Fusion Energy Foundation (FEF) was an American non-profit think tank co-founded by Lyndon LaRouche in 1974 in New York. It promoted the construction of nuclear power plants, research into fusion power and beam weapons and other causes. The FEF was called fusion's greatest private supporter. It was praised by scientists like John Clarke, who said that the fusion community owed it a "debt of gratitude". By 1980, its main publication, Fusion, claimed 80,000 subscribers.
The FEF included notable scientists and others on its boards, along with LaRouche movement insiders in management positions. It published a popular magazine, Fusion, and a more technical journal as well as books and pamphlets. It conducted seminars and its members testified at legislative hearings. It was known for soliciting subscriptions to their magazines in U.S. airports, where its confrontational methods resulted in conflicts with celebrities and the general public.
The FEF has been described by many writers as a "front" for the U.S. Labor Party and the LaRouche movement. By the mid-1980s, the FEF was being accused of fraudulent fundraising on behalf of other LaRouche entities. Federal prosecutors forced it into bankruptcy in 1986 to collect contempt of court fines, a decision that was later overturned when a federal bankruptcy court found that the government had acted "in bad faith".Associated Press wire, Case Against LaRouche Groups Is Dismissed, October 28, 1989 Key personnel were convicted in 1988.
Personnel According to an article in The Nation, the Fusion Energy Foundation had physicists, corporate executives, and government planners on its board of advisors, many unaware of the foundations connection to the U.S. Labor Party, while the board of directors was filled with LaRouche movement regulars and some party outsiders.
A 1983 report published by The Heritage Foundation said that the foundation briefly gained the confidence of respected scientists who lent their reputations to it but it warned that they risked their reputations by doing so.
Lyndon LaRouche was a co-founder and one of the three members of the foundation's board of directors. Steven Bardwell, a nuclear physicist, was another director. The executive director was Morris Levitt in the 1970s and Paul Gallagher in the 1980s. Michael Gelber was the Central New York regional representative. Dennis Speed was the regional coordinator for Boston and Harley Schlanger was the southern regional coordinator. Uwe Parpart Henke was the director of research. Jon Gilbertson was the director of nuclear engineering. Marsha Freeman was a representative of the FEF's International Press Service. Charles B. Stevens, a chemical engineer, authored scores of articles on fusion energy research and development for both the earlier publication, The Fusion Energy Foundation Newsletter, and its successor, Fusion.
Eric Lerner was director of physics in 1977. Other notable scientists who wrote for FEF publications and lectured under its auspices include Friedwardt Winterberg, Krafft Arnold Ehricke, and Winston H. Bostick. Melvin B. Gottlieb received an award from the FEF. Adolf Busemann also received an award at a special dinner.
Advocacy
Nuclear energy In 1977, Executive Director Morris Levitt asserted that nuclear fusion power plants could be built by 1990 if the U.S. spent $50 to $100 billion on research. The same year he predicted that there would be no United States in the 21st century if President Jimmy Carter's ban on building breeder reactors was maintained. The director of the fusion power program at Argonne National Laboratory, Charles Baker, said in 1983 that the FEF was "overstating" the prospect of practical fusion power in the near future. "The judgment of the vast majority of the people actually working in fusion believe it will take substantially longer" than the few years predicted by the FEF, according to Baker.
By 1980, the Fusion Energy Foundation had close contacts with fusion researchers. They became a conduit for information between researchers who were sequestered in secret research. Even the head of fusion research for the Federal Government cooperated with the foundation. It was praised by scientists like John Clarke, who said that the fusion community owed it a "debt of gratitude". However the politicization of the foundation's journals and the LaRouche views printed in them repelled the scientists involved, according to The Nation.
The FEF received publicity in 1981 when it published a book explaining how to build a hydrogen bomb written by University of Nevada, Reno, professor Friedwardt Winterberg. The publication came two years after a magazine, The Progressive, had tried to print similar information but was prevented by an injunction that became the United States v. The Progressive. The government dropped the case after the information was published by the FEF. The author of the original article later learned that a diagram by Uwe Papert published in 1976 in a LaRouche publication contained two important details of the weapon's design that he had been wrong about.
The colonization of Mars is a major proposal of the LaRouche movement. Friedwardt Winterberg described how rocket engines incorporating fusion micro-explosions could provide enough acceleration to convey a large mass in a reasonable amount of time, a concept derived from Project Daedalus.
Independent Commission of Inquiry In 1979 the Fusion Energy Foundation created the Independent Commission of Inquiry to investigate the accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. The commission's members included Morris Levitt, Jon Gilbertson, Charles Bonilia. The commission determined that the accident must have been caused by sabotage because no other explanation was possible. According to Gallagher, "New evidence is accumulating that sabotage very likely occurred". According to the Herald newspaper of Titusville, Pennsylvania, when asked by reporters for evidence Gilbertson said he had none.
Beam weapons According to Fusion, two members of the FEF went to the Soviet Union to attend conference on "laser interaction" in December 1978.
In 1982 and 1983, members of the LaRouche movement met repeatedly with the director of defense programs for the National Security Council, Ray Pollock, while he was developing the basis for Ronald Reagan's "Star Wars" program, officially called the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). Pollock eventually said in the National Security Council (NSC) that LaRouche is "a frightening kind of fellow". The FEF held a seminar on beam weapons in October 1983, at the Dirksen Senate Office Building. According to the American Physical Society, FEF members disrupted a 1986 conference on SDI to which they were not invited, and only stopped after being threatened with police action.
After Ronald Reagan announced SDI the LaRouche movement made claims for having been the originators of the proposal, which reportedly "concerned" some people in the administration and in Congress, but no correction was made by them. The FEF lobbied state legislatures and testified before congressional hearings on behalf of beam weapons. Steven Bardwell resigned from the board of advisors in early 1984, reportedly because of money questions and a belief that the organization was losing its independence by becoming too solicitous of the Reagan administration in general, and in particular the Central Intelligence Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and the NSC.
Other advocacy As with other LaRouche entities, representatives of the Fusion Energy Foundation gave testimony to a number of congressional hearings. In addition to addressing committees on energy matters, FEF representatives, including Eric Lerner, also testified on matters such as the nomination of Cyrus Vance for Secretary of State.
The FEF campaigned on behalf of Arthur Rudolph, a NASA rocket scientist who was forced to leave the U.S. in 1982 following an investigation into his role in the Mittelwerk rocket factory in Nazi Germany.
Psychiatrist Ned Rosinsky spoke as a representative of the FEF at a Wisconsin state legislative hearing on criminal penalties for drug possession in 1977. He testified that "marijuana is a medically dangerous drug until proved otherwise", citing studies showing brain damage and a reduction in white blood cells caused by the habitual use of cannabis.
Under the auspices of Pakdee Tanapura, a wealthy Thai landowner, the FEF and EIR held a seminar in 1983 on the proposed construction of the Kra Canal across Thailand. Their plan favored the use of nuclear explosions to speed excavation. A second seminar was held in 1984, and in 1986 the FEF published a report by U.H. Von Papart on the feasibility and financing for the project.
Conferences May 2, 1978: "Conference on the Industrial Development of Southern Africa", held in Washington D.C. October 1980: "A High Technology Policy for U.S. Reindustrialization", held in California. 1985: "Krafft Ehricke Memorial Conference", held in Reston, Virginia. Cosponsored by the Schiller Institute.
Fundraising The FEF has been described by many writers as a "front" for the U.S. Labor Party and the LaRouche movement, In a National Review article published in 1979, former member Gregory Rose said that the primary purpose of the Fusion Energy Foundation was raising money. Milton Copulous, director of energy studies for The Heritage Foundation, called FEF "a front the USLP uses to win the confidence of unsuspecting businessmen". In 1981, the FEF reported $3.5 million of revenue.
According to a representative in Toronto, Richard Sanders, FEF contributions gathered in Canada were sent to the United States to support the presidential campaigns of Lyndon LaRouche. In 1983, an FEF spokesperson said that there was no financial link between the foundation and LaRouche's campaigns. Although the FEF denied any financial connection to LaRouche's U.S. Labor Party, the two organizations reportedly shared offices in New York City. According to an interview with a former member presented as evidence in LaRouche vs. NBC in 1984: Money from the . . . profit-making organizations went into political campaigns and was not correctly reported. Money from the tax-exempt [FEF] was given to the political campaign, unbeknownst to the people who made the contributions. . . . Someone would contribute to the [FEF] because they believed in nuclear power and their contribution would turn up as a contribution for . . . [LaRouche's] presidential campaign.
Barbara Mikulski filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission asserting that the FEF was improperly raising funds for a LaRouche-affiliated candidate, Debra Freeman, in a 1982 congressional campaign. The FEF replied that the fundraising was done under contract to the Caucus Distributors, Inc. (CDI), another LaRouche enterprise.
When FEF director Steven Bardwell resigned in 1984, he complained that funds raised by the FEF through subscriptions were being diverted to other LaRouche entities. According to Bardwell, LaRouche said that Bardwell's sense of obligation to subscribers was "misplaced", and that "whether or not they knew it, they had contributed money to support Lyndon LaRouche and his ideas". LaRouche reportedly also said that the most important expenditures were for his personal security, and other expenses had a lower priority.