Coalition for a Democratic Majority

Coalition for a Democratic Majority
Formation	1972
Type	lobby

According to Rightweb:

The CDM was formed in 1972 by the late Sen Henry Jackson (D-WA) 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 neoconservatism--intellectual and pragmatic, with an emphasis on democracy, anticommunism, 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 Jimmy Carter 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.

People (as of 1989)

Advisory Board of Elected Officials

• Sen. Henry M. Jackson (1912-1983)
• Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-TX)
• Sen. David L. Boren (DOK)
• Sen. James Exon (D-NE),
• Sen. Wyche Fowler, Jr. (D-GA),
• Sen. Howell Heflin (D-AL)
• Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-SC)
• Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI)
• Sen. Bennett Johnston (D-LA)
• Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY),
• Sen. Sam Nunn (D-GA)
• Sen. Charles S. Robb (DVA)
• Rep. Les Aspin (D-WI)
• Rep. Charles Bennett (D-FL)
• Rep. Norman Dicks (D-WA),
• Rep. Thomas S. Foley (D-WA),
• Rep. Dave McCurdy (D-OK)
• Rep. Bill Richardson (D-NM),
• Rep. James H. Scheuer (D-NY),
• Rep. Larry Smith (D-FL),
• Rep. Jim Wright (until his resignation--D-TX)
• Hubert H. Humphrey III, Atty Gen. of MN.

Officers

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

Co-chairs

• Ben Wattenberg
• Irving Kristol

Board of Directors

• Morris J. Amitay
• Judy Bardacke
• Philip Baskin
• Walter Beach
• Richard W. Boling
• Sol C. Chaikin
• S. Harrison Dogole
• Evelyn Dubrow
• Angier Biddle Duke
• Ervis S. Duggan
• Valerie Earle
• Robin Farkas
• Richard Fellman
• John Frank
• Norman Gelman
• Nathan Glazer
• Roy Godson
• Nathan Golden
• Zmina Goodman
• Judith Hernstadt
• Norman Hill
• Samuel P. Huntington
• David M. Ifshin
• Max M. Kampelman
• Ginger Lew
• Seymour M. Lipset
• Jerome B. Mack
• Stephen Mann
• Jay Mazur
• Philip Merrill
• Bruce Miller
• Joshua Muravchik
• Michael Novak
• Clara Penniman
• Richard Pipes
• Richardson Pryor
• Lucian Pye
• Molly Raiser
• John P. Roche
• Nina Rosenwald
• Eugene V. Rostow
• Paul Seabury
• Albert Shanker
• Walter Shorerutin
• Mark A. Siegel
• Steven Simmons
• Walter B. Slocombe
• Allen Weinstein
• Raymond E. Wolfinger
• R. James Woolsey
• Harriet M. Zimmerman

Task Force on Foreign Policy and Defense

• Rep. Dave McCurdy (DOK), House Armed Services Comt--chair;
• R. James Woolsey, atty and former Undersecretary of the Navy--vice chair.
• Morris Amitay, atty and former exec dir of the American Israel Public Affairs Comt
• 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 Intl 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 Intl Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftsmen, 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 Dukakis for President;
• Martin Peretz, editor-inchief 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 Natl Defense University, former director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency
• Robert Scalapino, director of Inst 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 Ctr, Harvard
• Ben J. Wattenberg, chair of CDM; and Harriet Zimmerman, women's division chair, United Jewish Appeal.

Prominent members

• Jeane Kirkpatrick

Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.