National Association of Manufacturers Establishes Defense Committee and Hires First Full-Time President

The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) board selects Werner P. Gullander as the organization’s first full-time permanent president by 1962, following a late 1950s organizational restructuring where declining membership resulted in a takeover by larger corporations that purged ultraconservative leadership. The reorganized board establishes a National Defense Committee (NDC) to promote defense industry membership, marking a pivotal shift in NAM’s strategic direction. An April 19, 1962 “Report On NAM National Defense Committee” prepared for the Economic Advisory Committee of the NAM Board of Directors documents the formal creation of this defense industry lobbying infrastructure, which has received little scholarly scrutiny despite its significant role in the militarization of American conservatism.

Under Gullander’s leadership, the National Defense Committee moves NAM in the direction of aggressive support for defense expansion during the early 1960s, positioning the organization to capitalize on the growing military-industrial complex that President Eisenhower warned against in his January 1961 farewell address. The NDC provides systematic coordination for defense contractors within NAM membership, creating mechanisms for collective lobbying on Pentagon budgets, weapons systems procurement, and policies affecting the defense industry. A 1968-1970 membership list for the Policy and Program Advisory Committee of the NAM National Defense Committee documents the breadth of defense industry participation in this coordinated lobbying effort, demonstrating how NAM institutionalized military contractor political influence.

Between 1958 and 1975, according to scholarly analysis in the Business History Review, a combination of organizational changes peculiar to NAM and political pressures from both the right and left lead NAM to adopt and maintain a militaristic posture that distinguishes it from earlier periods when the organization focused primarily on labor relations and taxation. Gullander initiates a series of changes creating what observers describe as a more moderate organization compared to NAM’s earlier ultraconservative reputation, but the moderation is relative—the organization’s embrace of defense industry interests and creation of systematic lobbying infrastructure for military contractors represents a fundamental transformation. Gullander serves as NAM president until 1973 when Doug Kenna replaces him, but the National Defense Committee structure Gullander establishes persists, institutionalizing defense industry influence within one of America’s oldest and most powerful business lobbying organizations founded in 1895.