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InterNation story: the Heritage Foundation goes abroad.
 
 
From:
 
    The Nation
 
Date:
 
    June 6, 1987
 
 
The Nation
 
 
AN INTERNATION STORY
 
 
THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION GOES ABROAD
 
 
Since 1982 the Heritage Foundation, the mostinfluential conservative
 
think
 
tank in the United States, has channeled as much as $1 million to
 
right-wing organizations in Britain and other Western European
 
countries,
 
with the aim of influencing domestic political affairs. In one case
 
large
 
sums have been paid through a former Central Intelligence Agency
 
contract
 
employee to undisclosed third parties. The transfer of Heritage funds
 
is
 
detailed in documents obtained by InterNation from the United States
 
Internal Revenue Service and has been confirmed in interviews with
 
officials of the Heritage Foundation and like-minded think tanks in
 
Europe.
 
 
The Heritage Foundation has established itselfas a major political
 
presence
 
in Ronald Reagan's Washington since 1980, when it produced its "Mandate
 
for
 
Leadership,' a 1,093-page compendium of conservative policy proposals.
 
But
 
although its domestic activities have attracted widespread attention,
 
the
 
foundation's effort to expand its influence beyond the United States
 
has
 
had a much lower profile. The first opportunity to measure the scope of
 
its
 
international activities may come in Britain, which is preparing for a
 
general election on June 11. The British groups financed by Heritage
 
are
 
closely linked to senior figures in Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's
 
Conservative Party. In one case, where the foundation provided start-up
 
 
capital and the overwhelming bulk of continued financial support, the
 
result is a virtual Heritage satellite.
 
 
In recent years conservatives have increasinglybanded together across
 
borders. The International Democratic Union, for example, a collection
 
of
 
conservative party leaders from thirty countries, was set up in 1983 to
 
 
hold biannual gatherings to coordinate strategies, particularly in
 
foreign
 
policy. Jeffrey Gayner, Heritage's counsel for international relations,
 
who
 
is described in the organization's 1985 annual report as its
 
"ambassador to
 
the world,' says Heritage has led the effort to shape a "common
 
international agenda' for the right, developing "a cooperative
 
relationship' with more than 200 foreign groups and individuals,
 
including
 
political parties, think tanks, academics and media. Programs include
 
information exchanges and visits, Heritage's periodic appointment of
 
non-Americans to specific assignments and fellowships.
 
 
Heritage's international activities have been helped by itseasy entree
 
to
 
Reagan Administration circles. In 1982 President Reagan appointed the
 
foundation's president, Edwin Feulner Jr., as chair of the U.S.
 
Advisory
 
Commission on Public Diplomacy. That commission evaluates programs of
 
the
 
U.S. Information Agency, including Voice of America, Radio Marti,
 
Fulbright
 
scholarships and the National Endowment for Democracy. Heritage's 1986
 
annual report boasted that in his work for the foundation, Feulner had
 
"again logged over 100,000 miles of air travel . . . visiting numerous
 
world capitals, and meeting with countless government officials.'
 
Gayner,
 
as a member of the Board of Foreign Scholarships, which supervises the
 
U.S.I.A.'s academic exchange programs, has found the doors of foreign
 
governments and universities wide open to him.
 
 
Nowhere have the associations been closer than with Britain.Feulner,
 
who
 
attended the London School of Economics and the University of
 
Edinburgh,
 
maintains close personal links to British conservatives. Gerald Frost,
 
executive director of the Institute for European Defense and Strategic
 
Studies (I.E.D.S.S.), a beneficiary of the Heritage Foundation's
 
largesse,
 
told InterNation, "I'm helped in some ways that Ed Feulner is an
 
Anglophile
 
and an admirer of English institutions.' Feulner's enthusiasm is
 
reciprocated: in October 1983, Prime Minister Thatcher sent Heritage an
 
 
effusive personal message of congratulations on its tanth anniversary.
 
Heritage also led the attack on Unesco, which culminated when the
 
United
 
States withdrew from the organization, in 1984, followed by Britain a
 
year
 
later. This year, the Heritage alumnus John O'Sullivan, editor of the
 
foundation's journal, Policy Review, from 1979 to 1983 and now a policy
 
 
adviser to Thatcher, wrote key sections of the Conservative Party's
 
election manifesto, "The Next Moves Forward.'
 
 
Heritage funding of British projects was evident as earlyas 1979, and
 
became more systematic in 1982, when U.S. and British conservatives
 
were
 
alarmed by the growing influence of the peace movement. That May,
 
Heritage
 
disseminated a so-called backgrounder titled "Moscow and the Peace
 
Offensive,' in which it called on the North Atlantic Treaty
 
Organization
 
and "its affiliated public support organizations' to spread
 
"information
 
concerning the links . . . between known Communist front groups and the
 
 
"independent' peace groups.'
 
 
The campaign to prevent the deployment of cruisemissiles on British
 
soil
 
was accompanied by a steady acceleration of Heritage funding. According
 
to
 
the I.R.S.'s schedules, the foundation's donations to a range of
 
British
 
institutions rose from $106,000 in 1982 to $254,000 in 1985. Although
 
1986
 
figures are not yet available, total Heritage contributions over a
 
five-year period appear to be in the neighborhood of $1 million. During
 
the
 
three years for which records could be obtained, Britain was the target
 
of
 
more than 95 percent of Heritage's international funding operations.
 
 
Three main recipients were identified in the I.R.S.schedules for 1982,
 
1983
 
and 1985: the I.E.D.S.S., which received a total of $427,809, more than
 
any
 
other group, U.S. or foreign; the International Freedom Fund
 
Establishment
 
(I.F.F.E.), which took in $140,000; and the Coalition for Peace through
 
 
Security (C.P.S.), which accepted a $10,000 grant in 1982 and,
 
according to
 
some evidence, may have received additional funds that were never
 
declared.
 
BBC television's untransmitted Secret Society series [see Christopher
 
Hitchens, "New Statesman Downed by Law,' The Nation, February 21]
 
obtained
 
a letter from the C.P.S. thanking Heritage for a further grant of
 
$50,000
 
in October 1982. (The I.R.S. says the 1984 schedule is unavailable, and
 
 
returns for 1986 had not been filed by the time this article went to
 
press.)
 
 
Three other British groups were given token amounts: theSocial Affairs
 
Unit, the International Symposium of the Open Society and an
 
organization
 
listed simply as Aneks.
 
 
"This is the age of the think tank,' said I.E.D.S.S. executivedirector
 
Frost in an interview with InterNation. Nongovernmental think tanks
 
have
 
already transformed the political landscape of the United States; Frost
 
is
 
a pioneer of the trend in Britain. Before moving to the I.E.D.S.S., he
 
was
 
secretary of one of the country's first think tanks, the Center for
 
Policy
 
Studies, which was founded in 1974 by, among others, Margaret Thatcher,
 
who
 
served as its first president.
 
 
The institute is a registered charity under British law and,as such, is
 
 
barred from political lobbying. Founded in 1979, the year Thatcher came
 
to
 
power, it stated its goals thus: "To assess the impact of political
 
change
 
in Europe and North America on defense and strategic issues. In
 
particular,
 
to study the domestic political situation in NATO countries and how
 
this
 
affects the NATO posture.' It declared that it would put most of its
 
effort
 
into publications, seminars and conferences.
 
 
In an interview in February with InterNation, Gaynerdenied that there
 
is
 
any formal connection between Heritage and the institute. But the
 
I.E.D.S.S. was, in fact, set up with foundation funds. The connection
 
runs
 
deeper than money alone. Heritage president Feulner chairs the
 
institute's
 
board. Richard V. Allen, Reagan's first national security adviser, a
 
Heritage distinguished fellow and head of the foundation's Asian
 
Studies
 
Center advisory council, is also a board member. Frank Shakespeare,
 
chair
 
of the foundation's board of trustees and the Reagan Administration's
 
Ambassador to the Vatican, was a founding member of the I.E.D.S.S.'s
 
advisory council.
 
 
Frost says that Stephen Haseler came up with the idea forthe I.E.D.S.S.
 
One
 
of the earliest prominent defectors to Britain's Social Democratic
 
Party,
 
which broke away from the Labor Party in 1981, Haseler was also a
 
Heritage
 
scholar and a member of the editorial board of Policy Review. According
 
to
 
Frost, Haseler "saw the need for a broad-based international institute'
 
and
 
"persuaded Ed Fuelner that this was a good idea.' Feulner then agreed
 
to
 
support the good idea, to the tune of 60,000 pounds, then $132,870.
 
 
The second crucial participant in setting I.E.D.S.S.priorities was Sir
 
Peter Blaker, a senior Tory who, according to Frost, "saw the
 
implications
 
of an upsurge in peace movement activity, which was a movement of
 
concern
 
to him.' Blaker is an important figure in British defense circles. From
 
 
1979 to 1983 he was a junior official in Thatcher's Defense Ministry,
 
and
 
in 1983 he headed a secret ministerial group on Nuclear Weapons and
 
Public
 
Opinion, which generated films and literature against Britain's
 
Campaign
 
for Nuclear Disarmament (C.N.D.). He is currently chair of the
 
Conservatives' Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Committee.
 
 
Another senior Tory Member of Parliament involved withthe I.E.D.S.S. is
 
Ray
 
Whitney, who served on the institute's board from 1979 to 1984. Whitney
 
is
 
also a junior minister in the Thatcher government and preceded Blaker
 
as
 
chair of the Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Committee in Parliament.
 
In
 
the late 1970s Whitney headed a secret Foreign Office body called the
 
Information Research Department, which conducted covert propaganda
 
activities, including some directed against British leftists. He
 
appears to
 
have taken a more direct role than Blaker in the smear campaign against
 
the
 
peace movement. In April 1983, as preparations began for a general
 
election, Tory Defense Minister Michael Heseltine released a letter
 
purporting to prove communist domination of the C.N.D. and of the Labor
 
 
Party. One of Heseltine's chief sources was Whitney. "Our colleague Ray
 
 
Whitney,' he commented at the time, "has added a valuable contribution
 
to
 
our knowledge of the political motivations of C.N.D.'
 
 
I.E.D.S.S. publications also regularly attacked the C.N.D.Its first
 
monograph, Protest and Perish, an assault on E.P. Thompson's Protest
 
and
 
Survive, accused Thompson of "furthering the arms race' by
 
destabilizing
 
NATO and the bloc system. Great Britain and NATO: A Parting of the
 
Ways?,
 
also published in 1982, declared that Britain could face civil war if a
 
 
Labor government took office, and warned that NATO could not entrust
 
secrets to a governing party under the sway of a "pro-Soviet faction.'
 
Further publications assailed the presence of the churches in the peace
 
 
movement and the teaching of peace studies in British universities.
 
Co-author of the last of those was Caroline Cox, a former director of
 
the
 
Center for Policy Studies and, since becoming a baroness, in 1982, a
 
leading spokeswoman for the Conservative Party in the House of Lords.
 
 
Most of this propaganda was made possible by grantsfrom the Heritage
 
Foundation. Although both Gayner and Frost downplayed the connection in
 
 
interviews, there is little likelihood that the I.E.D.S.S., whose 1986
 
budget, according to Frost, was 125,000 pounds, then $184,000, could
 
survive without Heritage backing. According to its year-end financial
 
report for 1985, the institute's total income from donations in 1984
 
and
 
1985 amounted to $185,611 at year-end exchange rates. Figures logged
 
with
 
the I.R.S. show that Heritage gave I.E.D.S.S. $91,165 in 1982; $185,371
 
in
 
1983; and $151,273 in 1985.
 
 
At least one other private U.S. foundation specializingin
 
ultraconservative
 
causes has also funded I.E.D.S.S. A spokesman for the John M. Olin
 
Foundation, where Heritage trustee William E. Simon is in charge of
 
grants,
 
confirmed that it had given I.E.D.S.S. $20,000 in 1986. Frost declined
 
to
 
reveal how much the institute had received from Heritage last year, but
 
did
 
say, "O.K., in 1986 they were still our biggest source of funds.' He is
 
 
visibly rattled by the topic of Heritage funds: "If you're seen as
 
having
 
this connection,' he told InterNation, "people might take less notice
 
of
 
you.' And, he added, "the media becomes suspicious.'
 
 
The Coalition for Peace through Security was also createdby Heritage
 
dollars, with the declared intention of making "one-sided disarmament a
 
 
millstone around the neck of any politician advocating such a course of
 
 
action for Britain.' The Heritage-C.P.S. relationship was cemented in
 
the
 
fall of 1981, when the group's three founders visited Washington and
 
agreed
 
to embark on the task of "educating public opinion' in Britain. For its
 
 
founding conference in London, in March 1982, the C.P.S. brought over
 
assorted luminaries of the New Right in the United States, including
 
Paul
 
Weyrich, co-founder of Heritage and president of the Free Congress
 
Foundation; and Morton Blackwell, then a White House aide and assistant
 
to
 
direct-mail wizard Richard Viguerie. They discussed ways in which U.S.
 
conservative fund-raising and opinion-forming techniques could be used
 
in
 
Britain. Thatcher sent a message of welcome, telling the organization,
 
"I
 
wish every success to your efforts, as I consider this a matter vital
 
to
 
our security and the preservation of peace.'
 
 
Links between the C.P.S. and the I.E.D.S.S. are close.Sir Peter Blaker
 
is
 
involved with both groups, and the two cooperated in the publication
 
and
 
distribution of Protest and Perish. Their methods differ, however.
 
Although
 
its literature claims the C.P.S. is committed to "the spirit of our
 
British
 
tradition of fair play,' the group plays dirty in its campaign to smear
 
 
nuclear disarmers as Soviet puppets, according to C.N.D. vice chair
 
Bruce
 
Kent. Among its tactics, Kent claims, are heckling and disruption of
 
C.N.D.
 
meetings, often by flying a blimp or banner reading "C.N.D. = K.G.B.'
 
In
 
one characteristic action last August, C.P.S. activists shattered a
 
two-minute silence at a rally commemorating the bombing of Hiroshima by
 
 
playing "God Save the Queen' full blast over loudspeakers.
 
 
The third and most enigmatic of the British groups fundedby Heritage is
 
the
 
International Freedom Fund Establishment, which is not registered in
 
Britain either as a company or a charity. I.R.S. schedules show that
 
Heritage has sent at least $140,000 earmarked for this group to Brian
 
Crozier, a fixture on the far right of British politics, who was
 
identified
 
as a C.I.A. contract employee by The New York Times in December 1977.
 
Crozier is the former head of the Institute for the Study of Conflict,
 
which was heavily endowed by the ultraconservative U.S. funder Richard
 
Mellon Scaife in the 1970s. In 1981 an aide to Scaife reported that the
 
 
institute had set up solid working relationships with the Heritage
 
Foundation and that its "research into political and psychological
 
warfare,
 
revolutionary activities, insurgency operations and terrorism is
 
consistently used by the Thatcher government.' More recently Crozier
 
has
 
taken up the cause of the Nicaraguan contras. Last December he shared a
 
 
platform in London with contra leader Arturo Cruz and former U.S.
 
ambassador to the United Nations Charles M. Lichenstein, who is also a
 
Heritage senior fellow.
 
 
There are no public records of the ultimate recipients ofthe money
 
Heritage
 
sent to Crozier. In an April 28 telephone interview with InterNation,
 
Crozier insisted that his only connection with Heritage was as an
 
adjunct
 
scholar. He described himself as a freelance risk analyst, and the
 
I.F.F.E.
 
as "a contact or checking point' that handles funds for a number of
 
organizations, which he declined to name. In a second conversation, two
 
 
days later, Crozier said, "The I.F.F.E. is a clearinghouse, and that is
 
 
all.' He then acknowledged arranging for the transfer of Heritage funds
 
but
 
again refused to respond to questions about the eventual beneficiaries.
 
 
"This is a private matter,' he said.
 
 
Heritage vice president Herb Berkowitz, when asked tocomment, described
 
the
 
I.F.F.E. as a "networking' operation. "We support them, and he
 
[Crozier]
 
does the work.' He also acknowledged that Heritage had sent Crozier an
 
additional $50,000 last year. The money, Berkowitz said, "goes to
 
scholars,
 
writers and research institutes; some might be affiliated with
 
political
 
parties . . . he makes the decision.' When asked if Crozier told
 
Heritage
 
who they were, Berkowitz replied, "I do not think he reports back to us
 
in
 
detail.'
 
 
He should. Tax-exempt organizations such as the HeritageFoundation,
 
says
 
and I.R.S. spokesman, "have to keep control over their funds and know
 
where
 
the funds are being ultimately spent.' Even if transfer to a third
 
party is
 
prearranged, "the grantor has to keep control and records. They have to
 
 
know where the money goes.'
 
 
Britain is only the most dramatic instance of a growinginternational
 
effort
 
by the Heritage Foundation. Smaller amounts of money fund other
 
European
 
groups and individuals, including economist Friedrich von Hayeck of the
 
 
University of Freiburg, in West Germany, and conservative economic
 
research
 
institutes in Paris and Rome. Heritage works closely with such
 
conservative
 
groups as the Hans Seidel Foundation in West Germany, the international
 
arm
 
of Franz-Josef Strauss's Christian Social Union; and the Club de
 
l'Horloge
 
in France, with which it co-sponsored a May 1986 conference in Nice
 
called
 
La Deculpabilisation de l'Occident--getting rid of the West's guilt.
 
 
The foundation has also reached into Africa and Asia.According to the
 
foundation's 1985 annual report, Stuart Butler, director of domestic
 
policy
 
studies, twice visited South Africa that year "to advise the business
 
community how to use the free market to dismantle racial apartheid.'
 
Heritage has tried to rally support for Zulu Chief Gatsha Buthelezi,
 
for
 
whom it hosted a dinner in Washington last November.
 
 
It used the same approach with spectacular success whenJonas Savimbi,
 
leader of Angola's Unita rebels, visited Washington in January 1986. On
 
 
Savimbi's itinerary were a lecture and a dinner at Heritage, attended
 
by
 
Secretary of State George Shultz, Director of Central Intelligence
 
William
 
Casey, national security adviser Vice Adm. John Poindexter and other
 
senior
 
Administration officials. "We brought the key policy people together,'
 
Gayner recalled with satisfaction. "Savimbi had the audience he
 
needed.'
 
Gayner also acknowledged that Heritage is giving the same kind of help
 
to
 
the Renamo rebels in Mozambique.
 
 
Heritage's Asian Studies Center is in fact its largest regionalprogram.
 
On
 
recent Asian tours, Feulner met with conservative think tanks in
 
several
 
countries and with the heads of government of Japan, South Korea and
 
Taiwan. In 1985, the foundation reports, Japanese Prime Minister
 
Yasuhiro
 
Nakasone "agreed to consider additional measures spelled out in a
 
series of
 
Heritage papers.'
 
 
In an interview with InterNation, Heritage's vice president,Burton Yale
 
 
Pines, predicted, "Maybe the next step will be to organize some kind of
 
 
Conservative International.' He suggested this could take the form of
 
an
 
alliance of as many as twenty like-minded goups in the United States,
 
Britain, France, West Germany, Japan and other countries. In the past
 
six
 
years the Heritage Foundation has been a major force behind the "Reagan
 
 
revolution.' The Administration comes to an end in 1989, but the
 
Heritage
 
Foundation will do its best to see that the principles of Reaganism
 
have a
 
continuing effect on politics far beyond the borders of the United
 
States.
 

Latest revision as of 13:47, 21 January 2009