NYT Reports Council for National Policy Convened With LaHaye as President, Viguerie/Phillips/Weyrich on Executive Committee

The Times of May 20, 1981 (publication date; section A, page 17) reported that more than 50 conservatives had convened the Council for National Policy, modeled on the Council on Foreign Relations. Louis (Woody) Jenkins was executive director; Tim LaHaye was president; Richard Viguerie, Howard Phillips and Paul Weyrich sat on the executive committee. Members named included Heritage Foundation head Ed Feulner (printed “Fuelner”), Joseph Coors, Nelson Bunker Hunt and Herbert Hunt, Phyllis Schlafly and two Reagan administration aides (Morton Blackwell, Robert Billings). The group honored OMB Director David Stockman the previous night at Viguerie’s home.

This is the earliest contemporaneous primary anchor found. The dispatch does not give a convening date, so the existing 1981-05-01 and 1981-05-18 entries are not confirmed by it. It does not name T. Cullen Davis or William Cies, whom later accounts list among founders.