Heritage Foundation/source2

<< Heritage Foundation

The information on this page came from irc-online.org.

Acronym/Code: HF

Updated: 2/91

Categories:

Political, Education

Background:

The Heritage Foundation is one of the newer think tanks, founded in 1973 by Colorado beer baron Joseph Coors and New Right activist Paul Weyrich. Coors provided the entire first year budget for the foundation with a donation of $250,000. (61) Rightwing ideologue Richard Scaife became a major funder of the foundation after its initial year. (2,6,9,43,44) The Heritage Foundation's influence grew rapidly, coming into the public limelight with the election of Ronald Reagan to the presidency. (44) It is best known for its production of tomes that compile recommendations for reducing or abolishing government policies, regulations, and agencies. Heritage sends its "recommendations" out to 7,000 congressional and administrative officials, staff journalists, and major donors. (61) Heritage president Feulner served on the Reagan transition executive committee and fourteen other Heritage staff and board had transition team appointments. Many called Heritage the "shadow government" of the Reagan administration. (44)

The foundation in its own literature claims to be "a nonpartisan, tax-exempt policy research institute dedicated to the principles of free competitive enterprise, limited government, individual liberty, and a strong national defense."(7) Its goal is to produce the conservative ideas that would mold society and government in the United States. (43) The New York Times in a November 17, 1985 article called it an "aggressively conservative" organization that has achieved success through a blend of political advocacy, public relations and job placement services. (11) Alan Crawford in Thunder on the Right said of Heritage,"It is unusual for a research institution to have a 'staff ideology. '... [The] founder's real interest... appears to be less with balanced public policy research and more with the provision of support for New Right opinions."(32)

Its analysts study a wide range of military, foreign policy, economic, and domestic issues and produce position papers that have reached the top echelons of government, especially in the Reagan Administration. The New Republic said that the Heritage Foundation was "the most important think tank in the nation's capital" but went on to credit the "packaging and presentation" rather than the intellectual quality of the work. (11) Burton Pines, Senior Vice President says of Heritage "We're not here to be some kind of PH. D committee giving equal time... . Our role is to provide conservative public policy workers with arguments to bolster our side."(34) Ed Feulner, president of the foundation, was quoted as saying,"Today, the Heritage Foundation has the intellectual resources necessary to change the course of history."(30)

Departments of the foundation are: Academic Relations; Asian Studies Center; Congressional Relations; Domestic Policy Studies; Executive Branch Liaison; Foreign Policy Studies; Legislative Information; Research; Resource Bank; Studies; and United Nations Assessment Project. (34) The project produces more than half a dozen publications including: Backgrounder/Issue Bulletin, weekly; National Security Record, monthly; Heritage Today, a newsletter, bimonthly; Educational Update, quarterly; Heritage Members' News, quarterly; Policy Review, quarterly; a publications catalog, research papers, studies, books and monographs. (35) Currently it has a staff of 125 and has published and marketed some 1,000 books, monographs and studies. (12)

Funding:

From its initial grant of $250,000, the Heritage Foundation's budget quickly expanded to $5 million because it was able to enlist the support of corporate foundations. (44) Feulner claims that the foundation has received funding from 87 top corporations. Included among them are Richard Mellon Scaife (Gulf Oil), the Coors family, Justin Dart (Dart Industries) the Bechtel Corp, Dow Chemical, the Readers Digest Association, Chase Manhattan Bank, Mobil Oil, Smith Kline Corporation, and G. D. Searle. Two intimate friends of Ronald Reagan--William Casey and Henry Salvatori--also made significant contributions. (2,44) Between 1973 and 1985, Richard Mellon Scaife, through the Sarah Scaife Foundation, donated over $4 million to the foundation and over a million dollars in both 1985 and 1986. (9,38) Other major corporate funders in 1985 and 1986 included the Olin Foundation ($400,000 per year); the Samuel Roberts Nobel Foundation ($350,000 in 1985 and $500,000 in 1986); the Adolph Coors Foundation, the M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust, the J. M. Foundation], the [[Starr Foundation, and the Winston-Salem Foundation ($100,000 in 1985), with all but Coors repeating in 1986. Smaller contributions are received regularly from several oil companies, General Motors, Ford Motors, Proctor and Gambel, and other enterprises. (38,39)

The foundation received $2. 2 million from the Federation of Korean Industries in the early 1980s. Initially it was believed this donation came from the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (which would make the Heritage Foundation a foreign agent of Korea), but the Federation later stated that the donation came at the encouragement of the KCIA. (28)

The Heritage Foundation's income has increased every year since 1981. The progression has been: 1981--$7. 1 million; 1982-$8. 6 million; 1983--$10. 6 million; 1984--$10. 7 million; 1985-$11. 6 million; 1986--$14. 0 million; 1987--$14. 3 million; and 1988--$14. 6 million. In 1988 foundations provided 38 percent of Heritage's income, individuals provided 34 percent, and corporations gave 17 percent, the remainder coming from investments and sales of materials. (43)

Heritage recently lost the funding of McDonnell Douglas when it suggested that the Air Force re-evaluate two McDonnell Douglas aircraft programs. (48)

Heritage Foundation accepts no government grants and receives a full third of its funding from individual donors. (34)

Activities:

In addition to generating numerous conservative policy suggestions, Heritage Foundation is a very successful public-relations operation. Heritage's senior vice president Burton Yale Pines was a former associate editor of Time magazine and a former journalist. In addition to its own numerous publications, Heritage articles appear frequently in The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and Newsweek, and are aired on national television news. (44)

Networking among the right is one of Heritage's major services. It maintains the Heritage Resource Bank which provides for communication among 1000 academics and several hundred other policy groups. (35) Located adjacent to Capitol Hill, Heritage holds daily events offering food and drink which are attended by numerous young Congressional staffers. (34) It also hosts biweekly networking sessions. (35)

In 1980 it published a 3000-page, 20-volume set of policy recommendations, Mandate for Leadership, which was presented to Ed Meese a week after Reagan's election. It was a blueprint for eliminating 48 years of liberal policies on the domestic front and aggressively addressing communist advances in other parts of the world. (2) Meese was quoted as saying that "the Reagan Administration will rely heavily on the Heritage Foundation."(13) Among other things, the blueprint called for a $35 billion increase in defense spending, using food aid as a foreign policy weapon, rolling back minority programs, curtailing federal regulatory agencies (OSHA, EPA, FDA, etc. ), cutting taxes, and returning to a more fundamental public education. (2,8) In 1985 Roger Mahan of the foundation estimated the administration had acted upon 60 to 65 percent of the recommendations in the Mandate. (14)

Another Heritage Foundation suggestion implemented by the Reagan administration was an unprecedented build-up of the Pentagon's Special Operations Forces (SOF). SOF specialize in the covert operations of Low Intensity Conflict warfare. Funding for SOF tripled between 1981 and 1986. (45)

Mandate for Leadership II set the tone for Reagan's second term. In keeping with the mission statement of the foundation, it recommended privatization of social security, the federal highway system, Amtrak, and the postal service; elimination of special educational funding for the handicapped (because it drained funding from "normal students"); and deregulation of trucking and other regulated industries. (15) It also recommended the government use "low-intensity" warfare to eliminate communist threats in nine nations around the globe. (61) While the foundation cannot legally lobby, its publications and studies find their way to the "right" desks. (2)

Mandate for Leadership III, the right's agenda for the 1990s which focused on management of the federal bureaucracy, was given to the Bush Administration. (17) However, some analysts believe that President Bush will be more subtle in his approach to change than the outspoken, aggressive agenda of the foundation. (17,43)

The foundation provides an "employment service" for the government. It has placed dozens of its own employees in government jobs and estimates that it helped to place 250 other conservatives in policymaking jobs during 1984-85. It maintains an employment file of over 3,000 resumes. (11) The foundation planned to deliver 2,500 resumes to the transition team for the Bush Administration. (16)

Heritage also works to have people considered "too radical" or unfit removed from office. In 1981 it published a study that called on the Justice Department to reinstitute a full-scale hunt for political radicals in government and in 1986 openly pursued Secretary of State George Shultz. (32,33) The latter resulted in an agreement by the State Department to send a special envoy to Heritage as a "diplomat-in-residence."(33)

In 1982 Heritage undertook a nationwide grassroots effort to gain favor for the policies of the Reagan administration. The Council for Economic Advancement, as the group was called, was headed by Norman B. Ture, a chief architect of the Reagan economic program who moved to Heritage from the Treasury Department. (44)

Heritage representatives attended meetings of the militaristic, rightwing American Security Council's Tuesday Group. Other attendees included Lt. Col. Oliver North, then a top aide on the National Security Council (NSC), and representatives from the Pentagon, State Department, Lynn Bouchey of the Council for Inter-American Security, former ambassador to Costa Rica Curtin Winsor, Jr, and Constantine Menges, former head of Latin American affairs at the NSC. (50) Heritage has further connections to the American Security Council (ASC) through Roger Pearson, a notorious racialist. Pearson was a member of the editorial board of Heritage's Policy Review, but Heritage severed the relationship when Pearson became openly involved with the World Anti-Communist League. (50) The Heritage Foundation hosted a meeting for the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations (ABN), a member group of the World AntiCommunist League. (52)

The Heritage Foundation teamed up in 1988 with the Free Congress Research and Education Foundation, a lobbying group headed by Paul Weyrich, to produce Issues 88, a three-volume conservative platform for the U.S. The first two volumes cover economy, foreign policy, and defense; the third volume deals with family and social issues. (43) Later that year the foundation produced Media Guide, rating America's journals and journalists. A long-time supporter of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), in the fall of 1988 the Heritage introduced a new newsletter, SDI Report, to push for this aggressive defense system. Edward Teller,"Father of the Hydrogen Bomb" was the featured member in a Heritage-sponsored panel discussion on the weapons system. (43)

In early 1989 Heritage and the California-based Claremont Institute published The Imperial Congress: Crisis in the Separation of Powers, which advocated further reductions in the powers of Congress. The book claims the nation is being ruled by an "Iron Triangle" of "congressional leaders, special-interest lobbyists [representing social programs], and liberal national media."(43) Heritage also conducted a national survey (and fundraising drive) among its members attempting to generate public sentiment for its position. (46)

The Heritage Foundation in 1989 established a $2. 5 million fellowship named after former President Ronald Reagan. The fellowship is for continued work to espouse Reagan's policies. (55)

Since 1981 Heritage has been conducting research on the United Nations. It came to the conclusion that the UN,"once a beacon of democracy," is "dominated by anti-American Third-World dictatorships." The foundation has continually and successfully lobbied to have appropriations for back U.S. dues owed to the UN reduced, while at the same time lobbying in the international community to undermine the prestige of the UN. (43)

The Heritage Foundation has coordinated the meetings for a newly formed group called Third Generation. It is a group of young conservatives (born after 1952) attempting to develop an even more conservative agenda than their "elders."(48)

Heritage joined a conservative coalition,"Earth Day Alternatives," opposing the April 23rd "Earth Day." The Alternatives group promoted the concept that the private sector would and could be a better advocate for the environment than government and that "bureaucracy and politics are ineffective tools for Earth's caretakers."(48)

Central America: In 1980 a Backgrounder,"U.S. Policy and the Marxist Threat to Central America," by ex-CIA officer Cleto Di Giovanni provided the Reagan Administration with its blueprint for U.S. Central American policy, particularly in Nicaragua. (9) It called for a return to the "domino theory," claimed communism to be the common threat to Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador, and called for support of the traditional church, the private sector, unions, and former Nicaraguan national guardsmen in exile. (18) It recommended continued support of all types to the anticommunist military and governmental factions in El Salvador and Guatemala and muting human rights criticisms of those countries. (9)

A second Heritage Foundation recommendation was to conduct a policy of economic warfare against the Sandinista government of Nicaragua. The policy laid out the course followed by the Reagan administration--a U.S. -financed contra opposition and pressure on the international community to cut off trade, loans, and credit. (45)

A 1985 Backgrounder by associate Virginia Polk recommended continued support for the Guatemalan military and contended that the resettlement programs (similar to the "strategic hamlets" of the Vietnam War) provided a model "strategy for protecting the Indian population in the war against Marxist guerrillas."(20)

During Reagan's second term the institute continued to discredit the Sandinista goverment and advocate for continued support of the contras. Bruce Weinrod, director of Foreign Policy and Defense Studies at the foundation delivered a lengthy seminar entitled "Thirty Myths about Nicaragua." Weinrod concluded that the Sandinista government was controlled by a small Communist faction that repressed civil liberties, was a de facto member of the Soviet bloc, was moving towards a 'Cubanstyle society,' and finally, was actively working to destabilize emerging democracies in Latin America. Weinrod called for active U.S. support of the "democratic resistance" to the Sandinistas. (27)

In June 1985, Lewis Lehrman arranged for a meeting to take place at the Heritage Foundation between Nicaraguan contra leader Adolfo Calero, Angolan rebel leader Jonas Savimbi, and leaders of other international "freedom fighting" groups. (47)

The Roy Godson deposition of the Iran-Contra hearings stated that the Heritage foundation channeled a $100,000 donation from a private donor to the Institute for North-South Issues (INSI), one of the pass-through organizations for money to the Nicaraguan contras. Arrangements for the donation to Heritage were made in a letter from Richard Miller to Edwin Feulner. Miller told Feulner that the donation would arrive in form of a "grant" for "the purpose of disseminating in Central America materials designed to educate the public on U.S. policy objectives." Heritage awarded the grant to INSI. INSI, taking a 20 percent cut for "overhead," sent $80,000 to an account controlled by the Nicaraguan Church at Barclay Bank in Miami. From Miami the money was transferred to Richard Miller's Cayman Island bank account and from there to an undisclosed destination. (21,22,51)

A 1987 op-ed by Timothy Ashby of the Institute for Hemispheric Development at the Heritage Foundation called for an end to the Iran-Contra controversy, calling it a diversion from the "real" issue: "making sure the contras win." (23) Ashby called for an unwavering commitment by the U.S. to the "freedom fighters" who need to know "that the U.S. is on their side and that Marxism-Leninism in their country is on the wrong side of history."(23) Mandate III stated that the U.S."should be prepared to break relations with Nicaragua, recognize the resistance as the legitimate government of Nicaragua and immediately seek congressional funding for military aid to the resistance" if the Sandinistas did not "dismantle the MarxistLeninist structure of Nicaragua."(19)

Recent events in El Salvador have shifted the support of the foundation from Napoleon Duarte's Christian Democrats to the right-wing ARENA party and its leader, Alfredo Cristiani. A Backgrounder prepared for the Republican Party convention proclaimed that ARENA had reformed itself into a party governed by a 14-member board and led by a well-respected businessman and civic leader. (24,25) ARENA and its longtime president Roberto D'Aubuisson have been accused in various well-documented reports of intimate ties to Salvadoran death squads.

International: A National Security Record published by the foundation in December 1988 called upon the Bush Administration to implement its "Liberation Doctrine," calling for application of pressure on the weakest links of the Soviet system. It suggested that the U.S. support the democratic opposition in Eastern Europe, and called for non-communist governments in Afghanistan, Angola, Cambodia and Mozambique. It urged President Bush to show his commitment to the Liberation Doctrine by "doing what Reagan failed to do--break diplomatic relations with illegitimate, Soviet-dominated governments of Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Laos, Mozambique and Nicaragua."(26)

The Afghan mujahedeen support group, Committee for a Free Afghanistan (CFA) has its offices at Heritage Foundation. Jeffrey Gaynor, Director of Foreign Policy Studies at Heritage is a member of the CFA Council of Advisers. (47)

The anticommunist Mozambique National Resistance (Renamo) has its Washington office at the Heritage Foundation. Renamo is known for its human rights abuses and terror tactics. (45)

Government Connections A longtime supporter and friend of Ronald Reagan, Joe Coors joined his powerful "Kitchen Cabinet" of advisers when Reagan was governor of California in 1966. (8) After his election as president, Reagan provided the "cabinet"-a group of millionaires who provided private council to the president--with an office in the Executive Office Building across from the White House. White House senior staff objected, however, and had them evicted. (61) Coors also founded the Mountain States Legal Foundation, a conservative environmental law group from which James Watt and Ann Gorsuch were recruited to the Reagan Administration.

President Reagan's transition team included more than a dozen Heritage Foundation employees, and many others were hired to fill important posts in the Executive Branch. (8) Ed Meese was a close associate of Joseph Coors and the "Kitchen Cabinet" and is quoted above saying that the administration would rely heavily upon the agenda set out in the Mandate. (2) Meese also endorsed the Heritage Foundation's "President's Club," an exclusive group with a $1,000 membership and--according to Feulner--"access to Washington policymakers which cannot be had at any price."(44) Then-Vice President George Bush dedicated Heritage Foundation's new office building in 1983. (43)

The late CIA director William Casey was among the initial supporters of the foundation. (2)

It has been noted that the foundation maintains an employment file of several thousand resumes which are available to the government. (11,17)

The crossovers between Heritage and the government probably number in the hundreds. (11) The Heritage Foundation publications include speeches and position papers of many conservative legislators and members or former members of the executive branch. (29)

Former Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams joined the Heritage Foundation upon leaving the government. (37)

Edwin J. Feulner, Jr. was a consultant for the Reagan administration, serving as chairman of the Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. He was appointed to a third term at that position in 1988. (43,44) He is a member of the Secretary of State's UNESCO Review Commission and was Director of the House Republican Study Committee. (43) Edwin Feulner, David Abshire (president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies), and William Baroody (president the of American Enterprise Institute) worked together as aides under Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird in the Nixon Administration. (34)

Lewis Lehrman was a director of Radio Free Europe. (1)

W. Bruce Weinrod left the Heritage Foundation to become Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO Policy. (42) Weinrod was also legislative director for Senator John Heinz. (43)

Frank Shakespeare left the Heritage Foundation in 1985 to become ambassador to Portugal. (43) In 1957 he was appointed ambassador to the Vatican. (1) Shakespeare also was a director of Radio Free Europe. (1)

Philip Truluck served on the President's Private Sector Survey on Cost Control (The Grace Commission) in 1982 and 1983. Prior to that he served on the staffs of Senator Strom Thurmond and Representative Ben Blackburn and served as a Deputy Director of the House Republican Study Committee. (43)

David Hoppe joined Heritage in 1988 after twelve years on Capitol Hill where he served as executive director of the House Republican Conference. He was also an administrative assistant to Jack Kemp. (43)

Margo Carlisle was Assistant Secretary of Defense for legislative affairs in the Reagan administration. (55) Carlisle was also an aide to Senator James McClure, and served as executive director of the Senate Republican Conference. (56)

Private Connections Joseph Coors is an ultra conservative businessman (Coors Beer) and a founding father of the New Right. Over the years, he has worked on a variety of conservative issues and campaigns with other noted conservatives such as Robert Welch of the John Birch Society and Young Americans for Freedom, William F. Buckley, Jr. and H. L. Hunt. (8) He is noted for supporting national anti-homosexual, anti-Equal Rights Amendment, anti-civil rights efforts. Coors is a dedicated supporter of laissez-faire capitalism and a strident anticommunist. Coors provided financial backing for Accuracy in Media and supported a variety of New Right groups started by Paul Weyrich including the Catholic Center and the Free Congress Foundation (FCF). (60,49) In 1977 Coors served on the Citizens Cabinet Organizing Committee, a Conservative Caucus project which established a "shadow cabinet" to counter the incoming Carter administration. (61) Coors money has supported rightwing religious groups including the National Christian Action Coalition, a spin-off of the FCF which lobbies for tax-exemption for segregated schools; Church League of America; the Fellowship of Christian Athletes; the Moral Majority; and the Campus Crusade for Christ. (9,61) He has funded Pat Robertson and his wife Holly is on the board of Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network's Regent University. Coors also contributed to the Institute on Religion and Democracy. (61) Coors funded and was on the board of directors of Morality in Media, a rightwing group that among other things suggested that people with AIDS be quarantined in an old leper colony in Boston Harbor. (61) Among the militant anticommunist groups Coors generously supported are Maj. Gen. John Singlaub's U.S. Council for World Freedom--the United States' branch of the World Anti-Communist League--the National Strategy Information Center, and the American Security Council. (9,65) The Coors family funded a Heritage Foundation study which warned management against the increased political activity of labor. The study speculated that unions might use "the Democratic Party as its Trojan Horse within the established American political party system."(61) Coors funded the Mountain States Legal Foundation, a staunchly anti-environmental group that was headed by James Watt before Watt joined the Reagan administration as Secretary of the Interior. (61)

Paul Weyrich, although lacking a college degree, is a marketing marvel. (6) His professional association with Coors began in 1971 when Coors gave $200,000 to Weyrich to begin Analysis & Research, Inc., a conservative research group that published far right position papers. The group failed to gain popularity and Weyrich, again with Coors money, revived the Robert Shuchman Fdn as a right-wing legal group to fight Ralph Nader's Raiders. (8) This too failed. Weyrich became the first president of Heritage, but after a year moved on to found the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress (CSFC). CSFC evolved from an earlier group, The Committee of Nine, a far right group that focused on defeating targeted liberals by using damaging campaign materials. (8) Currently Weyrich is the president of the Free Congress Foundation, CSFC's latest incarnation. (9) Weyrich also conceived and co-founded with Jerry Falwell and Howard Phillips the Moral Majority and was the treasurer of the Council on National Policy. (9)

Edwin Feulner served on the Board of Governors of the secretive rightwing policy group, Council for National Policy. (31) He is a trustee of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and the Lehrman Institute. (43) Feulner along with Paul Weyrich recently attended a "conservative summit" dinner hosted by William Buckley, Jr. The purpose of the dinner was to come to an agreement on an agenda for the faction-torn political right. After six hours of discussion, there was little agreement reached. (48) Feulner has been one of the few conservatives supportive of President Bush. In two op-ed articles (NY Times and Washington Post) he has called Bush "an engineer to build on Reagan's foundation" and the one to "take on the less glamorous tasks of government... to implement change."(53)

Philip Truluck serves on the board of directors of the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), the core grantee for National Endowment for Democracy grants to international business groups. (59) Truluck is chairman of the Center for Peace and Freedom and is a member of the Administrative Conference of the United States. (43)

William Simon, an early associate of the foundation, is also a member of the conservative lay Catholic group, Knights of Malta (SMOM) and has been connected with a number of other groups promoting a conservative agenda. These include the American Enterprise Institute, a pro-business think tank; the rightwing media watch group, Accuracy in Media; and two humanitarian aid groups that worked in support of the Nicaraguan contras, AmeriCares and the Nicaraguan Freedom Fund. (9)

Lewis Lehrman founded Democracy International and Citizens for America. (1,40) Both Lehrman's lobbying groups, Citizens For America and United Students of America (USA), an arm of the College Republican National Committee are home-based at Heritage. (36) Lehrman is a member of the Knights of Malta. (1) Frank Shakespeare is a director of the military strategy think tank, the National Strategy Information Center. He is a memberof the Knights of Malta. (1) Shakespeare is also a member of the American Catholic Committee, a conservative lay group that tried to undercut the U.S. bishops' pastoral on the economy. (1)

Midge Decter was a founding member of the neoconservative Coalition for a Democratic Majority and a member of the Committee on the Present Danger. (57) Decter is the founder and executive director of the anticommunist media lobby group, Committee for the Free World. (58) Decter is also a trustee of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. (34)

Robert Krieble is a member of the Citizens Democracy Corps, a group established by President Bush in May 1990 as a "private" initiative to "promote democracy" in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. The group acts as a clearinghouse for matching up private enterprise programs and skills in the United States with the needs of the new governments in Eastern Europe. (63) Krieble is on the board of directors and is a major funder of the Free Congress Foundation (FCF). The Krieble Foundation funded a trip by four FCF members to Hungary, the Soviet Union, and the Baltic Republic of Estonia to help train rightwing leaders in ideological and electoral matters. (61,64) Krieble, along with Joseph Coors, Edwin Meese, and Louisiana Representative Woody Jenkins, worked to establish Citizens for America. (65)

Charles Lichenstein is on the National Advisory Board of the Conservative Caucus and is or was chairman of the board of the International Security Council, a front organization for the Unification Church. He was a speaker at a December 1986 meeting in London where the Committee for a Free Nicaragua, a contra support group, was formed. (65)

Ernest Lefever is the founder and director of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He is or was a trustee of the foundation and the Committee on the Present Danger. (34)

Michael Lasater, listed in the 1985 annual report as director of the foundation's Asian Studies Center, is the former editor of the Asian Bulletin, a publication of the Asian People's Anti-Communist League. (41)

Margo Carlisle served as president of the Council for National Policy. (55) Carlisle attended the 1980 World AntiCommunist League conference and was involved in the "repackaging" of death squad leader Roberto D'Aubuisson, the founder of the ARENA party. Alfredo Cristiani of ARENA is currently president of El Salvador. (55,56)

Heritage Foundation has had a close connection with the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church through its former Director of Administration, Michael Warder. Warder was a director of the Unification Church in the United States in 1977. Warder was also secretary of the International Cultural Foundation, an umbrella organization coordinating a variety of Moon's projects. (61)

The original funding and office space for the mujahedeen support group, Committee for a Free Afghanistan, came from Heritage. Heritage's senior public relations counsel, Hugh C. Newton is listed as principal contact for Behind the Lines, a monthly newsletter dedicated to support of the Afghan contras. It is published by Humanitarian News Service which is a part of the Council for International Development (formerly the Mercy Fund). (41) The Heritage Foundation also houses Howard Ruff's rightwing group, Free The Eagle. Free The Eagle in turn provides office space to the Federation for American Afghan Action. (41)

Edward Nobel, former chief of the heavily subsidized Synthetic Fuels Corporation, donated $1. 2 million to Heritage from the Samuel Robert Nobel Fdn. Heritage has attacked many government subsidies, but tip toed around the heavy subsidies to the Synfuels Corp. (34)

Misc:

Paul Weyrich, co-founder of Heritage has often acknowleged that he does not intend to "conserve" anything."We are different from previous generations of conservatives," Weyrich explained."We are no longer working to preserve the status quo. We are radicals, working to overturn the present power structure of the country."(54)

Comments:

Several articles indicated that the influence of the Heritage Foundation peaked with the first term of the Reagan Administration and Mandate I. Public opposition to Reagan's Central American policies, deregulation activities, and reductions of social programs somewhat tempered Reagan's success in his second term and decreased the influence of Heritage. In the Bush administration it is increasingly difficult to discern whether Heritage is still influential in policy development at the national level.

Principals:

Edwin Feulner, Jr. president; Philip Trulock, exec vice pres; Burton Yale Pines, sr. vice pres research; Herbert B. Berkowitz, vice pres, public relations; David Hoppe, vice pres government relations; Charles Heatherly, vice pres academic relations; Peter S. Pover, vice pres, administration, and Terrence M. Scanlon, vice president and treasurer. (4,43) The board of trustees in 1988 included: Shelby Collum Davis, chairman; Robert H. Krieble, vice chairman; David R. Brown; Joseph Coors; Midge Decter; Dr. Edwin Feulner, Jr., president; Joseph R. Keys; Lewis E. Lehrman; J. William Middendorf II; J. Frederick Rench; Thomas A. Roe; Richard M. Scaife; William E. Simon; and Jay Van Andel. (43)

Previous trustees have included such corporate notables as Robert Fluor (Fluor Corp) and Frank Walton, a former Reagan aide. (2,34,44) W. Bruce Weinrod was the Director of Foreign Policy and Defense Studies. (9,42) Former Attorney General Ed Meese, a longtime friend of Joseph Coors (founder) joined the foundation upon resigning from the Reagan Administration. (5) Former Assistant Secretary Elliott Abrams also joined the foundation upon leaving government service. (37) Paul Weyrich was Heritage's first president and, from 1973-1982, reactionary former Congressman Ben Blackburn was chairman of the Heritage Foundation board of directors. (61) Blackburn was succeeded as chairman of the board by Frank Shakespeare. (1)

Among the 1988 Heritage Fellows were former Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Richard V. Allen, former Congressman Jack Kemp, former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese III, and Charles Lichenstein. (43) Margo Carlisle joined Heritage Foundation in 1989 as vice president in the area of defense legislation. (55)

Resources:

1. Penny Lernoux,"Who's Who? Knights of Malta Know," National Catholic Reporter, May 5, 1989.

2."Conservative Think Tank Moves Into Capitol Spotlight," Los Angeles Times, Part I-A, Dec 21, 1980.

3."Think Tank Drawing Up Plans to Achieve Conservative Goals in Reagan Presidency," Los Angeles Times, Oct 4, 1980.

4. Science and Policy Research, (Washington, DC : Columbia Books, 1988. )

5. Group Research Report, Vol. 27, #3, Summer, 1988.

6. Flo Conway and Jim Siegelman, Holy Terror: The Fundamentalist War on America's Freedoms in Religion, Politics and Our Private Lives, (NY: Delta, 1989. )

7. Heritage Publications, (Washington, DC : Heritage Fdn, 1989. )

8. Jerry A. Shields, proposal for book on Joseph Coors, Dover, Delaware, 1989.

9. The New Right Humanitarians, (Albuquerque, NM: The Resource Center, 1986.)

10. Policy Review, Winter, 1989.

11."The Heritage Foundation: Success in Obscurity," New York Times, Nov 17, 1985.

12. Heritage Publications, (Washington, DC : Heritage Fdn, 1988. )

13. Charles Rammelkamp,"Coors Moves to End Boycott," Coming Up!, Feb 1983.

14. Jim Luther,"Heritage Foundation Has New U.S. Economic Plan," Washington Post, Feb 14, 1985.

15."Heritage Foundation Recommends Private Air Traffic Control System," Washington Post, Nov 20, 1984.

16."Bush Offers Staff Job to Sununu, Source Says," Albuquerque Journal, Nov 16, 1988.

17. James Ridgeway,"New Right Agenda for Bush: Push Privatization and Woo Minorities," Pacific News Service, Dec 26-31, 1988.

18. Cleto Di Giovanni, Jr. ,"U.S. Policy and the Marxist Threat to Central America," Heritage Backgrounder, Oct 15, 1980.

19."Choosing Consensus on Contra Aid," Insight, Feb 27, 1989.

20. Heritage Backgrounder, May 22, 1985.

21."Nicaraguan Internal Opposition Receives U.S. Funds," Washington Report on the Hemisphere, Vol. 8, No. 12, Mar 16, 1988.

22. Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair, Senate Rept. No. 100-216, Nov 13, 1987.

23. Timothy Ashby,"The Contras Need Us," New York Times, Jan 30, 1987.

24. Ken Silverstein,"The Selling of ARENA," NACLA Report on the Americas, Vol. XXII, No. 6, March, 1989.

25."From Death Mask to Happy Face," In These Times, Apr 5, 1989.

26."The Liberation Doctrine, Heritage National Security Record, No. 119, Dec 1988.

27. W. Bruce Weinrod,"Thirty Myths About Nicaragua," Heritage Vital Speeches of the Day, Mar 11, 1986

28. Joel Bleifuss,"Heritage Foundation Tries to Clear Name," In These Times, Apr 26, 1989.

29. Jeane J. Kirkpatrick,"The Reagan Doctrine and U.S. Foreign Policy," Heritage Foundation and Fund for an American Renaissance, 1985.

30. News Notes, Maryknoll Justice and Peace Office, Vol. 10,No. 6, November 1985.

31. Council for National Policy, Board of Governors-Elect 1982-83.

32."Do You Know These Godfathers?," Mother Jones, Feb/Mar, 1981.

33. Sidney Blumenthal,"A Schism Between Heritage and State," Washington Post, Mar 11, 1986.

34. Gregg Easterbrook,"Ideas Move Nations," Atlantic Monthly, Jan 1986.

35. Encyclopedia of Associations, 23rd Edition, 1989.

36. David Ivon,"International Freedom Foundation," Covert Action Information Bulletin, #31, Winter 1989.

37. Tom Bethell,"The Colony of El Salvador," The American Spectator, May 1989.

38. 16th Edition, Foundation Grants Index, Recipients, 1987.

39. 17th Edition, Foundation Grants Index, Recipients, 1988.

40. The Guardian, June 26, 1985. -

41. Sayid Khybar,"The Afghan Contra Lobby," unpublished paper, Mar 1988.

42. Sara Diamond and Richard Hatch,"Operation Peace Institute," Z Magazine, July/Aug 1990.

43. Heritage Foundation, annual report, 1988.

44. John Saloma III, Ominous Politics: The New Conservative Labyrinth (New York, NY: Hill and Wang, 1984).

45. Thomas Bodenheimer and Robert Gould, Rollback!: Rightwing Power in U.S. Foreign Policy (Boston, MA: South End Press, 1989).

46. Heritage Foundation mailing, Mar 1990.

47. Sayid Khybar,"The Afghan Contra Lobby," Covert Action Information Bulletin, No. 30, Summer 1988.

48. Group Research Report, Vol. 29, No. 2, Mar/Apr 1990.

49. Penny Lernoux,"A Reverence for Fundamentalism," The Nation, Apr 17, 1989.

50. Russ Bellant, Old Nazis, the New Right, and the Reagan Administration: The Role of Domestic Fascist Networks in the Republican Party and Their Effect on U.S. Cold War Politics (Boston, MA: Political Research Associates, 1989).

51. House Foreign Affairs Committee Staff Report, Sep 7, 1988.

52. Freedom Digest, World Anti-Communist League magazine, Vol. 23, No. 2, June 1989.

53. Group Research Report, Winter 1989.

54. Sara Diamond, Spiritual Warfare: The Politics of the Christian Right (Boston, MA: South End Press, 1989).

55. Group Research Report, Summer 1989.

56. Scott Anderson and Jon Lee Anderson, Inside the League: The Shocking Expose of How Terrorists, Nazis, and Latin American Death Squads Have Infiltrated The World Anti-Communist League (New York, NY: Dodd, Mead & Co, 1986).

57."The Neocon Family Tree," Mother Jones, July/Aug 1986.

58. Kathleen Teltsch,"400 Intellectuals Form 'Struggle for Freedom' Unit," New York Times, Feb 19, 1981.

59. National Endowment for Democracy, annual report, 1986.

60. Michael Massing,"The Rise and Decline of Accuracy," The Nation, Sep 13, 1986.

61. Russ Bellant, The Coors Connection (Cambridge, MA: Political Research Associates, 1990).

62. Letter from William W. Pascoe, executive director, Kriebel Associates, Inc., June 12, 1989.

63. State Department, Focus on Central and Eastern Europe, No. 27, Oct 31, 1990.

64. Russ Bellant and Louis Wolf,"The Free Congress Foundation," Covert Action Information Bulletin, Fall 1990.

65. David Ivon,"International Freedom Foundation," Covert Action Information Bulletin, No. 31, Winter 1989.

The underlying cites for this profile are now kept at Political Research Associates, (617) 666-5300. www.publiceye.org.