Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Businessmen's Educational Fund

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was no consensus. Barkeep49 (talk) 20:51, 7 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Businessmen's Educational Fund[edit]

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The coverage (references, external links, etc.) does not seem sufficient to justify this article passing Wikipedia:General notability guideline and the more detailed Wikipedia:Notability (organizations) requirement. WP:BEFORE did not reveal any significant English-language coverage on Gnews, Gbooks or Gscholar. And yes, I looked for sources that would describe him in relation to the Nixon issue, and I couldn't find much beyond a few passing mentions here and there, mostly in transcripts (so, WP:PRIMARY). The PROD was removed with no useful rationale despite my explicit request to add one or comment on talk :( _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 01:08, 13 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in the list of United States of America-related deletion discussions. _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 01:08, 13 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in the Article Rescue Squadron's list of content for rescue consideration. Andrew🐉(talk) 18:32, 14 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

~~Merge~~ with Business Executives Move for Vietnam Peace as it was part of that organisation. Applicable policies include WP:ATD-M and WP:PRESERVE. Andrew🐉(talk) 12:14, 13 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]
- No referenced content to merge, unfortunately. --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 04:07, 14 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  - The nomination says "I looked for sources that would describe him". But this is an organisation. The error arises because this is a cookie-cutter nomination – one of several. When I search for references myself, I have no difficulty finding them. Now that I understand the topic better, my !vote is changing. Andrew🐉(talk) 18:16, 14 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]
    - Huh, I guess I did mess up the pronoun. Anyway, thank you for adding references. Now there is content to merge. It does not seem enough to keep it (all we have is that they send a letter and annoyed the government based on few mentions in passing), but the content is worth preserving. I am fine with merge at this point (previously, there was nothing to merge, now there is). --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 01:45, 15 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Organizations-related deletion discussions. North America¹⁰⁰⁰ 12:47, 13 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Delete - obviously delete, can’t find any coverage. - GizzyCatBella🍁 02:12, 14 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Keep The topic is notable being covered in detail by reasonably respectable sources. WP:NEXIST applies. Andrew🐉(talk) 18:16, 14 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]
MERGE to Center for Defense Information. According to https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-mar-20-me-willens20-story.html Businessmen’s Educational Fund, which grew into the Washington-based Center for Defense Information for military research. Dream Focus 22:52, 14 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

It seems fairly clear that the CDI is a separate organisation from the BEF. They have common features, such as funding by Stewart Rawlings Mott, but that's not enough for a merger which would require synthesis to explain the separate founding, leadership, name, &c. See The Anti-Defense Lobby for an extensive account of the CDI and its "interlocking relationships" with other organisations like the BEF. And see List_of_anti-war_organizations#United_States for a long list of these and other anti-war organisations in the US. There maybe an article to be written about the overall history of the antiwar movement(s) in the US but that's best done top-down, rather than bottom-up, starting from a general history such as Studying America's Struggle against War: An Historical Perspective. Andrew🐉(talk) 23:39, 14 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I found two things that mention both of these organizations: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1660323/posts?page=15 CDI had emerged from a predecessor called the Businessmen’s Educational Fund, formed in the 1960s by Harold Willens. and https://www.heritage.org/node/22907/print-display Willens, in addition to his affiliation with CDI, has been listed as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Fund for Peace and as a principal leader in the anti-Vietnam war Business Executives Move for Vietnam Peace and in BEM's Businessmen's Educational Fund, all of which have been among significant beneficiaries of Mott's financial largesse. Are there any government websites that have records of when each organization was created and by who? Dream Focus 00:05, 15 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.
Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, DMySon 03:40, 21 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.
Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, Sandstein 08:08, 28 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.