Daniel Patrick Moynihan biography and career timeline | American Masters | PBS (2024)

1927

Daniel Patrick Moynihan's early life

Born, March 16 in Tulsa, Okla., son of John Henry Moynihan and Margaret Phipps.

1927

1944-1947

Active Duty in the United States Navy, concluding with service as Gunnery Office of the U.S.S. Quirinius.

1944-1947

1946

B.N.S. (Bachelor of Naval Science), Tufts University, Medford, Mass

1946

1948

B.A., Tufts University.

1948

1949

M.A., Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University.

1949

1949-1950

Assistant in government, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University.

1949-1950

1950-1951

Student, London School of Economics and Political Science, London.

1950-1951

1951-1953

Moynihan's early career

Budget assistant, United States Air Force Base, Ruislip, England

1951-1953

1953

Volunteer in successful mayoral campaign of Robert F. Wagner Jr.

1953

1954

Director of Public Relations, International Rescue Committee.

1954

1955

Moynihan begins 3 years of service in Albany as assistant to Gov. W. Averell Harriman of New York, eventually rising to position of Acting Secretary to the Governor. Marries Elizabeth T. Brennan.

1955

1957-1958

Lecturer, Russell Sage College, Troy, NY.

1957-1958

1958-1960

Member, New York State Tenure Commission.

1958-1960

1958

Harriman defeated for re-election by Nelson Rockefeller. Moynihan becomes secretary, Public Affairs Committee of the New York State Democratic Party.

1958

1959

Publishes “Epidemic on the Highways,” his first major work of journalism, advocating the improvement of safety in automobiles, in The Reporter. The article and others led to Moynihan helping Ralph Nader in researching this cause, and later in the 1960’s to Moynihan defending Nader against attacks by General Motors.

1959

1959-1961

Director of government research project, Syracuse University, Syracuse, N.Y., for book (never published) on Harriman’s term as governor of New York.

1959-1961

1960

Member of Joint Center for Urban Studies of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.

1960

1960

Assistant professor of political science, Maxwell Graduate School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University.

1960

1960

Writes position papers for Kennedy campaign. Kennedy wins election, defeating Richard Nixon.

1960

1961

Ph.D. from Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, based on dissertation, “The United States and the International Labor Organization, 1889-1934,” on U.S. involvement in establishing the organization but not joining until 1934. In articles, Moynihan advocates federal school aid for Catholic schools and defends the record of party bosses and Tammany Hall.

1961

1962

“Report to the President by the Ad Hoc Committee on Federal Office Space,” June. Moynihan writes sections on “Guiding Principles of Federal Architecture” and “The Redevelopment of Pennsylvania Avenue.” Beginning of Moynihan campaign to revive the avenue with support from Jacqueline Kennedy, who said it was one of her husband’s dreams.

1962

1963

Published with Nathan Glazer, "Beyond the Melting Pot: The Negroes, Puerto Ricans, Jews, Italians, and Irish of New York City." In this classic work, Glazer and Moynihan challenge the concept of the United States as a hom*ogeneous society in which ethnic differences become less important over time.

1963

1964

Demolition of Penn Station in New York City, to make way for Madison Square Garden. Moynihan deplored its destruction and sought funds for converting the beaux arts Post Office building on 34th Street into a new Pennsylvania Station. Advocates want the new building to be known as Moynihan Station.

1964

1964

President Johnson wins Congressional support for Gulf of Tonkin Resolution supporting U.S. military action in Vietnam. Civil rights legislation banning discrimination in job, voting and accommodations is passed. Johnson launches the War on Poverty establishing the Office of Economic Opportunity and such other programs as VISTA, the Job Corps, Head Start, Legal Services for the poor and the Community Action Program, which called for “maximum feasible participation” of the poor in anti-poverty efforts. Moynihan later criticized community action programs as a failure. Johnson defeats Sen. Barry Goldwater in presidential election.

1964

1964

Moynihan serves as campaign adviser to Robert F. Kennedy in his successful campaign for Senate from New York.

1964

1964

Report of President’s Task Force on Manpower Conservation, entitled One-Third of a Nation: A Report on Young Men Found Unqualified for Military Service. The task force, on which Moynihan served, was established by Kennedy in 1963. It became a basis for the War on Poverty.

1964

1965-1974

Moynihan serves as vice chairman of the President’s Temporary Commission on Pennsylvania Avenue.

1965-1974

1965

President Johnson speech, initially drafted by Moynihan, at Howard University, June 4, calling for “equality of result,” not simply “equality of opportunity.” Johnson signs Voting Rights Act into law on Aug. 6. Five days later, race riots erupt in Watts section of Los Angeles, leaving 34 dead. The riots usher in three years of summertime riots in U.S. cities. In October, students burn draft cards in start of increasing protest over Vietnam War.

1965

1965

Labor Department report on “The Negro Family: The Case for National Action,” March. Known as Moynihan Report, the paper outlined what it said was “a new crisis in race relations” based on the expectation of Negroes that “equal opportunities for them as a group will produce roughly equal results, as compared to other groups.” Such a result will not happen, the report said, because of lingering racism, the legacy of mistreatment and evidence that the Negro family in cities is breaking apart, perpetuating a new cycle of poverty. The report called for policies “directed to a new kind of national goal: the establishment of a stable Negro family structure.”

1965

1965

Moynihan considers running for Mayor of New York after retirement of Mayor Wagner but ends up as unsuccessful candidate for City Council President, on ticket led by mayoral candidate Paul Screvane. Rep. John V. Lindsay, a Republican, is elected Mayor.

1965

1965-1966

Fellow, Center for Advanced Studies, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn.

1965-1966

1966

Editor, The Defenses of Freedom: The Public Papers of Arthur J. Goldberg. New York: Harper & Row

1966

1966

Publication of “Equality of Educational Opportunity,” by James S. Coleman, known as the Coleman Report, casting doubt on the ability of government funding to change the results of educational achievement of minority students. The report was frequently cited by Moynihan as a landmark in the sociology of the study of poor families, and he criticized liberals for acknowledging the limits of education reform.

1966

1966-1968

Chairman, Advisory Committee on Traffic Safety, Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

1966-1968

1966-1973

Director, Joint Center for Urban Studies of M.I.T. and Harvard. Professor of education and urban politics, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.

1966-1973

1968

Johnson, after narrowly winning New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary against Sen. Eugene McCarthy, announces bombing halt and withdrawal from re-election campaign, March 31. Moynihan supports Robert Kennedy in presidential race, campaigns for him in California.

1968

1969

Moynihan joins Nixon White House as urban affairs counselor and cabinet member. President proposes Moynihan-backed Family Assistance Plan, calling for with guaranteed income for the poor, including working poor. Nixon begins withdrawing troops from Vietnam from peak of 540,000 in program known as “Vietnamization,” or handing more responsibility over to Vietnam government for its own defense. Nixon Doctrine calls for all Asian allies to do more for defense. Vietnam war protests continue.

1969

1969

Moynihan publishes Maximum Feasible Misunderstanding: Community Action in the War on Poverty, criticizing the role of “community action” programs and demand for “maximum feasible participation” of the poor in poverty programs. New York: Free Press. “This is the essential fact,” he wrote. “The government did not know what it was doing. It had a theory. Or, rather, a set of theories. Nothing more.” Another important quote: “The role of social science lies not in the formation of social policy, but in the measurement of its results.” Moynihan also is editor of "On Understanding Poverty" (New York: Basic Books), a collection of essays.

1969

1970

Editor, "Toward a National Urban Policy," a collection of essays. New York: Basic Books.

1970

1970

The first “Earth Day” is celebrated.

1970

1971

Moynihan returns to Harvard, serves as member, United States delegation to the twenty-sixth General Assembly of the United Nations.

1971

1972

Consultant to President Nixon.

1972

1972

Member, President’s Science Advisory Committee.

1972

1971-1976

Vice chairman, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, D.C.

1971-1976

1972

Edits with Frederick Mosteller, "On Equality of Educational Opportunity," a book of essays examining the Coleman Report on educational attainment. New York: Random House.

1972

1973

Moynihan begins two-year term as ambassador to India. After a year, he resolves longstanding dispute with India over U.S. holdings of $3 billion worth of Indian currency.

1973

1973

Publishes "The Politics of a Guaranteed Income: The Nixon Administration and the Family Assistance Plan," explaining the failure of the Nixon administration proposal to provide a guaranteed income for the poor based on the concept of a “negative income tax.” It was opposed by conservatives as too expensive and generous and by liberals as too meager and also too costly for big states with large welfare populations. New York: Vintage Books. Also publishes "Coping: Essays on the Practice of Government, essays on welfare, politics, race, urban affairs, traffic safety and other subjects." New York: Random House.

1973

1973-1977

Professor, John Fitzgerald Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.

1973-1977

1974

Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation chartered.

1974

1975-1976

Permanent representative of the United States to the United Nations.

1975-1976

1975

Edits with Nathan Glazer, "Ethnicity: Theory and Experience," a collection of essays. Cambridge: Harvard UniversityPress.

1975

1975

Writes “The United States in Opposition,” for Commentary, arguing for challenges to developing world’s anti-American, pro-Marxist and pro-authoritarian ideologies.

1975

1976

Moynihan resigns in January as UN envoy. Senator Henry M. Jackson wins New York Democratic presidential primary. Moynihan serves as member of Jackson slate elected to New York state delegation to the Democratic National Convention, declares candidacy for United States Senate from New York in June, narrowly defeats Rep. Bella Abzug for Democratic senate nomination, then defeats Senator James L. Buckley to win Senate seat.

1976

1977

As a new Senator, Moynihan issues first report on “The Federal Budget and New York State,” the so-called studies of the Federal fisc, or “balance of payments” between New York and the federal government, in which he argues that the wealthier taxpayers of his state subsidized social programs and public works benefitting the rest of the country.

1977

1977

Moynihan denounces terrorism of Northern Ireland Catholic extremists, along with Senator Edward M. Kennedy, House Speaker Thomas P. (Tip) O’Neill and Gov. Hugh L. Carey of New York, the so-called “Four Horsem*n.” Their statement incurred the wrath of supporters of the Irish Republican Army (I.R.A.), including those that marched in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York.

1977

1978

Publishes with Suzanne Weaver, "A Dangerous Place," a memoir of his UN experience and the battle against the UN resolution equating Zionism with racism, Boston, Little Brown.

1978

1978

Moynihan joins Senate in approving return of Panama Canal to Panama. Carter negotiates Camp David Peace Agreement between Israel and Egypt.

1978

1979

Writes in Newsweek that the Soviet Union would “break up” under ethnic and economic pressures.

1979

1979

Salt (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) II treaty with Soviet Union signed by President Jimmy Carter, criticized by Moynihan as flawed. It was not ratified.

1979

1979

Accident at Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania revives fears about safety of nuclear power.

1979

1979

Sponsors legislation to save the United States Custom House in Lower Manhattan from demolition and renovate it for later use by the United States Bankruptcy Court and the National Museum of the American Indian.

1979

1979

Passage of legislation supported by Moynihan on dealing with acid rain.

1979

1979

Hostages seized at U.S. embassy in Tehran by radical Iranians. Later in the year, Russian troops invade Afghanistan just before Christmas, damaging U.S.-Soviet relations, dooming nuclear arms negotiations and, along with hostage crisis, jeopardizing Carter’s re-election chances.

1979

1980

Publishes "Counting Our Blessings: Reflections" on the Future of America, essays on foreign policy, the judicial system, domestic issues, arms control and aid to parochial schools. Boston: Little, Brown

1980

1980

Won passage of legislation to clean up nuclear wastes at West Valley, N.Y., and hazardous waste at Love Canal.

1980

1981

Reagan proposal for sweeping tax cuts approved by Congress, with Moynihan joining majority. In his book Miles to Go, Moynihan later said: “We were ruinously wrong.” For the rest of his time in the Senate Moynihan said the tax cuts were designed to force spending down, and that this never happened. Moynihan opposes proposals to cut Social Security benefits, warns that defense buildup is unnecessary.

1981

1982

Moynihan easily wins re-election with 65% of vote.

1982

1983

Reagan proposes Strategic Missile Defense Initiative, known as “Star Wars.” Reagan agrees to compromise rescuing Social Security system from insolvency, including taxing of benefits for high income recipients, with Moynihan supporting. Terrorist attack in Beirut kills 241 U.S. troops. Reagan orders invasion of Grenada to rescue Americans and prevent Communist takeover. Moynihan opposes it as a violation of international law.

1983

1983

Sponsored first of many resolutions calling for U.S. to recognize Jerusalem as capital of Israel.

1983

1984

Publishes "Loyalties," Advocating arms control, human rights and international law. New York: Harcourt Brace JovanovichResigns as vice chair of Senate Intelligence Committee charging that CIA had kept the committee in the dark about activities in Nicaragua, including mining of harbors.

1984

1986

Publishes "Family and Nation, based on the Godkin," Lecture at Harvard in 1985, arguing for national policies to support families. Quotes: “Social policy must flow from social values; social science never creates such values.” “The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself.” New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich

1986

1986

Water Resources Development Act of 1986, and subsequent acts supported by Moynihan, provided federal aid to renovate the Erie Canal in upstate New York.

1986

1986

Bipartisan enactment of Tax Reform Act, which eliminated many tax breaks but not the deduction for state and local taxes, which Moynihan opposed. Challenger Space Shuttle blows up, killing 7 passengers, including teacher Christa McAuliffe. First reports occur of Iran-Contra scandal, in which the U.S. sold arms to Iran and used the proceeds to fund Contra insurgency in Nicaragua, beginning major crisis for Reagan presidency and test for Moynihan on intelligence committee.

1986

1987

Congress passes Federal Triangle Development Act to replace squalid section of Pennsylvania Avenue with a new International Trade Center, fulfilling the wishes of President Kennedy to renovate the area. The building would also house the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars on Pennsylvania Ave. It was named the Ronald Reagan Building in 1995. The space in front is named Daniel P. Moynihan Place to honor Moynihan’s 25 years of efforts to revitalize the avenue.

1987

1988

Publishes "Came the Revolution: Argument in the Reagan Era," a collection of speeches and essays. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

1988

1988

Passage of Family Support Act, strengthening child-support enforcement, and adding education, job training, work incentives, payments to two-parent families and medical and child-care benefits to families that leave welfare for work.

1988

1988

Wins re-election with 67 percent of vote. Vice President George H.W. Bush wins election as President, defeating Gov. Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts.

1988

Enacts legislation requiring Social Security Administration to send workers an annual statement of their earnings and projected benefits. Opposes use of Social Security surpluses to fund increasing budget deficits, and tries to make the system financed on “pay-as-you-go” basis. The legislation was defeated.

1989

Enacts legislation requiring Social Security Administration to send workers an annual statement of their earnings and projected benefits. Opposes use of Social Security surpluses to fund increasing budget deficits, and tries to make the system financed on “pay-as-you-go” basis. The legislation was defeated.

1989

1989

Berlin Wall is dismantled by joyous Berliners, 38 years after it was first erected in one of the early crises of the Cold War during Kennedy presidency. The event paves the way for the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union’s empire.

1989

1990

Published "On the Law of Nations," a history of international law and U.S. international policies. Cambridge, Harvard University Press

1990

1990

Communist Party gives up monopoly of power in the Soviet Union, followed by negotiations to reunify Germany as experts, including Moynihan, declare that the Cold War is over. In August, Iraq invades neighboring Kuwait, beginning U.S. effort to secure U.N. Security Council approval for use of force to repel invaders. Moynihan urges that international law be invoked and economic steps carried out under U.N. auspices.

1990

1991

Congress authorizes use of force to liberate Kuwait, Moynihan voting against. Gulf War ends quickly with Iraq accepting disarmament and U.N. Security Council calling for destruction of chemical and biological weapons in Iraq. Civil war erupts in Yugoslavia and U.N. Security Council authorizes dispatch of peacekeeping forces there.

1991

1991

Passage of Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA), with requirement that state transportation plans include all forms of transportation, including mass transit. The act increased the amount of federal funds for New York for highway and transit funds, including $5 billion for the New York State Thruway.

1991

1991

Moynihan supports appointment of Sonia Sotomayor to Federal district judgeship.

1991

1992

Completion of Thurgood Marshall Judiciary Building, which Moynihan supported and had named after the late Supreme Court justice.

1992

1992

Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas defeats President Bush in presidential election. Moynihan travels to the former Yugoslavia and sent President-elect Clinton a memo on ethnic problems in the Balkans.

1992

1993

Publishes "Pandemonium: Ethnicity in International Politics," a history of ethnicity as crucial force in international politics as it had been observed in U.S. domestic politics, in particular trumping the ideology of Communism. New York: Oxford University Press.

1993

1993

Publishes article, “Defining Deviancy Down,” in “The American Scholar,” (Winter 1993) arguing that the theory of deviancy propounded by Kai T. Erikson “clearly implies that there are circ*mstances in which society will choose not to notice the behavior that would otherwise be controlled, or disapproved, or even punished.” The effort to redefine deviancy, he says, has met with understandable resistance from defenders of “old” standards.

1993

1993

Succeeds Senator Lloyd Bentsen as chairman of Senate Finance Committee. Clinton aide quoted anonymously as saying the White House will “roll right over him if we have to.” Clinton apologizes to Moynihan.

1993

1993

Helps pass Omnibus Reconciliation Act, the Clinton budget and tax package, helping to get Senator Bob Kerrey’s support. It passes by one vote in Senate.

1993

1993

Recommends Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Clinton for Supreme Court. Votes against North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), which is approved by Congress over many Democratic objections.

1993

1993

Helps enact Social Security Domestic Employment Act, or “Nanny Tax,” making it easier for households to pay Social Security taxes on household workers.

1993

1993

World Trade Center is bombed by Islamic extremists, six people killed. President Clinton orders cruise missile attack on Iraq intelligence headquarters in response to report of assassination attempt on former President Bush.

1993

1993-1994

Clinton health care reform proposed and defeated. Although Moynihan holds hearings and gets bill passed by Finance Committee, he later criticizes it as “coercive” social legislation and a threat to New York teaching hospitals, criticisms that contributed to the measure’s demise.

1993-1994

1994

Ban on “Cop-Killer” bullets and assault weapon ban enacted in Crime Bill, supported by Moynihan. Defeat of health care and approval of tax increases contribute to Republicans retaking the House and Senate for the first time in 40 years.

1994

1994

Moynihan defeats the Rev. Al Sharpton in Democratic Senate primary and wins re-election with 55 percent of vote, narrower than previous margins in a Republican year.

1994

1995

Persuades President Clinton to return Governors Island to New York for $1.

1995

1995

Clinton and Republican Congressional leadership clash leads to shutdown of government operations, drawing widespread condemnation of GOP tactics and helping to return Clinton to popularity. The President uses emergency power to extend loan to Mexico. Bomb attack at Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City kills 168 people.

1995

1996

Published "Miles to Go: A Personal History of Social Policy," analyzing six decades of policies on welfare, family, deviance and addiction. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

1996

1996

Enactment of Welfare Reform Act of 1996, ending welfare’s status as entitlement, over vehement Moynihan opposition, including his charge that millions of children will be thrown off the rolls and that the “premise of this legislation is that the behavior of adults can be changed by making the lives of their children as wretched as possible.”

1996

1996

Clinton wins re-election, defeating Senator Bob Dole of Kansas. Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, says stock price increases result from “irrational exuberance.”

1996

1997

Report (March) of the Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy, which was established by law sponsored by Moynihan and which he served as chairman. The report argued that “secrecy is a form of government regulation” and had come to undermine trust in government and “degraded public service.”

1997

1997

Clinton supports expansion of NATO to include countries in Eastern Europe.

1997

1998

Published Secrecy: The American Experience, based on the 1997 report of the Commission he chaired. New Haven: Yale University Press. It is Moynihan’s last book.

1998

1998

Disclosure of Clinton relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky ushers in tumultuous period of investigations and impeachment proceedings.

1998

1998

Announces his intention to retire at the end of his fourth six-year term, in 2000.

1998

2000

Awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Clinton, and cites his work in establishing the medal in Kennedy administration.

2000

2000

Hillary Clinton wins Senate seat vacated by Moynihan.

2000

2001

Report of President’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security, of which Moynihan served as co-chair with Richard Parsons, Strengthening Social Security and Creating Personal Wealth for All Americans. It calls for creation of “personal retirement accounts” without addressing whether they should replace Social Security in part, or supplement it, as Moynihan had advocated in 1998.

2001

2001-2003

Delivers keynote Harvard commencement address in June 2002, warning of terrorist threats after Sept. 11 attacks but also calling for protections that respect the Constitution.

2001-2003

2001-2003

Senior policy scholar, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, DC.

2001-2003

2001-2003

Professor, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, Syracuse, N.Y.

2001-2003

2003

Moynihan passes away March 26, Washington D.C. Iraq War begins March 19.

2003