With the end of U.S. financial support of South Vietnam, the Indochina Peace Campaign, one of the major opponents to the war, dissolved in July 1975 and formed two new groups: the Friends of Indochina (FI) and the Campaign for a Democratic Foreign Policy (CDFP). CDFP was founded to carry the momentum of the public opposition to the war into broader perspective. In foreign policy, the group hoped to limit U.S. military intervention and to prevent international corporate expansion. On the domestic front, the organization's goals were to cut the military budget and to transfer these expenditures to domestic social programs. Patterning itself after the successful strategy of the IPC, the Campaign for a Democratic Foreign Policy hoped to accomplish its goals by organizing and educating a broad-based movement and by exerting legislative pressure. The Campaign for a Democratic Foreign Policy was structured on three levels. A national office located in Washington, D.C., coordinated the local chapters and regional offices. National meetings composed of delegates from the chapters were held annually and these constituted the highest policy-making authority. The real working body, however, was the national steering committee, which was composed of delegates from each region and from the national office and which met three or four times per year.
The first target of organizing activity was the U.S. military presence in South Korea, but when this issue failed to arouse public support, CDFP turned to mobilizing local coalitions that shared its views. One aspect of this cooperation was Citizens Action '76, a series of hearings on foreign policy and domestic spending in which CDFP cooperated with the Council on National Priorities and Resources, the Coalition for a New Foreign and Military Policy (CNFMP), and other groups.
From its founding, CDFP suffered from financial difficulties and low membership. When it became clear that other political action groups such as CNFMP were experiencing greater success, CDFP voted to disband in August 1977 in order to avoid competition. This decision was made at the December 1976 national meeting at Mt. Pocono, Pennsylvania. At the same time it was decided to spend CDFP's last months in organizing at the grass-roots level. Thus after the CDFP ended as a national organization, three of its regional offices continued activity by merging with other local groups: the Boston office became the Massachusetts Coalition for New National Priorities, the Chicago chapter became the Campaign for the Transfer Amendment, and the Cleveland Chapter became the Northern Ohio Project on National Priorities.
