Committee on the Present Danger

[3] The committee first met in 1950, founded by Tracy Voorhees, to promote the plans proposed in NSC 68 by Paul Nitze and Dean Acheson.

[citation needed] 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.

[7] On December 12, 1950, James Conant, Tracy Voorhees and Vannevar Bush announced the creation of the committee on the Present Danger.

[10] [11] The revived CPDC was focused on education and advocacy on a perceived existential and ideological threat posed by Communist China to the United States.

[12] The relaunched organization was announced with Frank Gaffney, a former White House official under President Ronald Reagan, playing a key role.

Its stated aim is to "educate and inform American citizens and policymakers about the existential threats presented from the People's Republic of China under the misrule of the Chinese Communist Party".

"[16] The Committee on the Present Danger: China lists a variety of members including the former politicians and national security professionals, White House officials, business leaders, and others:[17] The CPDC has been criticized as promoting a revival of Red Scare politics in the United States, and for the involvement of Frank Gaffney and activist Steve Bannon.

[18] Charles W. Freeman Jr. at the Watson Institute called the CPDC "a Who's Who of contemporary wing-nuts, very few of whom have any expertise at all about China and most of whom represent ideological causes only peripherally connected to it.