Bill Buckley at 80

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

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NEW YORK SUN CONTRIBUTOR

The tribute to William F. Buckley, gathered by President Bush in the White House yesterday, was, we gather, quite an event. The occasion was Mr. Buckley’s 80th birthday and the 50th anniversary of the National Review, via whose pages he rose to greatness. It was a warm and lively event. The legendary columnist James Jackson Kilpatrick was there, along with George Will, Alistair Horne and Stan Evans, and Mr. Buckley’s brother, Senator Buckley, who represented the state of New York in the upper chamber. Among those present was one of Mr. Buckley’s former employees on the National Review, William McGurn, now Mr. Bush’s chief speech writer. Mr. Buckley’s family, colleagues, and friends were on hand, with his Medal of Freedom on display, along with first editions of two of his most famous books, “God and Man at Yale” and “McCarthy and His Enemies.”


President Bush made the key points with warmth and humor. He began by saying he’d dropped in to escort William F. Buckley Jr. to lunch. He said his guests probably thought they were at a meeting of the “Yale Scholars Association.” When that brought laughter, Mr. Bush said: “Actually, Bill Buckley did have an influence on me when I followed him at Yale. You might remember one of his famous quotes, ‘The job of conservatives was to stand athwart history, yelling, stop.’ That’s the approach I took to most of my classes.” That got some more laughter. “I also do want to throw a little bouquet to him, and let him know that all I’ve learned about the English language . . .,” which brought more laughter. The president acknowledged Henry Kissinger; the National Review’s chairman, Dusty Rhodes, and its publisher, Ed Capano.


“An author, an editor, a spy, a novelist, a sailor and a conductor” is how the president characterized Mr. Buckley’s career. He said the most important thing Mr. Buckley did was “contribute to the realm of ideas for America” as an entrepreneur, forming a magazine that, the president said, “helped move conservatism from the margins of American society into the Oval Office.” The “amazing thing,” Mr. Bush said, “is that sometimes it’s hard to be a leader because you hear all kinds of voices.” Mr. Bush spoke of how Mr. Buckley had gathered an eclectic group, including “ex-communists who knew better than most the threat posed to America by the Soviet Union” and “free marketers who knew that markets could deliver better results than bureaucracies” and “traditionalists who understood that a government by – of and by and for the people could not stand unless it stood on moral ground.”


The president said he was sure that “it’s hard for some of the youngsters … to imagine the day when the only conservative game in Washington, D.C. was Bill Buckley and the National Review.” It is, he said, “hard to believe that in 1955, the Soviet Union was in full power, that Ronald Reagan was a Democrat.” The president got a chuckle when he said that the “truth of the matter is, Bill, I was more interested in Willie Mays than I was in you.” But, he said, “a lot has changed in a brief period of time, when you think about it.” Then he said: “Many of the more important changes of the 20th century happened because the National Review stood strong, and that’s a fact – that’s a fact of history.” And with that the president of the United States escorted the great columnist off to his private dining room, so the two of them could have lunch.

NY Sun
NEW YORK SUN CONTRIBUTOR

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.


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