Daniel Patrick Moynihan

New York scholar-senator, four decades in public life, from welfare policy to the UN.

Overview

Moynihan wrote the secret 1965 report on the Black family that ignited decades of welfare debate, served in the cabinets of Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford, as ambassador to India and to the United Nations, where he defended Israel and denounced the Zionism resolution. In the Senate from 1977 to 2001 he forced the rescue of Social Security on the 1983 Greenspan commission, pioneered the study of policy's unintended consequences, and pressed for transparency in government. The rebirth of Pennsylvania Station was his signature cause.