Profile of American Security Council:

Aka:
The Heart of the Military-Industrial Complex

History:
"The origins of ASC date back to 1938. The inner circle which would form the Council was originally composed of Henry Luce and Clare Boothe Luce, Jay Lovestone, Hughston McBain, Theodore V. Houser, Ambassador Arthur Bliss Lane and Lady Malcolm Douglas Hamilton. They all brought in new people to the inner circle, but the key to their success was working together for a common goal in a bipartisan manner."

The Mid-America Research Library (MARL) was created in 1955 by retired by General Robert Wood, chairman and president of Sears, Roebuck & Company. He was assisted and supported by Robert R. McCormick of the Chicago Tribune. Wood was motivated by suspicion that the Korean War was lost because of communist infiltrators within the US. (Founders: Ex FBI agents? Who?)

Original Sponsors:
Sears, along with Motorola Corp, and Marshall Field and Company were the original financial sponsors of the ASC. [Corporate roots.]

Important Funders:
Included General Dynamics, General Electric, Lockheed, Boeing, Motorola, and McDonnell-Douglas. Patrick J. Frawley is believed to have been the most generous individual donor. By 1984 the ASC had an income of $2.7 million.

Early Members:
Early members included Douglas MacArthur, Sam Rayburn (LBJ's political grandfather and was the original man who controlled the chairmanship of the important military committees in Congress). John K. Singlaub, Ray S. Cline (John K. Singlaub and Ray Cline played important roles in CIA/Military covert operations), Thomas J. Dodd, W. Averell Harriman, Nelson A. Rockefeller, Eugene V. Rostow, John G. Tower, Roy Cohn (McCarthy henchman), Lyman Lemnitzer (!!!), Lawrence P. McDonald and Patrick J. Frawley (Patrick J. Frawley was involved in funding various right-wing groups based in New Orleans in the early 1960s). (Did members pay dues? Is "member" the same as "funder"?)

Associates:
"Works with officials from the Pentagon, National Security Council, and organizations linked to the CIA discusses cold war strategy with leaders of many large corporations, such as United Fruit, Standard Oil, Honeywell, US Steel, and Sears Roebuck. CIA-linked Foreign Policy Research Institute... Aircraft Industries Association (worked to bring Nazi rocket scientist into the country, Werhner von Braun and General John Medaris)... National Association of Manufacturers, Chambers of Commerce... political figures of the anti-Semitic extreme right: Mark Jones, head of National Economic Council, Martin Blank (Who financed Hitler identified members of this crowd as "the most powerful secret organization of big business that existed during the Weimar period"), and Baron Frederich August von der Heydte, co-founder and ideological leader of the Christian Democratic Union (recently has formed an association with Lyndon LaRouche's neofascist cult group). ASC administers the IAS... played a role in political indoctrination of the military... Eisenhower warned of their power in his farewell address in 1961, and Senator William Fulbright and President John Kennedy began to be concerned when it became clear that liberalism itself was under attack. They were quite obviously correct." (Per Russ Bellant at Sourcewatch, link at "Associated Links.")

Philosophy:
The ASC targeted individuals who advocate disarmament and lower defense spending as it believes these people are victims of left-wing disinformation or are in the pay of communist states. In the 1950s the Soviet Union posed the main threat to capitalism. Therefore ASC members argued that it was important for the United States to achieve military superiority so that the Soviet Union would not dare to launch a military attack.

Activity:
The ASC's initial function was to screen job applicants for 1500 employers who were worried about hiring suspected Communists. They compiled files on suspected communists/subversives who apply for jobs in the private sector. This blacklist, that included 6 million names, was provided to 3,500 companies (corporate members?). The library cooperated with the House UnAmerican Activities Committee, the FBI, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and the Treasury Department. [Exclude labor union members.]

Name Change:
The library changed its name to the American Security Council in 1956.

Era of Peak Influence:
The American Security Council was extremely powerful during the McCarthyism period in the United States. However, in the 1960s there was a decline in interest in the ASC as ideas about detente and disarmament became popular.

1966 Expanded Goals:
In 1966 the ASC broadened its goals to include "international security and nuclear strategy." It moved to Boston, VA to be closer to the nation's capital. John Fisher, former FBI agent and chief of security at Sears, became the first president of the Mid-America Research Library and continues to head the ASC and the ASC Foundation today. The files from the Mid-America Research Library are now a part of the Sol Feinstone Library for the Survival of Freedom.

1978 Coalition for Peace Through Strength (CPTS):
In 1978 the American Security Council organized the Coalition for Peace Through Strength (CPTS). According to one source "group members of the CPTS include conservative military organizations, right-wing organizations and a number of emigre groups with a history of association with the Nazis and current membership in the World Anti-Communist League."

Additional Information:
General John K. Singlaub, a member of the ASC, joined forces with Ted Shackley, Ray S. Cline and Richard Helms to get Jimmy Carter removed from the White House. In December, 1979, Singlaub headed a delegation from the ASC on a trip to Guatemala. Singlaub pointed out that Ronald Reagan "recognizes that a good deal of dirty work has to be done" in order to destroy communism in Guatemala. Death squad activity in Guatemala increased dramatically following the trip." Upon his return to the United States Singlaub called for "sympathetic understanding of the death squads" (The Iran Contra Connection: Secret Teams and Covert Operations in the Reagan Era).

The ASC campaigned against Salt I, SALT II and other arms control agreements and argued aggressively for ever-increasing Pentagon budgets to pay for weapons systems, such as the B-1 bomber, the MX missile and Star Wars.

Between 1983 and 1985 ASC ran 13 full-page ads in the New York Times and the Washington Post advocating the MX missile system.

The policy of the ASC was extremely popular with companies involved in the defense industry and critics claimed that the ASC was a military-industrial complex front organization.

Quotes:
One analyst has said that the ASC is "not just the representative of the military-industrial complex, it is the personification of the military-industrial complex."

Associated Links:
Sourcewatch
Spartacus

Official Website:
Official ASC Website