Coalition for a Democratic Majority

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The Coalition for a Democratic Majority (CDM) was founded by "Scoop" Jackson Democrats in response to the nomination of George McGovern as the Democratic candidate for the 1972 presidential election. Their goal was to rally the supporters of a liberal anti-communist foreign policy in the Democratic Party and "take the party back" from a constituency that they viewed as McGovern's "hard left" radicals, who were identified with the New Left movement. CDM wanted the hawkish Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson as their standard bearer. As CDM member Midge Decter recalls, Senator Jackson declined to endorse the party personally because he believed the timing was inappropriate. While it agrees on most points, this information supersedes any contradictory information from Right Web, below.

According to the website Right Web (last updated September 1989), Coalition for a Democratic Majority (CDM) was formed in 1972 by the late Senator Henry M. "Scoop" Jackson (D-Wash.) who headed the conservative wing of the Democratic Party. Jackson and his coalition favored a strong military and promoted the concept of "peace through strength." The CDM has its roots in the intellectual movement of neo-conservatism — intellectual and pragmatic, with an emphasis on democracy, anti-communism, and globalism. By the mid-1970s, the Vietnam war had cooled the ardor of the American public for the policy of interventionism, a philosophy of great importance to the CDM. The election of President James E. Carter Jr. (D-Ga.) pushed the 'hardliners' into action and, in 1976, the CDM helped to found the Committee on the Present Danger (CPD), a lobby group for containment militarism. The CPD developed and implemented a new 'Soviet Threat' campaign. The broader goal of CDM, however, was to reinstate containment militarism as the central theme of U.S. foreign policy.

[edit] Principals

Advisory Board of Elected Officials

Officers (1989)

  • Ben J. Wattenberg, chairman
  • Peter R. Rosenblatt, president
  • Penn Kemble, chairman of the executive committee
  • Maria H. Thomas, secretary-treasurer

"Ben Wattenberg and Irving Kristol were selected to co-chair the coalition."

Board of Directors

"The Coalition for a Democratic Majority (CDM) Task Force on Foreign Policy and Defense is headed by Rep. Dave McCurdy (D-OK), House Armed Services Comt--chair; R. James Woolsey, atty and former Undersecretary of the Navy--vice chair. Other members are: Morris Amitay, atty and former exec dir of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee; Rep. Les Aspin (D-WI), chair of the House Armed Services Comt; Henry Cisneros, mayor of San Antonio, TX; Rep. Norm Dicks (D-WA), member of the House Appropriations Subcomt on Defense; Ervin S. Duggan, former member of the Policy Planning Staff of the State Department; Angier Biddle Duke, former ambassador to El Salvador and Spain; Rep. Dante Fascell (D-FL), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Comm; Hubert H. Humphrey III, Atty Gen. of MN; Samuel P. Huntington, director of the Center for International Affairs at Harvard and former member of the Natl Security Council; David Ifshin, atty and former head of the Council for Mondale for President; John T. Joyce, pres of the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers, AFL-CIO; Penn Kemble, chairman of CDM; John Kester, atty, former assistant to Sec of Defense; Franklin Kramer, former principal deputy assistant Sec of Defense; Jan Lodal, pres of Intelus and former member of the Natl Security Council; Philip Merrill, chair and publisher of the Washingtonian; Robert Murray, dir of Natl Security Programs at Harvard, former senior advisor on defense for Michael Dukakis for President; Martin Peretz, editor-in-chief of The New Republic; Sen. Charles S. Robb (D-VA), member Senate Foreign Relations Comt; Peter R. Rosenblatt, pres of CDM and former member of Carter Admin; Eugene V. Rostow, distinguished professor at the National Defense University, former director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency; Robert Scalapino, director of Institute of East Asian Studies, U of Calif at Berkeley; John Silber, pres of Boston U, member of the Natl Bipartisan Commission on Central America (Kissinger Commission); Walter Slocombe, atty, former deputy Undersec of Defense, former member of the Natl Security Council; Adam Ulam, director of the Russian Research Center, Harvard; Ben J. Wattenberg, chair of CDM; and Harriet Zimmerman, women's division chair, United Jewish Appeal.

"Jeane J. Kirkpatrick was a prominent member of the original coalition."

See original article for footnoted material and more extensive coverage of CDM, including activities and government and private connections.

[edit] See also