Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Council on Foreign Relations filed its certification of incorporation on the 29th of July 1921. This legal action formally established the organization after years of discreet meetings that began in June 1918.
Corporate lawyer Elihu Root headed the initial meetings that formed the Council on Foreign Relations starting in June 1918. The group officially became a corporation on the 29th of July 1921 with John W. Davis serving as its first elected president.
During the Kennedy administration 51% of top U.S. foreign policy officials were members of the Council on Foreign Relations. This figure rose to 57% under the Johnson administration making it the highest recorded peak for membership among government leaders.
The Council on Foreign Relations publishes the bi-monthly journal Foreign Affairs which released its first issue in September 1922. Edwin F. Gay secured $125,000 from wealthy members to fund this publication that gained a reputation as the most authoritative American review dealing with international relations.
George Kennan anonymously published an article titled The Sources of Soviet Conduct in Foreign Affairs in 1947 introducing the concept of containment. This essay shaped U.S. foreign policy over the course of the next seven presidential administrations and influenced the framework for the Marshall Plan and NATO.