Roger Hilsman in an author and political scientist. He served as an American soldier with the Merrill’s Marauders in Pacific Theater during World War II and as an aid and advisor to President John F. Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Hilsman graduated from The US Military Academy in 1944. He was later named chief of the State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) and the Assistant Secretary of State during the Johnson administration. Hilsman has been Professor of Government and International Politics at Columbia University since 1964. Now retired, Hilsman serves as a professor emeritus

He has since written at least 11 books about 20th Century American foreign policy. They include:

• Foreign policy in the sixties: The issues and the instruments (1965)
• To Move a Nation: The Politics of Foreign Policy in the Administration of John F. Kennedy (1967)
• Politics Of Policy Making In Defense and Foreign Affairs: Conceptual Models and Bureaucratic Politics (1971)
• The crouching future: International politics and U.S. foreign policy - a forecast (1975)
• To Govern America (1979)
• Strategic Intelligence and National Decisions (1981)
• The Politics of Governing America (1985)
• George Bush Vs. Saddam Hussein: Military Success! Political Failure? (1992)
• The Cuban Missile Crisis: The Struggle Over Policy (1996)
• From Nuclear Military Strategy to a World Without War (1999)
• American Guerrilla: My War Behind Japanese Lines (2005)