Peter Hannaford

Peter Hannaford was briefly the chair of the 2004 incarnation of the Committee on the Present Danger, a Cold War-era group first founded in 1950 and re-formed in 1976 to push for larger defense budgets and arms buildups, to counter the Soviet Union.

Explaining his reasons for resurrecting the CPD, Hannaford said, "we saw a parallel" between the Soviet threat and the threat from terrorism. The message the group will convey through lobbying, media work and conferences is that "the war on terror needs to be won," he said.

But one day after the launch of the 2004 CPD, Hannaford resigned. Several CPD members called for Hannaford's resignation, after Laura Rozen reported that he lobbied for the Austrian Freedom Party, which is headed by nationalist Joerg Haider. Haider once commended the "orderly employment policy" of the Third Reich and paid a "solidarity visit" to Saddam Hussein in 2002. Rozen further reported that Hannaford also lobbied for China, Saudi Arabia and Algeria while working at the PR firm the Carmen Group.

Hannaford is a public relations and advertising professional, who most famously worked with Ronald Reagan in many capacities, from director of public affairs in Reagan's California governor's office, to director of issues and research for Reagan's 1976 presidential nomination campaign, to senior communications adviser for Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign. Hannaford also unsuccessfully ran for office himself once, in 1972 as the Republican nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives in California's 7th Congressional District.

Hannaford is currently a senior consultant to the "global communication consultancy" firm APCO Worldwide and the president of Hannaford Enterprises, a public relations firm founded in 1996 by the merger of Hannaford Company and The Carmen Group. He has also served on the U.S. Information Agency's Public Relations Advisory Committee (1981-92); the board of trustees of the White House Preservation Fund (1981-89); the Commonwealth Fund's Commission on Elderly People Living Alone (1986-91); and the advisory committee of Mount Vernon, George Washington's home (1990-96).

Hannaford has also published eight books, several of which focus on Ronald Reagan.

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Citizens for the Republic
 * Committee on the Present Danger
 * Ronald Reagan
 * Max M. Kampelman
 * R. James Woolsey, Jr.
 * Joseph I. Lieberman

External articles

 * President Ronald Reagan Oral History Project Briefing Materials, Peter Hannaford, January 10, 2003.
 * Laura Rozen, "Oy Vey II," War and Piece, July 20, 2004.
 * Justin Raimondo, "The Present Danger: Neocons attempt a comeback," Antiwar.com, July 23, 2004.
 * Eli Lake, "Director of Present Danger Committee Resigns After a Day on the Job: Hannaford Linked to Austrian Nationalist Who Was Accused of Praising Nazi Policies," The New York Sun, July 22, 2004.
 * James Kirchick, "Cold warriors return for war on terrorism," The Hill, June 30, 2004.
 * APCO Worldwide bio: Peter Hannaford