Neoconservatism originated as a 1970s left-to-right defection over Vietnam and anti-war liberalism

Evidence

The term neoconservative was coined in the early 1970s by Michael Harrington, a founding member of Democratic Socialists of America, as a way to distance former allies (some liberal, others socialist) who had started to gravitate to the right. Harrington named figures such as Irving Kristol, Norman Podhoretz, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Michael Novak, Nathan Glazer, and Daniel Patrick Moynihan as turncoats who had moved away from democratic socialism. Most of the first generation of neocons supported the US war with Vietnam and resented the anti-war movement. They saw themselves as liberals who believed in the idea that America was a force for good in the world and that it should maintain global stability and intervene militarily when needed. They stood against the “bad liberals” who championed George McGovern’s bid for the presidency in 1972, viewing them as operating with a politics of “appeasement” and liberal guilt. Many opposed Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society program of domestic reform as well. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 424

Categorization

• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 424
• XREF: connects to: Neoconservatism began as a rightward racial realignment breaking with the civil rights movement — Michael Omi, Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, 56; Post-Vietnam neoconservatives advocated intervention and heavy military spending against liberal restraint.; The term neoconservative was coined by a socialist to brand rightward-climbing ex-allies — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 378 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Post-Vietnam neoconservatives advocated intervention and heavy military spending against liberal restraint. #expands (0.85)
• The term neoconservative was coined to brand apostates from the left #expands (0.82)
• Neoconservatism began as a rightward racial realignment breaking with the civil rights movement #complicates (0.75) — Michael Omi, Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, 56
• The term neoconservative was coined by a socialist to brand rightward-climbing ex-allies #expands (0.75) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 378