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National Strategy
Information Center
Acronym/Code: NSIC
Updated: 8/89
Categories:
Political
Background:
The NSIC is a right-wing think tank for military
strategy. It has a history of working with hard-line, antiSoviet groups promoting
an aggressive U.S. foreign policy. (10)
In a 1961 article in the Military Review on
the subject of political warfare, Frank Barnett wrote,"Political warfare
in short, is warfare--not public relations. It is one part persuasion and
two parts deception. It embraces diverse forms of coercion and violence including
strikes and riots, economic sanctions, subsidies for guerrilla or proxy warfare
and, when necessary, kidnapping or assassination of enemy elites.
"The aim of political warfare... is
to discredit, displace, and neutralize an opponent, to destroy a competing
ideology, and to reduce the adherents to political impotence. It is to make
one's own values prevail by working the levers of power, as well as by using
persuasion."(22)
In 1962, Frank Barnett founded NSIC. Among
its founding directors, officers and advisers were such stalwart right-wing
figures as beer baron and funder of many ultra-rightist organizations Joseph
Coors; Prescott Bush, Jr. , brother of President George Bush; Frank Shakespeare,
chairman of the conservative think tank, the Heritage Fdn; and William Casey,
former director of the CIA. (1,11,29)
The stated purpose of NSIC is to "encourage
a civilmilitary partnership" to keep the public informed on issues surrrounding
national defense. A properly informed public, the NSIC believes, will support
"A viable U.S. defense system capable of protecting the nation's vital
interests and assisting allies and other free nations determined to maintain
their core values of freedom and independence."(12) One of the goals
of NSIC is "to train young American labor leaders in the critical issues--philosophy,
military, and political--that divide the free world from the Communist States."(10) The group focuses its efforts on
business, labor, professional and military groups; academic and mass media;
governmental schools; and colleges and universities. (12)
Funding:
Between 1973 and 1981, Richard Scaife donated
a total of $6 million to the NSIC from the Carthage Fdn, the Sarah Scaife
Fdn, and the Trust for the Grandchildren of Sarah Mellon Scaife. (1) In 1985
the John M. Olin Fdn gave the Washington office of NSIC three grants: $107,320
for support for an advisory committee for European democracy; $41,300 for
support for a book by Abram Shulsky on American intelligence and national
security; and $20,000 to support educational programs on the nature of totalitarian
regimes. (3) In the same year, the NY office received the following grants:
$10,000 from the Adolph Coors Fdn for programs and publications on national
security; $35,000 for work on the history of Soviet intelligence, $30,000
for research and writing on detente, and $15,000 support for a conference
at the Center for European Strategy from the Winston Salem Fdn; $5,000 of
general support from the Samuel Roberts Nobel Fdn; and from the W. W. Smith
Charitable Trust $260,000 for operating support and $70,000 for a Consortium
for the Study of Intelligence which examines the intelligence networks of
various nations. (3)
In 1986, the Washington office of NSIC received
$41,000 from the John M. Olin Fdn to support the book by Abram Shulsky on
American intelligence and national security, and $152,000 from the Lynde and
Harry Bradley Fdn to support a program on national defense and intelligence.
(4) In 1986, the N. Y. office received $15,000 from the Smith Richardson Fdn,
$5,000 from the TRW Fdn, and $175,000 from the Sarah Scaife Fdn for general
operating support. (4)
In 1981-1982, the NSIC received a grant from
the U.S. Information Agency to study
the feasibility of an Intl Youth Year conference. (2)
The organization lists its 1989 budget as
$1,600,000. (12)
Activities:
The NSIC worked with the Committee on the
Present Danger (CPD) as a lobbyist for the preservation of containment militarism,
a policy demanding a strong U.S. military build-up and presence throughout
the world. The CPD saw the Soviet Union as a powerful evil force with the
goal of world domination. (10) In order to be more effective in its work with
the CPD, NSIC opened a full-scale office in Washington DC in 1976 to interact
with the White House and the Pentagon, to work with Trade Associations, and
to inform the public of the concepts and plans of the CPD. (10) In setting
up the DC office, Barnett worked directly with ultra-hawk Eugene V. Rostow
of the CPD. Barnett brought Rostow onto the NSIC board. (10)
The NSIC Washington office, run by Roy Godson,
has spent the decade of the 1980s developing a nine volume agenda for U.S.
foreign policy, with a special focus on low intensity warfare and intelligence.
(28,29) According to NSIC's literature the purpose of NSIC's Consortium for
the Study of Intelligence (CSI) is to encourage colleges and universities
to offer in-depth programs of study on intelligence; to promote the development
of a U.S. theory of intelligence and define its place in American national
security policy; to encourage research into the intelligence process; and
to study the tensions between intelligence activities and the democratic process
and values of our society. (31)
Subjects of the volumes include: The Elements
of Intelligence; Analysis and Estimates; Counterintelligence; Covert Action;
Clandestine Collection; Domestic Intelligence; and Intelligence and Policy.
(31)
The production of each volume of the series
was preceeded by a conference or symposium of invited guests where the substance
of the volume was developed. Attendees at the conferences became defacto important
players in the activities of the think tank. The CIA, the military intelligence
divisions, and the executive branches of government were well represented
at all of the gatherings. (28,30,31) The second volume in the series, Intelligence
Requirements for the 1980's: Analysis and Estimates, was published in 1980.
It attempts to teach people how to evaluate the quality of and analyze intelligence
information received from agents. (30) Among those present at the 1979 colloquium
that developed the substance of this volume were such intelligence luminaries
as Richard V. Allen of the Natl Security Council; William Colby, former head
of the CIA; Dr. Ray S. Cline, former deputy director of the CIA; Dr. Fred
C. Ikle, former director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency; Mr. Morris
Liebman, chairman of the American Bar Association; and from the NSIC, Dr.
Roy Godson and Frank R. Barnett. (30)
The subject of the 1981 conference was clandestine
collection which led to the 1982 volume on the subject. This document claims
that U.S. intelligence gathering is far inferior to that of the Soviet Union
and sets out the U.S. intelligence needs. (31) Notable figures attending
this colloquium included: Dr. Ray Cline of the Center for Strategic and Intl
Studies; Lt. Gen. Daniel Graham, former director of the Defense Intelligence
Agency; Dr. Edward Luttwak, ultra-hawk and expert on terrorism; and Dr. Richard
Pipes, former chief Sovietologist at the Natl Security Council. (10,31)
In 1983, the NSIC, the Natl Defense University,
and the Natl Security Studies Program of Georgetown co-sponsored a symposium
on "The Role of Special Operations in U.S. Strategy for the 1980s."(21)
Col. Oliver North, of Iran-Contra fame, attended as a representative of the
National Security Council. (21) Edward N. Luttwak and Arnaud de Borchgrave,
editor of the Unification Church-owned Washington Times, were present representing
the Center for Strategic and Intl Studies. (21) Margo D. B. Carlisle, staff
director of the U.S. Senate Republican Conference Committee, was also present.
Carlisle, a former aide to Sen. James McClure, attended the 1980 World AntiCommunist
League (WACL) conference and has been connected with WACL activities in Central
America. (8) The CIA was represented by a number of people, including former
assoc deputy director Theodore Shackley. The intelligence agencies of the
military-especially the Defense Intelligence Agency, formerly headed by Gen.
Daniel Graham--attended in number. (10,21)
In its 1984 book, Special Operations in U.S. Strategy, the NSIC showed a shift in strategy from containment militarism
to one promoting low intensity conflict operations. The new strategy stresses
the need for fulfilling U.S. objectives through "special operations." According to the strategy, the "special operations" are to
be coordinated with the private sector in the countries where these operations
are located, and call for the use of psychological techniques and operations.
(11)
The NSIC strategies, according to an analysis
by the Political Research Associates of Boston, advocate a U.S. policy of
low-intensity conflict."In practice it is an endless, ongoing, permanent
form of paramilitary action against governments and political movements that
assert independence from U.S. domination."(29) Other criticisms of
these volumes have ranged from calling them "authoritarian" to "a
political blueprint for a police state."(29)
On Godson's recommendation, the NSIC paid
Arturo Cruz, Sr. of the directorate of the Nicaraguan contras $40,000 to serve
as a research fellow for six months. (2)
Roy Godson was a key figure in Anglo-American
trade union relations, organizing "educational visits" for British
trade unionists to visit the U.S. during the Reagan administration. (14)
The trips were organized under the auspices of the Labour Desk of the U.S.
Youth Council and the Intl Labor Program of Georgetown University. The purpose
of the trips was "to broaden international education about Western democratic
values." A typical trip included a visit to the naval base at Norfolk,
a meeting with former ambassador to the United Nations (Reagan administration)
Jeane Kirkpatrick, talks on defense at the National Security Council (former
operational base of Col. Oliver North) and talks at the NSIC. The trips were
financed by the Reagan administration. (14)
Government
Connections:
Frank Shakespeare was a United States Information
Agency director and a director of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. (15)
During the Reagan administration he served as ambassador to Portugal from
1985 to 1987, and after that as ambassador to the Vatican. (15)
William Casey was CIA director in the Reagan
administration, served as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission
from 1971 to 1973, and as Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs from
February 1973 to March 1974. (1,23)
Roy Godson served as a consultant to the President's
Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board--a group of private citizens that oversees
intelligence operations--in the Reagan administration. (2) Eugene V. Rostow
was one of the architects of the containment militarism policy of the Reagan
administration. He served as President Reagan's head of the Arms Control and
Disarmament Agency. (10)
Richard Pipes served as a National Security
Advisor to President Ronald Reagan and was a major figure in the Committee
on the Present Danger. (1)
Hon. Antonin Scalia, justice of the U.S.
Supreme Court, is listed as a member of the Consortium for the Study of Intelligence.
(13)
Margo D. B. Carlisle was an aide to Sen. James
McClure (RID). (8) Margo Carlisle attended the 1980 WACL conference and is
was involved in the "repackaging" of Roberto D'Aubuisson, the founder
and former head of the ARENA party in El Salvador. (8)
Admiral Thomas Moorer was head of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, and a member of Team B, a group assembled in the mid1970s
by then-CIA director George Bush to study the Soviet danger. The Team B laid
the foundation for the revitalization of the Committee on the Present Danger.
(1,10)
Private Connections:
Frank Barnett was a prominent member of the
Committee on the Present Danger, an anti-Soviet group advocating a strong
U.S. military and a policy of containment militarism. (10) Before founding
NSIC, Barnett was the director of research for the ultra-right Smith-Richardson
Fdn and a program director of the Institute for American Strategy. (22)
William Casey served as pres and chairman
of the exec committee of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), a private
voluntary organization that helps refugees from totalitarian oppression. (24)
The IRC worked with the CIA in Vietnam and cooperates with the U.S. government
on programs in El Salvador. (25)
Prescott Bush, Jr. , a former director of
the NSIC, is brother to President George Bush. He is a member of the Knights
of Malta, a conservative lay Catholic group and has been involved with Americares,
a right-wing private organization that receives grants from the U.S. Agency
for International Development in Central America. (15)
Henry Fowler, former NSIC director, was co-chair
of the Committee on the Present Danger until 1988. Fowler was Secretary of
the Treasury under President Harry Truman. (1)
Admiral Thomas Moorer, former NSIC director,
served on the national advisory board of Accuracy in Media, a right-wing media
group that promotes conservative causes and monitors the teaching of college
professors. (6,7) Moorer has been on the board of the American Security Council,
an ultra-hawk organization that works on Congress to effect an anti-Soviet
foreign policy. ASC runs the powerful lobby, the Coalition for Peace Through
Strength, which has more than 190 Congressional members. (9,33) He also served
on the board of Western Goals, a group that focused on national security and
gathered information on suspected communist symphthizers. (8)
Frank Shakespeare, former director of NSIC,
is chairman of The Heritage Fdn, a conservative think tank that played an
important role in policy development in the Reagan administration. (10) He
is also a member of the Knights of Malta and the American Catholic Committee
(ACC). The ACC is a group that tried to undercut the U.S. bishops' pastoral
on the economy. (15)
"Joseph Coors," wrote Al Weinrub
in the Labor Report on Central America,"has used the power of the Coors
financial dynasty not only to provide support to the contras, but to set a
right-wing political agenda in the U.S..."(16) Coors was the chair
of the Rocky Mountain region Reagan/Bush campaign in 1984. (17) He provided
financial backing for Accuracy in Media, a media support group for the right
wing. (17) He also supported various groups organized by New Right tactician
Paul Weyrich including the Catholic Center, a religious group that sent conservative
"truth squads" to organize workshops in cities with liberal bishops,
and the Free Congress Fdn, a group dedicated to electing conservatives to
Congress. (18,19) Coors and Weyrich combined efforts again in founding the
conservative think tank, the Heritage Fdn. (19) Coors money has also supported
right-wing religious groups including the Church League of America, Fellowship
of Christian Athletes, the Moral Majority, and Campus Crusade for Christ.
(19) Coors supported Lt. Gen. John Singlaub's U.S. Council for World Freedom
(USCWF), the U.S. chapter of the World Anti-Communist League. USCWF and the
Nicaraguan Refugee Fund, (another Coor's cause) played major roles in funding
the Nicaraguan contras. (19) Both Joseph Coors and his wife Holly were on
the 1982-1983 board of the Council for Natl Policy. (20)
Roy Godson is the Director of the International
Labor program at Georgetown University and was deeply involved in the Iran-Contra
Affair. He was a contact person and middle-man in fundraising for Lt. Col.
Oliver North's network to supply the contras. He connected Terry Slease, attorney
for Richard Scaife (wealthy right-wing philanthropist and NSIC donor), with
North, and was present at meetings between National Security AdviserBud McFarland,
North and Slease. (2) Godson was a representative of the Intl Youth Conference
which was one of the organizations used to channel funds to the Nicaraguan
contras. He also was indirectly connected, through Slease, with the Institute
for North-South Issues, a group funded by the National Endowment for Democracy,
that served as a channel for contra funds. Godson also served as a contact
between the private contra network and Edward Feulner, president of Heritage
Fdn. Heritage served as a pass-through for INSI of a $100,000 donation to
the Nicaraguan opposition. (2) Godson serves on the board of the League for
Industrial Democracy, a neoconservative organization working with labor groups
in the U.S. (26) He is also on the board of the Coalition for a Democratic
Majority, a quasi-governmental group that works primarily within the ranks
of Congress to implement an anticommunist, pro-military agenda. (10,27)
Ray Cline served on the board of NSIC's Consortium
for the Study of Intelligence. Cline is a former deputy director of the CIA,
and has been involved with Major General John Singlaub's U.S. Council for
World Freedom, the U.S. branch of the World Anti-Communist League. (8)
Lt. Gen. Daniel Graham is on the board of
the U.S. Council for World Freedom. He is founder and chairman of the pro-SDI
lobby group, High Frontier, and was on the 1982-1983 board of the Council
for Natl Policy. Graham has also been involved with CAUSA, the political arm
of the Unification Church (UC) and the American Freedom Coalition, another
Christian political offshoot of the UC. (8,20,32)
Richard Pipes was a member of the Coalition
for a Democratic Majority and a founding member of the Committee on the Present
Danger. (10)
Misc:
Political Research Associates of Boston note
that lowintensity warfare as defined by the NSIC is low intensity only from
a U.S. government perspective where high-intensity warfare means nuclear
war. (29)
Comments:
U.S. Address: 150 East 58th St, New York,
NY 10155 and 1730 Rhode Island Ave, NW, Suite 601, Washington DC, 20036.
Principals:
Frank R. Barnett and Morris Liebman, co-founders.
(2) Frank R. Barnett, president; Roy Godson, director of the Washington DC
office. (5) Others listed as officers in 1984 were: Dorothy Nicolosi, vice
pres and treasurer, Paul E. Feffer, intl vice pres, Rear Admiral William C.
Mott (ret. ), vice pres and general counsel, Hugh F. McGowan, Jr. , sec, and
Omer Pace, asst sec and asst tres. (11)
Directors listed in 1984 were: Karl R. Bendetsen,
former chairman and CEO of Champion Intl Corp; D. Tennant Bryan, chairman
of the board of Media General, Inc; Prescott S. Bush, Jr, senior vice pres
and director of Johnson & Higgins; Richard C. Ham; Morris I. Liebman,
Sidley & Austin; John Norton Moore; Admiral Thomas H. Moorer (ret. );
Jerald C. Newman, pres and CEO of The Bowery Savings Bank; Robert H. Parsley,
Butler, Binion, Rice, Cook and Knapp; Frank Shakespeare, vice chairman of
RKO General, Inc; Charles E. Stevenson, pres Denver West; James L. Winokur,
chairman of Air Tool Parts and Service Co; Major General Richard A. Yudkin
(ret. ), senior vice pres (ret. ) of Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp. (11)
The 1984 Advisory Council members were: Issac
L. Auerbach, Vice Admiral M. G. Bayne (ret. ), Allyn R. Bell, Jr, Joseph Coors,
Henry H. Fowler, John W. Hanes, Jr, Admiral Means Johnston (ret. ), R. Daniel
McMichael, Rear Admiral David L. Martineau (ret. ), Chuck Mau, Vice Admiral
J. P. Moorer (ret. ), Dillard Munford, Lloyd Noble, Harry A. Poth, Jr, Adolph
W. Schmidt, Frederick Seitz, Laurence H. Silberman, Arthur Spitzer, John A.
Sutro, Albert L. Weeks, Dee Workman, Evelle J. Younger, Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt,
Jr (ret. ). (11)
The conferences and symposiums sponsored by
NSIC play an important part in the development of the organization's strategy
recommendations and publications. Personnel from NSIC who attended the 1983
symposium,"The Role of Special Operations in U.S. Strategy for the
1980s," were: Frank Barnett, president; Sara A. Begley, research asst
for the Council on Economics and Natl Security; Dr. Roy Godson, director of
the DC office; Robert A. Silano, exec dir of the Council on Economics and
Natl Security; and B. Hugh Tovar, research assoc.
Sources:
1. John Saloma III, Ominous Politics (New
York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1984).
2. Report of the Congressional Committees
Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair, Appendix B, Vol. 12, 1987.
3. Foundation Grants Index, Recipients, 1987.
4. Foundation Grants Index, Recipients, 1988.
5. Phone conversation with Mr. Lovelace of
NSIC, Washington DC, Aug 10, 1989.
6. Saul Landau,"Dress Rehersal For a
Red Scare," The Nation, Apr 5, 1986.
7. Accuracy In Media brochure, undated.
8. Scott Anderson and Jon Lee Anderson, Inside
the League: The Shocking Expose of How Terrorists, Nazis, and Latin American
Death Squads Have Infiltrated the World Anti-Communist League (New York, NY:
Dodd, Mead & Co, 1986).
9. Peace Through Strength, American Security
Council report, undated, received Dec 15, 1988.
10. Jerry Sanders, Peddlers of Crisis: The
Committee on the Present Danger and the Politics of Containment Militarism
(Boston, MA: South End Press, 1983).
11. Special Operations in U.S. Strategy,
NSIC, 1984.
12. The Encyclopedia of Associations, 23rd
edition, 1989.
13. Letterhead from the Consortium for the
Study of Intelligence, undated.
14."Anglo-American Union Exchanges Linked
to Irangate Scandal," Tribune, Sep 30, 1988.
15. Penny Lernoux,"Who's Who? The Knights
of Malta Know," National Catholic Reporter, May 5, 1989.
16. Al Weinrub,"Coors Brews More Than
Beer," Labor Report On Central America, Sep/Oct 1985.
17. Michael Massing,"The Rise and Decline
of Accuracy," The Nation, Sep 13,
1986.
18. Penny Lernoux,"A Reverence for Fundamentalism,"
The Nation, Apr 17, 1989.
19. The New Right Humanitarians (Albuquerque,
NM: The Resource Center, 1986).
20. List of the board of directors of The
Council for National Policy, 1982-1983.
21. Participant list from the "Symposium
on the Role of Special Operations in U.S. Strategy for the 1980s," March
4-5, 1983.
22. Frank R. Barnett,"A Proposal for
Political Warfare," Military Review, Mar 1961.
23. Profile of William J. Casey, completed
in Oct 1974. Received from Political Research Associates, Aug 1989.
24. Intl Rescue Commisstion Annual Report,
1986.
25. AIFLD: Agents as Organizers (Albuquerque,
NM: The Resource Center, 1987).
26. Letter from the League for Industrial
Democracy, July 1989.
27. Coalition for a Democratic Majority letterhead,
July 1989.
28. Conversation with Chip Berlet of Political
Research Associates, Aug 1989.
29."The Coors Extended Family,"
Political Research Associates, 1989.
30. Roy Godson, editor, excerpts from Intelligence
Requirements for the 1980's: Analysis and Estimates, NSIC, 1980.
31. Roy Godson, editor, excerpts from Intelligence
Requirements for the 1980's: Clandestine Collection, NSIC, 1982.
32. Phone conversation with the natl office
of the American Freedom Coalition, Sep 9, 1988.
33. Peace Through Strength, American Security
Council report, undated, received Dec 15, 1988.
The underlying cites for this profile are
now kept at Political Research Associates, (617) 666-5300. www.irc-online.org.
