Responses to the US National Security State after Vietnam

More than fifty years after the Church Committee exposed sweeping abuses across intelligence agencies, this panel will focus on those who sought to shape the nation’s understanding of its national security state in the post-Vietnam era and beyond. Daniel Chard will explain how the politics of antiterrorism forged in the mid-1970s drew from decades of anticommunist activism and laid a foundation for the revamped national security state after September 11, 2001. Michael Koncewicz will cover how SDS cofounder Tom Hayden attempted to carry over his critique of American militarism into his bid for the Senate in 1976. Sam Martin and Allison Prasch will examine how the original aims of the Church Committee—anchored in transparency, democratic accountability, and public trust—are being selectively remembered and rhetorically reappropriated.