Konrad Adenauer Foundation:

The Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) is a German Christian Democrat (CDU) party affiliated, state-funded, foundation that seeks to influence political outcomes in lesser developed world by influencing political parties or moulding civil society.KAS is similar organization to the multiple political manipulation organizations like the National Endowment for Democracy (in the US), Westminster Foundation for Democracy (in the UK), Friedrich Naumann Foundation (also in Germany); Canada, the Netherlands, France… all have similar organizations. Organizations like KAS or NED attempt to influence political outcomes in countries where they might have economic or political interests. All these groups aim to foster civic groups and political parties in lesser developed countries that play along with the Western favored model of neoliberalism (in politics and economics).

NED et. al.: The CIA’s Successors and Collaborators (archived):

The battle of ideas

In 1975 the CIA was investigated by the Senate, particularly its involvement in plots against political leaders throughout the world, including Patrice Lumumba, Allende and Fidel Castro. The success of revolutionary movements in Africa and Latin America forced the US to recognise that although the strategy of infiltrating social organisations remained crucial, the tactics were counter-productive. So, “to wage the battle of ideas, the Johnson administration recommended the establishment of a public-private mechanism to fund overseas activities openly” (3).

The American Political Foundation(APF), established in 1979, was a coalition of the Democratic and Republican parties, union leaders and employers, conservative academics and institutions relating to foreign policy. It was based on a model developed in West Germany, where the four major political parties had set up government-funded foundations as a response to the cold war. The most important of these was the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, linked to the Christian Democratic Union (4).

In January 1983 President Ronald Reagan signed the secret directive NSDD-77 (5), the result of what he described in a speech to the British parliament as a process designed “to foster the infrastructure of democracy” and “to determine how the United States can best contribute… to the global campaign for democracy” (6). The directive called for “close collaboration with foreign policy efforts – diplomatic, economic, military – as well as a close relationship with sectors of the American society – labour, business, universities, philanthropy, political parties, press.”

Reagan kept quiet about the directive when he presented an APF proposal, the Democracy Programme, to Congress. An act of 23 November 1983 ratified the creation of the NED. At a ceremony at the White House in December he announced: “This programme will not be hidden in shadows. It’ll stand proudly in the spotlight. And, of course, it will be consistent with our own national interests” (7).

American Political Foundation:

The American Political Foundation is described by Rightweb as being “a bipartisan commission” that was “established by the State Department that began to address the problem of having U.S.-funded ‘soft-side’ operations overseas perceived as CIA fronts.”