Walt Rostow, a son of immigrant parents, was a Rhodes Scholar and later earned a PhD from Yale. During World War II, he served in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and after the war, he became a professor of economic history at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 1960, he became President Kennedy's Deputy Special Assistant for national security affairs, and was appointed a counselor to the State Department in 1961. A strong anti-communist, he became special assistant to President Johnson in 1966, and his was an important voice urging the President to escalate American involvement in Vietnam. His books include The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto (1960), Politics and the Stages of Growth (1971) and The World Economy: History and Prospect (1978).