Committee on the Present Danger

Logo of the Committee on the Present Danger.

The Committee on the Present Danger (CPD) is an American foreign policy interest group. Its current stated single goal is "to stiffen American resolve to confront the challenge presented by terrorism and the ideologies that drive it"^[1] through "education and advocacy".^[2] Throughout its three iterations—in the 1950s, the 1970s, and the 2000s (decade), it influenced the Presidential administrations of Harry Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan,^[3] and George W. Bush, and was still active as of 2008.

Overview

The focus of the committee, which is non-partisan,^[1] is evidenced by its name; to lobby Washington to take what the committee sees as needed action to counter a perceived present danger to the United States and its sphere of influence.

The committee first met in 1950, founded by Tracy Voorhees, to promote the plans proposed in NSC-68 by Paul Nitze and Dean Acheson. It lobbied the government directly and sought to influence public opinion through a publicity campaign, notably a weekly radio broadcast on the Mutual Broadcasting System throughout 1951.^[4] This iteration of the CPD was disbanded in 1953 when its leaders were offered positions in the Presidential administration of Dwight D. Eisenhower.

It was privately revived in March 1976 to try to influence the presidential candidates and their advisors. After Jimmy Carter won the election, CPD went public again and spent the next four years lobbying, particularly against détente and the SALT II agreement. Its hawkish conclusions influenced the CIA's future reporting on the Soviet threat, but, ultimately, proved to have provided a highly inaccurate worst-case scenario. This iteration of the CPD provided 33 officials to the Ronald Reagan administration.

History

First CPD (1950s)

The CPD, according to PublicEye.org, was originally "formed in 1950 by top eastern establishment luminaries."

On 12 December 1950, James Conant, Tracy Voorhees and Vannevar Bush announced the creation of the Committee on the Present Danger.^[5] The group was formed in order to support the Truman Administration's remilitarization plans contained within NSC-68.^[5] The 'present danger' to which the group's title referred was "the aggressive designs of the Soviet Union", the CPD announced.^[5]

Members of the First CPD

Second CPD (1970s)

On 11 November 1976, the second iteration was announced.^[6] The name of this version of the Committee was "borrow[ed]" from the 1950s version, and was not a direct successor.^[6] 141 founding Board Members and a policy statement, 'Common Sense and the Common Danger', were introduced at the CPD's launch.^[7]

Some of its members lobbied for, and were members of, the 1976 Team B providing an opposing view to the CIA's Team A.

CPD provided 33 officials of the Reagan administration, including Director of Central Intelligence William Casey, National Security Advisor Richard V. Allen, United States Ambassador to the United Nations Jeane Kirkpatrick, Secretary of the Navy John Lehman, Secretary of State George Shultz and Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Perle. Reagan himself was a member in 1979.

Founding Members of the Second CPD

Third CPD (2004)

In June 2004, The Hill reported that a third incarnation of CPD was being planned, to address the War on Terrorism.^[8] This incarnation of the committee is still active as of 2008. The head of the 2004 CPD, PR pro and former Reagan adviser Peter D. Hannaford, explained, "we saw a parallel" between the Soviet threat and the threat from terrorism. The message that CPD will convey through lobbying, media work and conferences is that the war on terror needs to be won, he said.^[8]

Members of the 2004 CPD include Vice President for Policy Larry Haas, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, former CIA director R. James Woolsey, Jr., former National Security Advisor to President Reagan, Robert C. McFarlane and Reagan administration official and 1976 Committee founder Max Kampelman.^[8] At the July 20, 2004 launching of the 2004 CPD, Lieberman and Senator Jon Kyl were identified as the honorary co-chairs.^[9] Other notable members listed on the CPD website include Laurie Mylroie, Norman Podhoretz, Frank Gaffney, Danielle Pletka and other associates of the American Enterprise Institute, Heritage Foundation, American-Israel Public Affairs Committee and the Boeing Company.^[10]

See also

• Coalition for a Democratic Majority
• Neoconservative
• Foreign policy interest group
• Citizens for a Free Kuwait
• Committee for the Liberation of Iraq
• Committee for Peace and Security in the Gulf
• Institute on Religion and Democracy

References

Further reading

• Tyroler, II, Charles (1984). Alerting America: The Papers of the Committee on the Present Danger. Permagon Brassey's. ISBN 0-08-031925-4. 
• Vaïsse, Justin (2010). "Chapter 5: Nuclear Alarm: The Committee on the Present Danger". Neoconservatism: The Biography of a Movement. Belknap. ISBN 978-0-674-06070-8. 
• Sanders, Jerry (1983). Peddlers of Crisis: The Committee on the Present Danger and the Politics of Containment. South End Press. ISBN 0-89608-181-8. 
• Walker, Martin (1995). "Chapters 11 & 12: The Death of Détente and the Change of the Western System; The New Cold War". The Cold War: A History. Macmillan. ISBN 0-8050-3454-4. 

External links

• CPD Home page
• The Committee on the Present Danger Papers at the Hoover Institution