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http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt6m3nc88c Online items available Register of the Firing Line (Television Program) broadcast records 80040 1 Register of the Firing Line (Television Program) broadcast records Finding aid prepared by Natasha Porfirenko, revised by Hoover Institution Archives Staff, Max Siekierski, Alexandria Mullings, Stephanie Stewart, and Rachel Bauer Hoover Institution Archives 434 Galvez Mall Stanford University Stanford, CA, 94305-6010 (650) 723-3563 [email protected] © 2003, 2009, 2014, 2015

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  • http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt6m3nc88cOnline items available

    Register of the Firing Line(Television Program) broadcastrecords

    80040 1

    Register of the Firing Line (Television Program) broadcast records

    Finding aid prepared by Natasha Porfirenko, revised by Hoover Institution Archives Staff, Max Siekierski, AlexandriaMullings, Stephanie Stewart, and Rachel BauerHoover Institution Archives434 Galvez MallStanford UniversityStanford, CA, 94305-6010(650) [email protected]© 2003, 2009, 2014, 2015

    http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt6m3nc88chttp://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt6m3nc88c

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    Title: Firing Line (Television program) broadcast recordsDate (inclusive): 1966-1999Collection Number: 80040Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution ArchivesLanguage of Material: EnglishPhysical Description: 190 manuscript boxes, 218 oversize boxes, 3 card file boxes, 1 motion picture film, 352 linear feetof videotapes(948.3 linear feet)Abstract: The Firing Line broadcast records include videotapes from the Firing Line television show, as well as soundrecordings, administrative and speaker files, program research files, photographs, transcripts, and other materials from theshow. The types of program research materials available for each program are listed in the Episode Guide. The EpisodeGuide also includes a summary and guest list for each episode, as well as a link to the episode details page on Hoover'sdigital collections website. When applicable, links for purchasing full-length episodes and the availability of special orderDVDs are also included. Digital copies of select records also available at https://digitalcollections.hoover.org. Physical Location: Hoover Institution ArchivesContributor: Buckley, William F., Jr., 1925-2008.Contributor: Southern Educational Communications AssociationAccessCollection is open for research. Digital copies of select records also available at https://digitalcollections.hoover.org. Use copies of some videos in this collection are available for immediate access. To listen to sound recordings or to viewother videos or films during your visit, please contact the Archives at least two working days before your arrival. We willthen advise you of the accessibility of the material you wish to see or hear. Please note that not all audiovisual material isimmediately accessible.Publication RightsFor copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Archives.Preferred Citation[Identification of item], Firing Line (Television program) broadcast records, [Box number], Hoover Institution Archives.Acquisition InformationAcquired by the Hoover Institution Archives in 1980, with a large increment acquired in 2001.AccrualsMaterials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. To determine if this has occurred, findthe collection in Stanford University's online catalog at http://searchworks.stanford.edu/  . Materials have been added to thecollection if the number of boxes listed in the online catalog is larger than the number of boxes listed in this finding aid.Alternate Forms AvailableDigital copies of select records also available at https://digitalcollections.hoover.org. Historical NoteWith 1,505 installments over 33 years, Firing Line is the longest-running public-affairs show with a single host, William F.Buckley Jr., in television history.Firing Line kept substantially the same basic format throughout its run, but with certain variations.(1) It began as an hour-long show for commercial television (i.e., with time subtracted for commercial breaks), syndicatedby WOR in New York City.In 1971, under the auspices of the Southern Educational Communications Association (SECA), it moved to public televisionand became a full hour. This move is reflected in a numbering change in the programs: shows numbered 1 through 240were on commercial television; the SECA series then begins with s0001, taped on May 26, 1971. The WOR shows werenumbered according to the order in which they were taped; the SECA shows were numbered according to the order inwhich they were first broadcast.In 1988 the length of the regular shows was changed to a half-hour.(2) Starting in 1978, interspersed among the regular shows are occasional specials and two-hour formal debates, with opening statements, cross-examination, and closing statements. The debates were initially numbered as regular shows (the first Firing Line Debate was s0306, although a debate sponsored by Columbia College's Debate Council was filmed as shows s0296 and s0297 a few weeks earlier). Beginning in 1986, a separate numbering system was instituted for Firing Line Specials (with the number prefaced by the letters FLS). (Note: Debates listed as "Part I" and "Part II" were shown on

    https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/21https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/21http://searchworks.stanford.edu/https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/21

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    consecutive weeks in the regular time slot, rather than being shown all at once in a special two-hour time slot.)Starting with S0961 in March of 1993, the formal debate would often be followed by two or more shows in which roughlythe same participants were released from the debate format for informal discussion.(3) Over the years, Buckley and his producer, Warren Steibel, used various methods of bringing an extra perspective to thediscussion. In the early years there would often be a panel of three questioners--sometimes students, sometimes adults.Starting in 1977 there would often be a single "examiner," who would play a larger part in the proceedings than the panelof questioners had typically done. The examiners who appeared most frequently were Jeff Greenfield, Michael Kinsley,Harriet Pilpel, and Mark Green.In 1988, when the show went to half an hour, the examiner was eliminated, but there was often a "moderator," whose rolewas similar to that of the moderator in a formal debate. The moderator would introduce both host and guest, and then askthe opening question. The moderator appearing most frequently was Michael Kinsley. Some early programs included aperson called a "chairman," who functioned like a moderator.(4) Beginning with show 171, in October of 1969, approximately twice a year the tables would be turned, with a panel ofquestioners putting Buckley "on the firing line."Source: Preface to the program catalogue compiled by Firing Line staff member Linda Bridges, included in box 1.Scope and Content of CollectionThe collection contains the records of the Firing Line television series, which was hosted by William F. Buckley Jr. Materialsinclude the original broadcast videotapes from Firing Line, as well as transcripts, photographs, sound recordings, programresearch materials, and other materials. The types of materials available for each program vary.The collection is organized into three series: Episode Guide, Production Materials File, and Audiovisual File.The Episode Guide is arranged by show number and includes the title, episode summary, and guest names for each show.Numbers that are followed by an "R" are repeat broadcasts of the same program, while numbers followed by an "E" areedited repeat broadcasts. When applicable, links for purchasing full-length episodes and the availability of special orderDVDs are also included. The Episode Guide also lists the supporting documentation for each program: background files,publicity files, and transcripts. Supporting documentation varies by program.Background files include program research materials such as clippings, correspondence, transcripts, histories, presssummaries, and printed matter, as well as collected materials on speakers and their appearances on Firing Line.Publicity files are available for public television shows produced by SECA and contain materials such as photographs,negatives, slides, transcripts, newsletters, and other materials. The types of materials available for each show vary.Transcripts of Firing Line are both typewritten and printed. Also included among transcripts are two productions hosted byWilliam F. Buckley Jr. that were not Firing Line programs. The shows have been designated as 000a and 000b. Theseprograms are included in the Episode Guide and the transcripts are located in box 159. Downloadable transcripts for mostFiring Line programs are available on Hoover's digital collections website and can be accessed through the links thataccompany each program entry in the Episode Guide.The Production Materials File includes administrative files and speaker and research files. Administrative files documentthe creation of the program. Files contain a catalogue of transcripts; Firing Line guests' topic lists; programs lists; specialdebates lists; correspondence with prominent politicians, economists, and scientists; and viewer comments andsuggestions. Press releases, newsletters, newspaper clippings, and files on William F. Buckley Jr. and Warren Steibel, FiringLine's producer-director, are also included. Photographs, negatives, and slides of William F. Buckley Jr. individually and withthe guests on his shows complete the records.Speaker and research files include clippings, correspondence, transcripts, histories, press summaries, and printed matter,as well as other collected materials on speakers and their appearances on Firing Line. Not every show or speaker isrepresented with a file. The original order of the files was retained, and they are arranged alphabetically by the last nameof the speaker. Speakers who made multiple appearances may have several files. The William F. Buckley Jr. book On theFiring Line: The Public Life of Our Public Figures (Random House, New York, 1989) contains an alphabetical list of guestswho appeared on Firing Line (see box 7).The Audiovisual File includes videorecordings, sound recordings, and motion picture film.Sound recordings contain sound tracks of the early Firing Line television shows on open reel tapes and compact soundcassettes.Videorecordings include the original broadcast videotapes from Firing Line. Many videotapes have been reformatted to more durable media; additional reformatting depends on funding. Priority for reformatting is assigned to the most endangered videotapes and those programs in highest demand from viewers. Reformatted programs can be viewed on Hoover's digital collections website or on-site in the reading room, or purchased from Amazon. videotapes of programs that

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    have not been reformatted cannot be viewed at this time. Please contact the Hoover Institution Archives [email protected] for more information.Subjects and Indexing TermsConservatism.United States--Foreign relations--20th century.United States--Politics and government--20th century.Video tapes.

      Episode Guide, 1966-1999Scope and Contents noteThe Episode Guide is arranged by show number. Numbers that are followed by an "R" arerepeat broadcasts of the same program, while numbers followed by an "E" are edited repeatbroadcasts. Guests are listed with the program title, using Library of Congress nameauthorities, in a last name, first name sequence.When applicable, links for purchasing full-length episodes and the availability of specialorder DVDs are also included. The Episode Guide also includes links to Hoover's digitalcollections website for each program and information about the three types of programresearch materials: background files, publicity files, and transcripts.Background files include materials such as clippings, correspondence, transcripts, histories,press summaries, and printed matter, as well as other collected materials on speakers andtheir appearances on Firing Line.Publicity files are available for public television shows produced by SECA and containmaterials such as photographs, negatives, slides, transcripts, newsletters, and othermaterials, The types of materials available for each show vary.Transcripts of Firing Line are both typewritten and printed. Also included among transcriptsare two productions hosted by William F. Buckley Jr. that were not Firing Line programs. Theshows have been designated as 000a and 000b. These programs are included in the EpisodeGuide, and the transcripts are located in box 159. Downloadable transcripts for most FiringLine programs are available on Hoover's digital collections website and can be accessedthrough the links that accompany each program entry in the Episode Guide.

       Program Number1

    "Poverty: Hopeful or Hopeless?"Guests: Harrington, Michael, 1928-4 April 1966

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 70 : 1Transcript: Box/Folder 159 : 4Program details: President Johnson had just declared war on poverty, and Mr. Harrington,an avowed socialist who had started out on the staff of Dorothy Day's Catholic Worker,had been among the first to enlist. On this show (the first Firing Line taped, though notthe first aired), Mr. Harrington begins by describing the despair and consequent lack ofinitiative engendered by poverty; WFB engages him on the issue of whether we can hopeto alleviate either material or emotional poverty through government action. MH: "Beingkicked around and being pushed down, living in dense, miserable housing, and dealingwith cockroaches and rats are not the kinds of things that make one a balanced, content,normal, and adjusted healthy personality." WFB: "I couldn't agree with you more. But I'mtrying to raise the following question: To what extent... can we count on [a povertyprogram] to alleviate all these concomitant miseries?"Availability: On amazon.com. Hoover Identifier number: 80040.1DVD Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001MBTSD6 Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5935 

       

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    Program Number2

    "Prayer in the Public Schools"Guests: Pike, James A. (James Albert), 1913-1969.6 April 1966

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 70 : 2Transcript: Box/Folder 159 : 5Program details: Bishop Pike was thought of as the wild man of the Episcopal Church (bythis time he had been put on trial for heresy, though he had emerged still wearing theEpiscopal purple), but on this show he is genial and persuasive on the subject of schoolprayer specifically and the First Amendment generally. JAP: "I think [the Supreme CourtJustices] use the First Amendment in a way it was never intended to be used. [TheFounding Fathers] talked about establishment of religion. And they meant, really,establishment like the Church of England is. ... It was forbidding the federal agency, theCongress, from interfering with the existing states' establishment." ... "I personally do notsee the value of state-prescribed prayer or of the reading of the Bible, for instance,without study of the background, the context, the thoughtful criticism of the passages, inschool. And I think it's a disservice to the Church, too, because it gives parents theillusion that this side of life is being covered by the public agency when, in fact, it's verytrivial and perfunctory."Availability: On amazon.com. Hoover Identifier number: 80040.2DVD Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001N0LEII Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5936 

       Program Number3

    "Vietnam: Pull Out? Stay In? Escalate?"Guests: Thomas, Norman, 1884-1968.8 April 1966

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 70 : 3Transcript: Box/Folder 159 : 6Program details: Mr. Thomas--the grand old man of the American Left, six-time SocialistParty candidate for President--was by this point focusing all his energies on opposition toAmerica's involvement in the Vietnam War. This often fierce exchange, which places bothmen on the firing line, begins with WFB's asking why his guest supported the Korean Warbut opposes the Vietnam War and goes on to explore whether it is realistic even to aspireto contain Communism. NT: "Mr. Buckley, you seem to believe in cruelty as a necessaryadjunct to this kind of war. Your main point is that somehow we're going to containCommunism this way, and we aren't. We may delay certain events in Communism. We'renot going to contain it. We-" WFB: "Excuse me, was the war in Greece cruel? Did wecontain the Communists in Greece?"Availability: On amazon.com. Hoover Identifier number: 80040.3DVD Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001MBTSE0 Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5937 

       

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    Program Number4

    "Capital Punishment"Guests: Allen, Steve, 1921-11 April 1966

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 70 : 4Transcript: Box/Folder 159 : 7Program details: The death penalty was under heavy attack in the courts and in publicforums, and polls indicated that it was the issue that most sharply divided liberals fromconservatives. Messrs. Buckley and Allen begin by discussing why this should be atouchstone issue, and progress to considerations of whether the death penalty in factdeters, and whether, even if it does, it can be morally defended. SA: I think there areprobably various reasons why conservatives generally favor capital punishment. I thinkone of them maybe so obvious there is the traditional risk of overlooking it, and that issimply that it exists and that it has existed for a long time."Availability: On amazon.com. Hoover Identifier number: 80040.4DVD Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001MBTSEK Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5938 

       Program Number5

    "Where Does the Civil-Rights Movement Go Now?"Guests: Farmer, James, 1920-18 April 1966

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 70 : 5Transcript: Box/Folder 159 : 8Program details: "Two years after the Civil Rights Act was passed, Mr. Farmer wasarguing for what he called affirmative action," WFB suggests, and Mr. Farmer denies hotlyand cogently--though not, as it would turn out, presciently--that affirmative action wouldalmost certainly turn into numerical quotas. One sample: JF: "President Kennedy,incidentally, adopted the same idea. It's said that he stepped off a plane in Washington.There was an honor guard there to meet him. He saw no Negroes. He called an officer,and said, 'I see no Negroes here.' The officer said, 'Mr. President, no Negroes haveapplied.' He said, 'Go out and find some.'" WFB: "Well, one hopes he will find moreproductive jobs for Negroes than simply to make them stand parade for dignitaries."Availability: Special order, please contact the Archives. Hoover Identifier number:80040.5Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5939 

       Program Number6

    "Should the House Committee on Un-American Activities Be Abolished?"Guests: Faulk, John Henry.21 April 1966

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 70 : 6Transcript: Box/Folder 159 : 9Program details: "Mr. Faulk is primarily known," WFB begins, "as a certified victim of ananti-Communist organization called Aware," which had brought him to the attention ofthe House Committee on Un-American Activities. Mr. Faulk had sued Aware and beenawarded "the most colossal judgment in libel history"; he was now seeking the abolitionof the committee. On this show, Mr. Faulk begins, in his down-home sort of voice, byquoting the then-Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan as having said that "the committee'sprogram so closely parallels the program of the Ku Klux Klan that there is nodistinguishable difference between them," and we're off to the races.Availability: On amazon.com. Hoover Identifier number: 80040.6DVD Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001MBTSF4 Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5940 

    http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001MBTSEKhttps://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5938https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5939http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001MBTSF4https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5940

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       Program Number7

    "The Prevailing Bias"Guests: Susskind, David, 1920-2 May 1966

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 70 : 7Transcript: Box/Folder 159 : 10Program details: The tone is set in the first few minutes, when Mr. Susskind responds tothe introduction (in which WFB had said, among other things, "Mr. Susskind is a staunchliberal. If there were a contest for the title Mr. Eleanor Roosevelt, he wouldunquestionably win it") by saying: "I must say that I regard that introduction as somewhatrude and insulting, Mr. Buckley. I had hoped, on the occasion of your having your owntelevision program, you would abandon your traditional penchant for personal bitchinessand stick to facts and issues; but evidently your rude behavior is congenital andcompulsive. And so I forgive you." But among the billingsgate there is serious discussionof the current offerings on the airwaves, the tendency of the Jewish community to resistthe anti-Communist movement, and more.Availability: On amazon.com. Hoover Identifier number: 80040.7DVD Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E50RQ2 Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5941 

       Program Number8

    "The New Frontier: The Great Society"Guests: Goodwin, Richard N.6 May 1966

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 70 : 8Transcript: Box/Folder 159 : 11Program details: Mr. Goodwin was present at the creation--as WFB reminds us, "he iscredited with supplying that ominous phrase, 'The Great Society' "--and he defends theJohnson program ably in this good-tempered session. RG: "Well, I think the Great Society...represents a change or a breaking point from the ideas of the New Deal. I think theessential idea behind the New Deal was that rising prosperity, more equitably distributedamong the people, would solve most of the problems of the country. . . . Now, havingsucceeded-not completely, but to quite a degree-in that effort ... we find it doesn't solvethe major problems, the kinds of problems you talked about in your campaign [for Mayorof New York] ...and that now we have to turn our attention, not only ... to relief of thepoor or dispossessed, but to the quality of life of every American ..."Availability: On amazon.com. Hoover Identifier number: 80040.8DVD Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001MBTSFO Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5942 

       

    http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E50RQ2https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5941http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001MBTSFOhttps://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5942

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    Program Number9

    "Civil Disobedience: How Far Can It Go?"Guests: Gregory, Dick.16 May 1966

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 70 : 9Transcript: Box/Folder 159 : 12Program details: Mr. Gregory had been arrested many times for his civil disobedience,and he had been shot during the Watts riots. As conversation, this show never quiteclicks: Mr. Buckley is trying to clarify the line between peaceful protest and civildisobedience, while Mr. Gregory is engaged in blurring it. Still, a fascinating glimpse ofthe worldview of an inveterate protestor. DG: When these people [the Nurembergdefendants] pleaded that they were only obeying the law ... the world's justices declaredthat they were guilty and that man has a duty to disobey laws that are contrary to greatmoral laws. One day we might have another trial, be it in Heaven, be it in Asia--I don'tknow if we’ll be judged by the Chinese or by the angels--but I want to be able to plead notguilty."Availability: Special order, please contact the Archives. Hoover Identifier number:80040.9Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5943 

       Program Number10

    "McCarthyism: Past, Present, Future"Guests: Cherne, Leo, 1912-16 May 1966

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 70 : 10Transcript: Box/Folder 159 : 13Program details: Mr. Buckley seeks, with his old friend and adversary Mr. Cherne, toexplore, as he puts it, why Joseph McCarthy's oversimplifications were judged to bealmost unique and highly damaging ... whereas the contemporary oversimplifications of,say, a Harry Truman, or, before that, of a Franklin Roosevelt, or subsequently of a LyndonJohnson, are not seen as that offensive." A rich conversation, full of detail. LC: "Well, tosuggest, for example, that General Marshall lied about his whereabouts on the morning ofPearl Harbor, and to suggest, as Senator McCarthy did, that in fact he was meetingMaksim Litvinov at the Washington airport when in fact this was not true--this is notoversimplification in the normal language of political discourse."Availability: On amazon.com. Hoover Identifier number: 80040.10DVD Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001MBTSG8 Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5944 

       

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    Program Number11

    "Vietnam: What Next?"Guests: Lynd, Staughton.23 May 1966

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 70 : 11Transcript: Box/Folder 159 : 14Program details: "Mr. Lynd had recently visited Hanoi--to propagandize for the Vietcong,"Mr. Buckley suggests; to "clarify, if we could, the approach to peace negotiations fromthe other side," Mr. Lynd insists. A spirited exchange with a scholar whose specialty is"the Radical Tradition in America before 1900." WFB: "Listen, Professor, let's stopdropping these little statistical gems around the place. What Eisenhower said when heused the term 80 per cent was that 80 per cent of the [Vietnamese] people would havejoined in any war against the French. He didn't say that 80 per cent were in favor of HoChi Minh. . . ." SL: "Well, what President Eisenhower said, in fact, ... is that at the time ofthe end of the war against the French, in 1954, ... 80 per cent of the people of Vietnam asa whole would have voted for Ho Chi Minh in an election." WFB: "As an alternative to BaoDai. Ho Chi Minh had not started his rather systematic euthanasia of people whodisagreed with him, however, as of 1954. He was considered the George Washington ofthat area."Availability: On amazon.com. Hoover Identifier number: 80040.11DVD Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001MBTSH2 Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5945 

       Program Number12

    "The Future of States' Rights"Guests: Golden, Harry, 1902-23 May 1966

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 70 : 12Transcript: Box/Folder 159 : 15Program details: A lively discussion that begins with the states' rights movement in Mr.Golden's adopted South and deepens to cover the origins of our federal system and theway it has evolved. WFB: "Aren't you going to acknowledge at least this much tonight:that there are people who bear no ill will whatsoever to the Negro, who neverthelessbelieve that Jefferson and Madison ... had something interesting to say when theydevised the federal system? ..." HG: "... The Founding Fathers could be forgiven, Mr.Buckley, for not having known that we would ... turn an agricultural society into anindustrial society ..." WFB: "They can be forgiven for not predicting Earl Warren, for thatmatter." HG: "But, however, they were wonderful men ... because the Constitution theydevised was not statutes, it was a pattern of behavior. And a pattern which in theirtremendous wisdom they figured that maybe things will come about that will requireconstant change."Availability: On amazon.com. Hoover Identifier number: 80040.12DVD Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E53T1C Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5946 

       

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    Program Number13

    "The Future of the Republican Party"Guests: Luce, Clare Boothe, 1903-1987.26 May 1966

    Scope and Contents noteTranscript: Box/Folder 159 : 16Program details: The first of several Firing Line appearances by the sharp-tongued Mrs.Luce, who here takes on the party she has served in many capacities--as keynoter at the1948 National Convention, as legislator and diplomat, as Co-Chairman of the NationalCitizens' Committee for Goldwater. The crackling conversation ranges back to ThomasJefferson and forward to the next election. CBL: "Well, the Whigs went out of existence onthe slavery issue. And I don't think that parties make issues. Issues make parties. And theRepublican Party seems to be fresh out of issues, fresh out of programs, fresh out ofideas, after a period of almost sixty years as the dominant party [from 1861 to 1932].... Idon't care who the Republicans nominate [in 1968]: unless there is a war, a woundingwar, or a depression, the Democrats are going to win."Availability: Special order, please contact the Archives. Hoover Identifier number:80040.13Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5947 

       Program Number14

    "The Future of the American Theater"Guests: Merrick, David, 1911-6 June 1966

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 70 : 13Transcript: Box/Folder 159 : 17Program details: Mr. Merrick is not just any producer but, as WFB puts it, "the mostsuccessful producer on Broadway"--and one whom the critics have accused of "inveiglingaudiences into going to [his shows] ... and the audiences are thereupon so ashamed oftheir gullibility in succumbing to Mr. Merrick's publicity, they will laugh at bad jokes, allowtheir hearts to break at the sight of a valentine, and leave the theater humming untunefulsongs." (Mr. Merrick asks to correct the record: "I can't recall that I've ever had a bad jokein one of my plays, or an untuneful song, or that I've ever produced a bad play.") Theconversation, rich with anecdote, winds up being less about the future of the theater thanabout the relation of the critic, on the one hand, to the theater company and, on theother hand, to the audience--"sort of a necessary evil," says Mr. Merrick. "... So, I bark atthe critics and snipe at them, that's part of the game, because I think I have the right tocriticize them if they have the right to criticize my product."Availability: On amazon.com. Hoover Identifier number: 80040.14DVD Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E52U26 Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5948 

       

    https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5947http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E52U26https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5948

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    Program Number15

    "Bobby Kennedy and Other Mixed Blessings"Guests: Kempton, Murray, 1917-6 June 1966

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 70 : 14Transcript: Box/Folder 159 : 18Program details: The first Firing Line appearance of Mr. Kempton, of whom WFB says that"he is the finest writer in the newspaper profession," but "his specialty is not, in thiscritic's opinion, logic." On the subject of Bobby Kennedy's motivations in attackingLyndon Johnson, however (Johnson "cannot win with Robert Kennedy because he'sWilliam of Orange"), these two old friends and adversaries see pretty much eye to eye.As Mr. Kempton puts it, "[RFK] lacks his brother's real appreciation for people who were alittle older than he was and a little more stable and a little more serious. It seems to methat his radicalism is a total hangup on the young.... And what his brother would haveregarded as nonsense in conduct, he refuses to regard as nonsense as long as it isn'tdone by somebody who is older than 25 years of age."Availability: On amazon.com. Hoover Identifier number: 80040.15DVD Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001MBTSHW Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5949 

       Program Number16

    "The Future of Conservatism"Guests: Goldwater, Barry M. (Barry Morris), 1909-1998.9 June 1966

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 70 : 15Transcript: Box/Folder 159 : 19Program details: Under Arizona law, Mr. Goldwater had had to give up his Senate seat torun for the Presidency, and so at the moment he was a private citizen--though still, evenafter his disastrous defeat, the acknowledged leader of the conservative wing of theRepublican Party. This rich conversation ranges from the specific and immediate(Medicare, the prospects for the 1968 election) to the general (Has too much poweraccrued to the Presidency? How can it be curbed?). BG: "I think the country has becomepretty much a two-term country. So I think it's pretty much up to the President. If hedecides to run again, the chances of the Republicans beating him are not excellent.However, if he keeps on with his lack of success in Vietnam, the downfall of NATO, ... thegrowing cost of living in our country, the chances get better. But we don't like to win onthose kinds of chances."Availability: On amazon.com. Hoover Identifier number: 80040.16DVD Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E52U2G Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5950 

       

    http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001MBTSHWhttps://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5949http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E52U2Ghttps://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5950

  • Episode Guide, 1966-1999

    Register of the Firing Line(Television Program) broadcastrecords

    80040 12

    Program Number17

    "Public Power vs. Private Power"Guests: Gore, Albert, 1907-9 June 1966

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 70 : 16Transcript: Box/Folder 159 : 20Program details: Mr. Buckley describes his guest as "a tough and knowledgeablecontroversialist," and Senator Gore sets about proving him right with his passionatedefense of the Tennessee Valley Authority, which Barry Goldwater, in 1964, had proposedselling to private enterprise. WFB: "Why, Senator Gore, shouldn't parts of the TVA be soldto privately owned companies?" AG: "... I'll ask you: Why should it? I know of no reasonwhy it should." WFB: "Well, the presumption is, isn't it, that that which can be ownedprivately ought to be, in a non-socialist society?" AG: "Well, is there any reason why anypart of the TVA should be owned privately? It seems to me that this is an integrated,successfully operating utility, one of the greatest successes of the world ...Unless wewant to sell all of it, why do we wish to dismember it?" WFB: "Well, it seems to me that itbreaks down rather naturally into component parts. I can't imagine anybody..." AG: "Well,so does your hand, but why would you sell one finger?"Availability: Special order, please contact the Archives. Hoover Identifier number:80040.17Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5951 

       Program Number18

    "Communists and Civil Liberties"Guests: Rauh, Joseph L., 1911-10 June 1966

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 71 : 1Transcript: Box/Folder 159 : 21Program details: After a bristly beginning (JLR: "I won't say thank you for that insultingintroduction"), guest and host settle down for a serious debate on the best way to protectour national security. JLR: "The method of checking on everybody in the hope of gettingthe spies doesn't work. A Harvard professor, a physicist, said it better than I can.... Hesaid, 'When you watch diamond rings and toothbrushes with the same intensity, it's truethat you lose less toothbrushes, but you lose a lot more diamond rings.' ... Let's take theRosenbergs. There's a perfectly good case. [J. Edgar] Hoover had leads that would haveled him to the Rosenbergs years earlier, but [the FBI] had so much material,they couldnever get to it."Availability: Special order, please contact the Archives. Hoover Identifier number:80040.18Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5952 

       

    https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5951https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5952

  • Episode Guide, 1966-1999

    Register of the Firing Line(Television Program) broadcastrecords

    80040 13

    Program Number19

    "The Role of the Church Militant"Guests: Coffin, William Sloane.27 June 1966

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 71 : 3Transcript: Box/Folder 159 : 22Program details: WFB and his guest--an old friend and adversary from undergraduatedays and now a Presbyterian minister--agree that the Christian Church in all itsdenominations is in trouble, increasingly ignored by the young and regarded asirrelevant. Mr. Coffin, however, argues that this is largely because the churches have nottaken up the cause of civil rights for black Americans; Mr. Buckley maintains that it hasmore to do with their ignoring the oppression behind the Iron Curtain. One sample: WSC:"I'll tell you, Bill, why James Baldwin is down on the Church. And Louis Lomax and alsomany of the rest of [the black leaders]. Because they have told me, 'Every time we seethat cross we think, There's a place where they call us niggers.' The primary problem ofthe Church in our time is not that people don't believe in God, it's that the prosperousChurch in our time has failed to make common cause with the sufferers of this world."Availability: On amazon.com. Hoover Identifier number: 80040.19DVD Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E50RQW Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5953 

       Program Number20

    "Why Are the Students Unhappy?"Guests: Bikel, Theodore.27 June 1966

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 71 : 4Transcript: Box/Folder 159 : 23Program details: Student unrest was not yet at its most virulent, but many campuses hadseen sit-ins and other disruptions. WFB posits that a chief cause of the problems is adultunwillingness to enforce discipline. Mr. Bikel, who had grown up in a kibbutz in Israel butquickly rebelled against its strictures, posits that the younger generation must be left freeto develop its own values, even if these do not include what the older generation wouldcall civility. TB: "Do you really think that we live in the kind of an age where ... a parentcan obstinately cling to the belief that the values of today are not substantially differentfrom the values of yesterday?" WFB: "But the parents are right." TB: "I knew that youwould say that."Availability: On amazon.com. Hoover Identifier number: 80040.20DVD Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E50RR6 Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5954 

       

    http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E50RQWhttps://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5953http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E50RR6https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5954

  • Episode Guide, 1966-1999

    Register of the Firing Line(Television Program) broadcastrecords

    80040 14

    Program Number21

    "Senator Dodd and General Klein"Guests: Dodd, Thomas J. (Thomas Joseph), 1907-1971.22 August 1966

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 71 : 5Transcript: Box/Folder 159 : 24Program details: Senator Dodd had been accused by the muckraking columnist DrewPearson of having had improper dealings with one General Julius Klein, an agent of theWest German government--as WFB paraphrases the Pearson charge, "instead of servinghis constituents in Connecticut and the nation as a whole, Senator Dodd has beenprimarily concerned to serve the interests of General Julius Klein." This old controversydoesn't wear as well as some, but along the way we get interesting insights into thepropriety of Americans representing foreign countries (as WFB points out, John FosterDulles and Dean Acheson each did at one time or another) and into how a newspapercolumnist with an axe to grind and a Senate investigating committee can work hand inhand. TD: "Unfortunately, the terminology 'foreign agent' has an ugly connotation, I think,for most people-the two-peaked-hat character who's spying on Washington. The truth ofthe matter is that there are many distinguished, celebrated lawyers and citizens who arerepresentatives of foreign governments, and they serve a very useful purpose."Availability: On amazon.com. Hoover Identifier number: 80040.21DVD Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E52U30 Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5955 

       Program Number22

    "Extremism"Guests: Schary, Dore.22 August 1966

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 71 : 6Transcript: Box/Folder 159 : 25Program details: A crackling debate on political extremism, Right and Left. It is our host'scontention that Mr. Schary and his organization are rather more alert to the former thanto the latter: "It's awfully hard to discuss these questions, Mr. Schary, because you havebeen, I think, so amiable and so reasonable and so soft-spoken; but when you get on thetypewriter, it sort of comes out different." Why, for instance, do Mr. Schary and the ADLregularly attack the John Birch Society and the Ku Klux Klan (and point out that some oftheir members actively supported Barry Goldwater's campaign) but not attack the equaland opposite extremism of Women's Strike for Peace or the Fair Play for Cuba Committeeor the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee? DS: "Nobody's ever asked me towrite anything about it ... Not everything I say, you see, gets into print."Availability: On amazon.com. Hoover Identifier number: 80040.22DVD Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E52U3A Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5956 

       

    http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E52U30https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5955http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E52U3Ahttps://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5956

  • Episode Guide, 1966-1999

    Register of the Firing Line(Television Program) broadcastrecords

    80040 15

    Program Number23

    "Civil Rights and Foreign Policy"Guests: McKissick, Floyd B. (Floyd Bixler), 1922-22 August 1966

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 71 : 7Transcript: Box/Folder 160 : 1Program details: Mr. McKissick had taken over the leadership of CORE from James Farmer(see Firing Line 005) and had led the organization in a more militant direction, and notonly concerning race relations within the United States. As WFB puts it, his guest"proceeds on the assumption that there is a nexus between" civil rights and America'sforeign policy. Hence, for example, Mr. McKissick had visited Cambodia and haddetermined that American bombing there was unjustified. This often heated exchangebegins with the Henry Wallace movement of 1948 and goes on from there. WFB: "Thepoint is whether you are going to exercise the kind of prudence that will keep CORE fromperhaps becoming what the Progressive Party of 1948 became, which is simply a pawn ofthe Soviet Union." FM: "Well, I know a lot of people who worked in that campaign forWallace who were not Communists, and ... there were many good people. I think to put alabel on people, I've never been one who wanted to put a label on people ..."Availability: On amazon.com. Hoover Identifier number: 80040.23DVD Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E52U3K Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5957 

       Program Number24

    "The President and the Press"Guests: Salinger, Pierre.12 September 1966

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 71 : 8Transcript: Box/Folder 160 : 2Program details: A masterly performance from Mr. Salinger, who reacts smoothly, verysmoothly, to Mr. Buckley's attempts to get him to admit that the press generally gavePresident Kennedy a free ride. PS: "The objective of a Presidential Press Conference isnot, in my opinion, for reporters to have the opportunity to embarrass and harass thePresident, but rather to elicit from him the information which is of value to the country."... "I'm getting a new vision on my ability at the White House, and I must say that I'mindebted to you for it, because if I was as successful as you say I was, then, obviously, myservices should be sought by others who have not quite come around to see me since thedays of the '64 debacle [when he lost his Senate seat to George Murphy]."Availability: On amazon.com. Hoover Identifier number: 80040.24DVD Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E50RRG Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5958 

       

    http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E52U3Khttps://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5957http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E50RRGhttps://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5958

  • Episode Guide, 1966-1999

    Register of the Firing Line(Television Program) broadcastrecords

    80040 16

    Program Number25

    "Are Public Schools Necessary?"Guests: Goodman, Paul, 1911-1972.12 September 1966

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 71 : 9Transcript: Box/Folder 160 : 3Program details: Mr. Buckley begins by saying of his guest, "Where he stands,ideologically, in conventional terms, it is hard to say. Probably no one would wish eitherto claim him altogether, or to disclaim him altogether." And we soon see why, in thisexhilarating discussion of education, poverty, and American society. PG: "Now if we meanby literacy, knowing the art of reading and writing, where the objects of the art areimagination and truth, then, of course, to be literate is, you know, importantly to befulfilling yourself as a human being; but if we mean by literacy, being processed so thatyou can understand the code in order to buy products, or obey orders, or the rest, thenit's a question whether most people wouldn't be freer if they weren't quite so caught inthis code."Availability: On amazon.com. Hoover Identifier number: 80040.25DVD Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00G707G2W Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5959 

       Program Number26

    "The Playboy Philosophy"Guests: Hefner, Hugh M. (Hugh Marston), 1926-12 September 1966

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 71 : 10Transcript: Box/Folder 160 : 4Program details: Between these two antagonists one might have expected a heateddebate, but what we get instead is a serious discussion of sexual ethics in the latter partof the 20th century. HH: "The philosophy really I think is an anti-Puritanism, a responsereally to the puritan part of our culture...." WFB: "I'm not worrying about whether youreject Cotton Mather's accretions on the Mosaic Law, but whether you reject the MosaicLaw. Do you reject, for instance, monogamy? Do you reject the notion of sexualcontinence before marriage? ..." HH: "Well, I think what it really comes down to is anattempt to establish a ... new morality, and I really think that's what the American ...sexual revolution's really all about. It's an attempt to replace the old legalism. It'scertainly not a rejection of monogamy as such, but very much an attempt- In the case ofpremarital sex, there really hasn't been any moral code in the past except simply thatthou shalt not. And-" WFB: "Well, that's a code, isn't it?" HH: "Well, perhaps. I don't thinkit's a very realistic one."Availability: On amazon.com. Hoover Identifier number: 80040.26DVD Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E52U44 Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5960 

       

    http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00G707G2Whttps://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5959http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E52U44https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5960

  • Episode Guide, 1966-1999

    Register of the Firing Line(Television Program) broadcastrecords

    80040 17

    Program Number27

    "Do Liberals Make Good Republicans?"Guests: Chafee, John H., 1922-15 September 1966

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 71 : 11Transcript: Box/Folder 160 : 5Program details: A sparkling exchange with a very successful liberal Republican, who,unlike some other liberal Republicans, backed his party's presidential candidate in 1964.Messrs. Buckley and Chafee address policy issues (taxation, federal subsidies) and alsointra-party relations. WFB: "Suppose you were to run for President, and somebody startedcalling you a fascist. Presumably, you are no more a fascist than Senator Goldwater is,but are we up against here something which suggests the special difficulty of theRepublican Party ... because of the excesses which the opposition feels free to use? ..."JC: "I agree with you that the Republicans just cannot spend their time chopping upRepublicans, and I think this so-called eleventh commandment that they adopted outthere in California, which was that a Republican shall not say an evil word about anotherRepublican, is something we've just got to have...." WFB: "Well, what about an evilRepublican? What do you say about him?" JC: "I find that rather a contradiction in terms. Ihaven't yet found an evil Republican."Availability: Special order, please contact the Archives. Hoover Identifier number:80040.27Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5961 

       Program Number28

    "Should Labor Power Be Reduced?"Guests: Riesel, Victor.19 September 1966

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 71 : 12Transcript: Box/Folder 160 : 6Program details: Mr. Riesel, as Mr. Buckley recounts in his introduction, "considershimself... a militant unionist"; despite, or because of, this, he is relentless in his exposureof union corruption, which is what led one of the corrupted, in 1956, to throw acid in hisface, blinding him but by no means putting him out of action. An illuminating discussionof the history and present of trade unionism in this country. VR: "Bill, the whole businessof using the word 'metaphysical' with George Meany has so discombobulated me, I'mgoing to have to recollect all my thoughts. But no, seriously, the fact is that when you'retalking about new laws, I mean the Sherman Act, the Clayton Act ..., you're going back 85years to an era when ... the robber baron had the power ... Sure, you have a parallel now,there's enormous industrial power in the trade-union movement, but we have laws, and Isay, enforce those laws."Availability: On amazon.com. Hoover Identifier number: 80040.28DVD Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E52U4E Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5962 

       

    https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5961http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E52U4Ehttps://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5962

  • Episode Guide, 1966-1999

    Register of the Firing Line(Television Program) broadcastrecords

    80040 18

    Program Number29

    "Communist China and the United Nations"Guests: Lerner, Max, 1902-19 September 1966

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 71 : 13Transcript: Box/Folder 160 : 7Program details: Should Red China be admitted to the United Nations, at the expense ofexpelling Nationalist China? Mr. Lerner has come to believe it should: "It would help agood deal if we can show them [the up-and-coming generation in the Third World] thatwe're not fighting men. We're not a fighting nation. We do not depend upon the exclusionof Communist China from the UN in order to really show what we stand for and whatwe're about." To Mr. Buckley, the problem is less the admission than the expulsion: "I'msimply saying that as a pragmatic fact I don't think anybody thinks that we are 'afraid' tobring Red China in except to the extent that we are afraid of doing somethingwrong....And also that we are afraid of, for instance, the fate of fifteen million overseasChinese, that we are afraid of the fate of twelve million Chinese in Taiwan, and we'reafraid of the collapse of morale in the free sectors of Asia."Availability: Special order, please contact the Archives. Hoover Identifier number:80040.29Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5963 

       Program Number30

    "National Priorities and Disarmament"Guests: Melman, Seymour.3 October 1966

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 71 : 14Transcript: Box/Folder 160 : 8Program details: Mr. Melman was a prominent opponent of our part in the arms race--itwas he who coined the term "overkill." His opposition is based partly on an opposition tothe arms race per se, partly on the assertion that "embedded in the activity that is paidfor out of these defense funds is about two-thirds, or perhaps even a bit more, of theprime skilled talent of the country, research engineers and scientists of the nation." WFBtakes issue with his numbers, and we're off and running.Availability: Special order, please contact the Archives. Hoover Identifier number:80040.30Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5964 

       

    https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5963https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5964

  • Episode Guide, 1966-1999

    Register of the Firing Line(Television Program) broadcastrecords

    80040 19

    Program Number31

    "LBJ and Evans and Novak"Guests: Evans, Rowland, 1921-3 October 1966

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 71 : 15Transcript: Box/Folder 160 : 9Program details: We eventually get to LBJ, but first Mr. Buckley leads his guest into alively though cautious discussion of how a journalist's own politics affect his writing and,specifically, whether Evans and Novak give equal treatment to liberals and conservatives.WFB: "It may sound like rather a personal question, but I think it's objectively interesting.You wrote in your column a few months ago that you had heard Nixon say that the,quotes, Buckleyites were more dangerous to the Republican Party than the Birchites...."RE: "I think that what Nixon meant was that the Buckleyites are very persuasive, they'revery able, they have an outlet in the National Review and other publications, they areextremely intelligent ... whereas ... the Birchers are rather ..." WFB: "Does all that make itanti-Republican? To be intelligent and persuasive?" RN: "... I think he probably felt youshould ask Mr. Nixon this ... that the Buckleyites are to the right of the mainstream of theRepublican Party and because they do have this forensic and persuasive ability ... thatthey represent a greater threat. But I beg you to ask Mr. Nixon that question...."Availability: Special order, please contact the Archives. Hoover Identifier number:80040.31Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5965 

       Program Number32

    "Civilian Review Board: Yes or No?"Guests: Kheel, Theodore Woodrow.7 October 1966

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 71 : 16Transcript: Box/Folder 160 : 10Program details: The hottest of many hot issues in New York City in the first year of theLindsay administration--and in a period when the major cities of America were eruptingwith race riots--was whether there should be a civilian-dominated review boardoverseeing the police. Mayor Lindsay had made establishing such a board an importantpart of his mayoral campaign and had instituted it in July; Mr. Kheel ably defends it asaffording protection (especially for minorities) against police brutality without hamperingtheir legitimate law-enforcement capability. Mr. Buckley, who had made opposition to theboard an important part of his campaign against Mr. Lindsay, quotes J. Edgar Hoover assaying of Rochester, N.Y., a city with a civilian review board, that "the police were socareful to avoid accusations of improper conduct that they were virtually paralyzed."Note: A month after this show, New York City's voters rejected the board 2 to 1.Availability: On amazon.com. Hoover Identifier number: 80040.32DVD Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E53T26 Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5966 

       

    https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5965http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E53T26https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5966

  • Episode Guide, 1966-1999

    Register of the Firing Line(Television Program) broadcastrecords

    80040 20

    Program Number33

    "Criminals and the Supreme Court"Guests: Neier, Aryeh, 1937-7 November 1966

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 71 : 17Transcript: Box/Folder 160 : 11Program details: Was the Supreme Court "coddling criminals," as the common accusationhad it? Or was it properly securing rights frequently trampled on by jaded police, even ifthis meant that some criminals went free? An illuminating discussion in which usefuldistinctions are made, e.g., between search-and-seizure cases, where the only peoplehelped by the exclusionary rule are those found with incriminating evidence, andright-to-counsel cases, in some of which--Mr. Neier asserts, referring to recent incidentsin New York City--"district attorneys, of all people, had to move for dismissal ofindictments ...after murder confessions were secured, after between 10 and 26 hours ofpolice questioning. In none of those cases is it clear that police used actual physicalcoercion. In each of those cases it is clear that police engaged in standard forms ofquestioning designed to, on the one hand, terrify the person; on the other hand, to makehim think he's confessing to a buddy."Availability: Special order, please contact the Archives. Hoover Identifier number:80040.33Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5967 

       Program Number34

    "Open Housing"Guests: Morsell, John A.7 November 1966

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 71 : 18Transcript: Box/Folder 160 : 12Program details: A civil and illuminating exchange on a potentially explosive question,raised by a proposed Federal Open Housing Law that would ban racial discrimination inthe sale of housing. JM: "The ways in which people learn are also very, very diverse. Ihappen to believe very implicitly that the force of law is in itself an educative force, andthat if it is illegal for your man who wants to be with Irishmen to exercise that preferenceat the expense of someone else's right to live in a decent home, then the second right, itseems to me, prevails; and in the course of time, as behavior conforms to law, people'sattitudes and views will also tend to change."Availability: Special order, please contact the Archives. Hoover Identifier number:80040.34Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5968 

       

    https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5967https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5968

  • Episode Guide, 1966-1999

    Register of the Firing Line(Television Program) broadcastrecords

    80040 21

    Program Number35

    "The Failure of Organized Religion"Guests: Weiss, Paul, 1901-14 November 1966

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 72 : 1Transcript: Box/Folder 160 : 13Program details: When Mr. Buckley meets his old philosophy teacher on Firing Line, it'sthrust and parry from the start: WFB: "Tonight, Professor Weiss seeks to inform God thatit was a mistake to organize religion. Organized religion, he will argue, has failed." PW: "Idon't remember when God organized religion. Is there any time when God organizedreligion?" WFB: "Well, the situation was like this: There was God and there was Peter, yousee-" PW: "I thought they were distinct." WFB: "They were." PW: "Oh, good! Now-thenwhat?"Availability: On amazon.com. Hoover Identifier number: 80040.35DVD Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E50RS0 Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5969 

       Program Number36

    "What to Do with the American Teenager?"Guests: Kaufman, Murray.14 November 1966

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 72 : 2Transcript: Box/Folder 160 : 14Program details: A culture clash of the first order between a host who believes in theaccumulated wisdom of the ages and a guest ("the Fifth Beatle, as he has been called byone of the original four") who believes that people under 25 are more honest and moreperceptive than their elders-with the exception of Mr. Kaufman, whose new book wascalled: Murray the K Tells It like It Is, Baby. MK: "The commentary [in today's lyrics] is noton the life of the teenager. It is on Vietnam, it is on the double facades of the so-calledestablishment ... and I will admit that there are times that you have to dig kind of deep,beyond the maze or, as maybe you would say, the cacophony of sound ..."Availability: Special order, please contact the Archives. Hoover Identifier number:80040.36Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5970 

       Program Number37

    "Elections 1966 and 1968"Guests: Novak, Robert D.21 November 1966

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 72 : 3Transcript: Box/Folder 160 : 15Program details: We recently heard from Mr. Novak's partner in column--andbook--writing, Rowland Evans (Firing Line 031); this time it is Mr. Novak's turn to talkabout the political scene--and to give an unintended cautionary lesson to would-beprognosticators. WFB: "I'd like to begin by asking Mr. Novak whether he thinks it likelythat Mr. Nixon will be nominated in 1968." RN: "I think it's very unlikely. I think ... [theRepublicans] think now, with good reason, they have a chance of beating Mr. Johnson in1968. So this is not a throwaway election, this is a serious election. They want a winner,and Mr. Nixon is a loser. So I think they'll look primarily to George Romney."Availability: Special order, please contact the Archives. Hoover Identifier number:80040.37Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5971 

       

    http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E50RS0https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5969https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5970https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5971

  • Episode Guide, 1966-1999

    Register of the Firing Line(Television Program) broadcastrecords

    80040 22

    Program Number38

    "Sports, Persecution, and Christians"Guests: Lunn, Arnold Henry Moore, Sir, 1888-1974.28 November 1966

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 72 : 4Transcript: Box/Folder 160 : 16Program details: Sir Arnold was campaigning to persuade the Western world to stopengaging in sports contests (principally the Olympic Games) with Communist countries.This deep and rich conversation engages Christians' failure of nerve, as Sir Arnold sees it,in confronting what we would come to know as the Evil Empire. WFB: "Sir Arnold, thesaying is that sports and politics don't mix. Do you agree?" AL: "Well, it depends what youmean by politics. The old classical Olympic Games were restricted, in the words ofHerodotus, to those of common temples and sacrifices and like ways of life. Thebarbarians were excluded. The classical Greeks didn't regard that as a politicaldifference, but the difference between civilized people and barbarians. When I broke offrelations with the Nazis in skiing, I didn't consider the difference between myself andHitler was a political difference. It was a difference between a civilized man and anassassin."Availability: On amazon.com. Hoover Identifier number: 80040.38DVD Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E50RSA Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5972 

       Program Number39

    "The Warren Report: Fact or Fiction?"Guests: Lane, Mark.1 December 1966

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 72 : 5Transcript: Box/Folder 160 : 17Program details: While many people had been skeptical of the Warren Report'sconclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the assassination of PresidentKennedy, Mr. Lane's book was the first to lay out the argument seriously. He defendshimself ably in this spirited exchange. ML: "I take really the same position Alfreda Scoby,one of the lawyers for the Warren Commission, takes, and that is, had Oswald lived, hecould not have been proven guilty, had he faced trial, based upon the evidence theCommission was able to secure." WFB: "And of course Warren says that he was apracticing district attorney for ten or twelve years and he could have gotten a convictionin 48 hours with the evidence. You simply disagree with him professionally." ML: "That'snonsense. It would take longer than that to pick a jury, of course." WFB: "Do you thinkWarren should be impeached?" ML: "I don't think he should be impeached. I think thereport should be impeached."Availability: On amazon.com. Hoover Identifier number: 80040.39DVD Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E50RSK Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5973 

       

    http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E50RSAhttps://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5972http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E50RSKhttps://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5973

  • Episode Guide, 1966-1999

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    80040 23

    Program Number40

    "Rhodesia, the UN, and Southern Africa"Guests: O'Brien, Conor Cruise, 1917-12 January 1967

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 72 : 6Transcript: Box/Folder 160 : 18Program details: The gloves are off in this debate on the role of the West in general andAmerica in particular in post-colonial Africa. Specifically, how should we react to theRhodesian government's Unilateral Declaration of Independence? CCO: "Would youplease allow me to proceed without interruption as I allowed you? ... The [United Nations]Security Council has decided certain actions which you know of. Are you in favor of yourcountry carrying out its obligations?" WFB: "Absolutely not, under those circumstanceswhere the United Nations is clearly acting illegally and against the best interests of theUnited States." Note: The transcript lists the title of this episode as: "Discussion withConor Cruse O'Brien."Availability: Special order, please contact the Archives. Hoover Identifier number:80040.40Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5974 

       Program Number41

    "LBJ and the Intellectuals"Guests: Morgenthau, Hans Joachim, 1904-12 January 1967

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 72 : 7Transcript: Box/Folder 160 : 19Program details: A rich discussion of our political culture, starting with the JohnsonAdministration's confused objectives in Vietnam (HM: "Does it want self-determination forSouth Vietnam at the risk of a Communist takeover, or does it want to stop Communismat any price, even at the price of self-determination?") and ranging far and wide. WFB:"Well, then, how do you account for the enthusiasm of the intellectuals for Mr. Kennedy,when in fact it could be demonstrated that his own rhetoric and actions were at least asschizophrenic as President Johnson's?" HM: "It's a very good question. I addressed myselfto that question in '61.... The intellectuals ... had been in the wilderness for eight yearsand all of a sudden, here comes Mr. Kennedy, Harvard-educated, surrounded bymembers of the Harvard faculty-there were a few from Yale, in order to satisfy you, butvery few, so you were not very much satisfied. And of course many intellectuals, notmyself included, thought this was the golden Augustan age for intellectuals."Availability: On amazon.com. Hoover Identifier number: 80040.41DVD Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E52U4Y Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5975 

       

    https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5974http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E52U4Yhttps://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5975

  • Episode Guide, 1966-1999

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    80040 24

    Program Number42

    "Academic Freedom and Berkeley"Guests: Taylor, Harold, 1914-16 January 1967

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 72 : 8Transcript: Box/Folder 160 : 20Program details: We eventually get to Berkeley-where the Free Speech Movement andassociated radicalisms had completely broken down academic discipline--but before that,we have a never-the-twain-shall-meet discussion of which views might and which mightnot, under the tenets of academic freedom, disqualify a scholar from being hired by auniversity. WFB: "You, despising racism as much as I do, are prepared to assert that noone who is a racist actually would get into a college of which you were president, but thatin fact people can be well-qualified Communists." HT: "... there is a sharp distinction to bemade between a philosophy of racism, affirming the notion that there is one race superiorto another, ... and a political philosophy which one identifies as Communism. I think youhave to talk about those in different categories."Availability: On amazon.com. Hoover Identifier number: 80040.42DVD Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E52U58 Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5976 

       Program Number43

    "Presidential Politics"Guests: White, F. Clifton.16 January 1967

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 72 : 9Transcript: Box/Folder 160 : 21Program details: WFB and a fellow conservative Republican focus on the Democraticscene, where already--nearly two years before the presidential election-it was clear thatLBJ was in serious trouble. WFB: "But then aren't you really saying this: that LyndonJohnson could force his own renomination? But mightn't Bobby Kennedy make it almostpsychologically impossible for him to do so?" FCW: "Yes, he could conceivably do that,and of course ... from a Republican point of view this would be delightful and highlydesirable, because I think under those circumstances it would make it almost assuredthat the Republican nominee would win the general election." WFB: "Why do you saythat? If Lyndon Johnson stepped down in favor of Kennedy, ... why wouldn't Kennedy goon to win the election?" FCW: "Do you really think that Lyndon Johnson would step downcharitably, for a Bobby Kennedy?"Availability: Special order, please contact the Archives. Hoover Identifier number:80040.43Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5977 

       

    http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E52U58https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5976https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5977

  • Episode Guide, 1966-1999

    Register of the Firing Line(Television Program) broadcastrecords

    80040 25

    Program Number44

    "The Role of the Advocate"Guests: Bailey, F. Lee (Francis Lee), 1933-19 January 1967

    Scope and Contents noteTranscript: Box/Folder 160 : 22Program details: An often surprising exploration of criminal jurisprudence with a guestwho, as Mr. Buckley puts it, "if any of you should commit a murder ... is your man." WFB:"Do you believe that the right to refuse to testify is a right that is integral to the wholeprocess of the presumption of innocence?" FB: "Yes, it's as integral as it is illogical." WFB:"... And why is it illogical?" FLB: "The most efficient way to try a man is to put him on thestand first and ask him what he knows about the case; then if more evidence is needed,put that on, too. The defendant always knows, except in very rare cases of clear insanity,whether or not he is guilty or at least whether or not he committed the acts charged. Hisdegree of guilt may be fixed with some inference or some judgment by the jury, but hewould be the easiest source of information, and in some countries he's called first." WFB:"Well, do you understand yourself to be an advocate of the cause of defendants?" FLB:"Just an advocate. I could try a case from either side of the fence."Availability: On amazon.com. Hoover Identifier number: 80040.44DVD Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E50RSU Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5978 

       Program Number45

    "The Future of the UN"Guests: Plimpton, Francis T. P. (Francis Taylor Pearsons), 1900-1983.19 January 1967

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 72 : 10Transcript: Box/Folder 160 : 23Program details: The United Nations had been energetically debating the right ofRhodesia to declare independence unilaterally and the right of South Africa to continue toexercise its League of Nations mandate over South West Africa. But was anybodylistening? A serious discussion with a man whose public career began with theReconstruction Finance Corporation in 1932. FP: "In the case of South West Africa youhave that very unfortunate decision of the International Court of Justice, which after sixyears of deliberation, decided that it didn't have jurisdiction over the South West Africacase." WFB: "Rather, the plaintiff didn't have standing." FP: That's right. They once heldfour or five years ago that there were very fine distinctions here. One has to dance on thepoint of a pin to get them entirely."Availability: On amazon.com. Hoover Identifier number: 80040.45DVD Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E50RT4 Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5979 

       

    http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E50RSUhttps://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5978http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E50RT4https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5979

  • Episode Guide, 1966-1999

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    80040 26

    Program Number46

    "Do the States Have a Chance?"Guests: Unruh, Jesse, 1922-1987.6 March 1967

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 72 : 11Transcript: Box/Folder 160 : 24Program details: Do the states have a chance, that is, to carve out some freedom ofaction vis-a-vis the Federal Government? "Big Daddy" Jesse Unruh was, since RonaldReagan's defeat of Governor Pat Brown, the leading Democrat in California.Unfortunately, Mr. Buckley is unable to coax him down from a high level of generality.One sample, re states' rights: "Well, I think that's what's been happening in a greatrespect and I think that too much Federal Government is attuned to your Easternestablishment and the problems of the Southern states and the reluctance of theSouthern states so that many times those of us who feel we have earned the right tohandle our own problems are simply ignored in an overall position that is designed to fitthe desires of the Eastern establishment or the problems of the Southern states."Availability: Special order, please contact the Archives. Hoover Identifier number:80040.46Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5980 

       Program Number47

    "LBJ and Vietnam"Guests: Hartke, Vance. : Williams, C. Dickerman6 March 1967

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 72 : 12Transcript: Box/Folder 160 : 25Program details: As WFB introduces him, "Senator Hartke is perhaps best known, at thispoint in his career, as one of the leaders in the growing army of former friends andadmirers of Lyndon Johnson." This crackling exchange focuses on the main source of hisand the others' disaffection, Vietnam. VH: "I don't know whether you can say that or not[about the previous November's elections in Vietnam].... If you have some specialinformation source that I do not have available to me-" WFB: "You have the U.S.Government." VH: "The government's been wrong on so many things it's hard to tell. Thecolossal blunder that they made in the cost of this war, for example, when they tried toridicule my statement in front of the Finance Committee ... Well, they come back to thisin January and they admit that this is true." Note: The transcript lists the title for thisepisode as: "Vietnam."Availability: On amazon.com. Hoover Identifier number: 80040.47DVD Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E52U5I Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5981 

       

    https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5980http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E52U5Ihttps://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5981

  • Episode Guide, 1966-1999

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    Program Number48

    "Politics and the President"Guests: Wicker, Tom.7 March 1967

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 72 : 13Transcript: Box/Folder 160 : 26Program details: A colorful discussion of that already old topic, bias in the media, in thiscase starting with the question, "Would the New York Times ever refer to an 'ultra-liberalRepublican'?" TW: " 'Ultra-liberal Republican'? I doubt it, since there are very few suchanimals, but I don't know if there's any particular ban against this in the New York Times.We have some bans on certain words but that's not one of them so far as I know." WFB:"Yeah. But aren't those bans most interesting which are sort of self-enforcing andinexplicit? ... It's easy for the New York Times to refer to ultra-conservative Republicans,but for some reason you'd have to get a sort of special dispensation, the typewriterswould reject it, if you referred to an ultra-liberal Republican." TW: "Well, I think so.Typewriters have a high regard for the facts." WFB: "OK. Now you're saying that there'sno such thing as an ultra-liberal Republican." TW: "Well, only if you consider them in theRepublican spectrum."Availability: On amazon.com. Hoover Identifier number: 80040.48DVD Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003GXE9Q4 Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5982 

       Program Number49

    "Black Power"Guests: Hentoff, Nat.7 March 1967

    Scope and Contents noteTranscript: Box/Folder 160 : 27Program details: Mr. Hentoff had, Mr. Buckley tells us, written that "We must have blackpower to overcome white power." What exactly is meant by black power? Does it matterwhether the person talking about it is the Harlem teacher who is the subject of Mr.Hentoff's book, or Elijah Muhammad? And why are the New York Times and the New YorkPost so chary of it? NH: "I suppose they think of the doctrine as a racist doctrine and thecorollary concern seems to be that thereby the Negroes will alienate their good whitefriends and make things much more difficult for the coalition--that luminous coalition oflabor, the Church, and civil-rights groups and the like which is apparently about to endthe final verse of 'We Shall Overcome'." In fact, suggests Mr. Hentoff, what black power isproperly about is the power of blacks to have some say in the running of their ownneighborhoods and their own children's schools.Availability: On amazon.com. Hoover Identifier number: 80040.49DVD Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001MBTSIG Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5983 

       

    http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003GXE9Q4https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5982http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001MBTSIGhttps://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5983

  • Episode Guide, 1966-1999

    Register of the Firing Line(Television Program) broadcastrecords

    80040 28

    Program Number50

    "Is There a Role for a Third Party?"Guests: Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1914-1988.8 March 1967

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 73 : 1Transcript: Box/Folder 160 : 28Program details: Despite his own defeat, Mr. Roosevelt answers the title question with anemphatic "Yes. I think that the role of the third party has been, especially the LiberalParty- It has been often said in jest that its role in New York politics has been to keep theDemocratic Party honest and the Republican Party more liberal. Now, I suppose you couldturn that to say that the Conservative Party, on whose line you ran for Mayor a year and ahalf ago-their role, I suppose, would be to make the Republican Party more the party ofMcKinley, or Adam Smith, and-" WFB: "Are you against Adam Smith?" FDR: "I think thathe's a bit out of date."Availability: On amazon.com. Hoover Identifier number: 80040.50DVD Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E50RTE Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5984 

       Program Number51

    "U.S. Policy in Southeast Asia"Guests: Fritchey, Clayton.8 March 1967

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 73 : 2Transcript: Box/Folder 161 : 1Program details: Mr. Fritchey was a devoted Democrat who had become more and moredubious about President Johnson as our involvement in Vietnam had escalated. Hedemonstrates here that there is nothing reflexive about his dubiety, as the conversationranges across wars cold and hot. WFB: "For instance, Paul Henri Spaak, who was so muchadmired by Adlai Stevenson, ... said, 'I think there is a real parallel between the UnitedStates policy in 1949 and the situation in Asia now. It seems to me the same policy.' Hewent on to say that the United States believes that they have to defend people againstCommunism when they refuse to adopt Communism.... Then he says, 'I see nocontradiction between what the United States did in Europe in 1949 and what they did inVietnam and Southeast Asia.' But you do." CF: "Well, if I could be sure from day to daywhat the government's principal justification for being in South Vietnam was, I would bein a better position to discuss it. But, as you know, it changes from day to day."Availability: Special order, please contact the Archives. Hoover Identifier number:80040.51Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5985 

       

    http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E50RTEhttps://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5984https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5985

  • Episode Guide, 1966-1999

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    Program Number52

    "Do We Have Anything Left to Fear from Socialism?"Guests: Hook, Sidney, 1902-1989.9 March 1967

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 73 : 3Transcript: Box/Folder 161 : 2Program details: Mr. Hook answers the title question, as he answers every question,forthrightly: "Well, that depends upon what you mean by socialism. In one sense therewas a great deal to fear from dogmatic socialism.... But on the whole, if one doesn't takea dogmatic position, I would say there never was anything to fear from socialism.... The...real issue that separates the Communist countries from the free Western democraticcountries is not socialism or capitalism as economic systems, but the freedom to choosebetween them or among other economic forms of life. As a democratic socialist, I havebeen opposed to Communism because I believe in freedom." A rousing discussion of howbest that freedom can actually be fostered.Availability: Special order, please contact the Archives. Hoover Identifier number:80040.52Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5986 

       Program Number53

    "The World of LSD"Guests: Leary, Timothy Francis, 1920-10 April 1967

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 73 : 4Transcript: Box/Folder 161 : 3Program details: We all remember Dr. Leary as a proselytizer for LSD; we've mostlyforgotten that he had started out as a doctor of clinical psychology and that he had madeLSD the basis of a "new religion." On this show, he makes his opening statement beforehe ever says a word, by appearing not in a business suit but in a flower childget-up-ruffled shirt, no jacket or tie. He argues that WFB is confusing psychedelic drugs,which Dr. Leary says "intensify consciousness," with opiates and alcohol, "something thatis an escape, something that takes you away from reality." WFB: "Let's go ahead andagree that LSD seems to be in some particulars different from other opiates or drugs orchemicals, at the same time agreeing that LSD is a departure from the normal world-" TL:"But what do you mean by 'normal world'? You mean Harry Truman! Is that normal?"Availability: On amazon.com. Hoover Identifier number: 80040.53DVD Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E50RTO Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5987 

       

    https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5986http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E50RTOhttps://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5987

  • Episode Guide, 1966-1999

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    80040 30

    Program Number54

    "Censorship and the Production Code"Guests: Preminger, Otto.10 April 1967

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 73 : 5Transcript: Box/Folder 161 : 4Program details: A discussion of artistic freedom and censorship with a leading producer,one of whose films (The Moon Is Blue) had run into trouble with the Motion PictureProduction Code. A spirited discussion with a man who, despite themodern-Americanness of his films (including Anatomy of a Murder and The Man with theGolden Arm), retains, however unpresciently, an Old World sense of the order of things: "Ihave said that an immoral film could not be successful. I think there is morality built intoany dramatic medium, whether it's a play or a television show. You cannot mention onesuccessful play or film where the bad principle won."Availability: On amazon.com. Hoover Identifier number: 80040.54DVD Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E52U5S Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5988 

       Program Number55

    "The Regular in Politics"Guests: De Sapio, Carmine.1 May 1967

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 73 : 6Transcript: Box/Folder 161 : 5Program details: Mr. De Sapio was the "Tammany Hall boss" defeated in 1963 by a young"reform Democrat" named Edward Koch. WFB attempts in this hour to explore how partyleaders actually wield their power, but Mr. De Sapio is wary and can't be drawn. WFB:"Suppose I had been a district leader and said, 'Mr. De Sapio, I love you like a brother,but, in fact, I want Adlai Stevenson nominated [as opposed to JFK].' What happens to me?Do I get thrown in the East River?" CDS: "You are applauded for your candor." WFB: "Youare not suggesting that you wouldn't put-pressure on me? Unless you were in a positionto put pressure on me, Mr. Kennedy wouldn't be so concerned to get your support-isn'tthat the way it works?" CDS: "Not necessarily." WFB: "I'm not necessarily againstpressure, I just want to know more about the mechanics-" CDS: "I don't think that's theproper word; I think that a better word would be an understanding."Availability: On amazon.com. Hoover Identifier number: 80040.55DVD Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E52U62 Digital Collections Link: https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5989 

       

    http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E52U5Shttps://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5988http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E52U62https://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/5989

  • Episode Guide, 1966-1999

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    80040 31

    Program Number56

    "How to Protest"Guests: Macdonald, Dwight.1 May 1967

    Scope and Contents noteBackground File: Box/Folder 73 : 7Transcript: Box/Folder 161 : 6Program details: Mr. Macdonald had recently been an organizer of the "Step OutMovement"-i.e., to step out of a hall where Vice President Humphrey would be speaking,in protest against the Vietnam War. This show offers a fast-paced duel between twolongtime adversaries. WFB: "Well, Mr. Macdonald, why don't we try to isolate those formsof protest that you disagree with? You would disagree with, let's say, shooting thePresident?" DM: "Yes." WFB: "Would you disagre