSS Society.

The 2006 Mallon award went to Gerard Arpey, President and CEO of American Airlines. In brief, interesting speakers that year included:

• Richard Lugar (See above)
• Prince Turki Al-Faisal (Atlantic Council; MSC; BCCI; WEF; CGI; Safari Club; Le Cercle; Far West, Ltd.; “the Joint”; …)
• Joseph Stiglitz (Commonwealth Club of California; Foreign Policy Association; CFR; World Affairs Council of Northern California; PIIE; Renaissance Weekends; BWC; Roosevelt Institution; Group of 50; Eurasia Foundation; CGI; World Government Summit; AAI; Lotos Club; WEF; …)
• Kenneth Star (Bohemian Grove; NLCPI)
• Bono (CFR; Atlantic Council; MSC; ONE Campaign; WEF; CGI; RFK Center; World Commission for Global Consciousness and Spirituality; TED Conferences)
• Boone Pickens (Commonwealth Club of California; National Petroleum Council; Wilson Center; Reagan Foundation; Richmond Forum; Progressive Forum; Good Club; Augusta National Golf Club; Clinton Global Initiative; SALT Conferences; Concordia Summit; American Renewable Energy Day; TED Conferences; American Security Council)
• Peter Goldmark (Rockefeller Foundation; Fuel Freedom Foundation)
• Larry Diamond (Hoover Institution; Freeman Spogli Institute; National Endowment for Democracy; TIMEP; Clinton Global Imitative; Rockefeller Initative on UFO disclosure)
• John Cornyn (CCNS)
• Michael Mandelbaum (Foreign Policy Association; Eurasia Foundation; WINEP)
• David Lampton (Nixon Center)
• Rachel Bronson (CFR)
• Rob Litwak (Wilson Center)
• Dick Thornburgh (FBI Director’s Advisory Board)
• Buck Revell (Middle East Media Research Insitute)
• John Danforth (Alliance to Save Energy)
• Ian Bremmer (Commonwealth Club of California; World Affairs Council of Northern California; IQ2US; Center for International Relations and Sustainable Development; Group of 50; APEC; Fortune Global Forum; BNEF; World Economic Forum; Pi Capital; Munk Debates; Intellibridge)
• Lou Dobbs (Richmond Forum)
• Sandy Weill (US-Palestinian Partnership)
• Doro Bush Koch (Alfalfa Club)

In 2007, there is lacking documentation for the leadership of the council, but we do have an interesting list of speakers

• Walter Isaacson (Commonwealth Club of California; Rockefeller Foundation; CFR; World Affairs Council of Northern California; Renaissance Weekends; Richmond Forum; Forstmann Little Conferences; Rhodes Scholar; Aspen Institute; Bilderberg; Trilateral Commission; …)
• Newt Gingrich (Bohemian Grove; Commonwealth Club of California; Hoover Institution; CFR; Richmond Forum; Forstmann Little Conferences; CSIS; WEF; Hollinger International; AEI; CNP; Catholic Information Center; Herzliya Conference…)
• Wesley Clark (Commonwealth Club of California; Foreign Policy Association (FPA); CFR; World Affairs Council, Washington DC; NED; USGLC; ACORE; Rhodes Scholar; Atlantic Council; MSC; CSIS; CGI; …)
• Bobby Inman (Bohemian Grove; Brookings Institution; Hoover Institution; CFR; Wilson Center; BWC; PCIP; AC; Trilateral Commission; Raytheon; Blackwater; AFIO; JINSA; …)
• Dick Cheney (See above)
• Matthew Brzezinski
• Vincente Fox (Club of Madrid; Commonwealth Club of California; Richmond Forum; …)
• Brian Latell (CSIS)
• Isobel Coleman (CFR)
• George Friedman (STRATFOR)
• Jim Goldgeier (CFR)
• Bate Gill (CSIS)
• Charles Ferguson (CFR)
• Christopher Preble (CATO Institute)
• Jon Alterman (CSIS)

In 2008, the Council’s Board of Advisors maintained a representative from Hunt Consolidated and the Mallon award was given to Ross Perot, Sr. & Jr. Speakers that year included:

• Joseph Nye
• David Rothkopf
• Thomas Friedman
• David Frum (AEI)
• Andrew Kuchins (CSIS)
• Ayaan Hirsi Ali (AEI)
• Michael Shifter (Inter-American Dialogue)
• Minxin Pei (Carnegie Endowment)
• Jeffrey Engel (Scowcroft Institute)
• Haleh Esfandiari (Wilson Center)
• Richard Fisher

The 2009 Board of Directors included Hunter L. Hunt and Thomas Maurer of Hunt Oil. Other oil companies were resented and John R. Ryan of Dresser was on the board. Among the speakers:

• Richard Haass (CFR)
• Fareed Zakaria
• Amy Chua
• John Bruton
• Ed Djerejian
• John Micklethwait (Foreign Policy Association)

2010-2020

This section intends to briefly cover a decade of history at the World Affairs Council of DFW. For time constraints, this will be a very brief overview, but could be expanded in the future.

The year 2010 included the same Hunt family representation on its board of directors, as well as Ryan of Dresser. We also get insight into the financiers of the council, including Hunt Consolidated, Dresser, Exxon, Texas Instruments, Lockheed Martin, Ross Perot Jr., as well as partnerships with AT&T, The Economist, D Magazine and others. The top donor being the Hoblitzelle Foundation. They also had many sponsors of its International Education Program, which included the Sid W. Richardson Foundation, Citi, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and many others. Speakers included

• David Petraeus
• Karl Rove
• Muammar al-Qaddafi
• Janet Napolitano
• David Eisenhower

Speakers in 2011 included

• Condoleezza Rice
• James Baker
• Nikki Haley
• Thomas Friedman (Mallon award keynote speech)

Currently the 2012 speakers list in unavailable.

In 2013, the board of directors still included Hunter Hunt and the board of advisors included the Perot family. Speakers included

• Henry Kissinger
• Stanley McChrystal
• Max Boot
• Jeb Bush
• Kenneth Pollack (Brookings Institution)

The Mallon award in 2014 went to Rex Tillerson, with a keynote speech from Robert Gates. Speakers in 2014 included

• Ross Perot
• Francis Fukuyama
• David Rothkopf
• Ted Cruz
• Julia E. Sweig
• Robert Kaplan

In 2015, the Mallon award went to Richard Fisher of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank and one of the keynote speeches was given by George Schultz. Among the speakers in 2015 were

• Leon Panetta
• Michael Chertoff
• Bill Browder
• Fiona Hill
• Karl Rove
• David McCullough
• Ben Bernanke
• Greg Gutfeld
• Ben Glosserman (CSIS)
• 14th Dalai Lama
• Ben Carson
• Rick Perry

In 2016, the board of advisors included Ray L. Hunt and the Perot family. Speakers counted

• Thomas Pickering
• David Petraeus
• Michael Hayden
• Robert Gates
• Rudy Giuliani
• Robert Kaplan
• Bob Woodward

Speakers in 2017 included

• Richard Haass
• Robert Gates
• Walter Isaacson
• Sir Richard Dearlove
• Rick Hodes (American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee)
• Robert Kaplan
• David Preiss (CIA)
• Mark Updegrove (LBJ Presidential Library)
• Sebastian Mallaby (CFR)
• Geneive Abdo (Atlantic Council)
  Stephen Biddle (CFR)
• Roby Barrett (Middle East Institute)
• Harold Trinkunas (Brookings Institution)
• Carla Anne Robbins (CFR)
• Steven Cook (CFR)
• Milan Vaishnav (Carnegie Endowment)

The Hunt and Perot family influence remained on the board of advisors in 2018, with Herbert Hunt in the Mallon Circle. Speakers in 2018 included

• Graham Allison
• Michael Hayden
• Stanley McChrystal
• John Kerry
• Ken Starr
• Vicente Fox
• Max Boot
• Alyssa Ayres (CFR)
• Scott Snyder (CFR)
• Adam Segal (CFR)
• James Lindsay (CFR)
• Varun Sivaram (CFR)
• Benn Steil (CFR)
• James Clapper
• Jim Stavridis
• Robert Kagan (Brookings Institution)

Speakers in 2019 included

• Madeleine Albright
• Jim Mattis
• Trammel Crow, Jr
• Nikki Haley
• James Lindsay (CFR)
• Bruce Ferguson (Hoover Institution)
• Allen Keiswetter (Middle East Institute)
• Thomas Bollyky (CFR)
• Laura Dowson (Wilson Center)
• Aruto Sarukhan (Brookings Institution)
• Arthur Brooks (AEI)
• Farah Pandith (CFR)
• Paul Salem (Middle East Institute, President)

Returning to the Council in 2020 was Robert Gates, who gave the keynote speech for the Mallon award that year. Speakers in 2020 included

• Richard Haass
• H.R. McMaster
• William J. Perry
• Susan Eisenhower
• John Brennan
• Sarah Huckabee Sanders
• Fahreed Zakaria
• Pete Buttigieg

2021-Present

After the turn of the decade, the Hunts and Perots remained involved with the Council. This was also the year that James Falk stepped down as President and CEO of the World Affairs Council of DFW. Falk was succeeded by Liz Brailsford, who previously served as COO of the World Affairs Councils of America in Washington, DC. Brailsford has been a consultant to USAID and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). She’s been a board member of Asia Society Texas, an advisory committee member of the U.S. Global Leadership Commission of the Southwest region, and has been a member of the UN Association. Brailsford served as President & CEO from 2021 to 2025. Speakers in 2021 included

• Mike Pompeo
• James Mattis
• Robert Zoellick
• Jason Riley (Manhattan Institute)
• James Lindsay
• Fiona Hill
• Elizabeth Economy (CFR)
• Steven Cook (CFR)
• Paul Haenle (Tsinghua University)
• James Stavridis
• Darrell West (Brookings Institution)
• Karen Donfried (German Marshall Fund)
• Sebastian Mallaby (CFR)
• Luke Patey (Danish Institution for International Studies)
• Charles Kupchan (CFR)
• Madeleine Albright (Mallon award keynote)

The full speaker list for the year 2022 in unavailable, but it is known they had up to 20 speaker, some of them included

• Madeleine Albright
• David Rubenstein
• Mike Pompeo
• Adam Schiff
• Jonna Mendez (CIA)
• Condoleezza Rice (Mallon award keynote)

The full speaker list for 2023 is also seemingly unavailable, but among the speakers in were

• Henry Kissinger
• Condoleezza Rice
• David Petraeus
• Mike Pompeo
• Nikki Haley
• William Barr

Speakers in 2024 included

• Richard Haass
• David Petraeus
• Jeffrey Sachs
• Joe Manchin
• David Kramer
• Bill Browder
• Karl Rove
• Fiona Hill
• Rex Tillerson
• Wilbur Ross
• Jerome Powell

Currently, in 2025, Brailsford is still the President and CEO. Update: she appears to have departed from this position in June, 2025, after which time Jim Falk returned as Interim President and CEO. Among the staff are Chief of Staff & Director of Administration Martha Powell, who previously worked at Hunt Consolidated. The Board of Directors is chaired by Larry B. Powell and Vice Chair-ed by Matthew Byrd, who worked for The Perot Group Companies, and Joanna Ridgway, who worked at JPMorgan and Bank of America and is a member of the German Marshall Fund. The Board of Directors includes Stephen Gardner, a member of the US Global Leadership Coalition (USGLC), Mike Schetzel of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, as well as many others from banks, law firms and industry. The Board of Advisors still includes Ray L. Hunt and the Perot family

Institutional Partners of the Council include American Airlines, AT&T, City of Dallas, DFW International Airport, Fidelity, Goldman Sachs, Hillwood of Perot, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Texas Instruments. Local Community Partners include D Magazine, Dallas Morning News, Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum, and the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. The Sid W. Richardson Foundation is one of the Education Partners.

The 42nd H. Neil Mallon Award Dinner took place on October 30, 2025, awarding James W. Keyes. Keynote conversation with former U.S. Secretaries of Education John B. King and Margaret Spellings.

Speakers this year have included:

• Robert Kaplan (Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, President & CEO)
• Harold Ford, Jr. (Fox News, co-host)
• Elaine Agather (JPMorgan Chase)
• Edward O’Keefe (Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Foundation, CEO)
• Kori Schake (American Enterprise Institute)
• Liz Truss (former UK Prime Minister)
• Jeffrey Toobin (CNN, chief legal anylst)
• John J. Sullivan (US Ambassador to Russia)
• Ihor Terekhov (Mayor of Kharkiv, Ukraine)
• Boris Johnson (former UK Prime Minister)
• Peter Geren (Sid W. Richardson Foundation, President and CEO)
• H. R. McMaster
• Michael McFaul

APPENDIX A: TIMELINE

World Affairs Council of DFW Timeline

• 1914-1918: WWI
• 1918: League of Free Nations Association founded.
• 1923: League reconstituted as the Foreign Policy Association (FPA).
• 1939-1945: WWII
• 1951: Dallas Council on World Affairs founded, primarily by Henry Neil Mallon. It quickly becomes affiliated with the World Affairs Councils of America.
• 1952-1963: George de Mohrenschildt in Dallas, at some point, becomes a member.
• 1954: At the direction of Lorrine Emery, the Council’s International Visitor Program was established to coordinate State Department-sponsored visits of delegations and leaders from around the world. Working with an extensive team of local volunteers, businesses and community leaders, the program plays a key role in building public diplomacy and international connections for the region.
• 1961: World Affairs Council of Fort Worth founded.
• 1961: Global Ties U.S. founded, the Council becomes a member, at some point.
• 1961-2020: Les Femmes du Monde, founded and affiliated with the Council.
• November 22, 1963: JFK assassination occurs in Dallas.
• Early 1980s: the Council presented its first H. Neil Mallon Award (the organization’s highest honor).
• 1986: World Affairs Councils of America National Office founded in Washington, D.C.
• 2001-2021: Jim Falk becomes President and CEO.
• 2003: City of Dallas’ Protocols Office established. It is a unique public/private partnership between the City of Dallas and the World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth. 
  • The Protocol Office works with city officials, the diplomatic corps, the Office of the Mayor and other international stakeholders to represent the City of Dallas in official international activities. It also advises the Mayor and other city officials on matters of international protocol, serves as the secretariat to the Consular Corps of Dallas-Fort Worth, and oversees Dallas’ Sister Cities relationships and activities.
• 2004: Council was named top medium-sized council in the nation by the World Affairs Councils of America. Later that year the International Education Program, now the Global Young Leaders, was established to educate students and teachers about how global issues affect their lives by helping them gain a critical understanding of important international topics and empowering them to become informed, independent thinkers about world affairs.
  • Today this education has impacted almost one million North Texas students and has more than fifty Junior World Affairs Council chapters on North Texas school campuses.
• 2005: Council’s Meridian: Global Young Professionals established. It has presented a myriad of special events and programs geared specifically to young adults in their 20s and 30s.
• January 26, 2006: Name changed to World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth when the Dallas and Fort Worth Councils merged to create a new regional organization.
  • Council received the President’s Award from the World Affairs Councils of America, naming it “the most dynamic large council in the nation.” This honor, WACA’s most prestigious award, recognizes outstanding achievement and is given annually for “extraordinary innovation, growth, outreach, and impact.”
  • 2006-2015: WACDFW hosts a podcast.
  • Wayback Machine archives since May 20
• 2009: Global I.Q. with The Economist set up as a free monthly online audiocast that connected listeners with the publication’s journalists around the world to discuss the pressing issues of the day. Hosted by Jim Falk, the interactive audiocasts are enjoyed live or by podcast on the Council’s website.
  • In 2012, this podcast became known as Global IQ with Jim Falk.
• 2009-2010: The Council partnered with the Town of Addison to produce WorldFest, the largest international festival in North Texas with a combined two-year attendance of more than 50,000 attendees. 
• 2013: Hunter Hunt is a Director. Ray L. Hunt, Ross Perot, Sr. and Jr. and wives on the advisory board. Henry Kissinger delivers a speech.
• 2015: philanthropic membership established called Global Forum, offers its members special programs, expert briefings, receptions and travel opportunities. 
  • By 2017, Global Forum membership exceeded 4,000. The Council continues to educate North Texans – adults and students alike – through rich offerings of member-participation programs and distinguished speakers.
• 2020: During the Covid pandemic, The Council pivoted quickly, offering a full slate of speaker programs and classroom education online instead of in person.
  • In 2020, Les Femmes du Monde disbands.
• 2021-June, 2025: Falk retires and becomes President Emeritus, succeeded by Liz Brailsford, who came to Dallas from the WAC of Washington, D.C., as President and CEO. In June 2025, Brailsford appears to have stepped down and Falk has filled in as interim President & CEO.

Notes