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Committee for the Free World

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The Committee for the Free World was a neoconservative anti-Communist think tank in the United States.[1][2][3]

Overview

It was founded in February 1981 with US$125,000 from the Scaife Foundations, the John M. Olin Foundation and the Smith Richardson Foundation.[1][3] Later, donors included Sears and Mobil Oil (now known as ExxonMobil).[3]

Midge Decter served as Executive Director of its Committee.[2][4][5][6] Other members included Jeane Kirkpatrick, Leszek Kołakowski, Irving Kristol, Melvin J. Lasky, Seymour M. Lipset, Donald Rumsfeld, Tom Stoppard and George Will.[1][2] Eugene V. Rostow, then serving as Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency under President Ronald Reagan, was a speaker at a CFW event on Poland.[7]

It was headquartered in New York City.[8] It published a monthly newsletter, Contentions.[3] It also helped conservative newspapers on college campuses develop and the National Association of Scholars.[3] In 1989, both Decter and Democratic Senator Daniel P. Moynihan denied donating US$1 million to Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi through the organization.[8]

It was discontinued shortly after the collapse of the Berlin Wall signaled the collapse of the Soviet Union.[2][4][6]

References