
 part 2 of 4


           OLD NAZIS, THE NEW RIGHT, AND THE REAGAN ADMINISTRATION

     
                             PART TWO - SECTION 1

                        The American Security Council
 

  "In the councils of government we must guard against the acquisition of 
unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial 
complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and 
will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our 
liberty or democratic processes." 

                 -- President Dwight D. Eisenhower, January 17, 1961  


  - Cold Warriors - 

  It's been called "The Cold War Campus" and "The Heart of the 
Military-Industrial Complex." [f-71] Both are names the American Security 
Council wears with pride. Its boards are filled with retired senior military 
officers, executives of major corporations, including some of the largest 
military contractors, and some New Right leaders. Wes McCune of the 
Washington, D.C.-based Group Research, which monitors the political right 
wing, says the ASC "is not just the representative of the military-industrial 
complex, it is the personification of the military-industrial complex." [f-72]


  The ASC focuses on foreign policy, military and intelligence issues. It is 
the clearinghouse for U.S. political rightists on arms control, aid to the 
Contras, new weapons programs and lobbying for special projects, such as aid 
to Jonas Savimbi's UNITA in Angola. In its specialized areas, the ASC probably
has had more influence with the Reagan Administration than the well-publicized
Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank in Washington, D.C., which 
produced massive studies suggesting conservative policies to the Reagan 
Administration following each election. However, the ASC is less visible than 
the Heritage Foundation. 

  Little noticed by the press, the ASC is extremely influential among 
right-wing groups and within the Reagan Administration. In spite of the veneer
of respectability its board members' credentials might provide in some 
circles, the ASC is in some respects more extremist than the Republican 
Heritage Groups Council. It also serves as a connecting point between Nazi 
collaborationists and fascists on one hand, and Reagan Administration 
policymakers on the other. 

  The key outreach arm of the ASC is the Coalition for Peace Through Strength.
Composed of 171 organizations that are supposed to form a grassroots lobby for
ASC political priorities, the Coalition is where many of the ASC extremist 
ties are established. The Republican Heritage Groups Council and some of its 
component elements, such as Galdau's Romanian-American Republican Clubs, are 
members of the Coalition. These ties to the authoritarian, collaborationist 
and fascist Right are consistent with the history of the ASC. 


  - Origins of the ASC -

   The ASC began in Chicago in 1955, staffed primarily by former FBI agents. 
In its first year it was called the Mid-American Research Library. 
Corporations joined to take advantage of what former FBI agent William Turner 
described in <Power on the Right> as "a dossier system modeled after the 
FBI's, which was intended to weed out employees and prospective employees 
deemed disloyal to the free enterprise concept." [f-73] 

   Before the founders of the ASC got into the business of collecting dossiers
on Americans, however, they had another sort of political interest. Their 
political histories go back to the racialist and anti-Semitic groups in the 
1930's that were working in concert with Hitler's war aims. Three groups in 
particular would later provide elements of the future ASC: the America First 
Committee, the American Vigilante Intelligence Federation, and the American 
Coalition of Patriotic Societies. 

 - The America First Committee - 

   The person most responsible for establishing the ASC was General Robert 
Wood, then Chairman of Sears Roebuck. [f-74] Prior to Pearl Harbor, Wood was 
also the chairman of the America First Committee, an organization committed to
opposing all efforts to aid Allies besieged by Nazi Germany. [f-75] 

   As national chairman, Wood made no effort to keep out openly pro-Nazi 
groups known to have been supported by Germany, such as the German-American 
Bund. Radio priest Father Charles Coughlin's anti-Semitic and pro-Axis 
followers were also permitted by Wood to work within America First. A 1942 FBI
report indicated that Wood's "patriotic" group had "been called upon to accept
financial assistance from pro-Nazi sources." [f-76] 

   After Pearl Harbor and Germany's declaration of war on the United States, 
the America First Committee didn't go out of business as it officially 
declared on December 12, 1941. Five days later, a secret meeting of certain 
key leaders of America First took place in New York to plan for what they 
assumed (and hoped) would be the Axis victory in Europe and the Far East. 
[f-77] "[T]he Committee has in reality gone underground," FBI Director J. 
Edgar Hoover reported to the White House. [f-78] It began planning for the day
when they would be the Americans with whom the victorious Nazis would 
negotiate a surrender. Finally, when the defeat of the Nazis by Allied powers 
was a foregone conclusion, the America First Committee secretly dissolved 
itself in 1944. 

   William Regnery, an incorporator and early leader of the Committee with 
Robert Wood, [f-79] helped Wood to found the ASC. His son, Henry Regnery, 
replaced him at their book publishing company and at the ASC. The younger 
Regnery told an interviewer several years ago that "I was very much opposed to
our getting into the war; and I published this book, which was highly critical
of Roosevelt and of the whole realm of American policies involving World War 
II. Very gladly, I must say." Regnery said that the book, published in the 
early 1950's, reflected his "personal tastes." [f-80] 

 - American Vigilante Intelligence Federation - 

  The ASC began collecting dossiers in the McCarthy era in what was often seen
as a blacklisting operation against union organizers and those with "suspect" 
political orientations. Files and documents were collected from the House 
Committee on Un-American Activities and several private file collections. One 
such collection originally was compiled by Harry Jung, [f-81] whose research 
was motivated by a search for what he saw as a Jewish-Communist conspiracy. 
[f-82]

  Jung founded the American Vigilante Intelligence Federation (AVIF) in 1927 
as an anti-union spy operation. [f-83] With the rise of anti-Semitism in 
Europe, Jung became the first major distributor in the U.S. of the 
anti-Semitic forgery, "The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion." [f-84] 
The "Protocols" text had been used as a pretext by Russian Czars and European 
Nazis to conduct pogroms and extermination campaigns against European Jewry. 
His AVIF became involved with German Nazi agents in the U.S. In 1942, Jung's 
East Coast operative, a Col. Eugene Sanctuary, was indicted by the Justice 
Department for sedition. [f-85] One can only wonder at the purpose and content
of the files collected by Jung, and purchased by the ASC. The Jung file 
collection reportedly had one million names indexed when the ASC acquired it 
some thirty years ago. 

  - American Coalition of Patriotic Societies - 

  The American Coalition of Patriotic Societies (ACPS) is another "patriotic" 
group that flourished during Jung's heyday and still exists as a member of the
Coalition for Peace Through Strength. The ACPS was founded by John Trevor in 
1929 to support and maintain tight U.S. immigration restrictions enacted into 
law in 1924. [f-86] Trevor was the behind-the-scenes architect of the 1924 
Immigration Restriction Act, designed to exclude East Europeans, Italians, 
Jews and other non-Nordics. [f-87] 

  The American Coalition of Patriotic Societies leadership included Harry Jung
and others with links to German National Socialism. One associate of Trevor, 
Madison Grant, explicitly repudiated "democratic ideals and Christian values 
in the interest of a Nordic philosophy," according to John Higham's <Strangers
in the Land>. [f-88] Another ACPS director, Harry Laughlin, was given an 
honorary Ph.D. in 1936 by a Nazi-controlled German university for his work in 
the area of racial eugenics. [f-89] 

  John Trevor, Jung and a third ACPS official, Walter Steele, were among 15 
Americans whose names appeared inside a 1933 German Nazi book, recommending it
for an American audience. Begun with an endorsement by Adolph Hitler, the book
contains such statements as "The total contrast to Jewish-Marxist-Bolshevism 
is exclusively represented by German National Socialism." [f-90] In 1942, U.S.
Army Intelligence called Walter Steele's <National Republic> "fascist." [f-91]
In the same year, the American Coalition of Patriotic Societies was named by 
the Justice Department as "a factor" in the sedition charges brought against 
those thought to be aiding the Axis. [f-92] 

  General Wood, John Trevor, Walter Steele and their associates all became 
patriotic anti-Communists after World War II, however, aiding Senator Joe 
McCarthy, lobbying for a more intense Cold War, and supporting reprieves for 
convicted Nazi war criminals. 

  General Wood helped establish <Human Events>, then a monthly magazine, that 
in late 1945 called the Nuremberg Trials a "travesty of justice." [f-93] 
Involved in a number of other rightist groups after the war, he recruited John
M. Fisher, a World War II bomber pilot, from the FBI as a security consultant 
for Sears Roebuck in 1953. 

  John Trevor was a leader of a group, Ten Million Americans Mobilizing for 
Justice, attempting to prevent the censure of Joe McCarthy. Its leadership 
represented a Who's Who of American anti-Semitism. [f-94] At their 1954 rally 
for McCarthy, a female photographer taking pictures of the special guest 
section for <Time> magazine was physically assaulted amid shouts of "Dirty 
Jew" and "Hang the communist bitch!" [f-95] 

  John B. Trevor, Jr. became acting secretary of the American Coalition of 
Patriotic Societies after his father's death in 1956, but the political 
character of the group showed no noticeable change. [f-96] The ACPS in 1962 
condemned the Nuremberg war crimes trials as a "dreadful retrogression into 
barbarism," and called for the release of those "who may still be suffering 
imprisonment." [f-97] 

  John B. Trevor, Jr. was one of eight members of the American Security 
Council Board of Directors until several years ago. The current president of 
the American Coalition of Patriotic Societies is John Fisher, and their 
address is the same as the ASC. [f-98] 

  - The Emergence of the Military-Industrial Complex - 

  Although the ASC began as an anti-labor operation with support from Sears 
(Fisher was on the Sears payroll the first five years he headed ASC) [f-99] 
and other businesses, it soon became involved in foreign policy issues. It 
cosponsored a series of annual meetings from 1955 to 1961 called National 
Military-Industrial Conferences in which elements of the Pentagon, National 
Security Council and organizations linked to the CIA discussed Cold War 
strategy with leaders of many large corporations, such as United Fruit, 
Standard Oil, Honeywell, U.S. Steel, and, of course, Sears Roebuck. Robert 
Wood was the key organizer of these events. [f-100] One conference 
"cooperating organization" was the CIA-linked Foreign Policy Research 
Institute. [f-101] 

  The Institute's foreign policy thesis during this period was spelled out in 
a book, <A Forward Strategy for America> by Robert Strausz-Hupe, William 
Kintner and Stefan Possony . In discussing nuclear option scenarios in a 
hypothetical expanding U.S.-Soviet conflict, the book makes the following 
statement: 

  "Even at a moment when the United States faces defeat because, for example, 
Europe, Asia and Africa have fallen to communist domination, a sudden nuclear 
attack against the Soviet Union could at least avenge the disaster and deprive
the opponent of the ultimate triumph. While such a reversal at the last moment
almost certainly would result in severe American casualties, it might still 
nullify all previous Soviet conquests. [f-102]" 

  Another sponsor of the conferences was the Aircraft Industries Association 
(AIA). According to Clarence Lasby's <Project Paperclip>, the AIA pressured 
the U.S. government in the 1950's to get Nazi scientists into the United 
States. [f-103] Werhner von Braunwho worked on the Nazi rocket program, and 
General John Medaris, who supervised the Nazi scientists in the U.S. (and has 
opposed the investigations of the program by the Justice Department's OSI), 
were both conference participants. [f-104] 

  Influential private groups such as the National Association of 
Manufacturers, Chambers of Commerce, and several university institutes also 
participated in the conferences. In 1959 the National Military-Industrial 
Conferences established an Advisory Committee on Foreign Affairs that included
a number of representatives of big business. Also included, however, were 
three political figures of the anti-Semitic extreme right. One of these was 
Mark M. Jones, who followed Mervin K. Hart as head of the anti-Semitic 
National Economic Council. Also a member of the Advisory Committee was Martin 
Blank, from Germany. Blank's entries in <Who's Who in Germany> described him 
as having worked in Berlin for a mine and steel mill business group from 1922 
to 1945. [f-105] A study of backers of German Nazism, <Who Financed Hitler>, 
says that Blank represented a secret group of 12 Ruhr industrialists called 
the <Ruhrlade>, "the most powerful secret organization of big business that
existed during the Weimar period." [f-106] <Ruhrlade> and its political 
emissary, Martin Blank, became involved in funding the rise of Hitler. The 
1959 Military-Industrial conference bulletin identifies him as a 
representative of German industry. 

  A third member of the committee was Baron Frederich August von der Heydte, 
who had also been active with the 1958 conference. His entry in <Who's Who in 
Germany> and other sources say that he was an "active officer 1935-47" in the 
German army. [f-107] Heydte, whose family was close to the exiled Hohenzollen 
monarch, [f-108] was reported to have written in 1953 that "democracy is 
linked with collapse, defeat and foreign uniforms stalking German soil," and 
that "democracy was brought by the victorious enemy together with the army of 
occupation." [f-109] Von der Heydte was a co-founder and ideological leader of
the Christian Democratic Union, a party that brought a variety of Nazi 
elements into its fold after the first post-war German elections. [f-110] In 
recent years von der Heydte has formed an association with Lyndon LaRouche's 
neo-fascist cult group. [f-111] The only foreign members of the National 
Military-Industrial Conference's Foreign Affairs Committee during this period 
were Blank and von der Heydte. 


                            PART TWO - SECTION 2 

                            Eisenhower's Nightmare


   In 1958, the Military-Industrial Conference formed the Institute for 
American Strategy (IAS) to conduct ongoing Cold War propaganda. It was left to
the American Security Council and the University of Pennsylvania's Foreign 
Policy Research Institute to administer the IAS. [f-112] The IAS became a 
center of controversy in 1961, however, because of its role in political 
indoctrination of the military and its ties to active duty military 
organizations that were beginning to conduct propaganda in civilian forums. 
The concern of IAS critics was that an emerging military-industrial complex 
could begin to dominate politics and government policymaking, as was noted by 
President Eisenhower in his 1961 farewell address. Senator William Fulbright 
and President John F. Kennedy began to share that concern, especially when it 
became clear that it was liberalism itself that was under attack. 

  In 1961, the <New York Times> reported that a 1958 National Security 
Council> directive recommended that "the military be used to reinforce the 
cold war effort." The NSC decided that the >military should conduct 
indoctrination campaigns for the American public on cold war and foreign 
policy issues. The Institute for American Strategy became the vehicle for the 
NSC program, organizing "National Strategy Seminars>." The <Bulletin of Atomic
Scientists> noted: 

  "What is particularly striking about the National Strategy Seminars is that 
through the authorization of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Institute for 
American Strategy, in effect, took over from the services the responsibility 
for training reserve officers on active duty, even though the National War 
College, whose facilities were used, had been giving courses on strategy to 
senior officers of the three services as well as civilians for the past ten 
years. " 

  "At the same time, while the government paid for allowance, travel, 
facilities and services, the Richardson Foundation provided the funds for 
other expenses, including the cost of developing a curriculum for the seminar,
hiring a staff, securing speakers, and purchasing books and other materials to
be distributed to the students without charge. [f-113]"

  Fulbright warned of the dangers implicit in the situation: 

  "The relationships between the Foreign Policy Research Institute, the 
Institute for American Strategy, the Richardson Foundation, the National War 
College, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, should be re-examined from the 
standpoint of whether these relationships do not amount to official support 
for a viewpoint at variance with that of the Administration. " 

  "These relationships may give one particularly aggressive view a more direct
and commanding influence upon military and civilian concepts of strategy than 
is desirable. [f-114]" 

  Frank Barnett was Director of Research for the Richardson Foundation (now 
the Smith-Richardson Foundation) and Program Director of the Institute for 
American Strategy. Barnett advocated "political warfare" abroad that included 
fomenting "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." [f-115] Riled by 
those who did not share his militant foreign policy outlook, Barnett told 
attendees at one Cold War seminar that "it is within the capacity of the 
people in this room to literally turn the State of Georgia into a civilian war
college," in order to overcome their opponents. [f-116] 

  William Kintner, a 25-year ASC veteran who left the CIA after 11 years as a 
planning officer and joined IAS in 1961, attacked the critics of extreme 
rightism in the <Readers Digest>, May, 1962. He said the campaign against 
extreme rightists, including the John Birch Society, began when "dossiers in 
Moscow's espionage headquarters were combed for the names of unsuspecting 
persons in the United States who might do the Kremlin's work." In other words,
Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy were dupes of the KGB.. .or worse. In the 
jargon of today's extreme right, those concerned over the growing 
military-industrial complex were spreading "Soviet disinformation." 

  Despite the controversy, the NSC directive authorizing the military's role 
in Cold War propaganda remained in effect.  Edward Lansdale became 
Administrative Director of IAS in the mid-1960's, serving while John Fisher 
was president of the organization. Lansdale was also an architect of CIA 
covert operations in Vietnam. [f-117] The Institute for American Strategy 
later changed its name to the American Security Council Foundation.  

  In the early 1960's the ultra-right was planning Goldwater's presidential 
campaign effort, helping to build the political base of extreme right groups. 
In concert with the Goldwater campaign, the American Security Council in 1964 
published a book called <Guidelines for Cold War Victory> which listed board 
members and cooperating organizations from several far-right groups, including
some linked to the John Birch Society. At least one ASC official was even 
associated with the quasi-Nazi Liberty Lobby. [f-118] 

  These relationships take on greater significance as one learns more about 
the nature of groups such as Liberty Lobby and the John Birch Society. For 
instance, the founder of the John Birch Society, Robert Welch, once called 
President Eisenhower "a dedicated, conscious agent of the Communist 
conspiracy," while the leader of Liberty Lobby, Willis Carto, edited a 
publication in 1960 calling for voter support for the American Nazi Party. 

  In his book <The Liberty Lobby and the American Right>, author Frank P. 
Mintz outlines the "overlap in ideology and clientele" between Liberty Lobby 
and the John Birch Society as well as the important differences: 

  "The John Birch Society in the early 1960's aspired to the leadership of a 
`radical right' that strongly defended national sovereignty and opposed 
American membership in international organizations such as the United Nations.
Closely related to the nationalist stance was a conspiratorial interpretation 
of U.S. history that made the Council on Foreign Relations an ally of the 
`Communist conspiracy.'"[f-119] 

  But while the Birch Society trumpeted jingoistic patriotism via conspiracy 
theories, Mintz says that the "Lobby voiced racist and anti-Semitic beliefs in
addition to conspiracism." Mintz explains: 

  "Structurally, the Lobby was a most unusual umbrella organization catering 
to constituencies spanning the fringes of Neo-Nazism to the John Birch Society
and the radical right. It was not truly paramilitary, in the manner of the Ku 
Klux Klan and Nazis, but was more accurately an intermediary between racist 
paramilitary factions and the recent right. The pro-defense network being 
created by the American Security Council in the 1960's offered a respectable 
and anonymous way for members of the radical right John Birch Society and 
quasi-Nazi Liberty Lobby to pursue the pro-military anti-communist portions of
their ideology in a setting where the less savory portions of their views 
could be ignored in the spirit of coalition building. " 

  - The Coalition for Peace Through Strength - 

  The ASC's role in elections wasn't highly visible until 1970. That year it 
targeted opponents of Richard Nixon's Vietnam War policies for defeat through 
the distribution of a "national security vote index" which claimed liberals 
were soft on communism. The ASC warned voters, "Did <you> vote for.. .a real 
missile gap? A new Cuban missile crisis?.. .Well, that's what you got! And a 
powerful coalition of members of Congress is trying to further reduce our 
defenses." [f-120] 

  After Jimmy Carter became President in 1977, the ASC began to organize 
opposition to his plans to ratify the SALT II treaty. The ASC formed the 
Coalition for Peace Through Strength in August, 1978 for that purpose, and to 
put together a network to defeat the Democratic Party's nominee in 1980. In a 
Coalition report issued immediately after the 1980 elections, Coalition 
co-Chair Paul Laxalt, who was also Reagan's 1980 campaign chairman, praised 
Fisher and the ASC: "The combination of all your efforts -- particularly your 
TV blitz, Speakers Bureau and Political Action Committee -- had a powerful 
impact on the election results." [f-121] 

  - The ASC Role in the 1980 Elections - 

  In 1980 the American Security Council Foundation produced a film, "The SALT 
Syndrome," to oppose Senate ratification of the SALT treaty and to suggest 
that Jimmy Carter was unilaterally disarming the U.S. Its use by the 
tax-exempt ASC Foundation was described by Fisher: "In the last three months 
of the campaign.. .ASCF increased its average TV showings from 30 a month to 
180 bookings per month for a total of 1,956 showings during this election 
year." Fisher claimed that the purchased commercial air time, cable showings 
and screenings by private groups reached anywhere from 50 to 137 million 
people. 

  The ASC was also active in realigning the Senate toward the GOP. Fisher, for
instance, celebrated the victory of James Abdnor of South Dakota, by noting 
Abdnor had "unseated the 18-year super-dove incumbent, Senator George 
McGovern." Fisher also reported Abdnor expressed pleasure with the help he 
received. "Aside from my own campaign committee itself, no organization was 
more helpful in my successful Senate race than the Coalition for Peace Through
Strength/American Security Council," Abdnor is quoted as saying. 

  In the South Dakota race, according to the <Coalition Insider> (the 
newsletter of the Coalition for Peace Through Strength), the film "The SALT 
Syndrome" was shown 11 times on the three major television stations in South 
Dakota and as a projected film or videotape it was screened to 1,000 
audiences. Making the ASC film his own, "Abdnor prepared an opening and 
closing statement that was incorporated in the 16mm version of `The SALT 
Syndrome.'" ASC organizers "along with Abdnor's staff were responsible for 
these more than 1,000 showings of the film.. .throughout the state," reported 
the <Coalition Insider>. 

  The ASC-PAC also gave Abdnor's campaign $8,000. Other pro-military Senate 
candidates for whom the ASC made special efforts included Charles Grassley, 
Alfonse D'Amato, and Steven Symms. 

  According to Fisher: 

  "Coalition Co-chairman Major General [Ret.] John (Jack) Singlaub played a 
continuing role in the Grassley campaign, first visiting Iowa in the early 
summer. Singlaub's radio and television ads made for Grassley became an 
important part of the campaign's thrust. In addition, Singlaub filmed a 
special introduction to "The SALT Syndrome" for Grassley, who used the film 
widely in his campaign."

  The report notes that Grassley's Democratic opponent, incumbent Senator John
Culver, moved ahead in the polls, so Grassley asked retired Lt. General Daniel
O. Graham, former CIA deputy director and ex-head of the Defense Intelligence 
Agency, to campaign for him. Graham, who was executive director of the ASC's 
PAC, was carried by private plane on "a whirlwind tour of Western Iowa." A 
rally and press meetings were arranged. Grassley pulled ahead in the polls and
held the lead through the November 4 elections. The ASC PAC also gave the 
Grassley campaign $8,000. 

  Another all-out effort was made by ASC in behalf of Alphonse D'Amato against
Elizabeth Holtzman in New York's Senate race. "ASC staffers were in there 
pitching from the start. A whole contingent went to help the D'Amato campaign 
with the press.. .." According to the report, Gen. Graham, retired Brig. Gen. 
Robert Richardson and several Admirals represented the Coalition for Peace 
Through Strength on D'Amato's behalf. The ASC PAC also gave his campaign 
$1,000. The Fisher ASC election report notes that Graham enjoyed most his 
campaign against Frank Church, who had led the Senate investigation of illegal
CIA activities. Graham called Church, in typical ASC overstatement, "the 
architect of the destruction of our intelligence system" for investigating the
CIA illegalities. 

  Both Graham and Singlaub (who also had worked for the CIA) "campaigned 
vigorously for Steve Symms.. .each paying Idaho three separate visits. They 
were together for the Idaho Republican State convention." One headline, 
typical of the ASC style of rhetoric, read "Singlaub blames Church for Soviet 
supremacy." Symms received $2,000 from ASC-PAC. Fisher claims that in 1980 the
Coalition and ASC "briefed and/or campaigned for 67 candidates." He said ASC 
staffers served as media consultants, researchers, and aided candidates in 
making introductions and closing statements to the ASC's film, "The SALT 
Syndrome." 

  The ASC-PAC also aided Republican Senators Jake Garn and Dan Quayle [now 
vice-president Quayle] with $3,000 each, as well as Paula Hawkins, Paul 
Laxalt, Mack Mattingly and Don Nickles with $1,000 each. In the House, Jack 
Kemp, Robert K. Dornan and Gerald Solomon were Republicans who received $1,000
each, as did Democrats Sam Stratton, Andrew Ireland and Bill Chappell. 


                            PART TWO - SECTION 3 

                      Not Exactly a Peaceful Coalition


  While the Coalition for Peace Through Strength became more involved in 
elections and lobbying for Reagan Administration priorities, the number of 
organizations in the Coalition grew from about 40 in 1978 to 171 in 1986. As 
the Coalition grew, more bizarre groups were brought in. Many of the groups 
mentioned earlier are part of the Coalition: the Republican Heritage Groups 
Council and its Slovak, Romanian, Italian, Chinese and Cossack Republican 
units; the Slovak World Congress, the Bulgarian National Front, the 
Byelorussian-American Association and several other emigre fascist groups. But
one organization that is a Coalition member and brings together, under ASC 
auspices, the Republican Heritage Groups Council and more ardent Nazis is the 
National Confederation of American Ethnic Groups (NCAEG). 

  The NCAEG is an organization which becomes active about a year before 
presidential elections. Treasurer Richard Kolm says of the NCAEG "We don't 
have contact with the Democratic Party. NCAEG has a reputation as Republican."
It is also called "Szaz's personal springboard" by one of its officers, in 
reference to Executive Vice President Z. Michael Szaz's dominance. Szaz is an 
official of the Virginia Republican Heritage Groups Council, an associate of 
racialist Roger Pearson (see Part 3), and a director of the ASC's American 
Foreign Policy Institute. In mid-1983, the NCAEG began operating out of the 
ASC's Washington office in preparation for the 1984 elections. [f-122] 

  The NCAEG presents itself as a congress of American ethnicity with a mandate
to fight for the interests of millions of ethnic Americans, which some NCAEG 
leaders say are treated as second class citizens. It is, however, an 
organizational forum for, and dominated by, Nazi collaborationists, emigre 
fascists and anti-Semites. A number of the groups and leaders within the NCAEG
are also affiliated with the National Republican Heritage Groups Council. 
[f-123] 

  One of the exceptions is the Romanian affiliate of the NCAEG, the Romanian 
American National Congress. Unlike the reticent Galdau, who denies being an 
Iron Guardsman, Dr. Alexander Ronnett, head of the Romanian American National 
Congress, has written a defense of the Iron Guard. [f-124] 

  Throughout its sixty-year history, the Iron Guard has maintained a mystical,
morose Romanian volkish nationalism and anti-Semitism. [f-125] The Iron 
Guard's links to the German SS and their attempted 1941 coup against the 
Romanian monarchy were evidence of the violent nature of the Guard. Their 
macabre ritual assassination practices were given full play during the 
three-day coup attempt, when thousands were rounded up and many murdered. Jews
were a special target. [f-126] 

  Today, Ronnett talks of "Jew-Communists" and the need for the American 
military to destroy the Warsaw pact. In his suburban Chicago M.D.'s office, 
Iron Guard symbols hang on the wall along with autographed photos of Chilean 
dictator Augusto Pinochet meeting with Ronnett and other Iron Guard leaders. 
The message of the Iron Guard is still taken seriously in some circles. 
[f-127] 

  An Illinois ethnic advisor to the Reagan-Bush campaign in 1984, Ronnett 
spoke at the February, 1986 annual meeting of the Institute for Historical
Review, where he claimed Jews were enemies of the Iron Guard. [f-128] The IHR 
is the Holocaust-denial group in Los Angeles that attempts to rewrite the 
history of World War II in favor of the Axis powers and present Nazism in a 
favorable light. The IHR is sponsored by Willis Carto who also leads the 
anti-Semitic and quasi-nazi Liberty Lobby. Ronnett's Romanian American 
National Congress, which has long-standing ties to The World Anti-Communist 
League (WACL), [f-129] recently joined the Coalition for Peace Through 
Strength. 

  Another NCAEG leader who was active with IHR was Austin App of the German 
American National Congress (also known by its German acronym "DANK"). App, a 
pro-Nazi activist for decades, wrote <The Six Million Swindle>, [f-130] 
asserting that the Nazi extermination of Jews didn't happen. Until his death 
in 1986, App was also active with extreme rightists based in Germany. App was 
a founder of the NCAEG. DANK is its German affiliate. DANK was active in the 
Republican Heritage Groups Council in the early 1970's, but the GOP German 
slot has had no affiliate in recent years. DANK, a group that glories in the 
memory of the Third Reich, is also a member of the Coalition for Peace Through
Strength, despite the fact that App had written in 1946 that "the German 
armies [were] the most decent armies of the war." In his 1974 pamphlet, <A 
Straight Look at the Third Reich: Hitler and National Socialism, How Right? 
How Wrong?>, App wrote, "The truth is that in WWII the Third Reich fought for 
justice, and the Allies fought to prevent justice." [f-131] Writing in 
<Commentary>, December 1980, Lucy Dawidowicz bluntly called DANK "pro-Nazi," a
characterization easily justified by the content of the group's literature. 

  When NCAEG held a meeting in the fall of 1983, representatives of the White 
House and Republican National Commitee were participants. Republican Heritage 
Groups Council Executive Director Radi Slavoff was identified in the program 
as also being the NCAEG's Secretary/Director of Activities. One of the 
activities planned was to honor NCAEG founders Austin App and Slovak Josef 
Mikus, the former Tiso diplomat. [f-132] 

  In 1985, Slavoff and Pasztor were replaced by American-born ethnics in order
to campaign against the Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations 
(OSI), the Nazi prosecution unit. New Jersey NCAEG chair Joseph Plonski, who 
is also vice-chair of the New Jersey Republican Heritage Groups Council, says 
that the "Soviets are using OSI as a vehicle to divide and conquer America." 
He said they wanted NCAEG leaders to be American-born so they couldn't be 
accused of "war crimes." [f-133] 

  NCAEG's anti-OSI campaign put together a booklet that has a friendly note 
from White House Communications Director Patrick Buchanan. [f-134] NCAEG 
credibility on the OSI question is further complicated by the public 
assertions of some of its associates that the Holocaust never happened. 

  Other Republican Heritage Groups Council leaders who have been active with 
the NCAEG include Walter Melianovich, Nicolas Nazarenko, Alexander Aksenov, 
and Laszlo Pasztor. In a 1971 <Washington Post> story on some of the extreme 
elements within the NCAEG and Republican Heritage Groups Council, Pasztor's 
attitude was described as uncritical of the fascists he was working with: "He 
talks to all of them, he says, and praises the concept of an umbrella 
organization for ethnics. He denounces no one." [f-135] 

  Ethnic groups are not the only extremists in the Coalition for Peace Through
Strength. Other groups include: 

  - CATHOLICS FOR CHRISTIAN POLITICAL ACTION - A lobby and newsletter 
operation run by Gary Potter. Its February-March 1983 newsletter attacked 
"Zionist" wealth, and "skillful playing on the Holocaust theme." The proposed
solution is stated thus: "The nation does not necessarily have to become 
Christian again to shake off the Zionist power. Germany didn't. Germany also 
ultimately failed.. .following Him [Christ] is the course the U.S. should take
to be free." [f-136] 

  - ORDER OF ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM - Although it poses as a Catholic 
organization, the Order of St. John is a Masonic group that claims to be the 
real Knights of Malta. [f-137] Its Grand Master for 50 years until his death 
several years ago was Charles Pichel, an adviser (via correspondence from the 
U.S.) to Hitler aide Ernst Hanfstaengl. [f-138] Pichel's Order is a secret 
society led by anti-Semites who have worked with the quasi-Nazi Liberty Lobby 
and with neo-fascist Lyndon LaRouche groups. [f-139] 

  - HERITAGE GROUPS COUNCIL FOR CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION - A subsidiary of the 
pro-Nazi German American National Congress (DANK), the Council is headed by 
Karol Sitko. Active in NCAEG, Sitko was described in the <Washington Post> as 
an ally of Austin App and Ivan Docheff. [f-140] Sitko was also the organizer 
for the West German branch of the Western Goals Foundation, a far-right 
political organizing and research group which, until the death of its founder,
Congressman Larry McDonald, was essentially a front for the John Birch 
Society's private intelligence network. In Germany, Sitko organized rallies in
Nuremberg and Hanover drawing 240,000 people. He was supported by billionaire 
H.L. Hunt and General John Singlaub. [f-141] His activities were conducted in 
concert with the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations (See Section 3, part 4). 

  - CONSERVATIVES AGAINST LIBERAL LEGISLATION - Renamed Conservative Alliance 
(CALL), this group was organized by the late Terry Dolan's National 
Conservative Political Action Committee (NCPAC is also in the Coalition for 
Peace Through Strength). CALL receives major funding through groups affiliated
with Rev. Sun Myung Moon, according to the <Wall Street Journal> and other 
reports. [f-142] CALL started The National Coalition for America's Survival, 
which includes the newly-reincarnated America First Committee. [f-143] The 
current America First Committee, related only by name to the earlier group, is
a Chicago-based racist and anti-Semitic organization headed by neo-Nazi Art 
Jones. Jones alternates Nazi uniforms with Klan robes and participated in a 
Klan-Nazi unity meeting sponsored by Aryan Nations in October of 1985. [f-144]
Jones constantly issues attacks on Blacks, Jews and Hispanics, and functions 
as the ideological leader of Chicago-area Nazi groups. 

  - COMMITTEE TO UNITE AMERICA - One of three groups in the Coalition headed 
by Lady Malcolm Douglas-Hamilton, who is also on the board of the American 
Security Council Foundation. Her deceased husband, part of the British 
aristocracy, was the brother of the host of Rudolph Hess when, in 1940, Hess 
made his secret flight to England. Hess, a top aide to Hitler and Nazi Party 
official, sought to meet with the British aristocratic circles known as the 
Cliveden Set. [f-145] Sympathetic to Hitler's war aims, the Cliveden Set tried
to get England out of the war it had declared against Germany in September, 
1939, after Germany invaded Poland. Hess was arrested and imprisoned. After 
Lord Malcolm Douglas came to the U.S., he established an American branch of a 
racial eugenics group headquartered in Scotland. The oil billionaire Hunt 
brothers and Senator Jesse Helms are members of the group. It was headed by 
Robert Gayre, who published the racialist <Mankind Quarterly> until Roger 
>Pearson took it over in 1978. (See Section 3, part 1.) Lady Malcolm 
Douglas-Hamilton set up a number of groups, including the Committee to Unite 
America. John Fisher is listed among its Founders and on its Sponsoring 
Committee, as are other ASC principals.  


  - The ASC, the White House, and the National Security Council - 

  The American Security Council sponsors weekly private meetings between 
National Security Council representatives, congressional staffers and New 
Right groups active on foreign policy issues. Begun in January, 1985, the 
Tuesday Group, as it has become known for its Tuesday morning Capitol Hill 
sessions, has focused on gaining aid for the Contras, a top White House and 
ASC priority.  

  ASC leaders in 1985 were reluctant to discuss the Tuesday Group due to the 
participation of Lt. Col. Oliver North, then a deputy director of the National
Security Council, and the attendance of Constantine Menges, the former head of
Latin American affairs at NSC. North eventually came under Congressional fire 
in 1987 for his role in coordinating secret and private aid to the Contras. 
North has participated in other ASC activities and had his picture in the 
<Peace Through Strength Report>, January, 1986, with Fisher, even though the 
White House demanded that the <Washington Post> and other papers not use 
North's picture -- for reasons of national security. 

  The Tuesday Group is chaired by Sam Dickens, ASC's Director for 
Inter-American Affairs and editor of Radio Free Americas, a radio program 
picked up by the ASC in 1968 when a similar program was exposed in 1967 as 
CIA-sponsored. Others in the group, whose attendance varies slightly depending
on the weekly topic, include: representatives of the Pentagon and State 
Department; the Heritage Foundation; the Center for Strategic and 
International Studies; the National Forum Foundation; former U.S. Ambassador 
to Costa Rica Curtin Winsor, Jr.; Lynn Bouchey, head of the Council on 
Inter-American Security; Dave Sullivan, an aide to Senator Jesse Helms, Steve 
Symms and James McClure; and, until recently, Angelo Codevilla, a former aide 
to Sen. Malcolm Wallop, who now works for the Hoover Institution in 
California. [f-146] 

  Menges described the meetings as purely "social affairs" and said he only 
came in contact with the Tuesday Group "a couple of months ago." He had left 
the NSC a month prior to our interview, in early 1987, to work for Jack Kemp's
Fund for an American Renaissance. 

  One Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs also attends the
Tuesday meetings in order to maintain contacts with other foreign policy 
hard-liners. At the risk of losing his job, he blasts the policies of 
Secretary of State George Schultz, Assistant Secretary for African Affairs 
Chester Crocker and Deputy Assistant Secretary Frank Wisner. The impact of 
Tuesday Group work was noted by one source who said "the Michel Amendment" for
Contra aid was written through its process. 

  Various experts are brought in to discuss the topic of any given meeting. 
According to Dickens, guests may include "Congressmen, former heads of state, 
ambassadors, military leaders from El Salvador, Honduras -- Eden Pastora, 
Roberto D'Aubuisson we've had at our breakfast." According to Winsor, Sol 
Sanders of <Business Week> made one presentation on the situation in Mexico. 
"His views are virtually the same as [former Ambassador] Jim Gavins," Winsor 
added. 

  Dickens said in 1986 that the focus of the Tuesday Group had been on Contra 
aid, and would continue to be. The Tuesday Group's purpose was "to bring 
people together to develop ideas and action plans to get support from Congress
for the Freedom Fighters," according to the ASC activist. Dickens said that 
for Reagan to get consensus on the Hill for funding the Contras it was going 
to take private sector involvement, "So we've been working on that basis.. .."
Dickens said that he would "advise Contra leaders" and "help raise money for 
them through foundations." 

  After insisting that "the U.S. ought to break diplomatic relations" with 
Nicaragua and "recognize UNO [United Nicaraguan Opposition]," Dickens said 
that the NSC at the time was considering such a move after initial funding for
the contras was approved. He predicted that the break would come after 
"another country takes the lead in South America" to end diplomatic ties with 
Nicaragua. These predictions came shortly before the story of Iran-Contragate 
broke in the national news media. 

  In addition to the foreign policy subjects of the Tuesday Group, a working 
group meets in "crisis" situations, presumably to aid funding for programs 
that need Congressional lobbying, such as Star Wars, chemical weapons and the 
MX. The appropriate administration officials, military contractors and 
political groups are believed to participate. [f-147] 

  The relationship between Reagan and the ASC has been a long and mutually 
beneficial partnership. Presidential candidate Ronald Reagan joined the 
Coalition for Peace Through Strength as an individual member as the Coalition 
was being formed in 1978. [f-148] The ASC supplied campaign advisors and a 
drumbeat of propaganda for the defeat of Jimmy Carter. After Reagan's 1980 
victory, the ASC was heavily represented on the transition teams and in the 
new administration. In turn, Reagan provided three fundraising letters for the
ASC during his first year in office. [f-149] 

  Observing this relationship near the end of 1980, retired Admiral Gene La 
Rocque, director of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Defense Information,
stated that "the American Security Council, which only a few years ago was 
generally dismissed in serious defense circles as an insignificant fringe 
group left over from the McCarthy era, today stands poised to take control of 
the defense policies of this nation." La Rocque noted that Reagan's 
inexperience in defense issues meant that "[w]hen it comes to military policy,
Governor Reagan depends totally on his advisors." [f-150] 


                            PART TWO - SECTION 4 

               The Propaganda Arm of the Military Establishment


  Reagan's NSC turned to the ASC early on for collaboration on its projects. A
March 11, 1982 letter from then-National Security Advisor William Clark 
praised ASC's 1980 film "Attack on the Americas" as "effective and accurate" 
and asked the ASC to produce an updated version incorporating Reagan's 
Caribbean and Central American policies. The "Dear John" letter to Fisher on 
White House letterhead claimed that it was necessary to turn to the ASC 
because "media coverage has been fraught with both misinformation and 
disinformation.. .." Clark ended the letter with a "look forward to working 
with you in the future." 

  The ASC produced the film, bringing Sam Dickens in as a consultant. [f-151] 
In August 1982, the ASC Foundation held a speakers training forum in the White
House with high administration officials participating. [f-152] The speaker's 
bureau was another ASC vehicle made available to the Administration to help 
develop public support for its policies. The 1980 version of "Attack on the 
Americas" reportedly received funds for its $500,000 budget from several 
extreme right-wing groups in Guatemala with links to death squads in that 
country. [f-153]  

  Another film on Central America, "Crisis in the Americas," was also produced
with NSC interests in mind. According to one source, however, the NSC paid the
ASC for its help. "I was screening the film footage taken in Central America
so that we could make a copy," said British Broadcasting Corporation producer 
David Taylor, who works in Washington, D.C. "The film's producer, Walter Gold,
told me I couldn't use some of the footage because it was shot for the NSC 
through a contract arrangement with the ASC. It was supposed to be secret." 
Taylor said that some of the footage was of a classified U.S. air base in El 
Salvador to which journalists could not get access. "For them to get to that 
base, they had to be cleared." Some of the footage had a C-130 aircraft 
landing at the base that Gold identified as "a CIA transport." He also told 
Taylor that footage of the 1984 elections in El Salvador had "CIA election 
observers." It was never explained why the NSC wanted this footage, nor how 
much was paid to the ASC to produce it. [f-154] The public version of "Crisis 
in the Americas" premiered in the White House in February, 1985. [f-155] NSC 
head Robert McFarlane headlined the event, while former presidential assistant
Faith Whittlesey praised the ASC for its "initiative." 

  Another source of funds for ASC film efforts came from the First National 
Bank of Chicago. In 1987, the <American Banker>  noted the FBI was 
investigating the unauthorized use of $100,000 by two former bank officials to
aid an ASC promotional film. One bank employee, Wayne Gregory, was head of the
Illinois Branch of the ASC's U.S. Congressional Advisory Board (USCAB), a part
of ASC's fundraising operation. [f-156] Gregory's attorney, Matthias Lydon, 
said of the ASC's involvement, "nothing was said, assumptions were made" 
between Gregory and the ASC. [f-157] The ASC gave Gregory an award "to honor 
the example and dedication he has shown." [f-158] The USCAB had further 
problems when the home of former Illinois Congressman Robert Hanrahan, who 
headed the national USCAB fundraising operation, was raided in a "nationwide 
investigation into a scheme to hide drug profits." [f-159]  

  In September, 1983 Reagan sent a "Dear John" letter to Fisher on White House
stationery which began "I am glad to hear that you are launching an IN DEFENSE
OF AMERICA project to counter the massive Soviet propaganda and disinformation
on issues like Central America and the nuclear weapons freeze....My 
Administration will cooperate fully with you in this project." [f-160] 

  The "In Defense of America" project was geared toward shaping public opinion
for the 1984 campaign. The centerpiece of the fifteen-million-dollar project 
was production of two films that were intended to play a campaign role similar
to the use made of "The SALT Syndrome" in 1980. The Coalition's November 1983 
newsletter notes that "a special team drawn from the National Security 
Council, the State Department, [and] the Department of Defense" will assist 
the ASC project. 

  The first film was "A Strategy for Peace Through Strength" which, like all 
ASC propaganda, claims U.S. military inferiority. A scene of Carter embracing 
Brezhnev is later contrasted with a hard-line Reagan speech, giving viewers an
idea as to who is weakening America. 

  The second film was "Crisis in the Americas." Its graphics featured a bear 
from the eastern horizon aggressively looming over Central America. President 
Reagan and Administration spokesmen are the star players in the script. 

  Part of the appeal to raise the $15 million for the ASC project was to 
double the number of groups in the Coalition for Peace Through Strength, from 
158 to 300. Another goal was to build state and local units of the Coalition. 
A separately stated goal was to "Encourage the organization of affiliated 
Coalitions in all other free world countries." [f-161] 

  In several interviews, Fisher declined to discuss any means by which they 
intended to organize other "Free World" Coalitions. Although he suggested that
CIOR, the NATO reserve officers association, would be a possible vehicle, he
seemed to have no plan, or intention of developing one. It was also unclear 
what the international character and function of a Coalition for Peace Through
Strength may be in, say, Chile, Paraguay or South Africa -- countries where 
domestic peace is maintained through the strength of police and military units
deployed by the government. 

  Those aspects of the ASC project related to Reagan's re-election, however, 
were implemented with some success. J. Walter Thompson Advertising Company 
arranged half-hour slots on nearly 200 commercial stations to show the "Peace 
Through Strength" film a month before the November election. Public and cable 
TV showings were also arranged. The "Crisis in the Americas" film didn't make 
it before the elections. 

  The ASC planned to complement that week of film showings on TV with "Peace 
Through Strength" rallies in 48 states. [f-162] Most were poorly attended. The
ASC also planned a "World Peace Through Strength Day" on September 19, 1984. 
Although the nature of the event was unclear, the ASC noted "the day-long 
extravaganza is scheduled for the eve of America's Presidential elections" 
which the ASC felt "further enhances its significance." [f-163] 

  The coordinators of some of the state Coalition activities represent the 
extreme politics of the national organization. The North Carolina Coalition 
coordinator during the 1984 re-election effort for Senator Jesse Helms was 
Milton Croom, [f-164] a longtime supporter of Lyndon LaRouche's activities, 
and a partner in a western Maryland radio station owned by the LaRouche 
group.[f-165] The LaRouche network frequently organizes around anti-Semitic 
and neo-Nazi themes, and collaborates with American neo-Nazi groups and the Ku
Klux Klan. Former members say the core of the organization is a cult with 
members totally subservient to LaRouche. [f-166] 

  Betty McConkey, the Iowa Coalition coordinator, was a candidate for state 
legislative office under the banner of the Populist Party, [f-167] a political
front of the anti-Semitic and quasi-Nazi Liberty Lobby. The Populist Party 
openly includes elements from the Ku Klux Klan as well as the violent 
paramilitary Posse Comitatus. [f-168] 

  When the ASC put together the "In Defense of America" project, they 
assembled a "strategy board" for the ASC Foundation. [f-169] It included two 
former directors of covert operations of the CIA, and two former intelligence 
operatives involved in organizations aiding the illegal shipments of lethal 
material to Libya under the direction of former CIA operatives Edmund Wilson 
and Frank Terpil.

  One of the operatives involved in the Wilson-Terpil arms trade is Brig. Gen.
(retired) Robert C. Richardson III. He was a vice-president of Consultants 
International from 1973-77, [f-170] a front company used in the Libyan 
operations. [f-171] A senior officer in U.S. Air Force Politico-Military 
Affairs (covert operations), he is an associate of Roger Pearson (see Pearson 
section) and retired Lt. Daniel O. Graham's High Frontier, a group which 
lobbies for a form of Star Wars and is also a member group of the Coalition 
for Peace Through Strength.

  Another covert operator on the strategy board was the late Brig. Gen. Edwin 
F. Black. Formerly on Eisenhower's Operations Coordinating Board, which 
implemented National Security Council policies and supervised the CIA, [f-172]
Black was a principal of the Nugan Hand Bank of Australia. [f-173] The 
Australian government found that the bank was involved in drug and gun 
trafficking [f-174] and that it aided the Wilson-Terpil operations. [f-175] 

  The government also noted the bank's employment of "so many former high
ranking U.S. and Armed Services personnel and other people widely known to 
have had a previous formal connection with the U.S. intelligence community." 
[f-176] Although the government did not find Nugan Hand to be a sanctioned 
covert cover for CIA activities, it remarked that "there are a number of 
matters that give rise to serious disquiet," including "the relationships that
some of the Nugan Hand group.. .had with persons of U.S. intelligence 
background." [f-177] Black and Richardson also serve on the ASC National 
Strategy Committee. [f-178] 


                             PART TWO - SECTION 5

                             The ASC and Congress


  The ASC's close relationship to the executive branch continued after the 
1984 elections. A "Salute to Ambassador Jeane J. Kirkpatrick" dinner was 
arranged by the ASC in 1985, with a host committee studded with administration
officials. [f-179] Having solidified its relationship with the Reagan 
Administration, ASC targeted Congress to receive more attention. - 

  "Our increasing emphasis is going to be on Congress," said Fisher. [f-180] 
He was mindful of the Congressional resistance that still exists on a variety 
of foreign and military policy issues. The two ASC vehicles for influencing 
Congress are the U.S. Congressional Advisory Board (USCAB), a part of the ASC 
Foundation, and the Congressional Division of the Coalition for Peace Through 
Strength. 

  USCAB gives citizens the opportunity to become "advisors" to Congress by 
paying money to the ASC, although an occasional postage stamp is cheaper and 
perhaps just as effective. As a member of USCAB you also get invited to ASC 
fundraisers called "annual meetings" of USCAB. The meeting held in July, 1986 
cost $150 a head to attend. 

    Administration officials aid these fundraisers by providing speakers and 
even the White House for events. Caspar Weinberger has addressed the 1985 
[f-181] and 1986 meetings; SDI director Lt. Gen. James Abrahamson and George 
Keyworth, former Science Advisor to the President, have also addressed USCAB. 
[f-182] In December of 1985 a "Post Geneva Summit Briefing" was sponsored by 
USCAB that featured speeches from Lt. Col. Oliver North, John Lenczowski, 
Director of European and Soviet Affairs for the National Security Council, and
William Martin, Executive Secretary of the NSC. [f-183] 

  The Congressional Division of the Coalition for Peace Through Strength is 
the ASC's fig leaf of bipartisanship. With 252 congressmen and senators as 
members in 1986, the ASC claims their Congressional Division to be the largest
caucus in Congress. Nearly forty percent are Democrats, according to the ASC. 
As a Division member, elected representatives are expected to support a "Peace
Through Strength Resolution" and maintain a seventy percent positive rating on
the ASC index of key congressional votes. This entitles congressional 
representativs to certain rewards. The main reward is financial. 

  The ASC has a Political Action Committee that doles out money -- if you are 
a member of the Coalition's Congressional Division. In 1985, <Common Cause 
Magazine> reported that conservative Republican Senator John Warner of 
Virginia was denied a campaign donation unless he joined. Warner, who says he 
refuses donations with strings attached, said no. He also told the magazine 
that he believed they wanted his name for fundraising purposes. "I was not 
about to become part of their fundraising operations," Warner was quoted as 
saying. [f-184]

  ASC-PAC donations are a small part of the money available to influence 
Congress. While ASC reported that in 1982 its PAC distributed $82,000 to 
Congressional candidates, Fisher's annual ASC report noted that the Council 
also "played a senior role in the raising of over $2 million" in the campaign.
[f-185] In 1984 ASC-PAC spent $225,000 while raising another $4.5 million in 
campaign money, [f-186] possibly from defense contractors. 

  Select congressmen receive other benefits. Florida Democratic Congressman 
Bill Chappell, chair of the Defense Appropriation Subcommittee and a co-chair 
of the Congressional Division of the ASC, says that in 1984 the ASC was 
responsible for the "most successful Washington fundraiser ever held during my
18 years in Congress." [f-187] He recently praised the ASC by writing "I am 
pleased and honored that you will once again be coordinating my Steering 
Committee efforts." [f-188] 

  Another direct means of rewarding congressional favorites is by paying 
honoraria to members of Congress who participate in ASC activities. 
Congressman Bill Dickinson of Alabama, the ranking Republican on the House 
Armed Services Committee and an endorser of the anti-Semitic and quasi-Nazi 
Liberty Lobby, [f-189] received $7,000 in honoraria from the ASC in 1984 
[f-190] and $6,500 in 1985. [f-191] One $2,000 payment came specifically for 
aiding the In Defense of America fundraising project. [f-192] ASC raised 
$500,000 from defense contractors over three years. [f-193] The project funds 
were used to produce films and organize political activity on behalf of 
increased military spending and aid to the Contras, and to bolster the 1984 
re-election efforts of Ronald Reagan.  

  The ASC regularly organizes meetings between defense contractors and key 
members of Congress. For instance, in the summer of 1987, then Senator Dan 
Quayle, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, addressed such a 
meeting to "discuss the vital importance of the Strategic Defense Initiative,"
according to the ASC newsletter <National Security Report>. The newsletter 
reported Quayle told the meeting that "the Soviets have outspent the United 
States on strategic defense during the past decade by a margin of 15 to 1." 
[f-194] 

  After the July, 1986 USCAB annual meeting, as is the yearly practice, the 
ASC gave awards to members of Congress who were members in good standing. With
martial music blasting out of the Cannon Office Building Caucus Room, 
representatives and senators queued up to receive bald eagle statues with 
their names engraved on brass plates. 

  The ASC also attempts to punish its opposition. It ran a full-page ad in the
<St. Louis Globe Democrat>, [f-195] a newspaper long associated with the ASC, 
[f-196] demanding that Congressman Richard Gephart support Contra funding. 

  The ASC's biased voter index is sent to a targeted congressperson's hometown
press pointing out the low ratings, hoping to elicit negative stories and 
editorials. The <Wall Street Journal> and newspapers from around the country 
use the >ASC index as if it comes from a responsible, nonpartisan 
organization. [f-197] The votes upon which ratings are made require the most 
hard-line positions in order to gain ASC approval. 

  Congressmen Bill Chappell and Sam Stratton and Senators Dennis DeConcini, 
the late Ed Zorinsky and Bennett Johnson were the Democrats most often 
associated with ASC political and fundraising activities in recent years. 
[Zorinsky switched to the Republican Party shortly before his death]. Often 
their presence is highlighted to suggest what is termed the bipartisan 
character of the event or the bipartisan character of the Coalition. In
effect, however, the ASC acts as if it were a GOP operation. 

  All of the partisan groups in the Coalition for Peace Through Strength are 
Republican, including 15 units of the GOP itself. The "Private Sector 
Co-Chairmen," as distinct from the Congressional Division of the Coalition for
Peace Through Strength, are Republican. The so-called private sector in the 
Coalition refers to the 171 groups that are supposed to be the "grass-roots" 
complement which interacts with the Congressional Division. Among the 171 are 
the Nazi-linked groups previously described. 

  The ASC Political Action Committee also reflects a GOP bias. Eighty percent 
of the $138,560 disbursed between February, 1985 and June, 1986 went to 
Republicans, with Steve Symms the big winner with $6,738. [f-198] Reps. Guy 
Molinari and Jack Kemp followed with $5,250 and $5,000 respectively. 

  In presidential elections,the ASC can be counted on to support the 
Republican candidate. Among the first to use heavy negative advertising as a 
partisan tool, ASC campaign material continues to exaggerate and misrepresent 
the views of Democratic opponents in order to defeat them. Campaign 
crisis-mongering statements by Singlaub and Graham, used by the ASC in the 
1980 elections, have become a Council trademark. As early as 1970, the ASC 
campaign warned "the 1970 elections may be [your]{last chance}to vote for 
Peace Through Strength." [f-199] 

  Admiral La Rocque noted that "They have always used the rhetoric of fear and
panic to make their case." He cited a 1980 ASC appeal: "No generation of 
Americans has ever before been so recklessly placed at the mercy of so 
pitiless and powerful an enemy.. .our nation stands paralyzed in blind 
obedience.. .so utterly unprepared is America.. .the crisis is approaching the
point of no return.. .." [f-200] 

  In 1984 the ASC mailed a list of Russian-English language translations of 
words and phrases it would be necessary for Americans to learn if Mondale won.
Fisher says it was "one of the politest" ways of saying what they thought 
would happen if Reagan lost in 1984. [f-201] 

  One of the sources of ASC funding is the Communication Corporation of 
America and its subsidiaries, Preferred Lists and Direct Marketing, all owned 
by Fisher and his family. [f-202] CCA is a direct mail firm that employs 250 
people on three shifts. Located on the ASC's 850-acre Virginia estate, CCA 
does work for private businesses, New Rightists such as Tim LaHaye, and for 11
years has had a contract with the Republican National Committee. "If we didn't
have the CCA, the ASC would have gone out of business on three occasions," 
says Fisher. [f-203] The firm also works for GOP campaigns and local GOP 
units. 

  It is easy to see the partisan and pecuniary motives of the ASC, its 
corporate friends and Republican allies. But the ASC also represents a world 
view with the influence to spread that world view. Fisher himself summed it up
in four words -- "I believe in Rollback." [f-204] The ASC network, including 
its Nazi friends, has not given up the idea of the U.S. military destruction 
of the USSR. The purpose of the massive weapons buildups they advocate is 
toward that end. 

  Jay Winek, a former executive director of the neo-conservative Coalition for
a Democratic Majority, said that the ASC "uses the word `peace' to justify 
strength. They really don't see peace as the purpose of strength." [f-205] 

  Forge together elements from the New Right, the Republican Party, certain 
hawkish Congressional Democrats, military and intelligence agency connections
and powerful business interests, and you have the essence of the ASC, a lobby 
for weapons and war. 

  Toward its goal the ASC has also pulled into its coalition racialists, 
American sympathizers of Hitler's war aims, representatives of post-war 
Italian fascism, and even collaborators with Hitler's Waffen SS. 

  This is consistent with the end goal of the ASC and its allies, who would 
finish the job originally started by German National Socialism -- militarily 
eliminating the USSR. Given the nature and past of the coalition pushing this 
aggresssive militarist option, it might well serve the American people to 
consider a wider range of options in foreign policy matters.  

                                                     continued...
 ---------------------------------------
 Source: PeaceNet cdp:pn.publiceye
 Written 3:20 pm Mar  4, 1990 by nlgclc in cdp:pn.publiceye
 From The NY Transfer BBS  718-448-2358
 ---------------------------------------

