In a life that has spanned nearly nine decades and has taken him across the world and back, W. Michael Blumenthal has borne witness to the world’s convulsions and transformations during the twentieth century. Born in Germany between the two world wars, Blumenthal narrowly escaped the Nazi horror, when, in 1939, he and his family fled to Shanghai’s chaotic Jewish ghetto, where they spent the entirety of the Second World War.From these fraught and humble beginnings, Blumenthal would emerge as a major leader in American business and politics. In the second half of the century, Blumenthal headed two major American corporations—Bendix and Burroughs (later Unisys); served as a United States trade ambassador in the State Department and the White House, advising John F.
