Finally, it said, “the forces of international communism are, at present, the greatest single threat” to liberty. “The United States,” it added, “should stress victory over, rather than coexistence with, this menace.”

More than a manifesto for young conservatives, however, the document proved to be a seminal document in bringing different kinds of conservatives together.

Mr. Evans worked to unify conservatives for many years, especially as head of the American Conservative Union from 1971 to 1977. Under Mr. Evans, the conservative union, which sought to function as an umbrella organization for the right, took a hard line in dealing with the White House, even when a Republican occupied it.

The union and other conservatives were disillusioned by President Richard M. Nixon’s wage and price controls and his opening to China. They were equally disheartened when Nixon’s successor, Gerald R. Ford, picked Nelson A. Rockefeller, the former governor of New York and a longtime enemy of conservatives, to be vice president. And when the Ford administration began negotiations to turn over the Panama Canal to Panama, they revolted and lined up behind Ronald Reagan in his race for the 1976 Republican nomination.

Under Mr. Evans, the conservative union joined the landmark case testing the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1974. With other plaintiffs, including the generally liberal American Civil Liberties Union, the conservative union argued that limits on campaign contributions and spending violated the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech.

Ruling in 1976 in Buckley v. Valeo, the Supreme Court upheld contribution limits but not curbs on spending. For Mr. Evans and his colleagues, the decision pointed the way for groups to help finance campaigns through what became known as independent expenditures, amounting to millions of dollars in subsequent elections. They began with the hotly contested 1976 Republican primary race in North Carolina.

The conservative union spent about $250,000 on independent ads, on both radio and in newspapers, in the state attacking Mr. Ford over the canal. In one radio ad, Mr. Evans told primary voters: “Ronald Reagan would not cave in to Castro and says American sovereignty in Panama must be maintained. The choice for North Carolina Republicans is clear.”