Kristol started his political journey as an anti-Soviet Trotskyite, and became the ‘godfather of neoconservativism’. He was a director of the CIA Cold War front, the American Committee for Cultural Freedom, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Barry Gewen, ‘Irving Kristol, Godfather of Modern Conservatism, Dies at 89’, The New York Times, September 18, 2009; https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/19/us/politics/19kristol.html?pagewanted=all.