A Glorious Disaster by J. William Middendorf II

Author:J. William Middendorf II [J. WILLIAM MIDDENDORF II]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 2011-12-31T00:00:00+00:00

There were trinkets of a different sort as well, a string of virulent books written, published, and generally sold by people not connected with either campaign. Millions of copies were printed—one estimate for those on the Goldwater side was 16 million in total. Some were purchased in bulk by local organizations for free distribution; the Goldwater campaign endorsed none and kept them at arm’s length. Most popular were A Texan Looks at Lyndon by J. Evetts Haley, which portrayed LBJ as a compulsive wheeler-dealer and political fixer; None Dare Call It Treason by John A. Stormer, which found a Communist under every bed and a one-world government just around the corner; and A Choice Not an Echo by Phyllis Schlafly—a reasoned argument against the Country Club Republicans.

The other side had Barry Goldwater: A Political Indictment. A Moderate Republican’s Critical Appraisal of the Man and the Issues, by Edward Paul Mattar III; An Answer to Goldwater, by Millard L. Howell (“The purpose of this book is to help the American people understand and realize the inherent dangers of ‘rugged individualistic’ Conservatism and thereby make certain that it remains obsolete”); and Barry Goldwater: Extremist of the Right, by Fred J. Cook (which portrayed “Gold-water—the man, the myth, the menace,” insensitive to the lot of common people, preoccupied “almost exclusively with the selfish interests of his own well-placed class, . . . surrounded by henchmen like the wily Clif White.”

The only one of these with any claim to lasting relevance was Schlafly’s book, which helped to launch her career as a conservative activist.

The basic campaign strategy remained “Go hunting where the ducks are.” Except for a few token visits, Barry wouldn’t spend much time on New England, New York, or Pennsylvania; instead, he would concentrate on the South (127 electoral votes), the Midwest (especially Ohio and Illinois, 52 votes), a smattering of traditional Republican states (Oklahoma, Kentucky, Arizona, 22 votes; Nebraska, Kansas, Indiana, Wyoming, Colorado, the Dakotas, and the smaller mountain states, perhaps 50 or 60 votes), and, of course, the big prize: California, 92 votes. It was basically the same plan we’d had ever since Clif White’s initial presentation at the December 1962 meeting.

Among the issues to be addressed were America’s loss of international prestige, the Berlin Wall, the repudiation of the Monroe Doctrine, the situation with Cuba, the war in Vietnam (which by that point had taken the lives of only a few hundred Americans but threatened to grow—Barry was opposed to the war but believed that if we were going to do it, we should do it right), the scandals that swirled around the Johnson administration (especially the tale of Bobby Baker, LBJ’s protégé when he was Senate majority leader, who had become very rich through what is generally termed “influence peddling”), the continuing shift of power from the people to the federal government, the “dismal failure” to enforce law and order, and “the discouragement of individual initiative and responsibility among our people.”

Barry wanted to engage LBJ in a televised debate—as he had earlier planned to do with Kennedy—but we had to overcome some impediments.

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