The term neoconservative was coined by a socialist to brand rightward-climbing ex-allies

Evidence

The term “neoconservative” was coined in the early 1970s by Michael Harrington, who is associated with the democratic socialist tradition in the United States, as a way to distance former allies (some liberals, others socialists) who had started to gravitate to the right. These turncoats included figures such as Irving Kristol, Norman Podhoretz, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Michael Novak, Nathan Glazer, and Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Most of the first generation of neocons supported the United States’ war with Vietnam and resented the antiwar 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, 378

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes the etymology and original referent of ‘neoconservative’ — a faction of former liberal/socialist turncoats, not a longstanding tradition.
• XREF: Counter-narrative to the popular self-description of neocons as principled Wilsonians — connects to the reader’s myth-busting goal. — connects to: Neoconservatism originated as a 1970s left-to-right defection over Vietnam and anti-war liberalism — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 424