Powell,S. Covert Cadre. 1987

Powell, S.Steven. Covert Cadre: Inside the Institute for Policy Studies. Ottawa IL: Green Hill Publishers, 1987. 469 pages.

Historically, the U.S. Left has done a better job of investigating the U.S. Right than vice-versa, but this is one book that attempts to reverse the trend. The material on IPS is unimportant; the organization is no longer influential. When Powell spends some pages attempting to show significant links between IPS and Soviet KGB-diplomats stationed in DC, it even gets slightly ridiculous. The book is valuable for other reasons -- it represents the best available compilation (over 600 names) of material on elitist Left personalities, organizations, and funding sources during the late 1970s and 1980s. "Elitist" refers mainly to those who are active on the national or international level as opposed to grass-roots organizing. But if you apply to these foundations for project support without being a member of their old-boy-girl network, the word begins to assume its more usual connotations as well. To keep matters in perspective, remember that funding for the Left was only a tiny fraction of the tax-deductible support that flowed into neocon coffers during the 1980s.

Scott Steven Powell had a tremendous amount of research assistance from Rightist groups and individuals, beginning with an obscure outfit in DC called the National Journalism Center. He was last spotted in 1989 as a Media Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
ISBN 0-915463-39-3