Waterhouse - Lobbying America: the politics of business from Nixon to NAFTA

Lobbying America

POLITICS AND SOCIETY IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY AMERICA

SERIES EDITORS

William Chafe, Gary Gerstle, Linda Gordon, and Julian Zelizer

A list of titles

in this series appears

at the back of

the book

Lobbying America

THE POLITICS OF BUSINESS FROM NIXON TO NAFTA

Benjamin C. Waterhouse

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS

PRINCETON AND OXFORD

Copyright 2014 by Princeton University Press

Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540

In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock,

Oxfordshire OX20 1TW

press.princeton.edu

Jacket photograph: Pennsylvania Avenue, 1962. Courtesy of the District Department of Transportation (DDOT), Washington, DC

All Rights Reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Waterhouse, Benjamin C., 1978

Lobbying America : the politics of business from Nixon to NAFTA / Benjamin C. Waterhouse.

pages cm. (Politics and society in twentieth-century America)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-691-14916-5 (hardcover)

1. LobbyingUnited StatesHistory20th century. 2. Pressure groupsUnited StatesHistory20th century. 3. Political action committeesUnited StatesHistory20th century. 4. CorporationsPolitical activityUnited StatesHistory20th century. 5. Business and politicsUnited StatesHistory20th century. I. Title.

JK1118.W36 2013

324'.4097309045dc23

2013018172

British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available

This book has been composed in Sabon

Printed on acid-free paper.

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Para Daniela, por amor
and for my father, whos read every word

Acknowledgments

ALTHOUGH THE DEBTS I have accumulated in the ten years I spent on this book are innumerable, I will try my best to enumerate them here. This study is based on work done at Harvard University under the direction of Professor Lizabeth Cohen. My debt to Professor Cohen is very great for her unfailing encouragement, for her critical reading of the manuscript at various stages, and, most of all, for her influenceoften subtle but always profoundon my thinking. The inquiry began life as a seminar paper when Sven Beckert off-handedly advised a confused first-year graduate student to look into something called the Business Roundtable. His wise counsel on the study of business elites as social actors as well as his enthusiasm for the history of capitalism have left a clear mark on this book. In the last four years, I have found a wonderful professional home in the history department of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and am thankful for the support of the staff, especially Joy Jones, Joyce Loftin, and Adam Kent, as well as the graduate students, undergraduates, and faculty.

Several scholars deserve effusive thanks for reading all or significant parts of the manuscript along the way: Julian Zelizer, Kim Phillips-Fein, Ed Balleisen, Lisa McGirr, Louis Hyman, Jennifer Delton, Mark Wilson, Bethany Moreton, Zaragosa Vargas, Ajay Mehrotra, Kathleen DuVal, and my go-to economist Marc Levinson. Kim McQuaid, a model of scholarly citizenship, not only commented on early drafts of several chapters but graciously shared his now thirty-year-old notes on the creation of the Business Roundtable. My gratitude also goes to Chuck Myers and the staff at Princeton University Press for their faithful stewardship of the book, and to Jenn Backer for astute copyediting. Several extremely helpful research assistants devoted many hours at crucial points in this process. I sincerely thank Scott Krause, Summer Shafer, and Xaris Martnez, who checked every note.

A number of participants in or witnesses to the events described in this book agreed to speak or correspond with me, either formally or off the record, and thus shaped my analysis in important ways. For their time and insight, I am very grateful to Bernadette Budde, James A. Baker III, John Post, Dr. Carl Grant, Mark Green, Ralph Nader, John Richard, Victor Kamber, Jules Bernstein, and Dan Fenn. Golf blogger John Sabino graciously allowed me to cite his description of the Links Club. Former Business Roundtable president John Castellani twice granted me permission to consult that groups privately held papers, a privilege for which I am extremely grateful.

Even historians of the relatively recent past find untold treasures in the archives, where skilled, patient, and talented reference librarians and archivists play a vital role in scholarly work. For their kindness, wisdom, and professionalism, I would like to thank: Barbara Burg at Widener Library; Marge McNinch, Lucas Clawson, Jon Williams, Carol Lockman, and Lynn Catanese at the Hagley Library; Stacy Davis, Josh Cochran, and Mary Lukens at the Ford Library; Keith Shuler at the Carter Library; Terri Goldich at the University of Connecticuts Dodd Center; Christopher Pendleton at the Bush Library; Lisa Jones at the Reagan Library; and Sahr Conway-Lanz at the National Archives. Amie Brennan and Joe Crea at the Business Roundtable aided my research there and fielded subsequent inquiries.

I have benefited from the opportunity to present aspects of this work in a number of academic settings, where participants comments, critiques, and questions greatly influenced my arguments and presentation. I thank members of the Market Cultures Workshop in New York City (h/t Julia Ott), the Rethinking Regulation Working Group at Duke University, and the Triangle Legal History Seminar; audiences at the Business History Conference, Power and the History of Capitalism, the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, and the Policy History Conference; and participants in faculty lunch colloquia in the history departments at UNC and Duke. Parts of were previously published in the Journal of American History as Mobilizing for the Market: Organized Business, Wage-Price Controls, and the Politics of Inflation, 19711974 (September 2013). Finally, I gratefully acknowledge the financial support I received from: Harvard Universitys history department, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History, Center for American Political Studies, and Weatherhead Center for International Affairs; the Harvard Business Schools Chandler Travel Grant; the Hagley Museum and Library; the Gerald R. Ford Library; the ODonnell Grant Program at the George Bush Presidential Library Foundation; the Newcomen Society of the United States; and UNCs history department, Dickson Fund, and College of Arts and Sciences.

Many other scholars, friends, and colleagues have had a hand in shaping this book by providing commentary, suggesting relevant sources, and otherwise supporting my inquiry. With deep gratitude, I thank especially: Noam Maggor, Ann Wilson, Betsy More, Miles Fletcher, Konrad Jarausch, Peter Coclanis, Lee Vinsel, Dominique Tobbell, Paula Gajewski, Mark Rose, Christine Desan, James Kloppenberg, Bruce Schulman, Meg Jacobs, Gerald Davis, William Becker, James Livingston, Judith Stein,

Elizabeth Sanders, Ed Berkowitz, Jonathan Weiner, Lawrence Baxter, Jeff Fear, and John A. Ruddiman (the elder). For nearly a century of intellectual stimulation (combined), I thank Jeffrey F. Haynes, Curtis A. T. Wright, and Vilas K. Sridharan.

Professor Jake Ruddiman has been a source of wisdom and encouragement since college. From the muggy July evening in Paris when he talked me into going to graduate school through the travails of doctoral work and our good fortune to land jobs in the same state, he has been a superb friend and counselor. Finally, I wish to acknowledge years of support from Professor Walter Jean of Georgetown University, whose soap box thesis has proved invaluable to my career so far.