Colonel House - CFR founder, promoter of the League of Nations and President Wilson most influencial advisor

"Mr. House is my second personality. He is my independent self. His thoughts and mine are one."

— President Woodrow Wilson quoted by Charles Seymour, The Intimate Papers of Colonel House, Houghton Mifflin, vol. I, pp. 114-115.

"For seven long years, Colonel House was Woodrow Wilson's other self. For six long years he shared with him everything but the title of Chief Magistracy of the Republic. For six years, two rooms were at his disposal in the north wing of the White House. It was House who made the slate for the Cabinet, formulated the first policies of the Administration, and practically directed the foreign affairs of the United States."

— Viereck, The Strangest Friendship in History - Woodrow Wilson and Colonel House 1932

Edward Mandell House (1858 – 1938) was commonly known by the honorific title of Colonel House. He was born in a wealthy Texas landholding family and became progressively a Bourbon Democrat - a term used in the United States from 1876 to 1904 to refer to a conservative or classical liberal member of the Democratic Party. At that time Bourbon Democrats represented business interests by favoring conservative banking and railroad interests.

He became a close friend and supporter of New Jersey governor Woodrow Wilson in 1911, and helped him win the Democratic presidential nomination in 1912. He became an intimate of Wilson without holding any title and helped him set up his administration. He had enormous personal influence with President Wilson.

That's why under Colonel House influence Woodrow Wilson accepted to pass the projects of Nelson Aldrich to create an income tax and the Federal Reserve in 1913.

Later on, as his foreign policy advisor, Wilson gave House the responsibility for preparing a constitution for a League of Nations in September 1918. In October 1918, when Germany petitioned for peace based on the Fourteen Points, Wilson charged House with working out details of an armistice with the Allies.

Colonel House served on the League of Nations Commission on Mandates with Lord Milner (a controversial German-born British statesman and colonial administrator) and Lord Robert Cecil of Great Britain, M. Simon of France, Viscount Chinda of Japan, Guglielmo Marconi for Italy and George Louis Beer as adviser. Throughout 1919, House urged Wilson to work with Senator Henry Cabot Lodge to achieve ratification of the Versailles Treaty.

However the conference revealed serious policy disagreements between Wilson and House. When Wilson returned home in February 1919, House took his place on the Council of Ten where he negotiated compromises unacceptable to Wilson. In mid-March, Wilson returned to Paris and lost confidence in House, relegating him to the sidelines the same year.

Colonel House was also the founder of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) - in which Rockefeller is a permanent member - which has an enormous influence until today recruiting elite members in the world (see astounding interview of Aaron Russo whom Nicholas Rockefeller tried to recruit unsuccessfully).