Cheers Mr. President
Posted on 05/22/2007 5:50:47 AM PDT by IrishMike
Forty years ago, Reagan taught RFK a lesson that ought to be remembered. The life of Ronald Reagan continues to be profiled by an apparent ever-flowing stream of new books. What are surprising are the many new revelations: Just when we thought we knew everything about the man, some enterprising scholar digs up something new. While not a total revelation — it was caught by a few early Reagan biographers — there was an event that occurred 40 years ago this month that has gone underreported and certainly unappreciated. The event concerns not only Reagan’s political life but that of an equally well-known rising star of the time: Robert F. Kennedy. It should be a permanent part of our mental history of Reagan’s rise, if not a permanent video exhibit at the Reagan Library and Museum.
On May 15, 1967, there was a fascinating debate between California’s new Republican governor, Ronald Reagan, and New York’s new Democratic senator, Robert F. Kennedy. The subject: the Vietnam War. The debate was titled “The Image of America and the Youth of the World,” and was billed by CBS as a “Town Meeting of the World.” It was broadcast from 10:00-11:00 P.M. EDT by CBS TV Network and CBS Radio Network. It was produced by later 60 Minutes brainchild Don Hewitt and hosted by CBS News correspondent Charles Collingwood. The debate was watched by a huge audience: 15 million Americans.
There was agreement, including among media sources who revered Bobby Kennedy, from the San Francisco Chronicle to Newsweek, that Reagan overwhelmingly won the debate. “To those unfamiliar with Reagan’s big-league savvy,” reported Newsweek, “the ease with which he fielded questions about Vietnam may have come as a revelation.” Newsweek judged that “political rookie Reagan … left old campaigner Kennedy blinking when the session ended.”
(Excerpt) Read more at article.nationalreview.com ...
I believe when it was over, RFK was said to have remarked to his staff, “How the f*** did you get me into this?”
Say what you will about RFK, but both he and Ronnie are the kind of shining stars we don’t see coming down the pike anymore.
"Why does bologna reject the grinder?"
Mark for later. Thanks for posting.
Thanks...
I wonder if a man like Ronald Reagan will ever pass this way again.
This is a great read, and it would be nice to see one of those threads that go on for days on this one. The only reason that this is an obscure story is because one of the parties was a Kennedy.
Reagan was a brilliant debater. He destroyed William F. Buckley in a debate over the Panama Canal too. For a dumb actor, Reagan had superior grasps of the facts and impeccable logic on side and was able to deliver his arguements with great authority and even good humor.
Robert Kennedy was a shrewish, hypocritical boor, and would have been a Jimmy Carter type President had he lived. I have no doubt he would have won easily the 1968 Presidential election, and I’ve always thought the nation was unfortunately lucky that never happened due to the events in that hotel kitchen.
I guess we overlook his ridiculous positions he offered up in that era because of the assasination.
Anyone remember his trying to get medical supplies to North Vietnam? I do. He eventually realized that was political suicide, and dropped it. But it was very revealing of how he thought at the time.
He had more in common with Jane Fonda than he did Ronald Reagan, in short. And the irony was Vietnam happened in large part because of the two administration Bobby Kennedy was party to, his brother’s and LBJ’s. He was there, right alongside McNamara and company when the worst decisions were made about Indochina. He agreed with his brothers assasination attempts, the successful one in regards to the South Vietnamese President, and the attempts on Castro.
The irony can’t be missed in my opinion.....
LOL, what a Kennedy. JFK and JFK, Jr. are the only Kennedy's that I have any respect for at all.
I was William F. Buckley’s driver here in Kansas City during the GOP Convention in 1976. What a man! I learned more just listening to him talk in the back seat with his wife in fifteen minutes than I did in an entire year of college.
Reagan is one of a kind. I like Fred Thompson, but in no way do I see him on par with Reagan. What I get a kick out of is all the people who think Reagan was no better than Bush in giving speeches and inspiring the country.
This key difference between Republicans and Democrats continues today!
The fiasco began with a “question” from a female British student, who started: “I believe the war in Vietnam is illegal, immoral, politically unjustifiable, and economically motivated.” That opening salvo set the tone. In one particularly repulsive moment, the students mockingly laughed out loud when Reagan said (obviously correctly) that the people of Mao’s China had never chosen their government.
Sounds like the Soros-funded and peaceniks/liberals/Democrats of today, doesn't it?? Except now they embrace Castro instead of Mao!
Moral equivalency is a game the Soviets excelled at exploiting, and that the Left gobbled up; no doubt, it was a central part of the education these students received in college. Moral equivalency stated that neither the U.S.S.R. nor the United States could claim a moral high ground in the Cold War, both were equally culpable for its start and continuation, and neither nation’s political system was superior to the other.
The same kind of thinking exists today, sometimes even in usually conservative cultures like Christian churches and the Republican party!! We must be aware of that danger and point it out when we see it!
For his part, Reagan detested moral equivalency and took it on each time it reared its ugly head during the evening. Kennedy did not.
Again, conservatism vs. liberalism. There is a difference between the parties!!
Reagan performed so well that his presidential boosters sought to use clips from the debate during the 1968 Oregon presidential primary, and requested a copy from CBS. Kennedy, however, reportedly did not want the video to be made available; CBS, naturally, acceded to his request.
But there is no media bias, right?
If anyone has this debate, could they post it on YOUTUBE?? What an education it could provide!
Bump for later read
BTTT
Right after 911, I called one of my friends and said, “OK the gloves are off now. Now I will say this..Yeah, the Western way IS better. Period. The Western way of life Is better. Period.” I totally agree with Ronald Reagan..this relativism has got to be stopped.
Bill of Rights “We believe that all people are created equal with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” ALL people. including blacks, Arab women, Muslim women, Jewish people.
We as Americans cannot and will not accept another civilizations’ “right” to hate Jews, to dominate women in the name of religion, to kill others in the name of religion. Period.
“LOL, what a Kennedy. JFK and JFK, Jr. are the only Kennedy’s that I have any respect for at all.”
I’m not here to disparage the dead, but what exactly did JFK, Jr. do to deserve your respect? He was a rich pretty boy who ran a failed magazine. I don’t asssume that some of the positions of his magazine were his positions. In fact, we don’t even know if he had any political positions because he never expressed them. Merely teased both the right and left.
I feel bad that he died at such a young age, but he did nothing that I know of that would hold him up as someone to be respected by all our countrymen. Maybe the women because they all went gaga over him (including my wife).
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