Praise for Let Us Talk of Many Things “Now, thanks to the publication of Let Us Talk of Many Things, we can go back and, in appreciating the speeches, we can reach a fuller appreciation of the speaker himself, that enigmatic, indispensable man who, almost singlehandedly, won American conservatives’ acceptance, if grudging acceptance, in the political and cultural mainstream.” —National Review “What is surprising is how personally revealing these speeches are Framed by their newly written introductions, they are scenes from the autobiography that Buckley has never written Though he has afforded us, before, several book-length glimpses of a week in his busy life, he has never before shown us that life in long profile.” —The Weekly Standard “Scattered throughout are delicious anecdotes, piquant quotations, and much evidence of a keen moral sensibility, capable of asking such probing questions as ‘A good society needs to be hospitable to virtue but shouldn’t it also be inhospitable to dereliction?’ If not an essential Buckley book, this one yet contains his essence.” —Booklist “Mirth, wit, and humor abound, and readers of all stripes will wonder at Buckley’s mystical ability to conjure from our common language phrases of staggering beauty, elegance, and power.” —The Charlotte Observer “David Brooks, in his foreword, calls this a primary document in the history of the Cold War, and it is But this is not the Cold War as history; it is war as it is being fought, and the speeches from that time bristle with energy and purpose and the glint of Buckley’s weapons His is the kind of rapier wit where the rapier inflicts real wounds.” —D Magazine A LSO BY W ILLIAM F B UCKLEY J R God and Man at Yale (1951) * High Jinx (1986) McCarthy and His Enemies, co-authored with L Brent Bozell Jr (1954) Racing through Paradise (1987) * Mongoose, R.I.P (1988) Up from Liberalism (1959) Keeping the Tablets, co-edited with Charles R Kesler (1988) The Committee and Its Critics (ed.) (1962) On the Firing Line (1989) Gratitude (1990) Rumbles Left and Right (1963) * Tucker’s Last Stand (1990) The Unmaking of a Mayor (1966) Windfall (1992) The Jeweler’s Eye (1968) In Search of Anti-Semitism (1992) Odyssey of a Friend, by Whittaker Chambers, introduction and notes by WFB (1969) Happy Days Were Here Again, edited by Patricia Bozell (1993) The Governor Listeth (1970) * A Very Private Plot (1994) Did You Ever See a Dream Walking? (ed.) (1970) * The Blackford Oakes Reader (1995) Cruising Speed (1971) Inveighing We Will Go (1972) Buckley: The Right Word, edited by Samuel S Vaughan (1996) Four Reforms (1973) The Lexicon (1996) United Nations Journal (1974) Nearer, My God (1997) Execution Eve (1975) * The Redhunter (1999) * Saving the Queen (1976) * Spytime (2000) Airborne (1976) * Elvis in the Morning (2001) * Stained Glass (1978) * Nuremberg (2002) A Hymnal (1978) * Getting It Right (2003) * Who’s on First (1980) The Fall of the Berlin Wall (2004) * Marco Polo, If You Can (1982) Miles Gone By (2004) Atlantic High (1982) * Last Call for Blackford Oakes (2005) Overdrive (1983) * The Rake (2007) * The Story of Henri Tod (1984) Cancel Your Own Goddam Subscription (2007) * Brothers No More (1995) * See You Later Alligator (1985) * The Temptation of Wilfred Malachey (1985) Right Reason, edited by Richard Brookhiser (1985) *Fiction Flying High: Remembering Barry Goldwater (2008) The Reagan I Knew (2008) WILLIAM F BUCKLEY JR Let Us Talk of Many Things THE COLLECTED SPEECHES A MEMBER OF THE PERSEUS BOOKS GROUP NEW YORK Copyright © 2000 by William F Buckley Jr Hardcover first published in 2000 by Forum, an imprint of Prima Publishing Paperback published in 2008 by Basic Books, A Member of the Perseus Books Group All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews For information, address Basic Books, 387 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016–8810 Books published by Basic Books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the United States by corporations, institutions, and other organizations For more information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, or call (800) 810-4145, ext 5000, or e-mail special.markets@perseusbooks.com The Library of Congress has catalogued the hardcover edition as follows: Buckley, William F (William Frank) Let us talk of many things : the collected speeches / William F Buckley Jr p cm Includes index ISBN 0-7615-2551-3 Speeches, addresses, etc., American I Title PS3552 U344 L48 2000 815'.54—dc21 00-025551 Paperback: ISBN: 978-0-465-00334-1 10 CONTENTS Acknowledgments Xill Foreword: by David Brooks XVI Notesfrom the Lecture Circuit: A New Yorker Essay XXI THE FIFTIES Today We Are Educated Men An address to follow graduates The Trojan Horse of American Education? A defonse of private schools The Artist as Aggressor 13 On congressional investigations Only Five Thousand Communists? 16 Welcoming the House Committee on Un-American Activities to town Should Liberalism Be Repudiated? 20 Debating James Wechsler THE SIXTIES In the End, We Will Bury Him 33 Protesting Khrushchev's visit CONTENTS VI Scholar, Fighter, Westerner 38 Introducing Jacques Soustelle The Lonely Professor 41 Saluting Glenn Saxon An Island of Hope ·42 Defending Taiwan's independence Norman Mailer and the American Right A debate What Could We Learn from a Communist? 58 An appeal to the Yale Political Union Who Did Get Us into This Mess? 68 Debating Murray Kempton The Impending Defeat of Barry Goldwater 74 Off the record, to the Young Americans for Freedom A Growing Spirit of Resistance 78 To the New York Conservative Party The Free Society-What's That? 85 Applauding Henry Hazlitt Buckley versus Buckley 88 A self-interview, on running for mayor of New York The Heat of Mr Truman's Kitchen 93 Celebrating National Review's tenth anniversary On Selling Books to Booksellers 96 Addressing the American Booksellers Association The Aimlessness of American Education 100 In defense of small colleges "You Have Seen Too Much in China" To a concerned organization 108 CONTENTS Vll The Duty of the Educated Catholic 112 To a high-school honors society Did You Kill Martin Luther King? 117 To the American Society of Newspaper Editors Life with a Meticulous Colleague 12 Saluting William A Rusher On the Perspective of the Eighteen-Year-Old 128 To graduating high-school students Words to the Counterrevolutionary Young 133 Addressing the Young Americans for Freedom THE SEVENTIES On the Well-Tempered Spirit 145 A commencement address Resolutely on the Side of Yale's Survival 149 At a twentieth reunion The Republic's Duty to Repress To a conference ofjudges "That Man I Trust" Appreciating James L Buckley The World That Lenin Shaped 168 On visiting Brezhnev 's Soviet Union John Kerry's America 179 To the cadets of West Point The West Berlin of China Upon Taiwan's expulsion from the United Nations Affection, Guidance, and Peanut Brittle A special toast 18 Vlll CONTENTS On Preserving the Tokens of Hope and Truth 191 Saluting Henry Regnery Without Marx or Jesus? 197 To the American Society of Newspaper Editors The "Leftwardmost Viable Candidate" 202 Debating John Kenneth Galbraith The Terrible Sadness of Spiro Agnew 208 To the New York Conservative Party The High Cost of Mr Nixon's Deceptions 21 To the New York Conservative Party On Serving in the United Nations 21 Testimony to a Senate committee No Dogs in China 218 At the National War College The Courage of Friedrich Hayek 223 Addressing the Mont Pelerin Society The Protracted Struggle against Cancer 235 To the American Cancer Society A Salutary Impatience 238 A commencement address Cold Water on the Spirit of Liberty 242 Replying to President Carter The Reckless Generosity of John Chamberlain 249 A tribute A Party for Henry Kissinger 252 A birthday toast What Americanism Seeks to Be 255 To the Young Republicans CONTENTS lX THE EIGHTIES His Rhythms Were Not of This World 261 Remembering Allard Lowenstein The Rudolph Valentino of the Marketplace 263 Saluting Milton Friedman The Greatness of James Burnham 268 To a friend and mentor Halfway between Servility and Hostility 272 At a historic college Earl Warren and the Meaning of the Constitution 275 Addressing a class of future lawyers Sing a Song of Praise to Failure 277 At a graduate business school How Leo Cherne Spent Christmas 287 An introduction 10 Downing Street: The Girls Club of Britain 290 A transatlantic salute Moral Distinctions and Modern Warfare 292 Parsing nuclear war Democracy and the Pursuit of Happiness 301 A commencement address The Genesis of Blackford Oakes 308 On the distinctively American male Waltzing at West 44th Street 316 An ode to the America's Cup The Blood of Our Fathers Ran Strong Celebrating National Review's thirtieth anniversary 20 Index "Moral Distinctions and Modern Warfare," 292-301 More, Thomas, 233 Morgan, Edmund, 272 Morgenthau,t1ans,186 Morris, Charles, 283 Morrison, Toni, 453 Mosbacher, Bus, 316, 317, 318 Moscow, WFB visits to, 169-173, 37 2-373 "Mother t1en of Modern Conservatism, The," 426-429 Motives for lecturing, xxii-xxiii Mount St Mary's College lecture, 29 2-3 01 Moynihan, Daniel Patrick, 21 1,261,399 Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, 394 Muggeridge, Malcolm, 70, II6 Murray, Charles, 397, 440 Murray, John Courtney, 113, 298 Mussorgsky, Modest, 265 Mylai massacre, 179, 182,409 Myrdal, Gunnar, 225 N Nabokov, Vladimir, 204 Nader, Ralph, 96, 98, 228-229, 309 Napoleon, 168,277,410 Napoleonic wars, 168,410 Nasser, Gamal Abdel, 46 National Council on Soviet Friendship, 14 National Institute of Social Sciences, WFB speech to, 387-389 National Press Club, WFB self-interrogation before, 88-{}3 National Review Alliluyeva on, 378-379 anniversary dinners of, 93-95, 26~271, 320-3 22 , 360-3 64, 369, 379-3 80 anti-statists at, 467, 468-469 Bridges's tenure at, xiii Brooks's tenure at, xix P L Buckley's calming effect on, XIX-XX WFB's commitment to, xxii, 360-361 WFB remarks on behalf of, 108,218 Burnham's intellectual influence on, 270-27 ] Chamberlain troubled by discord at, 251-252 Chambers's reluctance to join, 320-3 21 as conscience for WFB in speechmaking, 273 conviviality at, xix-xx editorial process at, 362-364 forums at t1unter College, 20, 38 founding of, xiii, 13, 320-321 Friedman writing in, 370-371 graphs at, 125 International Conservative Congress co-sponsored by, 437 on Khrushchev's visit, 37, 53 S La Follette's tenure at, 468 liberalism repudiated by, 29 C B Luce article in, 324 Medal of Freedom conferred on Reagan, 459 and N Y Conservative Party, 79-80 purpose for, 75 Reagan's appreciation of, 269-270 Rickenbacker's tenure at, 392 Rusher as publisher of, 123-127 ] Simon as contributing editor to, 35 2-353 van den t1aag writing in, 264 Waugh writing in, 396 National security, requirements of, 221 National Socialist Party See Nazism National War College, 21~223 NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), 207, 239 Nazis, Nazism education and, 101 electoral plans of, 120 former prisoner of, 305 resistance to, 40, 412-413, 447 siege of Leningrad by, 174-175, 176, 374 speakers at universities, 61-63 Index time for assessing morality of, I I I NBC, 342, 416 Neuhaus, Richard John, 476 New Left, vagueness of, 161-162 Newman, Edwin, 436 New Republic, The, 363 New Social Order, 9-10,12 Newsweek magazine, xxv, 85, 324,416, 421 New York Giants, 64 New York City booksellers in, 97 WFB's candidacy for mayor of, 88-93,96,98-99,220,237, 28 3, 361,404,416,465 federal interference in, 72, 91, 280, 282 HUAC visits to, 13-14, 16 inability to perform, 88-91, 283 Khrushchev visit to, 33, 37 Lindsay and, 88 prayer in public schools of, 423-424 rent control in, 24 as site of United Nations, 185, 189, 220 subway fares in, 24-25, 99 tax inequities in, 25-26 trial of Paul Hughes in, 23 as venue of intellectuals, 115, 228 voting blocs in, 89-91, 30/}-307 New York City Bar Association speech, 404-409 New York Civil Liberties Union, 38 New York Conservative Party ) L Buckley's senatorial candidacy, 88 and WFB's mayoral candidacy, 88, 1-93,4 65 WFB speeches at annual dinners of, 78-85, 163-168,208-21 I, 211-213 founding of, 74, 78 Maltese, Mahoney, as chairmen of, 32 as part of new wave, 74 New Yorker, The, xiv, 44, 70 499 New York Herald Tribune, 47,466 New York Law School Commencement Address, 275-276 New York Liberal Party, 92 New York Post, xvii, 16, 17,21-24, 2/}-29, 119 New York Public Library, 202, 204, 205-206 New York State politics, 24-26, 88, 163, 167-168,207,212,238,361 New York State Trial Judges conference speech, 152-163 New York Times, xxiii, 18,22,34,87, 94, 132, 138, 165, 179, 20/}-207, 221,244,250,25 1,255-256,261, 268,281-282,303,306,309-310, 323,390,411,416,421,443,466 New York Times Book Review, 323 New York University, 270-271, 291 New York Yacht Club, 316, 317 Nhu, Madame, 324 Nicaragua, 349 Nicholas II, czar of Russia, 170, 17/}-177 Niebuhr, Reinhold, 103 Nietzsche, Friedrich, 71, 332 Nitze, Paul, 332 Nixon, Julie, 342 Nixon, Richard Agnew and, 163,208 appointment of WFB to UN post, 214, 219-220 and) L Buckley, 163,211,213 Cleaver on, 160 documentary on, 199 domestic policy of, 219, 281 Eisenhower on achievements of, 255 foreign policy of, 138, 150-151, 184- 185,247 guilty aspect of, 455 on Jack Paar Show, 341 Kempton on, 340, 341-342 on Khrushchev's visit, 34 note taking at Buckley's meeting with,321 presidential campaigns of 202, 20/}-207, 306, 341-342 Index 500 resignation of, 208, 211-213 state dinner with, 316-317 visit to China of, 184-185, 191, 195, 247, 265,4 16-4 19 Watergate affair, 212-213, 214, 45 1-45 on winning the Cold War, 381 Nock, Albert Jay, 69, 430, 466-468, 47 0, 475 "No Dogs in China," 218-223 Noonan, Peggy, 476 "Norman Mailer and the American Right," 48-57 Notre Dame University Commencement Address, 24 2- 249 Nuclear weapons as deterrent force, 320, 322, 381, 403 disarmament proposal, 350-351 early development of, 3, 28, 40, 60, IIO, 114,332-333,469 effects on willingness to risk war, 36, 47-48, 55, 106, 139-140, 186, 193-194,292,342,411,427 morality of potential use of, 293-297,3 00-3 01 proliferation of, 314-315, 403, 41 I use of by Truman, 414, 424 o Oakes, Blackford, genesis of, xviii-xix, xxvii,308-3 16 Oakeshott, Michael, 147,201,225 O'Beirne, Kate, 438 Oberholtzer, Edison E., O'Connor, Flannery, 433 O'Connor, John, Cardinal, 465 "0 J Simpson and Other Ills," 397-404 Oldenburg, Claes, 357 Olin Foundation, 446 O'Neill, Richard, 355-356 O'Neill, Thomas P (Tip), 277 One-Upmanship, 373 "On Her Way to the Cross," 324-328 "Only Five Thousand Communists?," 16-20 "On Preserving the Tokens of Hope and Truth," 191-197 "On Selling Books to Booksellers," 96-99 "On Serving in the United Nations," 214-218 "On the Perspective of the EighteenYear-Old," 128-132 "On the Well-Tempered Spirit," 145- 149 Orlando Sentinel, 450 Orlov, Yuri, 243-244, 245 Ortega y Gasset, Jose, 71, 129,336, 393-394 Orwell, George, 171, 177,225 Osler, William, 73 O'Sullivan, John, 437 Oswald, Lee Harvey, 43,122,130-131, 402 Ottinger, Richard, 163 "Out of Oppression, a Political Poet," 329-33 p Paar, Jack, 341 Pacifism vs peacefulness, 19 "Pagan Love Song of Murray Kempton, The," 339-343 Paley, William S., 436 Pangle, Thomas, 320 Paradise Lost, 376 "Party for Henry Kissinger, A," 25 2- 254 Pasternak, Boris, 27, 28, 121-122 Patterson, Ellmore, 236 Patterson, Floyd, 48 Paul, St., 202 Peacefulness vs pacifism, 19 Pegler, Westbrook, 68, I 18 Peguy, Charles, 71 Peking ballet, 195, 265 Peloponnesian war, 354, 399 People magazine, 441 Index People's Republic of China See China (Mainland) Percy of Newcastle, Lord, 369 Perestroika, 347,349-35°,369,372 Pericles, 340, 347 Peron, Juan, 454 Perrier, Mrs C V., 97 "Personal Grace of J K Galbraith, The," 443-445 Peter, St., 113 Peyton Place, 178 Phelps, William Lyon, 250 Philadelphia Society WFB speech at, 369-375 WFB speech on Reagan requested by, 459 incorporation of, 375 as part of new wave, 74 Pi, value of, 228 Pictures at an Exhibition, 265 Pike, Bishop, 113, 136 Pipes, Richard, 350 Pius XII, Pope, 110 Plato, 71, 105, 13°,336,433 Playboy magazine, xxiii, 48, 193,321, 17,45 Polanyi, Michael, 233-234 Poland attempted recovery of, 371 WFB visit to, 178-179 under Nazi oppression, 51 under Soviet oppression, 288-289 the West's failures vis-i-vis, 55, 186, 245,33 0,4 13 Politics American tendencies in, 44, 49, 147-148 deceptions indulged in, 24-26, 72, 89-91,99,223,227-228,277-283, 3°1,3°6-3°7,4 19-4 26,475 disillusion towards, 93 electoral See entries for individual parties and politicians economics and, 16-17,24-26,72, 224-228, 277-283, 284-286, 367-369,370-371,421-424, 501 461 -462 ,474,475 interest in by artists, 14-15 National Review not obsessed with, 321 ,35 2-353 orientation of academics, 3, 9, 102-103, 106-107, 130-131, 148, 25 0,437-43 pervasiveness of, 93-95, 308, 439 proper concerns of, 65-66, 397-403, 439-440 ,474 theatrical side of, 383-387 "Politics of the Common Man, The," 383-3 87 Pollack, Sidney, I Pollock, Jackson, 69 Pol Pot, 244-245, 251,431-432 Portugal's tax rate, 367 Positivism Christian faith battered by, 112-113 criticisms of, 3, 5-6 Potter, Stephen, 373 Pound, Ezra, 191 Poverty disputes on causes of, 102-103,202, 397-398 efforts to eliminate, 147,242,438, 440 institutional barriers and, 141 single-parent families and, 366, 398, 440-44 Power, Tyrone, 313 Pragmatism, disagreements with, 44-45 Pravda, 172 Prayer in schools, rr6, 423-424 "Preserving the Heritage," 464-477 Press, the excluded from Orlov trial, 244 failures of, 120-123, 199,416, 18-4 26 freedom of, 153, 154 grudging fairness of, 264 Jesus and, 198 Pride and Prejudice, I Princeton University, 123, 473 Prinz, Joachim, 390 502 Privacy, aggression against, 94 -95 Private property, private sector See Free market Private schools children leaving public schools in favor of, 90 criticized as divisive, 7-13 religious orientation of, 9-13 vouchers and, 423 Progressive Citizens of America, 59-60 Progressive education, 100-101 Progressive income tax, 234, 284-286, 365-3 69,397,475 Progressive Party of R La Follette, 163 Progressive Party of H Wallace, 324 "Protracted Struggle against Cancer, The," 235-238 Pulliam, Eugene, I 18 Purges in Communist China, 109- I 10 Purpose of life, 105 Pusey, Nathan, 141 Q Quakers, 192,230 Quemo~22,44-45 Question and answer periods, xxvii-xxviii Quintessentiality, I I R Race relations evolution of, in the U.S., 141, 152-154,389-390,401,438,472 outside the U.S., 37, 39-40, 65 rhetoric on, 89 -91, 117, 121-122, 139, 149-150, 160-161,306,45 tensions, Mailer's thesis on, 49 Radio Marti, 348 Rand,Ayn, 232,264,456,469 Rasputin, 174 Rationality See Reason Rauh, Joseph L., Jr., 18,22-23 Read, Leonard, 427 Reader's Digest, 226 Reagan, Nanc~290,457-458,459 Index Reagan, Ronald on the American sound, 477 anti-Communism of, 347-348 appreciation of, 338, 361 as Californian, 384 Carter's criticisms of budget of, 27 8- 279 CETA and, 278 election of, 268, 269 fall of Soviet Communism credited to, 381-382 fear of inflation instilled by, 277 football caught by, 337 Galbraith's offer to substitute for, 268 as guest at National Review dinner, 320,321-322 happiness in electing, 442 Heritage Foundation recommendations to, 476 military strategy jokingly proposed by, 206 National Review appreciated by, 26 9-270 portrait with Thatcher, 437 on progressive income tax, 285 Reaganomics, 338, 365-369 SDI program of, 332 on Soviet Union as "evil empire," 348,361,381,460 speech honoring eighty-eighth birthday, 457-464 tax-cut plan of, 285-286 tuition fee proposed by, 129 Reaganomics, 338, 365-369 Reason defense of, 147-148 rationality of Khrushchev's visit, 34-37 student responsibility for, 131-132 "Reckless Generosity of John Chamberlain, The," 249-252 Red China See China (Mainland) Red Cross Association speech, 189-190 Redford, Robert, 309, 310 Redistributionism, inequity of, 228 Regnery, Eleanor, 192-193 Index Regnery, Henry, 7, 191-197 Regnery Publishing, 191 Regnery, Susan, Alfred, Henry Jr., and Margaret, 192-193 Reilly, Robert R., 335 Religion See also Christianity duty of educated Catholics, 112-117 intellectualization of the spirit, 83-84 literalism and Christianity, 114-115 mess regarding, 1-72 persistence of, 83 political implications of Christian heritage, 470-473 prayer in schools, 116, 423-424 Religious education New Social Order and, 1)-10 in private schools, 1)-13 Repression as duty of republic, 15 2- 163 Republican Party Chambers on, 196 and Clinton impeachment, 451-454 contrasted with Communist Party, 64-65 Cuomo on, 365 national conventions of, 324, 340 in national politics, 202, 288, 390-39 1,453-454 in New York politics, 88, 92-