SKULL AND BONES 322 CODE
SKULL AND BONES 322 PROFESSIONAL

Bonesmen say they convened at the Four Seasons hotel in Austin to celebrate Bush's inaugural as Texas governor, and shortly after Bush became president, The New Yorker reported that one of his first social functions at the White House was a gathering with the Bonesmen of 1968. Eleven of Bush's 14 brothers have visited Camp David during his presidency, according to the White House, which lists them simply as friends or donors. Members of Bush's group gathered for his wedding and celebrated most of his political triumphs together. Schmoke said the society seemed uncool as anti-establishment feeling swept the Yale campus in the 1960s and 1970s he rejected Bones on Tap Night.ĭefenders of the secret society say it's no wonder the members became leaders - they were, after all, picked for the club because they were among the best and brightest at a school that celebrates independent thinking and public service.įor Bush and Kerry, the Bones relationships are still strong. Kingman Brewster Jr., Yale's president when Bush was a student, was a hero on some parts of the campus for turning down Bones when he was tapped nearly three decades before. Others famously rebuffed Bones, finding it ostentatious in its secrecy and its embrace of the establishment. 'It's an awful indictment that you have to disappear into a tomb to have a meaningful relationship,' he told The New York Times in 1967, when he was quoted in a front-page article about the selection of the next crop of Bonesmen, a group that included Bush. took aim at the club and its male bonding rituals, regretting that he'd ever belonged in the late 1940s. In the late 1960s, anti-Vietnam War activist the Rev. Sometimes, former members actually come to disdain the ethos of this group. And not all Bonesmen even keep in touch or make a big deal about the brotherhood.

SKULL AND BONES 322 PROFESSIONAL

and many Central Intelligence Agency operatives and corporate titans.īut not every Bonesman is destined for professional success - many are living modestly without a hint of influence on the national scene. Averell Harriman and Henry Stimson writers such as Archibald MacLeish and William F. While conspiracy theorists may run with the idea of a secret ruling junta nestled in the heart of Yale, others see the Bones ties as evidence of something less suspicious but still significant - that despite some populist political successes, America still relies heavily on established networks of influence and power and connection.īones alumni include President William Howard Taft Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart Time magazine founder Henry Luce Washington power brokers such as W.

SKULL AND BONES 322 CODE

Their reactions aren't surprising: Though one of the world's most exclusive societies clearly influenced both men, candidates striving for Everyman appeal don't usually play up Ivy League code talking on the campaign trail. In an interview several months earlier, when Russert asked Kerry what he could say about the two candidates' association with Skull and Bones, Kerry answered, 'Not much, because it's a secret.'

He waited for a response from Bush, who replied, 'It's so secret we can't talk about it.' Last month in an interview with Bush, Tim Russert, the show's moderator, mentioned that both the president and Kerry were in Skull and Bones. Since they've become presidential candidates, Bush and Kerry have laughed off questions about their Bones days in separate interviews on NBC's Meet the Press, refusing to address the chapter of their lives that began when they were tapped as juniors to spend their senior year in the private club. The philosophy behind the death theme - coffins and skulls and bones form the decor in the sprawling interior - stems partly from the idea that life is short, so the Skull and Bones initiates had better make it count by contributing to society and fulfilling their personal goals. Inside the tomb there were encounter-group confessions and commitments to noblesse oblige members of the once all-male club spent ritualized evenings telling each other their life histories, their sexual histories, their ambitions.

Skull and bones 322