Committee on the Present Danger
The Committee on the Present Danger is the name used by a succession of American neoconservative and anti-communist foreign policy interest groups. Throughout its four iterations—in the 1950s, the 1970s, the 2000s, and 2019, it has tried to influence all the presidential administrations since Harry Truman, achieving notable success during the Reagan administration.
Overview
The committee first met in 1950, founded by Tracy Voorhees, to promote the plans proposed in NSC 68 by Paul Nitze and Dean Acheson. It lobbied the government directly and sought to influence public opinion through a publicity campaign, notably a weekly radio broadcast on the Mutual Broadcasting System throughout 1951. This iteration was effectively disbanded after 1952, following the appointment of Voorhees and others to senior positions in the administration.It was privately revived in March 1976 to try to influence the presidential candidates and their advisors. After Jimmy Carter won the election, CPD went public again and spent the next four years lobbying, particularly against détente and the SALT II agreement. Its hawkish conclusions influenced the CIA's future reporting on the Soviet threat. This iteration of the CPD provided 33 officials to the Ronald Reagan administration, plus Reagan himself.
History
First CPD (1950s)
On 12 December 1950, James Conant, Tracy Voorhees and Vannevar Bush announced the creation of the committee on the Present Danger. The group was formed in order to support the Truman Administration's remilitarization plans contained within NSC 68. The 'present danger' to which the group's title referred was "the aggressive designs of the Soviet Union", the CPD announced.Members of the First CPD
| Name | Name |
| James B. Conant | |
| Tracy S. Voorhees | |
| Julius Ochs Adler | Edward S. Greenbaum |
| Raymond B. Allen | Paul G. Hoffman |
| Frank Altschul | Monte H. Lemann |
| Dillon Anderson | William L. Marbury |
| William Douglas Arant | Stanley Marcus |
| James Phinney Baxter, III | Dr. William C. Menninger |
| Laird Bell | Frederick A. Middlebush |
| Barry Bingham | James L. Morrill |
| Harry A. Bullis | Edward R. Murrow |
| Vannevar Bush | John Lord O'Brian |
| William L. Clayton | Floyd B. Odlum |
| Robert Cutler | J. Robert Oppenheimer |
| R. Ammi Cutter | Robert P. Patterson |
| Mrs. Dwight Davis | Howard C. Petersen |
| E.L. DeGolyer | Daniel A. Poling |
| Harold Willis Dodds | Stanley Resor |
| Charles Dollard | Samuel Rosenman |
| William J Donovan | Theodore W. Schultz |
| Goldthwaite H. Dorr | Robert E. Sherwood |
| David Dubinsky | Edgar W. Smith |
| Leonard K. Firestone | Robert G. Sproul |
| Truman K. Gibson, Jr. | Robert L. Stearns |
| Miss Meta Glass | Edmund A. Walsh, S.J. |
| Arthur J. Goldberg | W.W. Waymack |
| Samuel Goldwyn | Henry M. Wriston |
| W.W. Grant | J.D. Zellerbach |
Second CPD (1970s)
On 11 November 1976, the second iteration was announced. The name of this version of the committee was "borrow" from the 1950s version, and was not a direct successor.Some of its members lobbied for, and were members of, the 1976 Team B providing an opposing view to the CIA's Team A.
33 officials of the Reagan administration were CPD members, including Director of Central Intelligence William Casey, National Security Advisor Richard V. Allen, United States Ambassador to the United Nations Jeane Kirkpatrick, Secretary of the Navy John Lehman, Secretary of State George Shultz and Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Perle. Reagan himself was a member in 1979.
Founding Members of the Second CPD
| Name | Name | Name | Name |
| Achilles, Theodore C. | Farrell, James T. | Lewis, Hobart | Ridgway, Matthew B. |
| Allen, Richard V. | Fellman, David | Libby, W. F. | Roche, John P. |
| Allison, John M. | Fowler, Henry H. | Liebler, Sarason D. | Rose, H. Chapman |
| Anderson, Eugenie | Franklin, William H. | Linen, James A. | Rosenblatt, Peter R. |
| Bardach, Eugene | Frelinghuysen, Peter H. B. | Lipset, Seymour Martin | Rostow, Eugene V. |
| Barnett, Frank R. | Friedman, Martin L. | Lord, Mary P. | Rowe, James H., Jr. |
| Baroody, Joseph D. | Ginsburgh, Robert N. | Lovestone, Jay | Rusk, Dean |
| Beam, Jacob D. | Glazer, Nathan | Luce, Clare Boothe | Rustin, Bayard |
| Bellow, Saul | Goodpaster, Andrew J. | Lyons, John H. | Saltzman, Charles E. |
| Bendetsen, Karl R. | Grace, J. Peter | MacNaughton, Donald S. | Scaife, Richard M. |
| Bishop, Joseph W., JR. | Gray, Gordon | Marks, Leonard H. | Schifter, Richard |
| Bozeman, Adda B. | Gullion, Edmund A. | Marshall, Charles Burton | Seabury, Paul |
| Brennan, Donald G. | Gunderson, Barbara Bates | Martin, William McChesney, Jr. | Shanker, Albert |
| Browne, Vincent J. | Handlin, Oscar | McCabe, Edward A. | Skacel, Milan B. |
| Burgess, W. Randolph | Hannah, John A. | McCraken, Samuel | Smith, Fred |
| Cabot, John M. | Harper, David B. | McGhee, George C. | Smith, Lloyd H. |
| Campbell, W. Glenn | Harris, Huntington | McNair, Robert E. | Spang, Kenneth |
| Casey, William J, | Hauser, Rita E. | Miller, John | Straus, Ralph I. |
| Chaikin, Sol C. | Hellmann, Donald C. | Mitchell, George C. | Sweatt, Harold W. |
| Clark, Peter B. | Herrera, Alfred C. | Morse, Joshua M. | Tanham, George K. |
| Cline, Ray S. | Horowitz, Rachelle | Muller, Steven | Taylor, Hobart, Jr. |
| Cohen, Edwin S. | Hurewitz, J. C. | Mulliken, Robert S. | Taylor, Maxwell D. |
| Colby, William E. | Johnson, Belton K. | Myerson, Bess | Teller, Edward |
| Connally, John B. | Johnson, Chalmers | Nichols, Thomas S. | Temple, Arthur |
| Connell, William | Johnston, Whittle | Nitze, Paul H. | Turner, J. C. |
| Connor, John T. | Jordan, David C. | O'Brien, William V. | Tyroler, Charles, II. |
| Darden, Colgate W. JR. | Kampelman, Max M. | Olmsted, George | Van Cleave, William R. |
| Dean, Arthur H. | Kemp, Geoffrey | Packard, David | Walker, Charls E. |
| Dillon, C. Douglas | Keyserling, Leon H. | Payne, James L. | Ward, Martin J. |
| Dogole, S. Harrison | Kirkland, Lane | Pfaltzgraff, Robert L., Jr. | Ward, Robert E. |
| Dominick, Peter H. | Kirkpatrick, Jeanne J. | Podhoretz, Midge Dector | Weaver, Paul S. |
| Dowling, Walter | Kohler Foy D. | Podhoretz, Norman | Whalen, Richard J. |
| DuBrow, Evelyn | Krogh, Peter | Ra'anan, Uri | Wigner, Eugene P. |
| DuChessi, William | Lefever, Ernest W. | Ramey, Estelle R. | Wilcox, Francis O. |
| Earle, Valerie | Lemnitzer, Lyman L. | Ramsey, Paul | Wolfe, Bertram D. |
| Zumwalt, Elmo R. |
Third CPD (2004)
In June 2004, The Hill reported that a third incarnation of CPD was being planned, to address the War on Terrorism. This incarnation of the committee was still active as of 2008. The head of the 2004 CPD, PR pro and former Reagan adviser Peter D. Hannaford, explained, "we saw a parallel" between the Soviet threat and the threat from terrorism. The message that CPD will convey through lobbying, media work and conferences is that the war on terror needs to be won, he said.Members of the 2004 CPD included Vice President for Policy Larry Haas, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, former CIA director R. James Woolsey, Jr., former National Security Advisor to President Reagan, Robert C. McFarlane and Reagan administration official and 1976 Committee founder Max Kampelman. At the July 20, 2004 launching of the 2004 CPD, Lieberman and Senator Jon Kyl were identified as the honorary co-chairs.