GroupWatch: Profiles of U.S. Private Organizations and Churches, was compiled
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Committee for
the Free World
Acronym/Code: CFW
Updated: 8/89
Categories:
Political
Background:
The Committee for the Free World (CFW) was founded in 1981 by Midge Decter who is the executive director. CFW has tax-exempt status under 501(c)(3) and began with funding of $125,000 from individuals and ultra-conservative foundations. Among the original funders were three of the major right-wing foundations: Scaife, John M. Olin, and Smith Richardson.
(2)
In its initial press conference, the CFW said
it planned to work for freedom "in the world of ideas," and planned
to concentrate its efforts on books, newspapers, broadcasting networks, and
in classrooms. (2) It envisioned itself as an organization committed to the
defense of the non-communist world "against the rising menace of totalitarianism."(2) The group's intellectualism, democratic emphasis, and strident anticommunism
places the CFW in the arena of the numerous neoconservative groups formed
preceeding and following the election of former President Ronald Reagan.
According to its brochure, the CFW has three
purposes: to promote democracy; to keep the public aware of all threats to
democracy; and to oppose the influence of those inside and outside of the
U.S."who have made themselves the enemies of the democratic
order."(1) CFW has a speakers bureau and has a monthly publication,"Contentions."(1) It claims to have 400 members and to focus its
activities in the UK and the U.S. (2,3)
Funding:
The Scaife Family Charitable Trusts and the
Smith Richardson Fdns put up at least $25,000 each in 1981. (3)
The Adolph Coors Fdn gave CWF a $15,000 grant
in 1985 for projects advocating democracy and a free society. (17) The John
M. Olin Fdn granted $35,000 in 1985 and $50,000 in 1986 for support of publications
and for other educational purposes. (17,18)
The Smith Richardson Fdn awarded four grants
in 1985: $35,000 for general support, $35,000 for Women and Families for Defense,
$25,000 for a film project on the American Communist Party, and $10,000 for
the Campus Coalition for Democracy. (17) In 1986, Smith Richardson gave $42,500
for general support. (18)
In 1985, The Sarah Scaife Fdn gave $35,000
for operating support. (17) The Lynde and Harry Bradley Fdn gave $100,000
in 1986 in support of a conference in Milwaukee and general activities. (18)
Activities:
Director Midge Decter and deputy director
Micah Morrison regularly write columns for the national press, including The
New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. (4,5) CFW activities and policies
are often covered in the Unification Church-owned Washington Times. (6,7)
The articles generally attack politicians or legislation under consideration
that proposes cooperation with communist nations or arms reduction. (4,5,7)
Over the past few years, the CFW along with
the Smith Richardson Fdn have provided $100,000 to an ad hoc task force headed
by three Phoenix lawyers who are opposing the connection of the American Bar
Association with the Association of Soviet Lawyers. (5) The Phoenix task force
represents Soviet Jewry and Ukranian and Baltic nationalists. (5)
The CFW has taken a number of full-page ads
in the New York Times and Washington Post. (8,9,10,11) One printed in the
Times in 1988 opposed the cease-fire in Nicaragua proposed at the Sapoa meeting
by five Central American Nations. The ad claimed that,"peace accords
that are not backed by military force are nothing more than surrender."(8)
A 1981 ad called for armed opposition to the
guerrilla groups in El Salvador, stating they are dominated by the Salvadoran
communist party and Marxist-Leninist factions. It declared that the U.S.
has a vital stake in holding back "Soviet advancement" in El Salvador.
(9)
An ad from 1982 supported Solidarity in Poland.
It called for a ban of Western loans, Western goods and Western technology
to both the "Quisling government" set up by the Soviet Union and
to the USSR. These actions, the ad stated, would "further the processes
of disintegration from within that may mark the beginning of the end of the
Soviet Empire."(10)
The CFW and the American Fdn for Resistance
Intl cosponsored an appeal for "economic blackmail"--or play it
our way and you will be rewarded--with an ad in June 1988 in the Washington
Post. This ad supported the McClure amendment which would provide a Most Favored
Nation trade status to certain nations. (11) The trade "perk" would
be given to nations signing some non-governmental document--no details are
given on the content of the document. (11) A second ad in June of 1988 shows
a huge bear crushing a man in a suit and carries the caption,"Have We
Forgotten That Every Time We've Hugged The Bear, Somebody Else Has Suffered?"(14)
The message clearly is not to trust the
Soviet Union, not to believe in glasnost, and not to negotiate any arms reductions.
(14)
All of the ads are signed by the board of
directors and other neoconservative luminaries. All include a coupon requesting
donations to support the work of the CFW. Those endorsing the ads and the
work of CFW include a widespectrum of the right wing. Among them are: Richard
V. Allen, Edwin J. Feulner, Jr, Burton Pines, Robert Bork, Ray Cline, Ellen
C. Garwood, Joshua Muravchik, William Rusher, William E. Simon, Arnaud de
Borchgrave, Leo Cherne, Thomas W. Gleason, Roy Godson, Penn Kemble, Michael
Ledeen, R. Bruce McColm, Norman Podhoretz, Bayard Rustin, Ben J. Wattenberg,
Lewis Tambs, Max Singer, and Eugene V. Wigner. (8,9,10,11,14)
In 1985, the CFW had a 2-day conference around
the subject of the Reagan-Gorbachev summit meeting in Geneva. The conference
presented the usual neoconservative complaint that the Reagan administration
failed to translate its anticommunist rhetoric into a hardline strategy to
rollback the influence of communism in the world. Speakers at the conference
strongly promoted the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) and were critical
of any attempt to negotiate with the Soviets. (15) Among those present at
the conference were Harvard Sovietologist Richard Pipes, Michael Ledeen, Assistant
Secretary of Defense Richard Perle, and Asst. Secretary of State Elliott Abrams,
and conservative critics Irving Kristol and Norman Podhoretz. (15)
CFW markets, and presumably has made two films,"Agents of Deception" and "The KGB Connections." The
former covers the Soviet Union's use of "disinformation," and how
it is used against Western democracies."The KGB Connections" examines
Soviet espionage activities in North America. (19) Also offered for sale are
pro-SDI publications and the proceedings of two CFW conferences. (20)
Government Connections:
Michael Ledeen was involved with Col. Oliver
North in the Iran-Contra affair. Their work together involved the development
and dissemination of disinformation. (16) Ledeen has been described by the
Israeli press as an American agent who got Israel involved as a broker in
another Iran-Contra related deal between the U.S. and Iran. (16) Ledeen became
an editor at the Center for Strategic and Intl Studies in the late 1970s.
He later joined the Reagan administration where he served as an adviser to
North on the National Security Council and was on the planning group that
led to the creation of the State Department's Office of Public Diplomacy.
(16)
Richard Perle served as Sen. Henry "Scoop"
Jackson's chief aide on military affairs. In that capacity he toured the country
speaking on behalf of the anti-Soviet agenda of the Committee on the Present
Danger (CPD). (21) Perle went on to join the Reagan administration as Asst
Sec of Defense for Intl Security Policy. (21)
Richard V. Allen became President Reagan's
first foreign policy advisor and in that position was a core member of the
neoconservative group that shaped the foreign policy for the administration.
Allen went on to become National Security Adviser to President Reagan. (21)
Another important figure in foreign policy
development was CWF endorser, Richard Pipes. Pipes is considered the preeminent
Sovietologist in the country--it was the "Pipes Report" from Team
B that provided the intelligence and strategy for antiSoviet groups such as
the CPD. The report advocated an immediate tripling of the military budget,
a strong defense, and an international policy of containment militarism. (21)
Pipes was a prominent member of the CPD. He served on the National Security
Council during the Reagan administration. (21)
Elliott Abrams was deeply implicated in all
aspects of the Iran-Contra Affair. He first served in the Reagan administration
as Assistant Secretary of State for Human
Rights and Humanitarian Affairs and later as the Assistant Secretary of State
for Inter-American Affairs. (21,47) In the latter position, he was heavily
involved in the Iran-Contra affair. Abrams is Midge Decter's son-in-law. (47)
Roy Godson served as the U.S. representative
to the Intl Youth Year conference, an event funded by the National Endowment
for Democracy. He also served as a consultant to the U.S. Information Agency
in the early 1980s and was a member of the CIA transition team in 1980. (25)
Lewis Tambs was a member of the World Anti-Communist
League. He served as ambassador to Costa Rica until 1986. (27,28) Tambs is
also a member of the Council for Inter-American Security. The Council produced
the first so-called "Santa Fe Document" which laid out much of the
interventionist policy implemented in Central America during President Reagan's
first term in office. (37)
William Simon was Secretary of the Treasury
under President Richard Nixon. (37)
Ray Cline was a deputy director of the CIA
from 1964 through 1967. (26)
Jeane Kirkpatrick served as the U.S. permanent
representative to the United Nations during the Reagan administration. (47)
Private Connections:
Max Singer, an endorser of the CFW, is president
of the conservative business strategy consulting firm the Potomac Organization.
He went to Honduras in 1983 where he offered advice on how to improve the
image of the contras. Of high priority, Singer obsrved, was the avoidance
of the image of the contras as a U.S. -run army. (12) Singer also noted that
he was planning to return to Washington to write a book promoting the contras.
(12) Singer was on the board of Friends of the Democratic Center in Central
America (PRODEMCA). (12) PRODEMCA was founded to support incipient democratic
processes in Central America. (45) It has a controversial history because
of its advocacy of the Nicaraguan contras and involvement in the IranContra
affair.
PRODEMCA received $88,000 from Spitz Channell,
head of the National Endowment for the Preservation of Liberty, a major actor
in Lt. Col Oliver North's private aid network for the contras. (32,37) PRODEMCA
terminated its own operations and merged with Freedom House in late 1988.
(45)
Eugene Wigner, a physicist by profession,
was on the board of the Committee on the Present Danger. (21) Wigner has also
served on the board of right-wing Accuracy in Media, a group that promotes
conservative causes by monitoring and criticizing the mainstream media. (22,23)
He has served on the board of trustees of Freedom House, another neoconservative
group working internationally in support of the "institutions of democracy."(24) In 1982, Wigner received a $200,000 "Founders Award"
from the Rev. Sun Myung Moon--head of the Unification Church. (41)
Ellen Garwood is a Dallas heiress, perhaps
best known for her generous donations to the U.S. Council for World Freedom,
the U.S. chapter of the World Anti-Communist League. (26) She is also a member
of the Council for National Policy (CNP), an elite foreign policy planning
group composed mostly of conservative millionaires. (39) CNP aspires to be
the policymaking body for the New Right. (46)
Ben J. Wattenberg and Irving Kristol were
co-directors of the Coalition for a Democratic Majority (CDM), a group that
was formed by the conservative wing of the Democratic Party in 1972. CDM was
an advocate of a strong military and the theory of "peace through strength." Many of its members went on to join the Committee on the Present Danger.
(21) In 1988 Wattenberg was a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute,
a rightwing think tank that develops and provides supporting documents for
the policies of the New Right. (21,29)
Irving Kristol is a senior fellow at the American
Enterprise Institute. He is a columnist for the Wall Street Journal, the publisher
of the National Interest magazine, and co-editor of the Public Interest magazine.
Formerly, Kristol was exec vice pres of Basic Books and managing editor of
Commentary magazine. (47) All of the above publication present are conservative.
Commentary is edited by Norman Podhoretz, husband of Midge Decter. Jeane Kirkpatrick
and Elliott Abrams are contributors to the magazine, and Midge Decter was
formerly a managing editor. (47)
Penn Kemble is chairman of the executive committee
of CDM. (30) He was a member of the Natl Committee of Social Democrats, USA
(SD/USA), a coalition of intellectual, anticommunist neoconservatives who
believe that labor is the "cutting edge" for social change. (33,47)
He was founder and president of Friends of the Democratic Center in Central
America (PRODEMCA). (31,47) Jeanne Kirkpatrick and Former Treasury Secretary
William Simon were also on the PRODEMCA board. Jeane Kirkpatrick was a prominent
member of the Coalition for a Democratic Majority and a member of the Committee
on the Present Danger. Both groups are strongly anticommunist and in the 1970s
developed and promoted the strategy of containment militarism. (21) She is
a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and is or was on the
faculty of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, another policydeveloping
think tank that was closely tied to the Reagan administration. (50) Kirkpatrick
is also a syndicated columnist for the New York Times. (47)
Midge Decter is another major player in the
neoconservative network that came to the political forefront after Reagan's
election to the Presidency. Decter was a founding member of the Coalition
for a Democratic Majority and a member of the Committee on the Present Danger.
(47) She was on the board of the Heritage Fdn and a former senior editor at
Basic Books. (47)
William Simon is or was a trustee of the conservative
think tank, the Heritage Fdn. (40) He is president of the Olin Fdn, a major
funder of right-wing groups. (22) He is or was on the board of governors of
the Council for National Policy. (39) Simon is also a member of the right-wing
lay Catholic group, the Knights of Malta--a group very active in Central America.
(36) Simon headed a major fund for private support to the Nicaraguan contras,
the Nicaraguan Freedom Fund. (37) He also served on the advisory committee
for AmeriCares, a group that received funds from the Nicaraguan Freedom Fund.
AmeriCares not only supported the contras, but has been implicated in manipulation
of the internal politics in Nicaragua. (42,43) Simon was a board member of
PRODEMCA. (37) He also has been connected with the American Enterprise Institute,
a right-wing think tank, and the conservative media watchdog group, Accuracy
in Media. (37)
Bayard Rustin was on the original board of
the CPD. (21) He was chairman of the exec committee of Freedom House and of
SD/USA. Rustin was vice pres of the League for Industrial Democracy, a group
that works closely with SD/USA, and was on the board of the CDM. (34,35)
Ray Cline was on the board of the U.S. Council
for World Freedom, the U.S. chapter of the World Anti-Communist League (WACL).
Cline was also involved with the activities of WACL. (26) He is the head of
the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). (43)
Arnaud de Borchgrave is the editor of the
Unification Church-owned Washington Times newspaper. He is also a senior associate
at CSIS. (26)
Joshua Muravchik is currently on the board
of CDM. (30) He is the son of Emanuel Muravchik and nephew of Midge Decter.
(21)
Edwin Feulner is president of The Heritage
Fdn, a group that played an important part in developing policy for the Reagan
administration. (38) He was on the 1984 board of governors of the Council
for National Policy. (39) Burton Yale Pines is a senior vice pres for Research
at the Heritage Fdn. (38)
Roy Godson is on the boards of the Committee
for a Democratic Majority and the League for Industrial Democracy. (48,49)
Godson heads the Washington DC office of the National Strategy Information
Center (NSIC), a right-wing think tank for military strategy. (21)
Misc:
According to an article in the April 18,
1981 edition of The Nation, The Smith Richardson Fdn not only has CIA agents
reviewing grants, but also provides management training to the CIA and the
Defense Department through an affiliate organization. (3)
In 1988, Midge Decter was quoted in the Los
Angeles Times as writing that,"Congress's recent cut-off of aid to the
Contras was 'a day that will live in infamy' like the day of Pearl Harbor."(13)
Comments:
U.S. Address:
Principals:
Officers in 1989 are: Donald H. Rumsfeld,
chairman; Midge Decter, exec dir; Neal Kozodoy, sec; Robert B. Glynn, tres.
(1)
Board of Directors, 1989 are: William Barrett,
author and philosopher; Alain Bensancon, Ecole des Hautes Etudes, France;
Enzo Bettiza, journalist, Italy; Gerd Bucerius, Die Zeit, Germany; Jean-Claude
Casanova, Commentaire, France; Lord Chalfont, author, UK ; Carl Gershman,
pres of the National Endowment for Democracy; Sir James Goldsmith, publisher,
France; Johannes Gross, author, W. Germany; Paul Johnson, author, UK ;
Jeane Kirkpatrick, former ambassador to the United Nations; Leszek Kolakowski,
U. of Chicago; Hilton Kramer, The New Criterion; Irving Kristol, The Public
Interest; Leopold Labedz, Survey, UK; Melvin J. Lasky, Encounter, UK
; Seymour Martin Lipset, Stanford U. ; Nicholas Lobkowixz, Catholic U. , W.
Germany; Golo Mann; historian, W. Germany; Indro Montanelli, journalist, Italy;
Erwin Scheuch, U. of Cologne, W. Germany; Edward Shils, U. of Chicago; Tom
Stoppard, playwright, UK ; Lord Thomas, Centre for Policy Studies, UK
; George Urban, historian, UK; Jacqueline Wheldon, author, UK ; and
George F. Will, columnist. (1)
Columnist Micah Morrison is a deputy director
of CFW. (4)
