Think Tanks 1 - The Genesis
It was the later half of August 1971. Mr. Eugene B Sydnor Jr. was then the Chairman of the Education Committee of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Sydnor, for some indeterminate reason requested his then neighbor to write him a memo. His neighbor was Mr. Lewis F Powell Jr. A lawyer and then judge by profession who eventually ended up in the supreme court and went on to lay the seeds of what eventually became Citizens United unleashing unrestricted floods of corporate money into elections campaigns, but he also sided with the majority decision in Roe v Wade. Today however, in this article we will focus on that memo that he was requested to write.
He dated it August 23rd?1971. That year The Vietnam War was in full swing, and the Voting Rights Act was first passed (though relentlessly rendered as toothless as possible in subsequent decades). In the same month Nixon decoupled the dollar from gold and the Bretton Woods global financial accords essential came to an end. Western Europe was almost at the height of Democratic Socialism and the establishment of the welfare state. The tumultuous youth year of 1968 had passed and left its mark on western culture. Man walked on the moon in 1969 but by ’71 the American public’s fascination with the space program was starting to fade. New Deal and Keynesian policies appeared a bit frayed at the edges and the cold war raged. It was in this cauldron that Mr. Powell sat down to write his memo.
The first sentences indicate that memo was written as a basis for a discussion that was occur between Mr. Sydnor, Mr. Booth and others at the chamber of commerce the next day, August 24th.?
Mr. Powell did not mince words. “No thoughtful person,” he says, “can question that the American economic system is under broad attack.” In a footnote he clarifies what he means by the American economic system “Variously called the ‘free enterprise system’, ‘capitalism’, and the’ profit system.’ The American political system of democracy under the rule of law is also under attack’ he asserts, “often by the same individuals and organizations who seek to undermine the enterprise system.”
He goes on to assert that this system is under attack from the Communists, New Leftists and other revolutionaries and that this attack is no longer just a group of dissenting individuals but is broad based, better organized and well financed. He goes on however to claim that this constitutes a small minority and that the true and larger threat to the American system comes from the college campus, the pulpit, the media and the intellectual and literary journals, the arts and sciences and from politicians. Mr. Powell, basically declares, that everyday American culture has become the enemy and destroyer of what he believes is the true American history of the free enterprise system.?
The memo has been described a blueprint for the conservative onslaught that followed and has culminated in the political regime we see today almost worldwide. The full text of the memo can be read?here. For the purposes of this article, I summarize some of the key issues and solutions suggested by Mr. Powell below.
Among the attackers to the system he particularly identifies people like Ralph Nader and Herbert Marcuse and amongst the people who share his sense of outrage at this attack he mentions Stewart Alsop and Milton Friedman among a few others.
He also expresses his surprise at what he sees as the apathy and passiveness of the American enterprise towards this attack. He almost describes the American enterprise as indulging in self harm by not aggressively fighting back against this left-wing attack. He then begins to formulate his advice, suggestions, or “blueprint” if you will, for a counterattack which he believes is imperative if the American enterprise system, which he believes is the soul of America is to be saved and preserved.?
“If our system is to survive,” he writes, “top management must be equally concerned with protecting and preserving the system itself”. He conceives of a role for what was traditionally PR or government relations within a corporation at a much higher executive level and a vastly expanded scope.?
He does not believe that independent actions by individuals, while necessary, will be enough. “Strength lies in organization,” he goes on to write. “in careful long range planning and implementation, in consistency of action over an indefinite period of years, in the scale of financing only available through joint effort, and in the political power available only through united action and national organizations.” Following this logic, he sees a role for the National Chamber of Commerce as being vital to this crusade against what he perceives as an all-out left wing attack against America.
And the first place he sees that should be the focus of this counterattack by the Chambers of commerce is the Campus. It is here that the battle is to be initiated and pursued. He identifies, and I summarize here a lot in the interest of length and readability, these areas to be addressed by the counter program that he encourages the Chambers to launch.
·??????Staff of scholars – he recommends that a staff of scholars of national repute be established who believe in the system and can articulate the values of said system
·??????Staff of speakers – who can go out and speak for the system
·??????Speakers’ bureau – comprised of people from the top echelons of American business who can advocate for the system
·??????Evaluation of textbooks – the staff of scholars should evaluate the textbooks being used especially in economics, political science and sociology to restore, what he calls as a balance in favor of what he calls “genuine academic freedom”. Implying that the books then currently being used were leftist and doctrinaire. I quote, “This would include assurance of fair and equal treatment of our system of government and our enterprise system, its accomplishments,?its basic relationship to induvial rights and freedoms, (Highlight mine), and comparisons with the systems of socialism, fascism and communism. He goes on to claim that the civil rights movement and the labor movements have re-written American history and had treated the American enterprise system unfairly and with biases for their causes.
·??????Equal time on the campus – The chamber he proposes should insist upon equal time on the speakers’ circuit in campuses. The FBI he notes publishes an annual list of speeches made on campuses by communists which he lists as being over a hundred in 1970 over and above which there were hundreds of speeches made by other leftists and ultra-liberals who speak for the left wing views he indicates earlier in the memo with no corresponding representation by American businesses or individuals and organizations in favor of the American enterprise system.
·??????Balancing of Faculties – The most fundamental problem, he claims, is the imbalance of many faculties. Correcting this, he sees as a long range and difficult project and should include balancing university administrators and boards of trustees.
·??????The graduate schools of business – this is of special importance to Mr. Powell. This where the executives of the future are being trained.
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·??????Secondary education – High schools are to be targeted. The counterattack must include the very young.
While these are the longer-term measures Mr. Powell recommends, he also turns his attention to the short term. In the short term it is the general public that is to be addressed. And here he identifies the important role of Television, Radio, Scholarly journals, and all other media. They are all be evaluated and monitored and alleged bias brought before the Federal Communications Commission. He also identifies books, paperbacks, and pamphlets. He finds that there are no such publications advocating for what he calls “our side”.
He goes on to recommend paid advertisements aimed at “educating” the public and countering the leftist bogeyman. As an example, he cites an article in the New York times by a Jack Newfield who happened to argue that a “root need in our country is to ‘redistribute’ wealth”. Obviously a concept somehow abhorrent to Mr. Powell.
Mr. Powell continues in his memo to argue for lobbyists who would speak for business to governments, populating the judiciary / courts with people friendly to business and finally to the power of stockholders who he believes should be nationally organized to wield the kind of power needed to turn the tide against the leftists and for the American enterprise system.
He begins to conclude his memo by encouraging the chamber to be more aggressive in its attitude and provides as an example the way the organization of labor unions AFL-CIO is run as a template. He also makes a few more comments about costs and the need to strict quality control of the programs undertaken.
The last critically important point he makes is best said in his own words. “The threat to the enterprise system is not merely a matter of economics. It is also a threat to individual freedom.” He writes more of this in his ending paragraphs but this particular connection is essential to remember. I will return to in later articles that will outline just how, especially in Europe, the case for neo-liberalism was eventually built of the legalistic philosophy of rights to individual freedom and not so much on the basis of national and individual economics.
More happened in 1971. Bangladesh was born. The first of the Pentagon papers were published and Led Zeppelin played Stairway to Heaven live for the first time.
Mr. Powell did not write any more memos. He went on with his career as lawyer and judge. The Chamber of Commerce presumably had its meeting on August 24th.?
It should be said however that Mr. Powell was no proto-Trump or even a proto Reagan. He was a conservative believer of the old sort in a somewhat mythologized post-war America. A moderate Democrat rather than a Goldwater Republican as someone described him. The ideas in the memo however seemed strangely to take on a life of their own. The memo did not directly instigate the birth of a right-wing movement. Other writers and influencers contributed.
They all had their effect. However, organizations resonating with the ideas proposed in the memo soon blossomed. The Heritage Foundation was born. The Cato Institute, ALEC, The American Enterprise Institute got a new injection of life and the establishment of think tanks and other right-wing organizations exploded. (see?here.)?
The change of the American political landscape began and continues unabated even today and its ideas eventually spread across Europe and other countries.?
To be continued……
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