DAVID P. BERG LAND ATTORNEY AT LAW 1773 BAHAMA PLACE COSTA MESA, CALIFORNIA 92626 (714) 751-8960 September 20, 1983 For President Campaign Dear David: I an hritirv to request some clarification frow you about a qtcte attributes be you in human Events and to provide you with one inforration about the Libertarian Party and the obli?ations the carpaign of its Presidential candidate. Ky purpose is to ~ear up that I hope is only inconsequential confusion and to The relevant portion of the Human Events quote attributed to you is: "If they tend to be hard-core libertarian, that is, advocating abolition of the IRS and unilateral disarmament, then I will definitely not associate myself with them." For purposes of this discussion, I will assume you were quoted accurately. If you were not, please let me know. The LP Platform has for several years contained a plank advocatinv the termination of the federal income tax and the IRS. Conversely, the LP Platform has never contained a plank advoca? tinb unilateral disarmament and no such proposal has ever reached the Convention floor during platform debates. As the LP Presidential Candidate I am required by our Bylaws to adhere to the Platform and even in the absence of any such iylaw provisicnil would beluorally compelled \Hado not run "personality" presidential or vice-presidential candidates who may run off in political directions of their own ohoosinb; the LP demands that its candidates represent mainstream, middle- (1 1. of?the road LP views as expressed in the Platform and statement of Principles. Two conclusions follow from the above. First, abolition of the IRS should not be characterized as a "hard-core libertarian" position and the LP's Presidential candidate should be COhLendCd by LP activists for advocating it, not attacked. Second, unilateral disarmament is not an LP view at all, the LP Presidential candidate cannot therefore advocate it and to subgest that he would is misleading and unfair. As you know, Helen Events is a conservative journal which fears the effect of the LP and libertarian thought on the Anerican political scene and particularly on the future prospects of Ronald Rcauan. The subhead on the article even asked: "hill Party Hurt Rea?an?" Predictably, they did not intend to make the LP look good and probably never will. One lesson I have learned from this experience is that we should avoid giving them, or anyone else, ammunition gratuitously. I am looking forward to a long and rewarding campaign which will build our Party to much higher levels of membership, activism, conpetence and influence in the political debates of and beyond. With your continued support, ant that of thousands of others, we can achieve those realistic and Optimistic goals. Thanks for letting me share these thoughts with you. Lot is continue working toLether for common goals. Yours for liberty, m/ David Ber?land cc: Ed Clark KacH E?etut-ve Vice Presudent Chem-cal Technology Group INDUSTRIES INC Oct. 12, 1983 Mr. David P. Bergland 1773 Bahama Place Costa Mesa, CA 92626 Dear David: I received your letter of September 20 and after some thought I would like to respond to your comments as follows in this letter. The Human Events article you referred to quoted me accurately. Your conduct during the forthcoming Presidential campaign is of great concern to me and since I do not know you at all well I must assume you might be capable of saying anything, including statements which I would consider extremely radical. I look forward with great interest to learning the positions you will be taking on all the major issues to be discussed during the campaign, Personally, I believe thoroughly in the principles enunciated in the Libertarian Party platform. They are a statement of desirable objectives for our society to achieve. The analogy in the world of physics of the inability of scientists to refrigerate to temperatures approaching absolute zero but not actually to reach it is an apt one. Both a Libertarian society and absolute zero are goals worth striving for but are probably not reachable within our lifetimes. I feel that the Libertarian Party platform speaks to theoretical Libertarian principles and does not take a position of the most effective strategy of achieving these principles. Instead, it leaves the choice of the best strategy to follow up to each indivdual political campaigner. In my opinion the most effective strategy for the Libertarian Presidential campaign to pursue is to advocate a gradual rollback of government functions and controls in a responsible manner. The process should be a step by step removal of the most onerous and objectionable layers of government first and then on to the next most undesireable layer as a second phase objective, and so on, gradually approaching in this manner the objectives stated in the Libertarian platform. Advocating instantaneous implementation of the Libertarian platform I believe is totally unrealistic and if by some miracle it were accomplished overnight the country would be thrown into utter chaos. Non-government organizations will develop at a steady pace to replace government functions as they are eliminated one by one. However, since huge shifts of people, resources, and thinking are required, a fair amount of time must be allowed for this to happen. If you choose to run a campaign which advocates instantaneous installation of the Libertarian platform I predict the electorate will see you as irresponsible, a radical, and will not take you seriously to any extent. (Continued) Reply to: 161 East 42nd Street I New York. New York 10017 (24th Floor) I Telephone 212/682-5755 Telex: 424293 Kocheng - TWX: 710 581 4839 Koch NYK Mr. David Bergland Oct. 13, 1983 Page 2 The effect of the hard core Libertarian approach in my opinion will result in a tremendous reduction in financial support, a great fall-off in media coverage and publicity, and a major loss of support by many responsible people in this country who are beginning to be stimulated by our ideas. I predict that with this approach the vote total in November 1984 will be greatly reduced from those we received four years ago. The vote totals are after all the ultimate test of the success of a political party. This unhappy result will have a shattering negative consequence for the future of our party. I think that the most radical and extreme positions that are possible for the Libertarian Presidential candidate to advocate at this time and still be taken seriously are those approximately what were put forth by Ed Clark and myself during our campaign in 1980. If you go much further towards hard core Libertarian positions than that, then as I have said before, the consequences will be very negative. If you choose to take positions similar to those Clark and I advocated then I will support you and the party financially. However, if you choose to be more extreme, then I will have to disassociate myself in every way from your endeavor. I do not choose to be seen as ridiculous and impractically radical. Please consider carefully before deciding what course you will follow. As you know, I have spent millions of dollars over many years supporting the Libertarian movement. If you choose hard line strategy it will be a very severe and demoralizing blow to me. Sincerely yours, gammy/K David H. Koch cc: Mr. Ed Clark 3445 Monterey Road San Marino, CA 91108 Dawdf?.Koch Execs: ?e :e 9'25 cent mm INDUSTRIES INC March 6, 1984 Mr. Bill Evers, National Campaign Manager Bergland for President Campaign Committee 1525 Mesa Verde Drive East - Suite 105 West Costa Mesa, CA 92626 Dear Bill, I would be interested in getting an advance copy of the Bergland campaign literature, plus the video tape of his TV interview. I understand he also appeared on the national interview program called "Cross Fire." If you have a video tape of that appearance I would appreciate receiving it. My video system is VHS. Many thanks. Very truly yours, $159 614} David H. Koch Reply to: 161 East 42nd Street a New York. New York 10017 (24th Floor] I Telephone 212/882-5755 Telex: 424293 Kocheng - TWX: 710 581 4839 Koch NYK February 28, 1984 David H. Koch Koch Industries 161 E. 42nd Street New York, NY 10017 Dear David, writing to thank you again for your assistance to the Cassandra Moore canpaign--assistance which I have kept private within libertarian circles. As I recall, you do not wish to be known as a donor to local races. I thought that as a substantial donor to the Moore campaign, you would be interested in the enclosed retrospective on the cam- paign. I know that you are interested in how Bergland presents Liber- tarian issues to the public. If you are interested I would be happy to send you an advance copy of a proposed Bergland issues leaflet and a VHS or Beta-ax tape of a TV interview with Bergland on "Mid-Morning Los Angeles." I think Bergland does a creditable job of presenting the Libertarian position on this TV interview ro ram. Since this prograe was shown, Bergland has had two in ays of intensive speech coaching and is a noticeably sore effective speaker. If you are interested, please drop as a note as to whether you have access to a VHS or a Betssax system. Sincerely yours, Bill Evers National Campaign Manager March 27, 1984 Mr. David H. Koch 870 UN Plaza, Apt. 373 New York, NY 10017 Dear David, Enclosed is a photocopy of a Bergland leaflet that is forth- coming. Also in the works are three other hand-outs. One is the Bergland equivalent of the small green Clark cards and earlier LP blue cards and blue and orange MacBride cards. The second is a Spanish- languaggegiece enphasizing our stance on immigration. The third is a so all "entry-leve piece that will ask the recipient to fill out and return a 3-queetion survey. This is designed to gather names for later follow-up. I hgteealso enclosed a VCR tape of Bergland on "Crossfire," "Nightline," "Mid-norning and CNN's "Take The campaign is going very well. Thank yyoufor your continuing interest. Sincerely, Willie-son M. Evers Caepaign Manager