An oral history interview with Richard Kaufman

              WISCONSIN
HISTORICAL
SOCIETY
An Oral History Interview with
RICHARD KAUFMAN
Interviewer: .Anita Hecht, Life History Services
Recording Date: July 7 2009
Place: Bethesda, Maryland. Length: 2.5 hours
Richard F. Kaufman was raised in New York City, attended Ohio University briefly in 1952, and
then transferred to the University of Texas, Austin. He earned a B.A.in philosophy and economics
and his law degree there in the 1950s.
During law school, Kaufman worked as a legislative assistant for State Sen. Henry B. Gonzalez.
When Rep. Gonzalez was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1961, Kaufman joined his Washington
staff as a legislative aide. In 1967, Kaufman joined the staff of the Joint Economic Committee
(JEC), whose purpose was to advise members of Congress on economic issues.
One of Kaufman's first assignments was to work on the Subcommittee on Economy in
Government, chaired by Sen. William Proxmire. Kaufman worked closely with Sen. Proxmire
over the next two decades. His work at the JEC covered defense contracting, the state of the US
economy, and allocation of resources in the Soviet Union and China.
Kaufman worked with Proxmire until the Senator's retirement. After leaving Capitol Hill in 1993,
he spent a year as a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars. He wrote
books on the military industrial complex in the U.S. and on the economics of the former Soviet
Union and east European nations. He is presently Vice Chair and member of the Board of
Directors of Economists for Peace and Security (EPS).