Conversations with Bill Kristol Guest: Charles Murray, Scholar, American Enterprise Institute

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Conversations with Bill Kristol Guest: Charles Murray, Scholar, American Enterprise Institute Conversations with Bill Kristol Guest: Charles Murray, scholar, American Enterprise Institute Table of Contents I: 0:00 – 5:55 II: I: (0:15 –) KRISTOL: Hi, I’m Bill Kristol. Welcome back to CONVERSATIONS. I’m very pleased to be joined today again by Charles Murray, scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, author of many important books: Losing Ground – when was that? 1984? – The Bell Curve in the mid-90s, and Coming Apart, about four years ago. I would say, I’m not sure there’s a social commentator who’s written as many important books over the last few decades as Charles so it is a great pleasure and honor to have you here. And you’re going to explain the current moment, right? MURRAY: With that kind of introduction I suppose I’m obligated to. KRISTOL: Exactly right. So what – this is the very beginning of August of 2016. People are – someone wrote something in the New York Times yesterday giving you credit for presciently seeing that Trump or Trumpism, I guess, was going to happen. Did you see it, and what do you make of it? MURRAY: I knew that we were going to have a problem with the white working class, and actually, I guess I’ll blow my own horn and say in 1993 for The Wall Street Journal, I had a long article called “The Coming White Underclass.” If you go back and read that – but this is not rocket science, it simply was the trend lines for out-of-wedlock births among working-class whites at that point had been spiking upward. They were at about the level they had been when Pat Moynihan sounded the tocsin on black out-of- wedlock births in the early 1960s. It did not take much foresight to see the same kinds of social problems were going to happen to whites. But where we stand now in 2016 is way worse than it was then. How did we get there? KRISTOL: Explain maybe very briefly, what is way worse? What indicators would you cite, if I said, “I don’t know, the country seems to be in decent shape”? MURRAY: For most of you who don’t hang out in working class communities, or who grew up in one but haven’t been back to visit recently, you will probably be shocked. The reason you’ll be shocked is that a town that you knew 30 years ago, 40 years ago, as a town of intact families and no more serious drug problem than some beer and marijuana will now find meth use is a huge problem and increasingly heroin use. You will find on the order of 18 percent of the single white males in that community of working age who are not even looking for work. That’s a lot of people. You will see single-parent families all over. You will see children who are not performing well in school, who are delinquent. 350 WEST 42ND STREET, SUITE 37C, NEW YORK, NY 10036 Basically, Bill, you can take all of the things that social scientists were shaking their heads over about the black inner city in 1970s and 80s, and all of those things are happening in white working-class America now. It’s really, truly, not only unprecedented, but it’s of a different nature than the problem of the black inner cities for a very brutal reason. Blacks constitute around 12 percent of the American population; non-Latino whites, depending on how you define it exactly, but we’re still looking at high 60 percent, around 70, a little bit lower than that. That’s a group that’s about four times as large as the black population. When you get social problems of the magnitude that they now experience, you’ve got a crisis that dwarfs those of earlier decades. KRISTOL: And it really is unlike the problems Italian immigrants had 100 years ago, and the Irish, you read about – there were riots and they had drinking problems and so forth? MURRAY: The reason it’s different is that with those Irish, and those Italians, you still had communities that functioned in terms of marriage, in terms of the norms for men working, in terms of taking care of your kids. Not that they didn’t have problems. Italian communities, Irish communities, and for that matter, Scotch- Irish communities, to get to my forbearers, often drank too much, and men hit their wives too much. There were problems. But the communities were functional in basic ways. KRISTOL: How do we get to that situation? MURRAY: It’s really with the advantage of hindsight, of course. Pretty simple. White working-class community – in the book Coming Apart, I use Fishtown, which was a working-class community in Philadelphia, now gentrified. KRISTOL: Yes, I was thinking – I saw Philadelphia in the Democratic Convention. Yeah, it is actually different. MURRAY: The Fishtown was a classic, old, been-there since the revolution, white working-class community. If you were in a Fishtown or one of the many counterparts throughout the United States, and you were a guy, you probably had a pretty good manufacturing or other kind of blue-collar job. It didn’t make you rich. The UAW kind of union jobs really were a pretty small portion of the labor force, but you had a good job. You put a roof over your family and put food on the table; you had a wife, you had a couple of kids. All of this did a couple of things. One is it provided the family as the unit of organization of the community, which is real important for reasons we can come back to. But also, it gave you a real status in that community. You were one of the good guys. A guy your age who wasn’t supporting his wife, wasn’t taking care of his kids was a bum. He didn’t have status you did. Then, you get the 1960s. You get the Pill in the early 1960s, Sexual Revolution. You get the sudden preoccupation of the Democratic Party with blacks in the middle of the 1960s, which continues. In the late 60s, it adds women. In the 70s, late 70s, it’s already beginning to add gays as the objects of the elite liberal affection and concern. White working-class guys not only are saying, “What about us?” They’re actively the objects of scorn of the liberal elites. They are sexist, they are racists, and later they’re homophobic. They’re violent. They’re guilty of abusing their wives and children, and in all sorts of ways, nobody stops to say, “Most of you guys are still the salt of the earth, you make America go.” There was none of that rhetoric. There were lots of things that were dislocating; plus, you got women going into the labor force. All at once, the economic dependence that women had on men has gone away. What happens if I leave? Maybe not so much because not only is the wife making money, maybe she’s making more than you are. 2 Then, along comes Reagan, and they like Reagan’s rhetoric, they like his patriotism. Oh by the way, a lot of these white working-class guys had also been veterans of Vietnam. And when they came home, they couldn’t wear their uniforms because they wore their uniforms on leave they were spat on, so that goes into it. Reagan appeals to them. They start voting for the Republicans, that coalition holds together for a while. Things don’t get any better. They aren’t making more money. Their wages are pretty stagnant, and their communities are starting to break down. That’s when you start to have the guys who are still holding down jobs, but you have the other guys who maybe had an accident at work parlay that into disability, now don’t work at all even though they could. You have guys working enough to qualify for unemployment benefits who then takes the next three of four months off. You watch around you; people of color or women who get big settlements from employers because if they’re fired, they charge that they’ve been harassed or racistly fired. So they are, really, if you’ll pardon the technical term, pissed off by 2016, and who can blame them? You had in this though two very different components, and I’ll wrap up this here. You still have – you still have working-class guys who are playing by the rules. Who are getting married, taking care of their kids, working hard. We live in a part of the country where we know people. We actually hang out with a lot of people of the kind I’m talking about, and there are a whole lot of people who are doing the right things. There are also a whole lot of people who fit the other description I gave. The problem is they’re in the same communities. So it’s not as if the guys who are playing by the rules still live in functional communities, it’s only the bad guys who don’t. The whole thing is festering. KRISTOL: Was it inevitable? I think the good-faith efforts – presumably, let’s leave the liberals aside – by Clinton on the Democratic side and Reagan and Bush on the Republican side, all of whom thought they were speaking to these people and probably honestly thought they had policies that would help them.
Recommended publications
  • Charlie Sykes
    CHARLIE SYKES EDITOR-AT-LARGE, THE BULWARK Quick Summary Life in Brief Former conservative radio host and Wisconsin Hometown: Seattle, WA Republican kingmaker who gained national prominence as a leading voice in the Never Trump Current Residence: Mequon, WI movement and created the Bulwark website as a messaging arm for like-minded conservatives Education: • BA, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, • Love for journalism and politics heavily influenced 1975 by his father • Self-described “recovering liberal” who criticizes Family: both political parties for inflexibility and for • Married to Janet Riordan alienating those who reject status quo • Three children, two grandchildren • As conservative radio host, cultivated significant influence in Wisconsin GOP politics – quickly Work History: becoming a go-to stop for Republican candidates; • Editor-at-Large, The Bulwark, 2019- drew significant attention to issues like school Present choice • Host, The Daily Standard, 2018 • Became national figure after refusing to support • Contributing editor, The Weekly Donald Trump Standard • Co-founded the Bulwark with Bill Kristol, which • Contributor, NBC/MSNBC, 2016-present has become a leading mouthpiece of the Never • Host, Indivisible WNYC, 2017 Trump conservative movement • Editor-in-Chief, Right Wisconsin • Considers himself a “political orphan” in the era of • Radio show host, WTMJ, 1999-2016 Trump after exile from conservative movement • Radio host, WISN, 1989-93 whose political identity has changed many times • PR for Dave Schulz, Milwaukee
    [Show full text]
  • August Sunday Talk Shows Data
    August Sunday Talk Shows Data August 1, 2010 21 men and 6 women NBC's Meet the Press with David Gregory: 5 men and 1 woman Admiral Michael Mullen (M) Mayor Michael Bloomberg (M) Alan Greenspan (M) Gov. Ed Rendell (M) Doris Kearns Goodwin (F) Mark Halperin (M) CBS's Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer: 4 men and 0 women Admiral Michael Mullen (M) Sen. Jon Kyl (M) Richard Haass (M) Thomas Saenz (M) ABC's This Week with Jake Tapper: 4 men and 2 women Sen. Nancy Pelosi (F) Robert Gates (M) George Will (M) Paul Krugman (M) Donna Brazile (F) Ahmed Rashid (M) CNN's State of the Union with Candy Crowley: 4 men and 0 women Sen. Carl Levin (M) Sen. Lindsey Graham (M) Dan Balz (M) Peter Baker (M) Fox News' Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace: 4 men and 3 women Sarah Palin (F) Sen. Mitch McConnell (M) Rep. John Boehner (M) Bill Kristol (M) Ceci Connolly (F) Liz Cheney (F) Juan Williams (M) August 8, 2010 20 men and 7 women NBC's Meet the Press with David Gregory: 4 men and 2 women Carol Browner (F) Rep. John Boehner (M) Rep. Mike Pence (M) former Rep. Harold Ford (M) Andrea Mitchell (F) Todd S. Purdum (M) CBS's Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer: 4 men and 1 woman Admiral Thad Allen (M) David Boies (M) Tony Perkins (M) Dan Balz (M) Jan Crawford (F) ABC's This Week with Jake Tapper: 5 men and 1 woman General Ray Odierno (M) Gen.
    [Show full text]
  • SLS 183ES-72 ORIGINAL 2018 Third Extraordinary Session SENATE
    SLS 183ES-72 ORIGINAL 2018 Third Extraordinary Session SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 7 BY SENATOR CLAITOR CONDOLENCES. Expresses condolences upon the death of Charles Krauthammer. 1 A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 2 To express the sincere condolences of the Louisiana Legislature upon the death of Charles 3 Krauthammer. 4 WHEREAS, it is with deep regret and profound sorrow that the citizens of Louisiana 5 learned of the death of Charles Krauthammer on June 21, 2018, at the age of sixty-eight; and 6 WHEREAS, Charles Krauthammer was born on March 13, 1950, in New York City 7 to Shulim and Thea Krauthammer; and 8 WHEREAS, his father was from Bolekhiv, Ukraine, and his mother was from 9 Belgium; and 10 WHEREAS, when he was five years old, his mother, father, and older brother, 11 Marcel, moved to Montreal; and 12 WHEREAS, during the school year they resided in Montreal but spent the summers 13 in Long Beach, New York; and 14 WHEREAS, Mr. Krauthammer and his brother were educated at a Hebrew school, 15 and he attended McGill University in Montreal, graduating in 1970 with First Class Honors 16 in both economics and political science; and 17 WHEREAS, at the time, McGill University was a hotbed of radical sentiment, 18 something he says influenced his dislike of political extremism; and Page 1 of 4 SLS 183ES-72 ORIGINAL SCR NO. 7 1 WHEREAS, after graduating from McGill University, he studied as a 2 Commonwealth Scholar in politics at Balliol College, Oxford, before returning to the United 3 States to attend medical school at Harvard University; and 4 WHEREAS, Mr.
    [Show full text]
  • 2018 Third Extraordinary Session ENROLLED SENATE
    2018 Third Extraordinary Session ENROLLED SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 7 BY SENATORS CLAITOR, ALARIO, ALLAIN, APPEL, BOUDREAUX, CARTER, CHABERT, DONAHUE, ERDEY, FANNIN, HEWITT, JOHNS, LAMBERT, LONG, LUNEAU, MILKOVICH, MILLS, MIZELL, PEACOCK, RISER, GARY SMITH, JOHN SMITH, TARVER, THOMPSON, WALSWORTH, WARD AND WHITE A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION To express the sincere condolences of the Louisiana Legislature upon the death of Charles Krauthammer. WHEREAS, it is with deep regret and profound sorrow that the citizens of Louisiana learned of the death of Charles Krauthammer on June 21, 2018, at the age of sixty-eight; and WHEREAS, Charles Krauthammer was born on March 13, 1950, in New York City to Shulim and Thea Krauthammer; and WHEREAS, his father was from Bolekhiv, Ukraine, and his mother was from Belgium; and WHEREAS, when he was five years old, his mother, father, and older brother, Marcel, moved to Montreal; and WHEREAS, during the school year they resided in Montreal but spent the summers in Long Beach, New York; and WHEREAS, Mr. Krauthammer and his brother were educated at a Hebrew school, and he attended McGill University in Montreal, graduating in 1970 with First Class Honors in both economics and political science; and WHEREAS, at the time, McGill University was a hotbed of radical sentiment, something he said influenced his dislike of political extremism; and WHEREAS, after graduating from McGill University, he studied as a Commonwealth Scholar in politics at Balliol College, Oxford, before returning to the United States to attend medical school at Harvard University; and WHEREAS, Mr. Krauthammer sustained injuries in a diving board accident during his first year of medical school that left him paralyzed below the neck and required him to be hospitalized for fourteen months; and Page 1 of 3 SCR NO.
    [Show full text]
  • Conversations with Bill Kristol
    Conversations with Bill Kristol Guest: Ronald Brownstein, Senior Editor, The Atlantic Senior Political Analyst, CNN Taped June 27, 2018 Table of Contents I: Red America and Blue America 0:15 – 47:07 II: 2018 and 2020 47:07– 1:24:19 I: Red America and Blue America (0:15 – 47:07) KRISTOL: Hi, I’m Bill Kristol. Welcome to CONVERSATIONS. I’m joined today by Ron Brownstein, senior editor at The Atlantic, senior political analyst at CNN. In my opinion, one of the best analysts of American politics. BROWNSTEIN: Thank you, Bill, good to be here. KRISTOL: A rare combination of detailed, granular understanding of electoral matters and the big historical sweep. So, I’ve now put a big burden on you here… BROWNSTEIN: Thank you, thank you. Well, we are living in a big – we are in a big sweep right now, right. KRISTOL: …to live up to this introduction. BROWNSTEIN: Yes. KRISTOL: So, I think we talked a year ago. Now we’re – what? – more than a year and a half out from the election. BROWNSTEIN: Yeah. KRISTOL: Only four or five months till November 2018. What’s changed over the last year? We analyzed 2016 a little bit last time. So, where are we now, here in June-July of 2018? 2017 – what are we in? 2018. BROWNSTEIN: 2018. I feel like every crevice, every fissure that we talked about in 2017 and that we saw in 2016 may be even deeper in 2018. To me, the Trump presidency has said more about the country than about him.
    [Show full text]
  • “Benevolent Global Hegemony”: William Kristol and the Politics of American Empire
    Gary Dorrien “Benevolent Global Hegemony”: William Kristol and the Politics of American Empire by Gary Dorrien ear the end of the Cold War a group of neo-conservative intellectuals and Npolicy makers began to argue that instead of cutting back on America’s vast military system, the United States needed to use its unmatched power to create a global Pax Americana. Some of them called it the unipolarist imperative. The goal of American foreign policy, they argued, should be to maintain and extend America’s unrivaled global dominance. The early advocates of unipolar dominance were familiar figures: Norman Podhoretz, Midge Decter, Charles Krauthammer, Paul Wolfowitz, Joshua Muravchik, and Ben Wattenberg. Their ranks did not include the godfather of neo-conservatism, Irving Kristol, who had no interest in global police work or crusading for world democracy. Though he later clarified that he was all for enhancing America’s economic and military preeminence, Irving Kristol thought that America’s overseas commitments should be determined by a classically realist calculus. His son William Kristol had a greater ambition for America, which he called “benevolent global hegemony.” In 1992, the New York Times revealed that Wolfowitz, then an undersecretary for defense, was drafting a new policy plan for the Pentagon that sought to prevent any nation or group of nations from challenging America’s global supremacy. President George Bush disavowed the controversial plan, and for the rest of the 1990s establishment Republicans did not speak of grand new strategies. But the neo-cons continued to argue for “American Greatness,” founded new institutions, and made alliances with hard-line conservatives such as Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld.
    [Show full text]
  • The Weekly Standard…Don’T Settle for Less
    “THE ORACLE OF AMERICAN POLITICS” — Wolf Blitzer, CNN …don’t settle for less. POSITIONING STATEMENT The Weekly Standard…don’t settle for less. Through original reporting and prose known for its boldness and wit, The Weekly Standard and weeklystandard.com serve an audience of more than 3.2 million readers each month. First-rate writers compose timely articles and features on politics and elections, defense and foreign policy, domestic policy and the courts, books, art and culture. Readers whose primary common interests are the political developments of the day value the critical thinking, rigorous thought, challenging ideas and compelling solutions presented in The Weekly Standard print and online. …don’t settle for less. EDITORIAL: CONTENT PROFILE The Weekly Standard: an informed perspective on news and issues. 18% Defense and 24% Foreign Policy Books and Arts 30% Politics and 28% Elections Domestic Policy and the Courts The value to The Weekly Standard reader is the sum of the parts, the interesting mix of content, the variety of topics, type of writers and topics covered. There is such a breadth of content from topical pieces to cultural commentary. Bill Kristol, Editor …don’t settle for less. EDITORIAL: WRITERS Who writes matters: outstanding political writers with a compelling point of view. William Kristol, Editor Supreme Court and the White House for the Star before moving to the Baltimore Sun, where he was the national In 1995, together with Fred Barnes and political correspondent. From 1985 to 1995, he was John Podhoretz, William Kristol founded a senior editor and White House correspondent for The new magazine of politics and culture New Republic.
    [Show full text]
  • Conversations with Bill Kristol
    Conversations with Bill Kristol Guest: Andrew Ferguson, Author, Staff Writer, The Atlantic Taped January 10, 2019 Table of Contents I: Identity Politics & American Culture 0:15 – 29:24 II: The Decline of the Academy 29:24 – 51:38 I: Identity Politics & American Culture (0:15 – 29:24) KRISTOL: Hi, I’m Bill Kristol, welcome back to CONVERSATIONS. And I’m joined again by my colleague at the late, lamented Weekly Standard, Andrew Ferguson, author of so many excellent articles which you can still read, luckily, in the archives, weeklystandard.com. Some of which were collected, including articles you did earlier, in your fine book, Fools’ Names, Fools’ Faces. And then the great book on Lincoln, Land of Lincoln. And Crazy U, your tribute to our excellent institutions of higher education. FERGUSON: [Laughter]. A love letter. A love letter to higher education. KRISTOL: Yeah, some of your pieces are love letters to your subjects, you know. KRISTOL: Anyway, you should certainly all read Andy’s work, but here we’re going to talk about the state of our culture. FERGUSON: I think it’s probably a combination of it’s crazier, and we’re saner. Or it’s dumber, and we’re wiser. Although I doubt that very much actually, at least I’m that much wiser. To use a word I hate, the parameters of everything has changed ,and what’s permissible, what’s understood as common place, what’s considered extraordinary, what’s out of bounds, what’s mandatory, obligatory. So many things are simply a matter of etiquette now that never would have been before.
    [Show full text]
  • The Neoconservative Persuasion: Selected Essays, 1942-2009
    PHILANTHROPY / EVENT TRANSCRIPT The Neoconservative Persuasion: Selected Essays, 1942-2009 By Irving Kristol Edited by Gertrude Himmelfarb February 2, 2011 Panel Discussion of The Neoconservative Persuasion: Selected Essays, 1942-2009 By Irving Kristol Edited by Gertrude Himmelfarb Wednesday, February 2, 2011 Table of Contents Ken Weinstein 1 Amy Kass 1 Charles Krauthammer 3 Irwin Stelzer 7 Leon Kass 11 William Kristol 15 Q&A 23 Gertrude Himmelfarb (“Bea Kristol”) 30 Speaker Biographies 31 © 2011 Hudson Institute Hudson Institute is a nonpartisan, independent policy research organization. Founded in 1961, Hudson is celebrating a half century of forging ideas that promote security, prosperity, and freedom. www.hudson.org Ken Weinstein Good afternoon. I’m Ken Weinstein, CEO of Hudson Institute. I’d like to welcome everyone to today’s Book Forum on the newly published The Neoconservative Persuasion: Selected Essays 1942- 2009, by Irving Kristol, which has been edited by the redoubtable Gertrude Himmelfarb. The book is available for sale in the back at the discounted price of $20, and I urge all of you to get one before you leave. This is a truly remarkable book, one that shows the breadth and the depth of Irving Kristol’s thought over some 67 years, which you’ll be hearing about shortly. My colleagues and I frankly feel privileged that Hudson Institute is the venue for today’s book forum, and I should thank the book’s editor, Gertrude Himmelfarb, for giving us this auspicious honor. (Applause.) We have a truly distinguished panel, who will offer their reflections shortly, but before we get underway I should note that this is Hudson Institute’s 50th anniversary year, and to mark this occasion, the Institute has begun a 50th anniversary seminar series, and today’s exceptional Book Forum is the second event in this series.
    [Show full text]
  • “I Am Afraid Americans Cannot Understand” the Congress for Cultural Freedom in France and Italy, 1950–1957
    “I Am Afraid Americans Cannot Understand” The Congress for Cultural Freedom in France and Italy, 1950–1957 ✣ Andrea Scionti Culture was a crucial yet elusive battlefield of the Cold War. Both superpowers tried to promote their way of life and values to the world but had to do so care- fully. The means adopted by the United States included not only propaganda and the use of mass media such as cinema and television but also efforts to help shape the world of highbrow culture and the arts. The Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF), an organization sponsored by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), offered U.S. policymakers and intellectuals the opportunity to provide indirect support for anti-Communist intellectuals without being openly associated with their activities. Although the CCF represented one of the main instruments for the United States to try to win the hearts and minds of postwar Europe, it also created new challenges for U.S. Cold War- riors. By tying themselves to the European intelligentsia, they were forced to mediate between different societies, cultures, and intellectual traditions. This article looks at the contexts of France and Italy to highlight this interplay of competing notions of anti-Communism and cultural freedom and how the local actors involved helped redefine the character and limits of U.S. cultural diplomacy. Although scholars have looked at the CCF and its significance, es- pecially in the Anglo-Saxon world, a focus on French and Italian intellectuals can offer fresh insights into this subject. The Congress for Cultural Freedom was the product of a convergence of interests between the CIA’s recently established Office of Policy Coordination (OPC) and a small number of American and European intellectuals, many of them former Communists, concerned about the perceived success of the Soviet cultural offensive in Western Europe.
    [Show full text]
  • Neoconservatism Hoover Press : Berkowitz/Conservative Hberkc Ch5 Mp 104 Rev1 Page 104 Hoover Press : Berkowitz/Conservative Hberkc Ch5 Mp 105 Rev1 Page 105
    Hoover Press : Berkowitz/Conservative hberkc ch5 Mp_103 rev1 page 103 part iii Neoconservatism Hoover Press : Berkowitz/Conservative hberkc ch5 Mp_104 rev1 page 104 Hoover Press : Berkowitz/Conservative hberkc ch5 Mp_105 rev1 page 105 chapter five The Neoconservative Journey Jacob Heilbrunn The Neoconservative Conspiracy The longer the United States struggles to impose order in postwar Iraq, the harsher indictments of the George W. Bush administration’s foreign policy are becoming. “Acquiring additional burdens by engag- ing in new wars of liberation is the last thing the United States needs,” declared one Bush critic in Foreign Affairs. “The principal problem is the mistaken belief that democracy is a talisman for all the world’s ills, and that the United States has a responsibility to promote dem- ocratic government wherever in the world it is lacking.”1 Does this sound like a Democratic pundit bashing Bush for par- tisan gain? Quite the contrary. The swipe came from Dimitri Simes, president of the Nixon Center and copublisher of National Interest. Simes is not alone in calling on the administration to reclaim the party’s pre-Reagan heritage—to abandon the moralistic, Wilsonian, neoconservative dream of exporting democracy and return to a more limited and realistic foreign policy that avoids the pitfalls of Iraq. 1. Dimitri K. Simes, “America’s Imperial Dilemma,” Foreign Affairs (Novem- ber/December 2003): 97, 100. Hoover Press : Berkowitz/Conservative hberkc ch5 Mp_106 rev1 page 106 106 jacob heilbrunn In fact, critics on the Left and Right are remarkably united in their assessment of the administration. Both believe a neoconservative cabal has hijacked the administration’s foreign policy and has now overplayed its hand.
    [Show full text]
  • President's Daily Diary Collection (Box 82) at the Gerald R
    Scanned from the President's Daily Diary Collection (Box 82) at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library THE WHITE HOUSE THE DAILY DIARY OF PRESIDENT GERALD R. FORD PLACE DAY BEGAN DATE (Mo., Day, Yr.) THE WHITE HOUSE MAY 19, 1976 WASHINGTON, D.C. TIME DAY 12:00 a.m. WEDNESDAY -PHONE TIME "~ "-t) ACTIVITY c: ~ 1----.,...-----1 II II In Out c.. ~ For a record of the President's activities before midnight, see the daily diary for May 18, 1976. 12:00 1:18 The President met with: Richard B. Cheney, Assistant Ronald H. Nessen, Press Secretary Terrence O'Donnell, Aide Maj. Robert E. Barrett, Army Aide David H. Kennerly, Personal Photographer 12 :10 12:13 R The President talked with Robert Pascal, Co-Chairman of the Maryland state President Ford Committee (PFC). 12:25 12:28 P The President talked with Rogers C.B. Morton, Chairman of the PFC. 12:29 12:32 P The President talked with Peter J. Secchia, President of Universal Forest Products, Grand Rapids, Michigan. 12:32 P The President telephoned Governor William G. Milliken (R-Michigan) and Honorary Chairman of the Michigan state PFC. The call was not completed. 12:42 12:46 P The President talked with Senator Robert P. Griffin (R-Michigan) and Honorary Chairman of the Michigan state PFC. 1:03? 1:06? P The President talked with Director of the Presidential Advance Office, Byron M. Cavaney, Jr. 1:04? 1:06? P The President talked with Mrs. John (Ranny) Riecker, Republican National Committeewoman for Michigan. 1:06 1:08 P The President talked with Chairman of the Michigan Republican state Committee William F.
    [Show full text]