Bilderberg Meetings Brochure
Bilderberg Meetings Brochure
Bilderberg Meetings Brochure
MEETINGS
By William P. Litynski
Photos of the Bilderberg Meetings
Vernon Jordan (left) and Jessica T. Mathews, the President of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, attend the 2004
Bilderberg Meetings in Stresa, Italy in June 2004. (Photo by Daniel Estulin)
Left photo: David Rockefeller (left), Henry Kravis, and Marie-Josee Kravis appear at the 2004 Bilderberg Meetings in Stresa,
Italy in June 2004. (Photo by Daniel Estulin)
Right photo: Vernon E. Jordan (left), Henry Kravis (center), and Marie-Josee Kravis (second from right) appear at the 2004
Bilderberg Meetings in Stresa, Italy in June 2004. (Photo by Daniel Estulin)
Left photo: Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands attends the 2004 Bilderberg Meetings in Stresa, Italy in June 2004. (Photo by Daniel Estulin)
Right photo: Henry Kissinger walks with PepsiCo. CEO Indra Nooyi at the 2004 Bilderberg Meetings in Stresa, Italy in June 2004.
(Photo by Daniel Estulin)
Henry Kissinger (sunglasses) talks to Marie-Josee Kravis (third from right) and Henry R. Kravis (second from right) while Indra Nooyi (left) talks
to Donald E. Graham at the 2004 Bilderberg Meetings in Stresa, Italy in June 2004. (Photo by Daniel Estulin)
Photos from the 2005 Bilderberg Meetings at Rottach-Egern, Germany (5-8 May 2005)
Photos from the 2005 Bilderberg Meetings at Rottach-Egern, Germany (5-8 May 2005)
Iraqi powerbroker Ahmad Chalabi (center) is seen attending the 2006 Bilderberg Meetings in Ottawa, Canada in June 2006.
“We are grateful to The Washington Post, The New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have
attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years. It would have been impossible for us to
develop our plan for the world if we had been subject to the bright lights of publicity during those years. But, the work is now much
more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and
world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries.”
– David Rockefeller, in a speech at the 1991 Bilderberg Meetings in Baden-Baden, Germany in June 1991
“Today Americans would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order; tomorrow they will be grateful! This is
especially true if they were told there was an outside threat from beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very
existence. It is then that all people of the world will plead with world leaders to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man
fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well
being granted to them by their world government.”
– Henry Kissinger, in a speech at the 1992 Bilderberg Meetings in Evian, France on May 21, 1992. (Note: Henry Kissinger’s speech
was tape-recorded by one of the Swiss delegates at the 1992 Bilderberg Meetings.)
Bilderberg Meetings participants depart the Brookstreet Hotel during the 2006 Bilderberg Meetings in Ottawa, Canada in June 2006.
Ben S. Bernanke, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, is seen leaving the 2008 Bilderberg Meetings at the Westfields Marriott Hotel in
Chantilly, Virginia on Sunday, June 8, 2008. (Note: The author [William P. Litynski] observed the 2008 Bilderberg Meetings in Chantilly,
Virginia on Thursday, June 5, 2008.)
Origins of the Bilderberg Meetings
Joseph H. Retinger (left), secretary-general of the European Movement, was the co-founder of the Bilderberg Meetings, along with Prince
Bernhard of the Netherlands, and attended the first Bilderberg Meetings in 1954. Retinger is shown meeting with former OSS Chief William J.
“Wild Bill” Donovan (center) and Thomas Braden (right), director of the Committee for United Europe. Both Donovan and Braden were
members of the Council on Foreign Relations. This photo appears in Donovan: America’s Master Spy by Richard Dunlop.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower (right) and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands enjoy a laugh together before their luncheon meeting at the
White House in Washington, D.C. on March 6, 1954. The Prince was in the United States on an industrial inspection tour. Prince Bernhard of
the Netherlands would preside over the first Bilderberg Meetings in Osterbeek, Netherlands nearly three months later. (Bettmann/CORBIS)
David Ben-Gurion (2nd right), the Prime Minister of Israel, visits Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands (left) at a castle in the Netherlands in
1961. Prince Bernhard was the Chairman of the Bilderberg Meetings from 1954 to 1976. Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands was a Nazi SS
stormtrooper for a short time before World War II.
Bilderberg Meetings participant George W. Ball (left) appears with former Nazi Party member Albert Speer during an interview at Duke of
Holstein’s castle, Schloss Glucksberg, in Germany in March 1971. This photo appears in page 254 of the book The Past Has Another Pattern:
Memoirs by George W. Ball. George W. Ball attended the 1971 Bilderberg Meetings in Vermont [U.S.A.] in April 1971.
McGeorge Bundy was the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science at Harvard University (1953-1961) and Professor of Government at Harvard
University (1954-1961) in 1957. McGeorge Bundy served as National Security Advisor (1961-1966) under President John F. Kennedy and
President Lyndon B. Johnson and served as President of Ford Foundation from 1966 until 1979.
Excerpts on the Bilderberg Meetings
“On May 29, 1954, seventy-four Western political and financial leaders gathered for a three-day conference at the Bilderberg
Hotel in Oosterbeek, Holland. Their goal was to establish a high-powered forum to promote and protect European and U.S.
relations…European leaders were concerned about the future and felt the need to assess and improve the situation. The idea for
the Bilderberg group originated in the mind of a flamboyant Pole and international adventurer named Joseph Retinger. One
friend described Retinger as “a sort of Eminence Grise of Europe, a Talleyrand without portfolio’… In 1952 Retinger
approached Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands and asked him to serve as honorary head of the organization… After
establishing a small European committee, Retinger and Bernhard turned their attention to the United States. Bernhard’s closest
contact there was General Walter Bedell Smith, then under secretary of state for Eisenhower. Bernhard had known Smith during
the war, and the two were fishing friends as well. Smith, who never became involved in Bilderberg himself, contacted C. D.
Jackson, another White House aide, who in turn approached John Coleman and George Ball, two key leaders in the Committee
for a National Trade Policy. From the very beginning, George Ball was the leading American “Bilderberger.” Although there
were no permanent members of the group, Ball made himself indispensable to the organization. Between 1954 and his death in
1994, he attended every meeting of the Bilderberg group but one. By 1994, he and David Rockefeller were the only original
founders still in regular attendance.”
– George Ball: Behind the Scenes in U. S. Foreign Policy by James A. Bill, p. 52-53
“In addition to their regular meetings, the Bilderberg group had a steering committee that usually met twice a year to plan
programs and to discuss the participant list. George Ball sat on the steering committee for twenty-five years. In this position, he
played a critical role in shaping the direction and discussion of the organization. Because Bilderberg has no permanent
membership list, the group is highly fluid and ever-changing in composition. Steering committee leaders have carefully sought
to recruit individuals in three overlapping categories. First, the Bilderberg leaders have emphasized the need for their
members to exercise considerable power and influence. They have consciously attempted to recruit individuals referred to by
Joseph E. Johnson as ‘big shots’ and ‘movers and shakers.’”
– George Ball: Behind the Scenes in U. S. Foreign Policy by James A. Bill, p. 53
“The Bilderberg ground rules are severe. All sessions are closed and off the record. Although there is an agenda, there are no
resolutions passed or votes taken. Conference participants usually number between 70 and 120 and, with one partial exception,
wives have not been invited. The conference location is rotated, with no country hosting the event in consecutive years. The
Bilderberg meetings have been financed primarily from private sources and on occasion from such organizations as the Ford,
Exxon, and Rockefeller Foundations, along with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The participants at the first
Bilderberg meeting in 1954 included seventeen influential Americans and fifty-seven Europeans drawn from ten countries. The
European representatives included eleven Britons, nine French, nine Dutch, seven Germans, and seven Italians, as well as
representatives from Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Sweden, and Norway. Besides Ball, the Americans present at the first
Bilderberg meeting included David Rockefeller, Paul Nitze, George McGhee, and Harry Heinz. The distinguished Europeans
included Denis Healey, Oliver Franks, and Hugh Gaitskell of Great Britain, and Guy Mollet and Antoine Pinay of France. Four
issues dominated that first meeting: communism and the Soviet Union, peoples of the underdeveloped world, economic policies,
and European integration.”
– George Ball: Behind the Scenes in U. S. Foreign Policy by James A. Bill, p. 53-54
“The Bilderberg group was a very special organization in George Ball’s life. In his own words: “It has been a remarkably useful
organization. In fact, of all the organizations I have ever joined or belonged to, Bilderberg has been the most useful.”…
According to Ball, Bilderberg was “enormously, effective, especially in providing a forum where people could talk perfectly
freely, and where acquaintances can be made.” In his view, the formal sessions were less valuable than “people hav[ing] private
conversations over dinner in the evenings, taking walks in the woods, doing all kinds of things. They get to know one another.
These are people who have influence on affairs, either directly as members of governments or members of opposition coming
into governments.” David Rockefeller, whose long association with Ball was based on their common membership in the
Bilderberg group, has echoed Ball’s judgment. Rockefeller described Bilderberg as “one of the most interesting
organizations that I belong to” and admitted that “it gave me an opportunity at a relatively early age to become
acquainted with some of the leaders in Europe and the United States on a very informal basis, where one got to know
them on a first-name basis.” Rockefeller was only thirty-eight years old when he attended the first Bilderberg meeting. He
and Ball, who was forty-five at the time, were among the youngest participants. From May 1954 until May 1960, George Ball
attended nine Bilderberg conferences. When he joined the Department of State as part of the Kennedy administration in 1961,
therefore, he already knew most of the leaders of the Western world. They had, after all, been Bilderbergers together.”
– George Ball: Behind the Scenes in U. S. Foreign Policy by James A. Bill, p. 54
“If the Council on Foreign Relations raises the hackles of conspiracy theorists, the Bilderberg meetings must induce
apocalyptic visions of omnipotent international bankers plotting with unscrupulous government officials to impose
cunning schemes on an ignorant and unsuspecting world. At the risk of disappointing these conspiracy mongers, the truth is
that Bilderberg is really an intensely interesting annual discussion group that debates issues of significance to both Europeans
and North Americans – without reaching consensus. Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands convened the first conference in May
1954 at the urging of Joseph Retinger, a Pole of aristocratic origins who had served with British intelligence during World War
II. Retinger, a dynamic and energetic man who spoke with a heavy accent and walked with a pronounced limp, was concerned
about the tense relations within the Atlantic community. He persuaded Bernhard to convene a group of prominent individuals to
discuss these matters. I was one of eleven Americans invited, and we joined fifty delegates from eleven Western European
countries – a lively mosaic of politicians, businessmen, journalists, and trade unionists. I was surprised to have been invited in
the first place and been more taken aback when Retinger asked me to prepare a background paper on prospects for the world
economy from the American perspective…The conference had served a useful purpose, and the consensus was that we should
meet again the following year under the continuing chairmanship of Prince Bernhard. We also decided to call the gathering
“Bilderberg” after the hotel in Oosterbeek where we had first assembled.”
– Memoirs by David Rockefeller, p. 410-411
“In late 1952, Retinger went to America to try the idea out on his American contacts. Among others, he saw such old friends as
Averell Harriman, David Rockefeller, and Bedell Smith, then director of the CIA. After Retinger explained his proposal, Smith
said, ‘Why the hell didn’t you come to me in the first place?’ He quickly referred Retinger to C. D. Jackson, who was about to
become Eisenhower’s special assistant for psychological warfare. It took a while for Jackson to organize the American wing of
the group, but finally, in May 1954, the first conference was held in the Hotel de Bilderberg, a secluded hotel in Holland, near
the German border. Prince Bernhard and Retinger drew up the list of invitees from the European countries, while Jackson
controlled the American list. As Retinger explained, invitations were ‘only sent to important and generally respected people
who through their special knowledge or experience, their personal contacts and their influence in national and international
circles can help to further the aims set by Bilderberg.’ Americans like David Rockefeller, Dean Rusk, and Joseph Johnson
turned up in Bilderberg to meet with such influential Europeans as Denis Healey, Guy Mollet, and Alcide de Gasperi, the
architect of postwar Italy…But in general, the purpose of the Bilderberg meetings was less a matter of elite decision-making
than yet another attempt to sketch the boundaries of an Atlantic consensus. In this respect, Prince Bernhard’s meetings were
little more than an extension of the Council on Foreign Relations. Indeed, the steering committee of the American section of the
Bilderberg Group consisted entirely of CFR members.”
– The Chairman: John J. McCloy, The Making of the American Establishment by Kai Bird, p. 471-472
Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands presides at the First Bilderberg Group conference in Oosterbeek, Netherlands in May 1954.
Excerpts from the 1980 Bilderberg Meetings Summary Report
BILDERBERG MEETINGS VENUES & CONFERENCES SINCE 1954
Eric Wyndham-White, Director-General of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade [GATT] (1965-1968)
Arthur Dunkel, Director-General of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (1980-1993)
Peter D. Sutherland, Director-General of World Trade Organization (1993-1995)
Renato Ruggiero, Director-General of World Trade Organization (1995-1999)
Mike Moore, Director-General of the World Trade Organization (1999-2002)
Pascal Lamy, Director-General of the World Trade Organization (2005-present)
A.H.E.M. “Nout” Wellink, Chairman of the Board and President of the Bank for International Settlements (2002-present)
Willem F. Duisenberg, President of the European Central Bank (1998-2003)
Jean-Claude Trichet, President of the European Central Bank (2003-present)
Romano Prodi, President of the European Commission (1999-2004)
Jose Manuel Durao Barroso, President of the European Commission (2004-present)
Thorkil Kristensen, Secretary-General of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (1961-1969)
Jonkheer Emile van Lennep, Secretary-General of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (1969-1984)
Jean-Claude Paye, Secretary-General of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (1984-1996)
Donald J. Johnston, Secretary-General of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (1996-2006)
Heads of central banks and private banks who have attended the Bilderberg Meetings at least once
(Note: year indicates service in central banks or private banks)
Organization executives and who have attended the Bilderberg Meetings at least once
(Note: year indicates service as heads of organizations)
Joseph E. Johnson, President of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (1950-1971)
Jessica T. Mathews, President of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (1997-present)
McGeorge Bundy, President of Ford Foundation (1966-1979)
Franklin A. Thomas, President of Ford Foundation (1979-1996)
Dean Rusk, President of The Rockefeller Foundation (1952-1960)
Judith Rodin, President of The Rockefeller Foundation (2004-present)
John McCloy, Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations (1953-1970); Chairman of Ford Foundation (1958-1965)
David Rockefeller, Chairman of Council on Foreign Relations (1970-1985); North American Chairman of Trilateral Commission (1977-1991)
Winston Lord, President of the Council on Foreign Relations (1977-1985)
Richard N. Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations (2003-present)
Bruce K. MacLaury, President of The Brookings Institution (1977-1995)
Michael H. Armacost, President of The Brookings Institution (1995-2002)
Walter Isaacson, President of Aspen Institute (2003-present)
David T. McLaughlin, former President of Aspen Institute (1988-1994, 1995-1997)
Johan Jorgen Holst, Director of Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
Jacques Rastoul, Executive Director of Canadian Institute of International Affairs
Thierry de Montbrial, President of the French Institute for International Relations
James Eberle, Director of The Royal Institute of International Affairs
Journalists and media executives who have attended the Bilderberg Meetings at least once
(Note: year indicates service in occupation)
Rupert Murdoch – Chairman and CEO of News Corp. (Fox News) (1991-present)
Arthur Hays Sulzberger – Chairman of the board (1957-1968) and President (1935-1957) of The New York Times Co.
Frederick S. Beebe – Chairman of the board of The Washington Post Co. (1961-1973)
Katharine Graham – Chairman of the board of The Washington Post Co. (1973-1993)
Donald E. Graham – Chairman and CEO of The Washington Post Co. (1993-present)
Peter R. Kann – Chairman of Dow Jones & Co. (1991-2007) and Publisher of The Wall Street Journal (1989-2002)
Karen Elliot House – Publisher of The Wall Street Journal (2002-2005)
Charles D. Jackson – former Publisher of Life magazine
Hedley Donovan – Editor-in-Chief of Time, Inc. (1964-1979)
Henry A. Grunwald – Editor-in-Chief of Time, Inc. (1979-1987)
Norman Pearlstine – Editor-in-Chief of Time, Inc. (1995-2005)
William F. Buckley Jr. – Editor-in-Chief of National Review (1955-1990)
Mortimer B. Zuckerman – Editor-in-Chief of U.S. News & World Report (1984-present)
Arthur R. Taylor – President of CBS (1972-1976)
Andrea Mitchell – NBC Journalist
Lesley R. Stahl – CBS Journalist (“60 Minutes”)
Peter Jennings – ABC Journalist
Thomas L. Friedman – New York Times columnist
Charles Krauthammer – Washington Post columnist
Theo Sommer – former Editor-in-Chief of Die Zeit
Heads of State and Government who have attended the Bilderberg Meetings at least once
(Note: year indicates service in government)
Lord Home of the Hirsel, K. T. (Alec Douglas-Home), Prime Minister of Great Britain (1963-1964)
Harold Wilson, Prime Minister of Great Britain (1964-1970, 1974-1976)
Edward R.G. Heath, Prime Minister of Great Britain (1970-1974)
James Callaghan, Prime Minister of Great Britain (1976-1979)
Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of Great Britain (1979-1990)
Tony Blair, Prime Minister of Great Britain (1997-2007)
Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of Great Britain (2007-present)
European monarchs who have attended the Bilderberg Meetings at least once:
Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands
Prince Claus of the Netherlands
Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands
Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands
Queen Sofia of Spain
King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden
King Harald V of Norway (attended as a prince)
Prince Philippe of Belgium
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Prince Charles of Wales
Prince Hans-Adam of Liechtenstein
PROMINENT BILDERBERG MEETINGS PARTICIPANTS
Otto Wolff von Amerongen Sir Eric Roll (Lord Roll of Ipsden) George W. Ball
Netherlands
Professor of International Relations, Leiden
University in the Netherlands
(1963-1975, 1977-1984, 1988-1994, 1997-
1998)
Etienne Davignon Vernon E. Jordan Jr.
Belgium U.S.A.
Vice Chairman of Suez-Tractebel Senior Managing Director of Lazard Freres
(1972, 1974, 1977-1978, 1980, 1983-1992, (1969-1970, 1979-1985.1987, 1989-2009)
1994-2009)
James A. Perkins
U.S.A. Edmond de Rothschild Helmut Schmidt
President of Cornell University France Germany
(1963, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1971-1975, 1980) International Financier Chancellor of West Germany
(1968-1975, 1977) (1966, 1967, 1969, 1973, 1974, 1977, 1980,
1983, 1986)