PATRICK BUCHANAN -- IN HIS OWN WORDS
Here is a sampling of Buchanan's views:
ON AFRICAN-AMERICANS
After Sen. Carol Moseley Braun blocked a federal patent for a
Confederate flag insignia, Buchanan wrote that she was "putting on an act"
by associating the Confederacy with slavery: "The War Between the States
was about independence, about self-determination, about the right of a
people to break free of a government to which they could no longer give
allegiance," Buchanan asserted. "How long is this endless groveling
before every cry of'racism' going to continue before the whole country
collectively throws up?" (syndicated column, 7/28/93)
On race relations in the late 1940s and early 1950s: "There were no
politics to polarize us then, to magnify every slight. The 'negroes' of
Washington had their public schools, restaurants, bars, movie houses,
playgrounds and churches; and we had ours." (Right from the Beginning,
Buchanan's 1988 autobiography, p. 131)
Buchanan, who opposed virtually every civil rights law and court
decision of the last 30 years, published FBI smears of Martin Luther King
Jr. as his own editorials in the St. Louis Globe Democrat in the mid-1960s.
"We were among Hoover's conduits to the American people," he boasted (Right
from the Beginning, p. 283).
White House advisor Buchanan urged President Nixon in an April 1969
memo not to visit "the Widow King" on the first anniversary of Martin
Luther King's assassination, warning that a visit would "outrage many, many
people who believe Dr. King was a fraud and a demagogue and perhaps
worse.... Others consider him the Devil incarnate. Dr. King is one of the
most divisive men in contemporary history." (New York Daily News, 10/1/90)
In a memo to President Nixon, Buchanan suggested that "integration of
blacks and whites -- but even more so, poor and well-to-do -- is less
likely to result in accommodation than it is in perpetual friction, as the
incapable are placed consciously by government side by side with the
capable." (Washington Post, 1/5/92)
In another memo from Buchanan to Nixon: "There is a legitimate
grievance in my view of white working-class people that every time, on
every issue, that the black militants loud-mouth it, we come up with more
money.... If we can give 50 Phantoms [jet fighters] to the Jews, and a
multi-billion dollar welfare program for the blacks...why not help the
Catholics save their collapsing school system." (Boston Globe, 1/4/92)
Buchanan has repeatedly insisted that President Reagan did so much
for African-Americans that civil rights groups have no reason to exist:
"George Bush should have told the [NAACP convention] that black America
has grown up; that the NAACP should close up shop, that its members should
go home and reflect on JFK's admonition: 'Ask not what your country can do
for you, but rather ask what you can do for your country.'" (syndicated
column, 7/26/88)
In a column sympathetic to ex-Klansman David Duke, Buchanan chided
the Republican Party for overreacting to Duke and his Nazi "costume": "Take
a hard look at Duke's portfolio of winning issues and expropriate those not
in conflict with GOP principles, [such as] reverse discrimination against
white folks." (syndicated column, 2/25/89)
Trying to justify apartheid in South Africa, he denounced the notion
that "white rule of a black majority is inherently wrong. Where did we get
that idea? The Founding Fathers did not believe this." (syndicated column,
2/7/90) He referred admiringly to the apartheid regime as the "Boer
Republic": "Why are Americans collaborating in a U.N. conspiracy to ruin
her with sanctions?"
(syndicated column, 9/17/89)
ON IMMIGRANTS AND PEOPLE OF COLOR:
"There is nothing wrong with us sitting down and arguing that issue
that we are a European country." (Newsday, 11/15/92)
Buchanan on affirmative action: "How, then, can the feds justify
favoring sons of Hispanics over sons of white Americans who fought in World
War II or Vietnam?" (syndicated column, 1/23/95)
In a September 1993 speech to the Christian Coalition, Buchanan
described multiculturalism as "an across-the-board assault on our
Anglo-American heritage."
"If we had to take a million immigrants in, say Zulus, next year,
or Englishmen, and put them up in Virginia, what group would be easier to
assimilate and would cause less problems for the people of Virginia?"
("This Week With David Brinkley," 1/8/91)
ON JEWS:
Buchanan referred to Capitol Hill as "Israeli-occupied territory."
(St. Louis Post Dispatch, 10/20/90)
During the Gulf crisis: "There are only two groups that are beating
the drums for war in the Middle East -- the Israeli defense ministry and
its 'amen corner' in the United States." ("McLaughlin Group," 8/26/90)
In a 1977 column, Buchanan said that despite Hitler's anti-Semitic and
genocidal tendencies, he was "an individual of great courage...Hitler's
success was not based on his extraordinary gifts alone. His genius was an
intuitive sense of the mushiness, the character flaws, the weakness
masquerading as morality that was in the hearts of the statesmen who stood
in his path." (The Guardian, 1/14/92)
Writing of "group fantasies of martyrdom," Buchanan challenged the
historical record that thousands of Jews were gassed to death by diesel
exhaust at Treblinka: "Diesel engines do not emit enough carbon monoxide
to kill anybody." (New Republic, 10/22/90) Buchanan's columns have run in
the Liberty Lobby's Spotlight, the German-American National PAC newsletter
and other publications that claim Nazi death camps are a Zionist
concoction.
Buchanan called for closing the U.S. Justice Department's Office of
Special Investigations, which prosecuted Nazi war criminals, because it was
"running down 70-year-old camp guards." (New York Times, 4/21/87)
Buchanan was vehement in pushing President Reagan -- despite protests
-- to visit Germany's Bitburg cemetery, where Nazi SS troops were buried.
At a White House meeting, Buchanan reportedly reminded Jewish leaders that
they were "Americans first" -- and repeatedly scrawled the phrase
"Succumbing to the pressure of the Jews" in his notebook. Buchanan was
credited with crafting Ronald Reagan's line that the SS troops buried at
Bitburg were "victims just as surely as the victims in the concentration
camps." (New York Times, 5/16/85; New Republic, 1/22/96)
After Cardinal O'Connor criticized anti-Semitism during the
controversy over construction of a convent near Auschwitz, Buchanan wrote:
"If U.S. Jewry takes the clucking appeasement of the Catholic cardinalate
as indicative of our submission, it is mistaken. When Cardinal O'Connor of
New York seeks to soothe the always irate Elie Wiesel by reassuring him
'there are many Catholics who are anti-Semitic'...he speaks for himself. Be
not afraid, Your Eminence; just step aside, there are bishops and priests
ready to assume the role of defender of the faith." (New Republic,
10/22/90)
The Buchanan '96 campaign's World Wide Web site included an article
blaming the death of White House aide Vincent Foster on the Israeli
intelligence agency, Mossad -- and alleging that Foster and Hillary
Clinton were Mossad spies. (The campaign removed the article after its
existence was reported by a Jewish on-line news service; Jewish Telegraphic
Agency, 2/21/96.)
In his September 1993 speech to the Christian Coalition, Buchanan
declared: "Our culture is superior. Our culture is superior because our
religion is Christianity and that is the truth that makes men free." (ADL
Report, 1994)
ON GAYS:
In a 1972 memo to Richard Nixon, Buchanan referred to one of George
McGovern's leading financial contributors as a "screaming fairy." (Newsday,
2/8/89) Buchanan has repeatedly used the term "sodomites," and has
referred to gays as "the pederast proletariat." (Washington Post, 2/9/92)
"Homosexuality involves sexual acts most men consider not only
immoral, but filthy. The reason public men rarely say aloud what
most say privately is they are fearful of being branded 'bigots' by
an intolerant liberal orthodoxy that holds, against all evidence
and experience, that homosexuality is a normal, healthy lifestyle."
(syndicated column, 9/3/89)
In a 1977 column urging a "thrashing" of gay groups, Buchanan wrote:
"Homosexuality is not a civil right. Its rise almost always is
accompanied, as in the Weimar Republic, with a decay of society and a
collapse of its basic cinder block, the family." (New Republic, 3/30/92)
"Gay rights activists seek to substitute, for laws rooted in Judeo-
Christian morality, laws rooted in the secular humanist belief that all
consensual sexual acts are morally equal. That belief is anti-biblical
and amoral; to codify it into law is to codify a lie." (Buchanan column
in Wall Street Journal, 1/21/93)
On AIDS, Buchanan wrote in 1983: "The poor homosexuals -- they have
declared war upon nature, and now nature is extracting an awful retribution
(AIDS)." (Los Angeles Times, 11/28/86) Later that year, he demanded that
New York City Ed Koch and New York Gov. Mario Cuomo cancel the Gay Pride
Parade or else "be held personally responsible for the spread of the AIDS
plague." "With 80,000 dead of AIDS, our promiscuous homosexuals appear
literally hell-bent on Satanism and suicide," Buchanan wrote in 1990
(syndicated column, 10/17/90). In the 1992 campaign, he declared: "AIDS is
nature's retribution for violating the laws of nature." (Seattle Times,
7/31/93)
ON WOMEN:
"Rail as they will about 'discrimination,' women are simply not
endowed by nature with the same measures of single-minded ambition and
the will to succeed in the fiercely competitive world of Western
capitalism." (syndicated column, 11/22/83)
"The real liberators of American women were not the feminist
noise-makers, they were the automobile, the supermarket, the shopping
center, the dishwasher, the washer-dryer, the freezer." (Right from the
Beginning, p. 149)
"If a woman has come to believe that divorce is the answer to every
difficult marriage, that career comes before children .. no democratic
government can impose another set of values upon her." (Right from the
Beginning, p. 341)
ON DEMOCRACY:
Attacking what he considers the "democratist temptation, the worship
of democracy as a form of governance," Buchanan commented: "Like all
idolatries, democratism substitutes a false god for the real, a love of
process for a love of country." (Patrick J. Buchanan: From the Right,
newsletter, Spring/90)
In a January, 1991 column, Buchanan suggested that "quasi-dictatorial
rule" might be the solution to the problems of big municipalities and the
federal fiscal crisis: "If the people are corrupt, the more democracy, the
worse the government." (Washington Times, 1/9/91) He has written
disparagingly of the "one man, one vote Earl Warren system."
In Right from the Beginning, Buchanan refers to Spanish dictator
Francisco Franco as a "Catholic savior." He called Franco, along with
Chile's Gen. Pinochet, "soldier-patriots." (syndicated column 9/17/89)
Both men overthrew democracy in their countries.
Buchanan devotes a chapter of his autobiography -- "As We Remember
Joe" -- to defending Senator Joe McCarthy. He advocated that Nixon "burn
the tapes" during Watergate, and he criticized Reagan for failing to pardon
Oliver North over Iran-contra.
Buchanan, shortly before he announced he was running for president
in 1995: "You just wait until 1996, then you'll see a real right-wing
tyrant." (The Nation, 6/26/95)
***
For information on FAIR, send a blank e-mail message to
fair-info@fair.org or visit out web site at:
FAIR
You can subscribe to FAIR's magazine, EXTRA!, by calling our
subscription service at 800-847-3993.
Several months ago all major newspapers and television network
news programs in the U.S. carried the report of an incident which occurred
at a political rally where Buchanan was the principal speaker. The
newsgroup, soc.culture.jewish provided the following synopsis by Judy
Balint:
Subject: Buchanan aides beat up Jewish protestors
Date: 20 Mar 1995 13:06:34 -0500
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)
March 20, 1995
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Contact Judy Balint 718-884-8499.
JEWISH ANTI-BUCHANAN PROTESTORS BEATEN AND KICKED AT CAMPAIGN KICK-OFF
RALLY IN NEW HAMPSHIRE
Three members of the Coalition for Jewish Concerns-Amcha demonstrating
against Pat Buchanan's anti-Semitism and bigotry were beaten, kicked and
thrown down stairs by Buchanan security guards and campaign workers in
Manchester NH this morning.
The three, rabbinical student David Kalb, and college students Moshe Maoz
and Ronn Torossian were part of a CJC-Amcha group who jumped on the stage
as Buchanan was announcing his intention to run for President on the
Republican ticket in 1996. Carrying signs saying, "Pat = Duke Without the
Sheets" and "Buchanan is a racist" the three were shoved, pushed to the
ground and beaten while Buchanan looked on.
Even after it was established that the CJC-Amcha activists were unarmed,
Buchanan guards pushed and dragged the students down three flights of
stairs and outside to the parking lot of the building where they continued
to beat, punch and kick the three until Manchester police officers
intervened and threatened to arrest Buchanan's campaign director.
Kalb, Torrosian and Maoz sustained bruises, scratches, a black eye and
ripped clothing in the attack.
The group is pressing assault charges against the Buchanan campaign at the
Manchester police department. "We hope that the rest of the campaign will
not be conducted in this manner," said Judy Balint, national director of
the New York-based Jewish activist group. "There must be a place for
peaceful protest against anti-Semitism and bigotry without the fear of
being beaten by paid goons," she asserted. "It was clear our protestors
were unarmed and had no intention of causing Buchanan any physical
harm--the treatment they received was completely unwarranted."
"Today's protest was to expose Buchanan's record of continued support for
accused Nazi war criminals including Klaus Barbie; Buchanan's "doubts
about whether Jews were gassed at Treblinka," his lauding of Hitler,
calling him "an individual of great courage, a soldier's soldier in the
Great War" and "a leader steeped in the history of Europe." Buchanan
referred to Capitol Hill as "Israel's occupied territory," and has called
the American pro-Israel lobby, Israel's "amen corner in the US."
Buchanan's comments raise the specter of a Jewish conspiracy and his other
deplorable comments include a statement made in 1992 that "only Israel and
American Jews wanted war in the Persian Gulf" and suggested that the Jews
would send non-Jews to fight the war," noted Ronn Torossian and David
Kalb.
"Our position is that even if you agree with every one of Buchanan's
programs, if he is an anti-Semite and a defender of Nazis that would make
it immoral for any decent American to vote for him," said National
president of the Coalition for Jewish Concerns-Amcha, Rabbi Avi Weiss.
CJC-AMCHA activists followed Buchanan on the campaign trail in 1992 and
were verbally and physically assaulted in New Hampshire, Georgia, Rhode
Island and Massachussetts by Buchanan supporters. In Marietta, Georgia in
answer to Rabbi Weiss' accusation that he is a racist, Buchanan said,
"This is a rally for Americans, by American's in the good 'ole USA." The
following day the American Jewish Congress and the American Jewish
Committee declared the statement a clear indication of Buchanan's
anti-Semitism.
"As Pat Buchanan campaigns for the Republican nomination, we will campaign
against his bigotry and anti-Semitism everywhere he goes," the CJC-Amcha
group declared.
*************************
On Saturday, February 24, 1996, Professor Stephen Feinberg (University
of Minnesota) posted the following piece to the Holocaust Discussion
Group:
To: Multiple recipients of list HOLOCAUS
Subject: Pat Buchanan, the Jews & the Holocaust
From: Stephen Feinstein
PATRICK BUCHANAN: IN HIS OWN WORDS
* Buchanan told Elie Wiesel that President Reagan must not surrender to
"Jewish pressure" against visiting Bitburg, a German cemetery where SS men
were buried. In a White House meeting with Jewish leaders, Buchanan
reminded them that they were "Americans first," as fellow staffer Ed
Rollins later recounted to Reagan biographer Lou Cannon. Buchanan
repreatedly scrawled the phrase "Succumbing to the pressure of the Jews" on
his notepad during the meeting.
* In 1990 William Buckley, Buchanan's former mentor, wrote a 20,000 word
essay on Buchanan that concluded: "I find it impossible to defend Pat
Buchanan against the charge" of anti-Semitism.
* Buchanan has called Hitler a "man of great courage" and extraordinary
gifts."
* On ABC Nightline, March 11, 1992, Buchanan told anchorman, Chris
Wallace: "I'm one of the few people in this city, Chris, who's had the guts
to stand up to the agenda of the special interests, whether it's the civil
rights lobbyist or the AIPAC lobby or the gay rights lobby, and say that
their agenda is not in the interest of a good society and not in the
interest of my country."
* In a March 13, 1991 syndicated column Buchanan called Israel "a
strategic albatross draped around the neck of the United States."
* In an interview in Present Tense magazine, Buchanan stated that "if my
friends in the Jewish community feel Pat Buchanan, a traditionalist
Catholic, owes some kind of apology for the record of the Holy Father
during World War II, they can wait, because it's not going to be
forthcoming."
* In the Chicago Sun Times of March 1989, Buchanan criticized the West
for ostracizing Kurt Waldheim. Buchanan rationalized,"like others in
Hitler's army, Lt. Waldheim looked the other way." (Previously, as
Secretary General of the United Nations, Waldheim had been an object of
Buchanan's scorn).
* On The McLaughlin Report, August 26, 1990:
"There are only two groups that are beating the drums for war in the
Middle East, the Israeli Defense Ministry and its amen corner in the United
States."
* In Newsweek, December 23, 1991, Jonathan Alter writes that in 1983
Buchanan criticized the US government for expressing regret over its
postwar protection of Klaus Barbie.
* In 1985 Buchanan advocated restoring citizenship of Arthur Rudolph, an
ex-Nazi rocket scientist
* In 1987 Buchanan lobbied to stop deportation of Karl Linnas, accused of
Nazi atrocities in Estonia.
* In a March 17, 1990 column, Buchanan wrote that it was impossible for
850,000 Jews to be killed by diesel exhaust fed into the gas chamber at
Treblinka. "Diesel engines do not emit enough carbon monoxide to kill
anybody." According to Jacob Weisberg in his article "The Heresies of Pat
Buchanan," October 22, 1990, The New Republic, "Buchanan stands by his
bizarre claim about the diesel engines but refuses to discuss it on the
record. Suffice it to say that he embraces a bolder debunking claim than
he is yet willing to endorse in print...Where did he get the anecdote
("proving" his assertion about the diesel)? 'Somebody sent it to me.'
"Buchanan's source was almost certainly the July 1988 issue of a Newsletter
of the German American Information and Education Association--a known
Holocaust denial group which quotes extensively from a story of
schoolchildren who emerged unharmed after being exposed to diesel fumes
while trapped in a train tunnel.
* On March 2, 1992, at a campaign rally in Marietta, Georgia, where Rabbi
Avi Weiss called out, "Your anti-Semitism makes America last," Buchanan
shot back, "This rally is of Americans, for Americans and for the good 'ole
USA, my friends."
* In the New York Post, March 17, 1990,Buchanan referred to a"so called
Holocaust survivors syndrome" which he described as involving"group
fantasies of martyrdom and heroics."
*Buchanan was a featured columnist for The Spotlight, a patently
anti-Semitic and anti-Black publication that championed David Duke.
* Former Reagan press secretary Larry Speakes writes of Buchanan in his
memoirs, 'Speaking Out,' "..he (Buchanan) was so blindly reactionary."
* Buchanan repeatedly referred to Capitol Hill as "Israeli occupied
territory." (McLaughlin Report, June 1990)
* On February 4, 1987 in The Washington Post, Buchanan wrote: "Dr. Martin
Luther King is one of the most divisive men in contemporary history..." In
an earlier article in the Globe-Democrat, Buchanan wrote that King was
"sometimes demagogic and irresponsible in his public statements."
* In a January 16, 1986 column, Buchanan wrote:" But apartheid is not
the worst situation facing Africans today. Not remotely. If it were, they
wouldn't be pouring into South Africa from such "liberated" zones as
Mozambique."
* In 1990, before the Gulf War, Buchanan wrote that if the US went to
war, "the fighting would be done by kids with names like McAllister,
Murphy, Gonzales and Leroy Brown." The National Review (December 30, 1991)
commented that "There is no way to read that sentence without concluding
that Pat Buchanan was suggesting that American Jews manage to avoid
personal military exposure even while advancing military policies they
(uniquely?) engender."
