The Wise Men (book) by comparing them to these "wise men". The Wise Men (book) The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made is a 1986 book by Walter Isaacson and Evan Thomas. It describes the actions of a group of U.S. government officials and members of the East Coast foreign policy Establishment. Starting in the immediate post-World War II period, the group developed the containment policy of dealing with the Communist bloc during the Cold War. They also helped to craft institutions and initiatives such as NATO, the World Bank, and the Marshall Plan. An updated edition of the book was
Biblical Magi tribute. The Syrian King Seleucus II Callinicus is recorded to have offered gold, frankincense and myrrh (among other items) to Apollo in his temple at Miletus in 243 BC, and this may have been the precedent for the mention of these three gifts in Gospel of Matthew (). It was these three gifts, it is thought, which were the chief cause for the number of the Magi becoming fixed eventually at three. This episode can be linked to and to , which report gifts being given by kings, and this has played a central role in the perception of the