Committee on the Present Danger records, 1976-1992

Summary

Creators:

Committee on the Present Danger (U.S.)

Abstract:

Correspondence, minutes, reports, studies, memoranda, press releases, financial records, clippings, and other printed matter relating to American politics and foreign policy, Soviet-American relations, and American and Soviet defenses and military policy.

Extent:

595 manuscript boxes, 2 card file boxes, 3 oversize boxes, 3 video tape cassettes (197.6 Linear Feet)

Language:

English

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Committee on the Present Danger records, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Background

Biographical / historical:

The Committee on the Present Danger was formed in 1976, announcing its arrival soon after the presidential election of that year. Its purpose was the promotion of a strong defense policy for the United States. The creation of the organization was prompted especially by skepticism regarding the arms control negotiations with the Soviet Union pursued by Republican and Democratic administrations during the detente era of the 1970s. This had resulted in the signing of the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I) in 1972 during the administration of President Richard M. Nixon and the continuation of negotiations toward a SALT II. The founders of the CPD included former senior government officials with experience in defense and security positions. Foremost among them were Paul H. Nitze, a former Deputy Secretary of Defense, and Eugene V. Rostow, a former Under Secretary of State. Membership in the Committee was by invitation only and was largely restricted to public figures. The CPD membership roster came to be a veritable who's who of the defense establishment.

The CPD drew its name from an earlier Committee on the Present Danger, which had existed briefly in 1950-1951 to mobilize support for a strong internationalist defense policy during the Korean War. There was, however, no organizational continuity between this organization and that of 1976. A more immediate inspiration was the Citizens Committee for Peace with Freedom in Vietnam, which had existed in the 1960s to support American military policy during the Vietnam War. The director of the Citizens Committee, Charles Tyroler II, was induced to accept a similar position as director of the Committee on the Present Danger. This position involved management of its day-to-day affairs.

The Committee did not align itself with any political party but found itself in early opposition to policies of the new Jimmy Carter administration. It unsuccessfully opposed confirmation of Carter's nomination of Paul C. Warnke to be director of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. Through the publication of a series of pamphlets, press releases and position papers it opposed ratification of SALT II, which came before the U.S. Senate in 1979. The Senate declined to ratify the treaty but did not explicitly reject it.

The CPD welcomed the election of Ronald Reagan as president in 1980, and prided itself on the number of its members who were appointed to office in the new administration. Reagan himself had accepted membership in the CPD but had not participated in it actively. The CPD without doubt influenced formulation of the defense policies of his administration but came to question whether these had gone far enough. It was disappointed by Reagan's decision to abide by the provisions of SALT II during the period specified by that treaty, and was skeptical of the wisdom of ratifying the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) which was negotiated in 1987.

With the disintegration of the Soviet Union and proclaimed end of the Cold War, many of its members concluded that the Committee on the Present Danger had outlived its usefulness. The CPD wound up its operations in 1992. It donated its records along with those of the Citizens Committee for Peace with Freedom in Vietnam to the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in that year.

Among the Hoover Institution Library & Archives' other holdings are papers of a number of individual members of the CPD. These include papers of Richard V. Allen, Karl R. Bendetsen, W. Randolph Burgess, W. Glenn Campbell, William J. Casey, Sidney Hook, J. C. Hurewitz, Ernest W. Lefever, Seymour Martin Lipset, Jay Lovestone, Paul Seabury, Edward Teller, Charls E. Walker, Robert E. Ward, Richard J. Whalen and Bertram D. Wolfe.

Acquisition information:

Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library Archives in 1992.

Physical location:

Hoover Institution Library & Archives

Rules or conventions:

Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Related resources

Separated material:

The Committee on the Present Danger Records document the organization over its entire lifespan from 1976 to 1992. The Records are organization into twenty-one series. The small Founding Documents series includes its governing documents. Meeting Materials continues the record of its actions in formal meetings throughout its life. Perhaps the most important activity of the CPD was its issuance of a succession of pamphlets and position papers designed to influence both elite opinion and general public opinion on defense-related matters. The Issuances series includes not only all of the final versions of these formal statements of its positions but also extensive drafts that went into the preparation of those final versions. It also includes some drafts for proposed publications that were never released. Final issuances were often publicly presented initially at press conferences. The Press Conference Materials series includes press releases, prepared statements and sometimes transcripts of interactions with reporters.

The Correspondence series records much of the informal thought of CPD members. This series includes some correspondence between the central leadership of the organization and individual members but is largely composed of correspondence of the CPD with persons outside the organization. The office files of CPD officials include more of the CPD's internal correspondence as well as writings by its individual members. The Charls E. Walker Office File is small but provides excellent documentation of how the CPD came to be created. The Eugene V. Rostow Office File and the Paul H. Nitze Office File are of major importance in documenting internal deliberations. The Charles Tyroler II Office File is of less importance but does contain one oddity not strictly pertaining to the CPD at all. This is the briefing book for Estes Kefauver's campaign as Democratic Party nominee for vice president in 1956. Tyroler was director of that campaign. The Charles M. Kupperman Office File and the David J. Trachtenberg Office File are significant in documenting the day-to-day activities of the CPD. Kupperman and Trachtenberg were paid employees of the organization and successively filled the position of Defense Analyst for it.

The largest series by far is the Subject File, which is arranged by topic. Clippings and other printed matter account for the great bulk of material in the series. There is also significant unpublished material in it, however. For example, on at least two occasions, during Senate ratification hearings for the SALT II Treaty in 1979 and for the INF Treaty in 1988, the CPD tracked the positions of each senator individually. Drafts indicate that the CPD was intimately involved in preparation of the Senate Committee on Armed Services report on SALT II. Material on these treaties is entered under the treaty names within the Subject File. The CPD also commissioned a series of public opinion polls to ascertain public sentiment regarding defense issues. While the results of these polls appear in the Press Conference Materials and Issuances series, additional material on them is to be found under Polls in the Subject File. Distinct from the Subject File is a Printed Matter series of collected printed material largely related to defense. It is arranged by issuing organization, or in some instances by author or title, rather than by topic.

The finances of the CPD are documented in the Financial Records series and the Fundraising Records series. Other internal housekeeping records are located in the Personnel Records series and the Miscellaneous Internal Documents series. There is also a series of Publicity Materials, consisting of collected printed references to the CPD from outside the organization.

Nonstandard physical materials are located in the Card File (largely meeting attendance cards), Oversize Material, and Audiovisual Material.

Indexed terms

Places:

United States -- Foreign relations -- Soviet Union
Soviet Union -- Foreign relations -- United States
United States -- Foreign relations -- 1945-1989
United States -- Politics and government -- 1945-1989
Soviet Union -- Military policy
Soviet Union -- Defenses
United States -- Military policy
United States -- Defenses
United States -- Politics and government -- 1989-1993
United States -- Foreign relations -- 1989-1993

Restrictions:

Box FH4 may not be used without permission of the Archivist. The remainder of the collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.

Terms of access:

For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Committee on the Present Danger records, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Location of this collection:

Hoover Institution

Hoover Institution Library & Archives, Stanford University

Stanford, CA 94305-6003, US

Contact:

(650) 723-3563

hooverarchives@stanford.edu

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