Latest news with #WilliamBuckley
CBS News
29-06-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
William Buckley and his drive to propel America to the right
William Buckley and his drive to propel America to the right William Buckley and his drive to propel America to the right William Buckley and his drive to propel America to the right For decades, William F. Buckley Jr. was a one-of-a-kind character: an author and columnist, and a celebrity intellectual. He hosted a TV debate show, "Firing Line," and was often a guest on late night television. But beyond that stardom and upper-crust accent was something consequential: Bill Buckley was a conservative who sought to propel the nation to the right. "Buckley invented cultural politics," said former New York Times Book Review Editor Sam Tanenhaus. He says we are still living in the world created by Buckley, who died in 2008. (He would have turned 100 this year.) I asked, "Is there a line from Buckley to McCarthy, to Goldwater, to Nixon, to Reagan, to Gingrich, to Trump?" "You have just drawn the fever chart or outline of the modern Republican Party in America," Tanenhaus replied. "He's the founder of the movement we have today." Tanenhaus' sweeping new biography is "Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America." Random House Buckley's beginnings can be traced back to Yale University, which now houses an extensive archive of his personal papers. Buckley burst onto the national scene in 1951 with his book, "God and Man at Yale," which took on his alma mater as a thicket of secular professors and liberal elites. Tanenhaus said, "He was 25 years old, handsome Ivy League graduate who has everything going for him, but he's also gonna reveal the secrets of the ivory tower." In 1955, he founded National Review, seeking to provide conservatives with coverage of their ideas and debates. (I once worked there as a Buckley fellow and reporter). Though he never held office himself, Buckley caused a stir when he ran for mayor of New York City in 1965, and mused that if he won, he would demand a recount. "He was really turning the party inside out," Tanenhaus said. "He was going to make the Republican Party the voice of the excluded middle class." But as he built his new coalition, he also drew scrutiny and denunciations, especially on race. In the Fifties and Sixties, Buckley opposed key civil rights legislation, and supported segregation. And he had his critics. Buckley's views were rebuked at high-profile debates, be it with James Baldwin or Gore Vidal. Tanenhaus says, by the late sixties, Buckley was seen as a central force, boosting Richard Nixon and, in 1980, Ronald Reagan, who won the presidency "Bill Buckley reached his peak under Richard Nixon, because Nixon needed Buckley," Tanenhaus said. Reagan, however, did not: "Reagan was a great pragmatist, and he knew that Buckley was still a movement guy." Then came a new generation of louder, brasher conservatives, starting with Rush Limbaugh. And in Washington, there was Newt Gingrich, who won the Speaker's gavel in 1994. Asked what he believed Buckley thought of the rising stars of the right in the 1990s, Gingrich said, "I think we amused him. He was proof that conservatism could be smart, and that you could win the argument. Buckley was a model of thinking about things and to say things that are true but not acceptable." Gingrich, now a close ally of President Donald Trump, says the flame of Buckley still flickers inside the GOP. "Much of the critique that Buckley made at Yale of the intellectuals is the underlying fuel for Trump's assault on the Ivy League," he said. I asked, "You see echoes of Buckley in what President Trump's doing with the universities today?" "Yes." "What's the difference in your view between Buckley's conservatism and President Trump's conservatism?" "Trump is the most effective anti-liberal in my lifetime," Gingrich said. "I think Trump focuses on doing and achieving more than on knowing. I think Buckley thought his role was to be a genuine intellectual. And that meant, obviously, he wouldn't be a particularly good politician." Tanenhaus says William F. Buckley Jr's legacy is complicated. His civility certainly stands out: "He wants to defeat you, but he's gonna defeat you with his vocabulary. And that is an aspect of democracy that's been lost." Yet, for the biographer, there is also an inescapable conclusion: Buckley paved the way for Trump: "If Trump is able, if he succeeds in some of the big things he means to do, then he may emerge as the single most powerful figure to come out of the movement William F. Buckley Jr. created all those years ago." READ AN EXCERPT: "Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America" For more info: Story produced by Michelle Kessel. Editor: Jennifer Falk.
Bloomberg
13-06-2025
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Reagan Wasn't the Conservative He's Made Out to Be
For those of us of a certain age and sensibility, Ronald Reagan is the quintessential American conservative. He not only vanquished the Evil Empire and restored business's animal spirits. He rode a horse, wore a cowboy hat and, when his wife came to visit him in hospital after he survived a 1981 assassination attempt, quipped 'honey, I forgot to duck.' By comparison, Donald Trump is an interloper as well as a Yahoo. But does this view survive forensic analysis? In a recent column on Sam Tanenhaus' new biography of William Buckley, my colleague, Toby Harshaw, makes it clear that Trumpism is deeply rooted in the American conservative tradition. And, as I made my own journey through Tanenhaus' thousand pages, I was struck by a heretical thought: The real interloper in the conservative tradition was not Trump but Ronald Reagan (and, by implication, his great imitator, George W. Bush). Reagan was the ultimate double agent: Beneath his cowboy hat, he smuggled two ideas that were anathema to movement conservatives, neoliberalism and neoconservativism, into the heart of Republican policymaking.
NDTV
23-05-2025
- Politics
- NDTV
CIA Station Chief Who Was Tortured For 14 Months, Then Killed By Hezbollah
New Delhi: For 444 days, William Buckley, a decorated CIA officer, was not just missing. He was trapped, shackled and tortured. Isolated in a Beirut cell so dark and silent it erased the distinction between days and nights, reality and memory. He was a prisoner of Hezbollah during Lebanon's civil war, a conflict where lives disappeared as quickly as buildings crumbled, in 1984. He survived war zones before. He had stared down danger in some of the most volatile regions on Earth. But nothing could prepare him for this. The Man Behind The Mission William Francis Buckley wasn't just another spy. He was a Vietnam War veteran and a seasoned CIA field officer with over 30 years of service. Those who knew him described a man of contradictions: deeply religious yet trained in deception, Midwestern polite yet hardened by global conflict. He was part of the old guard - agents who still believed in the romance of espionage, in handshakes and gut instincts over satellite feeds and spreadsheets. Sent to Beirut in the aftermath of a deadly embassy bombing in 1983, his mission was to rebuild the CIA's broken network in a country teetering on the edge of collapse. The situation, however, was far from manageable. Iran-backed militias were gaining ground, and American involvement in Lebanon, especially its backing of Israel, made US operatives prime targets. The Kidnapping On March 16, 1984, the CIA's top man in Beirut stepped out of his apartment in the Ramlet al-Baida neighbourhood, likely headed to work. Minutes later, Hezbollah-linked militants grabbed him, bundled him into a car, and vanished into the city's broken underbelly. The agency had warned him. He had been told to travel with protection. But Buckley, a fiercely independent man with a deep sense of duty, often moved alone. That morning, it made him an easy target. He disappeared into Beirut's shadow war. The CIA's most vital presence in Lebanon was gone. The Captivity Buckley was moved between locations before being held in what many believe was the underground facility known grimly as the "Beirut Hilton." There, the torture began. He was beaten, tortured, interrogated while drugged, kept in isolation, denied basic medical care, and left to rot in the dark. There were no Geneva Conventions here. No Red Cross visits. No way to mark the passage of time except perhaps the cracks in the walls or the rhythm of his own breathing. He had trained for this. He had rehearsed how to mentally survive. To survive, Buckley reached inward. Bible verses. Film dialogues. Faint echoes of conversations long past. All the mental armour he had forged in his CIA training. But even the strongest minds have their breaking point. His came in a windowless cell where the world forgot him. The End According to later reports, including from fellow hostage David Jacobson, Buckley was heard coughing violently in the summer of 1985. Then came the sound of a struggle. Guards shouting. Something heavy dragged across the floor. It was June 3, 1985. That night is widely believed to be when William Buckley died. He had been gone for over 14 months. A Fractured Reaction Inside the CIA, Buckley's abduction caused a storm. Some officers feared he was dead from the start. Others clung to hope. CIA Director William Casey was among them. He refused to add Buckley's star to the agency's memorial wall, insisting they keep trying. He even approached Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, to explore a prisoner swap. But the Israelis, based on their own intelligence, believed Buckley had already been killed under torture. When Hezbollah eventually announced his death, they released a photo of his bruised and dead body, along with sensitive CIA documents he had been carrying. His body was never returned. Legacy Of A Fallen Spy William Buckley's story didn't end with his death. In 2002, rumours emerged of a possible burial site near the Mediterranean. Two men dug feverishly, hoping to recover his remains. It turned out to be a hoax. Eventually, the CIA did add Buckley's star to the Memorial Wall at Langley. His case helped reshape how the CIA works in hostile zones. It also played an indirect role in the Iran-Contra affair, where desperate moves were made to secure other hostages by dealing arms to Iran.
Yahoo
16-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Deseret News archives: CIA boss William Buckley taken by Hezbollah in 1984
A look back at local, national and world events through Deseret News archives. On March 16, 1984, William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, was kidnapped by Hezbollah militants; he would be tortured by his captors and killed in 1985. In the Deseret News' story of the day, Buckley was listed as an American diplomat. One year later to the day, Associated Press correspondent Terry Anderson was kidnapped in Beirut by Hezbollah militants; he would spend nearly seven years in captivity before being freed in December 1991. One man made it home, the other did not. Per Deseret News investigative reporters Jack Anderson and Dale Van Atta, Buckley was seized by three gunmen as he headed for his office in the U.S. Embassy in Beirut. The most reliable intelligence now places his death about Oct. 4, 1985. But not until the following Dec. 5 was the CIA certain he was dead. 'We broke the news on Dec. 13, 1985, reporting that Buckley was the victim of savage torture that had induced a heart attack. The CIA, paralyzed by this unprecedented capture and abuse of one of its key officials, could not decide how to respond. So CIA officials denied our story. 'The following February, President Reagan admitted to us, off the record, that Buckley was dead. But it was a full year after we broke the story that his death was publicly acknowledged, and the CIA has continued to suppress the details,' the pair reported. In reality, even today, little is known about Buckley, what information he gave up to his captors and about CIA activities. At CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, the Memorial Wall is located in the Original Headquarters Building lobby on the north wall. There are 140 stars carved into the marble wall, representing CIA employees who have died in the line of duty. In front of the wall is a glass-encased 'Book of Honor.' It lists the names of 106 officers who died while serving their country. The names of the remaining 34 officers must remain secret, even in death; each of these officers is remembered in the book by a star. This wall memorializes those men and women who served and sacrificed in silence. Here are some Deseret News articles about Buckley, the CIA and its operatives and how it acknowledges its own: 'CIA official tortured to death, gave secrets' 'CIA remembers fallen covert operatives' 'CIA officers marks death of spy with rare request' 'Higgins' body flown back to base in U.S.' 'Veil of secrecy shrouding dead CIA officer lifted' 'CIA defector dies in Moscow' 'CIA has a brutal history of assassination attempts' 'Former CIA officer shares tools, tricks to protect self, family in 'Spy Secrets''
