University of Wisconsin Milwaukee UWM Digital Commons Theses and Dissertations August 2015 A Think aT nk on the Left: The nsI titute for Policy Studies and Cold War America, 1963-1989 Brian Scott uelM ler University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.uwm.edu/etd Part of the International Relations Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Mueller, Brian Scott, "A Think aT nk on the Left: The nI stitute for Policy Studies and Cold War America, 1963-1989" (2015). Theses and Dissertations. 1014. https://dc.uwm.edu/etd/1014 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by UWM Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of UWM Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A THINK TANK ON THE LEFT: THE INSTITUTE FOR POLICY STUDIES AND COLD WAR AMERICA, 1963-1989 by Brian S. Mueller A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History at The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee August 2015 ABSTRACT A THINK TANK ON THE LEFT: THE INSTITUTE FOR POLICY STUDIES AND COLD WAR AMERICA, 1963-1989 by Brian S. Mueller The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2015 Under the Supervision of Professor J. David Hoeveler For American intellectuals, the Cold War involved a battle far more important than the ones taking place in faraway lands. While the nearly half-decade conflict never degenerated into a nuclear war, the combat between intellectuals resembled a nuclear explosion at times. Participants in the war of words believed that intellectual debates would determine the direction of American foreign policy, and possibly whether the United States survived the Cold War. Led by groups such as the Americans for Democratic Action, liberal intellectuals held the dominant position during the first decades of the Cold War as they became hardened Cold Warriors intent on containing the Communist menace. By the late 1960s, however, the liberal consensus collapsed under the pressure of the Vietnam War. This dissertation looks at the instrumental role played by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), a leftist think tank located in Washington D.C., in causing the breakup of the liberal consensus, as well as the Institute’s attempt to restore liberalism to its true form. From the time that IPS opened its doors in 1963 until the end of the Cold War in 1989, the Institute served as the guardian of a genuine liberalism corrupted by the actions undertaken by liberals in pursuit of victory in the Cold War. II Analyzing the intellectual contributions of the activists and writers associated with IPS from 1963 until the end of the Cold War, this dissertation probes a heretofore unexamined set of ideas regarding liberalism, democracy, and American foreign policy. Given life just as a New Left came into being in America, IPS carried forth the ideals of groups like Students for a Democratic Society by calling for a non-interventionist and non-ideological foreign policy, greater participatory democracy, and a more moral and humane world. Thus, despite the demise of liberalism and the concomitant rise of conservatism, a more progressive form of liberalism survived at IPS. At the same time, this study demonstrates the inherent difficulties facing intellectuals trying to influence policymakers, particularly when offering a progressive vision for America at home and abroad in a conservative climate. Drawing upon the think tank’s records and the expansive writings of IPS intellectuals, this study reveals the ways in which the think tank kept alive the promise of a reconstructed liberalism in Cold War America. III © Copyright by Brian S. Mueller, 2015 All Rights Reserved IV TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 The Decline and Fall of Liberalism? Chapter One 31 A History of IPS Chapter Two 70 A Think Tank on the Left? Chapter Three 121 An Unnecessary Alliance: U.S., Europe, and NATO Chapter Four 145 Vietnam: The War That Made IPS Famous Chapter Five 197 The National Security State and the Men Behind It Chapter Six 223 Solidarity: IPS and the Third World Chapter Seven 264 Arms Control is Not Disarmament Postscript 309 Bibliography 314 Curriculum Vitae 333 V ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS As I look at the final product of my graduate school experience, I can honestly say that even though research and writing is a very solitary activity, I never felt alone while working on my dissertation. I also had the great fortune of having David Hoeveler as my advisor. Besides offering timely advice on chapter drafts, David pushed me to strengthen my arguments in the dissertation, which has resulted in an immensely improved final product. Never overbearing and always giving freely of his time, I could not have asked for a better advisor. I want to thank the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee History Department for providing intellectual and financial support throughout my entire graduate career. In particular, the directors of the graduate program—Joe Austin, Aims McGuinness, and Chia Vang—went well beyond their official duties and helped me in immeasurable ways. During my time as a graduate student I was also blessed with several great teachers. In my various roles as teaching and research assistant and graduate student, I have had the pleasure of working with David Hoeveler, Joe Austin, Joe Rodriguez, Marc Levine, Ellen Langill, Amanda Seligman, Margo Anderson, Merry Wiesner-Hanks, and Marcus Filippello. I also thank Anita Cathey and Katherine Krueger. Although my dissertation relies a great amount of published sources, I could not have completed this study without the use of archival materials. In particular, the archives at the Wisconsin Historical Society are a tremendous resource. I want to thank the archivists at WHS, as well as at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee archives, where I viewed some of the materials. VI I cannot offer enough praise for my dissertation committee. An exceptional group of teachers and scholars, Howard Brick, Marc Levine, Donald Pienkos, and Joseph Rodriguez selflessly agreed to serve on my committee, and for that I cannot thank them enough. Finally, my heartfelt thanks to my family. I am grateful for all the material and emotional support you have given me over the years. VII 1 Introduction: The Decline and Fall of Liberalism? On September 21, 1976, Orlando Letelier, a former Defense and Foreign Minister of Chile under Salvador Allende, Michael Moffitt, and Ronnie Karpen Moffitt were driving to work near Sheridan Circle in Washington D.C. At 9:35 a.m. a bomb exploded underneath the car. Letelier lost both of his legs in the explosion and remained trapped under the car. Ronnie remained conscious but the blast severed her carotid artery. The explosion ejected her husband, Michael, from the backseat of the car. Both Ronnie and Letelier later died as a result of their injuries.1 Within two years of the bombing, FBI officials named an associate of the Chilean National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), American-born Michael Vernon Townley, along with several members of the Cuban National Movement, as suspects in the killings. All three passengers worked at the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), Letelier and Michael as fellows and Ronnie as an assistant. The death of Letelier, who led the movement against Augusto Pinochet after the latter overthrew the democratically-elected socialist leader Allende in a coup on September 11, 1973, brought worldwide attention to the ruthlessness of Pinochet. Letelier’s assassination did not come as a surprise to IPS, which had paid close attention to Pinochet and other right-wing dictators in Latin America and elsewhere for the past decade. Marcus Raskin and Richard Barnet, the former a staffer of National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy and the latter a lawyer in the State Department during the Kennedy administration, founded IPS in 1963. In 1965, as the war in Vietnam escalated, Raskin and associate fellow Bernard Fall edited The 1 Saul Landau, They Educated the Crows: An Institute Report on the Letelier-Moffitt Murders (Washington D.C.: Transnational Institute, 1978), 1-2. 2 Vietnam Reader, which became popular with teach-in organizers. Two years later, Raskin and founding fellow Arthur Waskow co-wrote “A Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority” in support of the draft resistance movement. By the end of the decade, Barnet also published Intervention and Revolution, detailing the efforts by America to prevent revolutions abroad. IPS’s studies on Vietnam and the Third World, as well as later publications, shared a common theme: liberalism had run amok as a result of the Cold War. This study argues that IPS sought to resuscitate what the historian Doug Rossinow has called the “left-liberal tradition” in American history. Unlike in the 1950s and 1960s, a coalition made up of left and liberal elements existed in America between the 1880s and the 1940s. During this time, according to Rossinow, “bridges of cooperation” existed, though not, as some argue, a form of “cooptation” of the leftist radicals by liberals. “This left-liberal tradition,” Rossinow explains, “includes liberals who were deeply critical of American capitalism as well as leftists who saw great value in social reform, as opposed to revolutionary upheaval.”2 Though disagreement occurred within IPS over how closely to work with liberals and sometimes disapproval of the slowness of reform rose to the surface, the Institute repeatedly worked with the liberal Establishment. This study will show the ambivalent and often combative relationship IPS had with liberalism and liberals in power, which made the re-emergence of the left-liberal alliance enormously challenging. The strained relationship between IPS and liberalism had much to do with the think tank’s advocacy of a more robust liberalism based on the ideals put forward by the New Left, particularly as articulated by the Students for a 2 Doug Rossinow, Visions of Progress: The Left-Liberal Tradition in America (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008), 2.