Private Capacity Author:Renata Adler The first serious study of the ultra-secretive Bilderberg Conferences and their role in the modern world. In 1954, a group of leaders of the Western World held a secret meeting in Holland that would lead to the formation of the Bilderberg group. That meeting included officials from the United States and from two countries, Germany and Italy, ... more »which were defeated in World War II, and which were participating for the first time on an equal basis with other European powers. Since that first meeting Bilderberg has included presidents, Prime Ministers, bankers, princes, tycoons, labor leaders, secretaries of state, NATO commanders, ambassadors, and others whose occupations are not widely known. Media barons and journalists are often invited. But only if they agree to keep secret who was there and what was said. Bilderberg has been characterized as an elite think tank or an International Establishment, an elaborate social and business network, or a conspiracy that actually runs the world. This book addresses, for the first time, the true history of the organization, its participants and effects. With a cache of Bilderberg archives, secretly turned over to the author by a few senior leaders of the Bilderberg, the book describes the organization, and discusses who has been involved and when. It shows connections that exist and connections that--despite rumor, and a virtual obsession of the extreme left and right--do not. It explains how Bilderberg has changed, and in what ways it may have changed the world. The author also analyzes questions raised by clubs, cabals, exclusive and secret or not-secret groups of every sort.« less