Was “neoconservatism” a reaction to détente?

[Benjamin Frank]

Neoconservatism was originally known as 'neoliberalism' before that was appropriated for economic issues.

The reason for this was because many of these 'neoliberals' nee neoconservatives started off as liberals. Many were hired as staffers by Washington State U.S Senator Henry 'Scoop' Jackson who ran for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 1976.

He was regarded as the co-front runner along with Arizona Congressman Mo Udall after both Senators Ted Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey declined to run and before Jimmy Carter's campaign took off.

'Scoop' Jackson was an activist liberal who extended this view to foreign policy arguing for military intervention to expand democracy around the world.

So, that's why it was initially called 'neoliberalism' as opposed to the general liberal policy of not using the military in an offensive way.

It's kind of interesting he had so much support given the level of inflation that was blamed on the 'guns and butter' combination of both the Great Society and the Vietnam war, given that he was guns and butter on steroids.

Although I don't think she worked for him, the highest profile 'neoliberal' nee neoconservative at that time must have been Jeane Kirkpatrick, a one time Democrat, who was appointed by President Reagan as U.S Ambassador to the United Nations. She is most famous for having the phrase 'our dictators are better than your dictators' (referring to capitalist dictators vs communist dictators) attributed to her, although I don't think she ever actually said that specifically.