Transcripts For CSPAN3 Barry Goldwater The Conservationist 20140907

Incomparable donald wurster. In history lecturer at the university of georgia. Before i tell you about brian, let me introduce the topic of his talk by adapting an opening line that another one of our students usede every fall on the first day of the undergraduate history classes that he taught. 100 years from now, he would say , all of you will be dead. Hows that for a wake up at 8 00 in the morning for sleepy undergraduates . 100 years from now, all of you will be dead, and unless you accomplish something extraordinary or perpetuate some evil, the odds are that no one alive will remember you. He went on to say, even if you do get into rarefied zone where your name lives on, the odds are it will be as a torture as a caricature. You will be remembered alright, but possibly for the wrong thing. Which brings us to Barry Goldwater. 50 years ago today, the then senator from arizona known as mr. Conservative accepted the republican nomination for president in san francisco. Only two things about that moment in time are generally remembered first, a phrase from goldwater speech, which in its mangled form goes Something Like this extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue. That goldwatert went on to suffer an electoral defeat of landslide proportions at the hands of Lyndon Johnson. We are remembering Barry Goldwater for the wrong things . What if there is a different Barry Goldwater, someone who wrestled with apparent contradictions between his intellectual beliefs in limited government and his personal attachment to the Great Outdoors . Think, isnutshell, i the question that brian drake is going to explore in tonights presentation. Developedl lecture just for us titled very goldwater the conscience of a conservationist. His talk draws on his First Published book, loving nature, fearing the state, and environmentalism, and antigovernment politics before reagan. It is for sale after this talk, h will be signinge copies. One month from now, it will be 15 years since i went back to school to begin work on what i middle age masters degree. Brian drake was in both of my first two classes that semester. In the early sessions, i was struck by the cogency of his arguments and his unerring ability to decipher the point of the assigned readings, many of which were rather opaque and somewhat slow going. Papers,started to write which were peer by other class members, i was struck again by brians phenomenal talent for writing, his ability to produce scholarly work that was totally accessible. Then had cracked the code, first one in both classes to do so. Some people never quite figured it out, but i digress. In his remarks to an out, i have no doubt that talent for all of you. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome brian drake. [applause] thank you. That was wonderful. Thank you very much. Let me begin by saying some nice things about henry who was one of the most one of the smartest, wittiest people i know. He is a treasure. You are lucky to have him here. Thank you very much for those comments. Say, as well,to it is a thrill to be in kansas city. I love this town. I love this region. Im a big fan of the great plains, and ive been reminded of that over the last 48 hours or so. Thank you for that. I think its time to cut to the chase. I wondered if we might begin by hearing those famous words of Barry Goldwater from 50 years ago today at cow palace. If we could queue that video to begin, or not. [laughter] you that remind extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. [applause] let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue. Are, and they are in somewhat edited form. Before i talk about that, let me tell you about myself. Im an environmental historian. What that means is i study the influence of nature on human and the reciprocal human influence on nature. What do people think about nature, how do they treat nature, and how does nature respond in turn and affect us . Its one of my favorite historical topics. When i was in graduate school, i got interested particularly in whoenvironment movement, became an environmentalist, why did they become an environmentalist, what happens when other parts of their lives intersect with their environmentalism, and particularly, i got fascinated by people who became environmentalists that you would never expect. You can kind of see where this is going. One of the things i love about historical study is one heck torah the historical actors go off script and they do things you do not expect. To like the fact that people are complicated. That is a truism in real life. Its a truism for a reason. People are complicated. I wanted to explore that. My two interests came together in my book, and they come together in this talk today. I want to explore the confiscated world of arizona senator and environmentalist Barry Goldwater who accepted the republican nomination for president 50 years ago today. The complicated world of Barry Goldwater if you remember Barry Goldwater, complicated is not a word that is usually associated with the senator from arizona. It might even elicit a laugh. The classic image of goldwater of course, this is one of his Campaign Posters the classic image looks Something Like this. Barry goldwater was extremely conservative, predictably and extremely conservative. A distilled essence of political conservatism. An opponent of the new deal. Equally vociferous opponent of Lyndon Johnson and the great welfare,opposed to opposed to regulation, opposed to excessive taxes, a defender of traditional morality, an opponent of unions, militantly anticommunist, a supporter of the military, etc. And so forth. Put together, he almost emerges ,s a cardboard cutout, a statue an ideology attached to a warm body, uncompromising, aggressive, perhaps even, according to his critics, dangerously so. You can see that in just a couple film clips that i would like to show you. Can we run the communism video . Great website called living room candidates. This is the 1964 campaign commercial from senator goldwater. Hand over your heart, ready, begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america [foreign language] and the republic for which it stands, one nation, under god [foreign language] liberty unjust is for all. To growt American Kids up as americans, and they will if we have the guts to make our intentions clear, so clear they dont need translation or interpretation, just respect for a country prepared as no country in all of history ever was. In your heart, you know hes right. Vote for Barry Goldwater. There is his Famous Campaign motto. Needless to say, this very meme madenticommunism people very nervous. The Johnson Campaign took advantage of this. This is a Lyndon Johnson campaign commercial from that same year. [explosion] 1960 three, Barry Goldwater said of the nuclear bomb, merely another weapon. Merely another weapon . Vote for president johnson. The stakes are too high for you to stay home. Thethe next 1 yeah next one is a little more fancy. It is the infamous daisy commercial. If we could run that, as well. 8,ne, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 6, 6, 9 3, 2, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 1. [explosion] these are the stakes. To make a world in which all of gods children can live, or to go into the darkness. We must either love each other, or we must die. Vote for president johnson on november 3. The stakes are too high for you to stay at home. Maybe the most famous political cartoon in all of American History. Not mentioned by name. Barry goldwater scared many democrats, and he scared many republicans, as well. One more commercial before we get into the meat of this. This one is lesser well known. Theres an environmental element here. This is a commercial called ice cream. They use to explode atomic bombs in the air. Children should have lots of vitamin a and calcium, but they shouldnt have any other chemicals. These things come from atomic bombs, and they are radioactive. They can make you die. Do you know what people finally did . They got together and signed a Nuclear Test Ban treaty, and then the radioactive poisons started to go away. Now there is a man who wants to be president of the United States, and he doesnt like this treaty. He fought against it. He even voted against it. He wants to go on testing more bombs. His name is Barry Goldwater, and if he is elected, they might Start Testing all over again. Vote for president johnson on november 3. The stakes are too high for you to stay home. In 1964, as in 2014, we dont expect nuance in our political ads from both sides were misleading. Lyndon johnson was not a socialist dictator. Barry goldwater was not a warmonger. Fact, if you look at his whole life, his whole political life, what you find is that Barry Goldwater often went off and very interesting and unexpected directions. He was a more supple thinker than he was given credit for. Not just by his opponents but also by his supporters. Are examples that you familiar with at the end of his life, he broke with the Republican Party over the influence of the religious right. Was not a fan of Jerry Falwell and pat robertson. He championed the right of gay people to serve in the military, supported a democrat in 1992 when karen english ran for congress. He was a supporter of planned parenthood for his entire life. He was also a member of the was dashing white supporters of segregation, maybe the most hated organization in the country. Reputation warm we forgot this picture, this is from his 1968 Senate Campaign there he is in his backyard in this photograph. Goldwater, of course, was a good friend with one of his blog one of his big political rivals, john kennedy. They talked about campaigning together. Imagine that. Going on the campaign trail and debating each other but still remaining friends. To the commercial, the last one that i showed the idea that goldwaters election would be an environmental relevantis especially to this idea of goldwater being complicated. We are going to see the famous maverick streak of the senator verizon extended to environmental issues. Born inldwater was phoenix, arizona, first of january, 1909. He was the son of a welltodo Department Store owner named baron goldwater. Kid, aan adventurous little wild, maybe a lot wild. He ended up in military school in stanton, new fruit virginia because of this. He loved to do all the things that boys did. Like pranks, run around with his buddies. He loves to camp. He loved to hunt. An area around child that you will see Camelback Mountain, the most famous natural icon in phoenix. This is a picture of it in the early 1900s as Barry Goldwater would have seen it. It is covered in houses mostly now. Wideopen spaces, and these had a significant influence on goldwater for the whole of his life. In theseful experiences desert are going to shape his environmentalism as an adult. A little thing about his mother, who was crucial to this. Josephine goldwater was from nebraska. She moved to arizona because she had tuberculosis. Clear,a was that the invigorating air of arizona would cure you or at least make things a little bit less intense. She did not expect to live long. She ended up living for several decades. She met baron goldwater, married him, had three children, and she loved nature. One of the things she loved to do was to go on car camping trips. This was in the 1920s. This is the era in which we first had car camping. Camping used to be the domain of the wealthy. You got on a train, and you went to yosemite. Now you get in your model t, and you head out to the desert. That is what she did. She took her kid with them. I believe that is Barry Goldwater at the wheel. He did a lot of driving on these trips. There they are crossing the Colorado River on their way over to southern california. One of these many trips that they took. Joan goldwater pointed out the beauties of nature. She was not an intensely religious woman, but she believed god was present mostly in his creation. She was very keen to point that out. That was a lesson that Barry Goldwater took part. Took to heart. Continuedot older, he in this tradition. He picked up a rifle. This is Barry Goldwater on the left, rifle in hand. That is his younger brother bob and his younger sister carolyn. His mother is on the left. The other two folks are unidentified. This is one of their many camping trips. Adult, heme an continued this and got into photography. When he got married, his wife gave him one for one of his first christmas gifts. He started lugging the camera around the arizona countryside. He also learned to fly, and he would take aerial pictures. He became pretty quickly a really remarkable artist. This is something we didnt always appreciate. Would0, he published what be the first of several books of photography. Accepted into the Royal Society of photographers on the basis of this book. I love this shot of him in his levis taking a picture of an arch somewhere in arizona. He was a big fan of the four corners area. 1940. Ne as well, circa take a look at some of these pictures. These next three shots are shots excuse me, one more this is later in life, wearing those same levis at his house in scottsdale with his camera, cactus, and american flag. I wanted this to be my book cover, but we went with something else. This is one of his shots. I love this one. Hes not ansell adams, but hes not bad. They were very different politically, but they shared a love for this kind of photography. Thisvorite maybe of all is one, Monument Valley in arizona. Look at those clean lines. This is a man who has an eye for light and shadow and denied for that pristine ansell adamsesque look. I love this photograph. He was also famous for photographing native people. And his most famous and most reproduced photograph, this not a whole man. Ing before he got interested politics, long before he became a politician, he was a man who was thinking about the wilderness, thinking about nature. , she goes off to military school in virginia, comes back home to go to the university of arizona. He does not finish because his father dies, and he takes over the goldwater store. He ends up being a businessman. Its married himself, has three children, and gets his career as a conservative. Deeply opposed to Franklin Delano roosevelt. Did not like their new deal for a variety of reasons. Editorializes against it in the arizona republic. Im getting ahead of myself. This one will be appropriate. Round about this time, 1939, 1940, he got a chance to go on a trip to the grand canyon. The Colorado River was a different place in 1940. There was only one dam on it, hoover dam. The rest of the river ran wild. Not many people in 1940 had gone it. N goldwater would be a member of the 13th expedition to go down the Colorado River and the 73rd person. The expeditions in the summer of 1940, and darned if he didnt make it all the way through the grand canyon. It wasnt incredible experience for him. He kept a journal, and he took a lot of photographs. Read an entry from his journal on that trip. Tall spires near the rim looked as though god had reached out and wiped a brush of golden paint across them, gilding those rocs in the bright glow of setting sun. Below the heights, the canyon is filled with the blue haze not unlike smoke. He river winds withcumulus clouds tinted the soft pastel shades of evening. Thats astonishing. I dont think that is something we associate with Something Like Barry Goldwater. Who knew about this lyricism and his love for the canyon . For that place comes out strongly in this. He took his camera with him, as i mentioned. He took a Motion Picture camera and a still camera. He took hundreds of photographs, 3000 feet of moving picture, and he went on a speaking tour after he emerged from the canyon. There were times when he was showing the film and pictures five times a day. Over 10,000 people saw it in the year or so after he went through the grand canyon. This, i would argue, had at least something to do with his political success. He decided to run for the Phoenix City Council in 1948. People were going to vote for him primarily on the issues. He was concerned about corruption and excessive government and concerned about a probusiness atmosphere. People voted for him for those reasons, but i think they voted for him partly because he was the man who ran the canyon. He used to fly in his aircraft at campaign stops. That was a romantic image, the cowboy image, the outdoorsman image. I think it was crucial. He had the canyon as a backdrop. Forinds out he has a talent politics, and he decides in 1952 to run for senate. Lo and behold, he wins. This is something of a bellwether. Democrats had always dominated the state of arizona, and now we have a repulsion junior senator in 1952. This is portending the shifts that have brought us the current political map. He knocked off senator mcfadden. As a young senator, he gets a lot of the dirty jobs, the ones no one wants to do. He has to do the reelection tour, going around and giving speeches and eating rubber chicken. His agenda at the time was typically conservative. When he spoke on the floor of the senate, he railed against labor unions. He was very anticommunist, as you know. He was not an environmentalist as we would recognize it today. We are going to get there. It means im going to switch gears for just a second. I want to tell you a little bit about environmentalism. That is important, as well. We are going to go back. I often tell my students, environmentalism is a product of 60s the 1860s. If you go back far enough, you can go back and see what we will recognize as environmentalism. Its a very old movement. Industrial revolution picks up steam and gets bigger and bigger, what you see is more environmental damage. What we got in the turnofthecentury, an era called the progressive era, we got the emergence of what is known as conservation. Theervation is first first organized Environmental Movement in america. , they conservationist was were a reformer, usually middleclass, and they believed in a few principles. One was that the industrial was destroying natural resources. They were not opposed to growth. No one interpreted it as an antigrowth, but the idea that the growth was done in an unsustainable way, as we would say today. Thosed to ameliorate problems. What we need to do is have scientific experts, the conservationists said, working to managevernment resources in a way that they didnt disappear, that we would avoid timber scarcity and so on. Have you ever wondered where the u. S. Forest Service Comes from or the bureau of reclamation or the bureau of land management, every federal bureaucracy . It emerges from this period. Its very progovernment. It believes the government has a duty, in fact, to do what it can to manage resource development. Here is one of the big ironies. Conservation had a political home, a partisan home in the Republican Party. This was an idea strongest in the gop. As think of Teddy Roosevelt the greatest example. Its a republican movement. I will touch on that later. Said,onservationists also we should preserve land not for economic reasons but just because its beautiful and spiritual. We should have wilderness areas and national parks. They were called preservationists. Sometimes, they would fight. Inside the conservation movement, there were progress people and then wilderness reservationist people. It was a civil war, very angry at one another. By the time Barry Goldwater is on the scene, conservation is the dominant environmental ethic. Informinge philosophy how everyone inside and outside the government, how they treat the natural world. When goldwater starts out, he is a conservationist. He believes very much in economic growth. He was an avid champion of economic growth. Avid anfact, an intense advocate of what was called reclamation. Forgive me if this is too simple. If you are far enough west in georgia, they dont always know about reclamation conservationists often believed that rivers that were not dammed were wasted. Rivers should be made to work for the good of the country. River, we pute a a damper on it. The government got involved ind dam building. The new deal. And roosevelt loved their dams. Who already believed in an aggressive government. They gravitated to this naturally. Goldwater gravitated to it as well. As an arizona in who wanted Economic Prosperity in a place he recognize that federal reclamation had to happen. This put him in an interesting situation because it is only the government they can build these really massive dams. You have goldwater in an awkward position of demanding the federal government built dams in the west. Washe same time, as he lambasting the Tennessee Valley authority, he calls it galloping socialism. Because there is creeping collectivism and galloping socialism. He did some ideological gymnastics to pull that off, i think. Would temporarily transform into a loose constructionist of the constitution to deal with that. You look at some of the major dams. He supported what was called the echo park dam in the 1950s. Problem with the dam is it was right in the middle of Dinosaur National park. It was defeated in 1956 after an intense fight, a bunch of environmental groups fought it. He was a big champion of the dam. He said it is not going to destroy the us that exam we need the water. It will not destroy the athletics. He was a big supporter of the Central Arizona project in bridge canyon. It brings water from lake have havisu from lake to phoenix. Its cold generating plant that powers water. Built going to be a dam inside grand Canyon National park. As you can imagine, even then, the uproar was intense. Goldwater, a man who loved the grand canyon, was a supporter. He said, dont worry. Its going to be fine. Before, he isg not an environmentalist yet. He goes against the wilderness act of 1964. The official government wilderness designation which you see today. He was a big opponent of that, but not for the reasons you might expect. This is where you start to see the very flicker of Barry Goldwater the environmentalist. He said i am opposed to the wilderness act because i love wilderness so much. What an act will do, it will be like a fourstar rating. If you make an area a wilderness area, everyone will want to go there. They will destroyed it through overuse. Better to leave it alone. It is a very interesting argument. Has a lot of merit, because in places like the grand canyon, that is what has happened. Its been loved to death. He warned that would happen. He moving on, in 1964, decides to run for president. Got a couple of shots here. There he is giving a speech. Classic goldwater look here. Like this one as well. There he had a bluegrass brand tour with him called the goldwaters. Folk music and 9064 was not usually associated with conservatives. This was a conservative version of that. This was a goldwater girl. Does not appear to be hillary clinton, who was one. But the results getting ahead of myself. The results were not good for Barry Goldwater. He was beaten severely. Here is the map. Just a couple of things. He funded his campaign partially through the sale of a book of photography called the face of arizona. It is beautiful. Book withather bound all kinds of photographs, captioned by the senator himself. Fabulous. Pictures. A book that any environmentalist would be proud to own today. I like that. That is really interesting that he is funding his campaign with this. 2500 and you got one of the first 100 autographed copies. But, second of all, after goldwater goes down to significant defeat, the only statehe wins is his home and the deep self. Why did a jewish republican member of the naacp when the south . Because were in the middle of a very important lyrical shift. Thats for another lecture we are in the middle of a very important political shift. This is Camelback Mountain today surrounded by suburban sprawl. You will notice there is no development on the mountain. One of the reasons is because of Barry Goldwater. Ofwas associated with in one the main organizers of a group called save the Camelback Mountain foundation. Nd collectingu money, working with landowners rights to preserve this mountain untouched. They were successful. One of the ironies is they had to rely on land and Water Conservation fund to help them. Years,dwater, for four worked very hard to keep development off Camelback Mountain. You can go hiking there today. It is a fabulous hike. A wonderful view. He said, this old mountain is worth the fight. He was preserving landscape in phoenix. ,o, lets go back, though, to there we go to history again. Whenafter world war ii is conservation starts to become what we would call today environmentalism. Couple things are going on. In the 1950s, we have massive, in the 1960s, we have massive economic growth. Creates a big middle class. What do middleclass people want to do . They have got money and they want to spend it. They want to buy tvs and automobiles and take their automobile and go on a road trip to the national parks. They want environmental of the amenities asy want natural experiences part of their lifestyle. They began organizing, asking, insisting that their government do things to protect those environments they like. Theso, you start to get in suburbs, i have a friend who wrote a book about this what you get in the suburbs is the birth of environmentalism. Environmentalism i would not call it a radical movement, but it emerges out of the least radical population, the middle class. And it becomes very strong. And people get interested in sprawl and green space and clean air and water and so on and so forth. And liberals pick up on this. Lyndon johnson, if you read the Great Society speech he talks about preserving the natural world. Liberals begin to associate they begin to see themselves as defenders not just of the working class and unions but of the middleclass and the amenities of the middleclass lifestyle. The affluent lifestyle. Lyndon johnson picks up on this. They begin to adopt environmentalism. This is the origin of liberal environmentalism, that the government has the ute to protect nature has a duty to protect nature. Of themes the protests late 1960s, antivietnam protests and the civil right movement. So things infuse the Environmental Movement and give it new vigor and son o on. By 1970, you have things like earth day. April 22. Slew of legislation, like the Clean Air Act and a little bit later the clean water act. The endangered species act. The development of the epa in 1970. On and on. All the major pieces of environmental legislation emerge byom this period and signed richard nixon, ardently the secondmost most important environmental president after Teddy Roosevelt. Also, a republican. Did not like and bette environml s. Ists. Things have changed. It is very different in 1970 the 1964. Dairy goldwater is influenced by this. He is deeply influenced by all this. Some of hisced by personal experiences as well. In 1969, he was flying into an air force base and he cannot see because of the smog. He had to land on estimates. He was freaked out by this. He wrote a letter to his friend, he said, i could not believe what i had to do. Our air pollution problem is hitting out of hand. He also noted while he was flying that there is everywhere, everywhere, he called it gouging and cutting from suburban growth. This makes me nervous. We should do something about it. Just like every other american. He is getting concerned. He is very mainstream when it comes to his response to environmental problems. Listen to this. When i first read this quote, i had one of those moments that historians have for you think smoking gun. Bing it does not happen very often. You have to create the smoking gun with the evidence. But listen to this. He wrote a book called conscience of the majority. He wrote, it was the usual goldwater stuff until you got to the nexttolast chapter. The chapter was called saving the earth. Listen to this paragraph. I happen to be one who has spent much of his public life defending the business community, the Free Enterprise system, and local governments from harassment and encroachment from an outside federal bureaucracy. Thus, it is that my attitude on the question of pollution seems to have caused more interest. I am frank about how i feel. I have discussed it with newspapers and in speeches and on nationally televised talk shows. I feel very definitely that the Nixon Administration is absolutely correct in crackign d on companies and municipalities to continue to pollute the nations air and water. While i am a great believer in the free competitive ai enterprise system, i am an Even Stronger believer in the right of our people to live in a clean and pollutionfree and climate. To this end, it is my belief that when pollution is found, it should be halted at its source, even if it requires stringent Government Action against important segments of our national economy. That sound his supporters going, what . Wow. That was a really phenomenal example of the changes that are going on. He is reacting to responding to the currents of his time. He is not frozen in time. I will refer you to my book because there are too many examples. But he goes on to support all of nixons environmental initiatives. He urges crack downs on copper mines in arizona. He pushes for federal wilderness areas, even though he voted against the legislation that made those possible. He worked to expand the grand Canyon National park, to double in size. He worked with a liberal democrat on that. He tried to limit boating in the grand canyon and on and on and on. At earth day itself, as you can see here, he is at a Delphi University in new york where he gives a rip roaring speech castigating us for public smoking in the air. He said, clean air is more important than a healthy economy. Then he urged people to join planned parenthood to prevent overpopulation, which at the time was a big environmental concern. So, basically what we have is one of the most conservative members of the Senate Speaking around 1970 in ways that it is impossible to imagine today. Final thing. The Glen Canyon Dam. Anybody ever been to paige, arizona . You might be familiar with lake powell. Shrinking right now because of lack of water. Goldwater had voted to approve that dam, even though it flooded one of the most scenic stretches of the colorado. By the mid1970s, he had changed his tune because Glen Canyon Dam it stops all the silt from going downstream. It ruined the beaches of the grand canyon. It reduced the temperature of the water to Something Like 47 degrees. You cannot swim in the colorado. Was once discovered when i 17. Didnt make it out nearly. He said, this was in fact the biggest political mistake of his life. Voting for the Glen Canyon Dam. Even bigger than his vote against the civil rights act. The vote against the wilderness act. I think that is really astounded. Now, as i said, goldwater was a man who responded to change. He responded to the tenor of the time. His youll find as well, environmentalism comes and goes. By the nutley 1970s, he started to retreat. He had a little bit of buyers e 1970s. By the lat he supported the epa but he was shocked that when it actually began to regulate or regulate in a way he thought was excessive. He began to have doubts. By the 1970s, he was grumbling that maybe it should be eliminated. Hissierra club thought grand canyon proposal was not aggressive enough. They got into a big fight. He quit the sierra club. My files, my favorite, i have is very indignant letter of resignation. He didnt like it when environmentalists opposed the supersonic transport, the american version of the concord. Environmentalists were very opposed to it. It would cause climate change. It was overblown. At the time, there was concern. Goldwater liked everything that flew. Their opposition made him mad. Then along came the reagan revolution and james watt. And goldwater respond to that as well. Question perhaps whether he had gone too far in his environmentalism. He liked james watt. James watt was notorious environmentalists, disliked him intensely because he was a very vocal antienvironmentalist. He was very good at that job. Were bumper stickers in the 1980s outdam de watt. Goldwater liked him. Hes responding to the rise of the reagan right. Entirely never abandons his environmentalism. If you look at his late career in the 1980s, you see a couple of interesting things. First of all, you see that in 1984, he sponsored the arizona wilderness bill. The bill provided for 28 federal wilderness areas in the state of arizona. Now, again, remember, he voted against the legislation that made that possible. Of 1964. Rness act in 1984. The ashes of the famous sage br ush rebellion are still smoldering. The rebellion was a movement of state legislatures in the west are doing that land that was in control of federal government should be given back to the states. And that environmental regulations of federal land were too stringent. Even as the embers were still smoking, here is goldwater authorizing the wilderness act or proposing the wilderness act. Joins an Organization Called republicans for environmental protection, which is now called conservator. Called could serve america. America. Ve their argument was republicans have a strong environmental tradition, and that we have gotten away from that, they said. We need to get that back. Goldwaters joining of that group in a way we said in message he did not like the direction the current, the Republican Party was going. As you know, we have seen this all over and other aspects of his life. He disagreed very much with the religious right. He was a champion of the rights of gays to serve in the military. He is a maverick is the phrase we hear. That maverick streak has a green tint to it. It is still there in the 1980s. Let me finish by noting a couple things. He retires in 1986. He dies in 1988. His ashes, some of them, are spread over the again can it which i think is an appropriate place for them to be. I think there are a couple of lessons we can pull from this. M myenry will attest, graduate advisor said that the most important question is so what . My take on so what. We have learned that environmentalism was a very partial movement. That it could appeal to lots of people. It could sometimes show up in the most unusual places. It was a sea change in the way people felt about the natural world. It affected all kinds of folks. It is not a movement that belongs to one side of the political spectrum or the other. Related to that is that there is a strong republican environmental tradition. When we look back at 2014, that is an interesting question. Today, you do not often associated environmentalism and not federal regulation with the Republican Party. Thats a fairly recent phenomena. I think it has a lot to do with, candid answer, but the Republican Party has swung to the right over the last 20 or 30 years. You may remember reagans famous line he said government is not the solution. Government is the problem. When you say that, you make it difficult for goldwaters environmentalism to exist anymore. It has a lot to do with why it sort of disappeared. I think there are lessons for both sides. I think conservatives can look at environmentalism and not think of it as an alien ideology. Legacy, kind of like civil rights, as the conservative movement. Liberals can look at it and realize it is not just them. It is everyone. We are all in this together. Especially in this era of environmental problems. We are going to beat everybody. I think we can look back to history and draw lessons. With that, i will yield the balance of my time, as they say in the senate, and wait for your questions. Thank you very much. [applause] go ahead, sir. Thank you. In your estimation, what current president ial candidate or potential president ial candidate or National Politician most resembles Barry Goldwater and his nuanced conservatism . Well, youre asking essentially are there any environmentally minded republicans . Honestly, not many that are springing to mind. The last one i think, people like olympia snowe. There is a regional thing. The republicans that come from new england or from california, oregon, washington. They tend to be more environmental than other regions. Democrats if they are from the west can be less environmental. No, that is an interesting observation. Is you dont see a lot. I think that is an interesting historical puzzle. Thats another book. In my own introduction, i do not dig deep into it because i didnt not sure of the answers. It will take more time. I was fascinated to learn that the republicans really did originate environmentalism. I learned something tonight. Then im equally astounded that they have moved so far away from amething that was such background for them. I especially think now about the state of oklahoma. Extremely conservative. They have three times the number of earthquakes than california due to the fracking. But it seems that consequences be damned is their policy now. It kind of ties back in to the s question, what is it going to take for the republicans to return to their conservation roots . Historians are really bad at predicting the future. My chinese history professor told us three weeks before Tiananmen Square that it would never happen. So avoid particular future. I will say this is where useful example, you can look to the past. It,arry goldwater can do anybody can. That sends a lesson that it does not make you a traitor to your ideology. I do not know. Again, i lay in bed and i think about questions like that and i not have a good answer for you. But i think we have some resembles of the past i can maybe help us. Yes, sir . Fact of what you said that he was apparently quite a bit ahead in terms of being an environmentalist, calling himself that. Do you think or did he ever indicate that he resented when the left kind of took that over . The standard bearers of it, and he had been interested in trying to do things long before they ever he did. One of the things that, he didnt like was what he considered the extremism of some environmentalists. He thought the opposition to the air pollution caused by the sst was absolutely just ridiculous. It was motivated more by ideology and antimodernist feelings. He was never that, he was never infer in, but you can his comments in the late 1980s that he did resent. He believed in moderation in the pursuit of justice is no vice. He was very moderate in some ways. So he died in he died in 1988. He retired in 1986. It sounds like he mightve actually been interested in the whole environmental change thats happening given what he knew. Yes. It happened in his own state. I think that is a great observation. Thought about this a lot. I think climate change, for instance, he would be concerned. I do not have any doubt. When you think about somebody for long enough, you feel like you can get into that head. I do not doubt he would be concerned, especially as a National Security aspect, he was very concerned about resource scarcity. Back in the oil crisis days in 1973 he was really panicked. Of climatee side change would make him very nervous. Warn against being too nervous. He would go for that middle ground. You would not like he would not want you to go to out there. I have no doubt he would be concerned. He does seem to we do seem to have a tendency to go from one extreme to the other in this country. We can live with it easily. A parallel. N and goldwater was characterized as such a warmonger. Nson tooky, joh us into vietnam being characterized as the peacemaker. You have a feel for what might have come of a goldwater presidency in relation to vietnam . Im going to dodge that question if at all possible. One of the things they warn you in graduate school about counterfactual. It is very difficult to say. You know, the warmonger thing is overblown. I do not team is going to nuke vietnam. Seriousness, i do not mean to dodge. I think experts who are better versed in Foreign Policy and that sort of thing are better suited to answer that question. I dont know. I dont know. Great question. [inaudible] agent orange, if he was a true environmentalist. His National Defense going up against his concern. He did express concern about ddt. Land issues and preservation was more his interest. But did a couple times wonder about ddt. Orange. Its maddening what you do not know sometimes. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] thank you. You are watching American History tv, all weekend, every weekend on cspan 3. To join the conversation, like a fun facebook at cspan history. Like us on facebook. This likeness of a partly product of thea womens Titanic Memorial association. Over 1500 lives were lost when h ms titanic went to the bottom of the north atlantic. After striking an iceberg on the night of april 14, 1912. Femalee ships passengers perished, a number that wouldve been higher but for hundreds of men who yielded seats on the doomed liners inadequate lifeboats. And that is why the womens Titanic Memorial is dedicated to the men. Over 3 4 of whom never reached new york. The 13 foot high figure of sacrifice that towers over washingtons park is itself the creation of a female sculptor and patron of the arts. Ically, Gertrude Vanderbilt whitney is probably best remembered today as the founder of new yorks Whitney Museum of art. Than she is for her leading role in the sensational 1934 child custody case involving her 10yearold niece gloria. In a strange twist of fate, mrs. Whitney lost her brother and another tragedy at sea, when a thet in may 1915 sank lusitania off ireland. 16 years later, helen taft, whose husband had been president at the time of the time hannah, unveiled at the time of the titanic, unveiled the memorial. Cut from a single block of granite it is flanked by a sinlegle stone bench. In the mid1960s, the memorial was moved from its site to make way for the john f. Kennedy center for the performing arts. Today, it stands close to the waterfront and southwest washington. In southwest washington. Ford pardoned former president nixon 40 years ago. On september 8, 19 70 four. One month after the only president ial resignation in American History. 8 00 p. M. And midnight eastern, on the presidency, author and history Professor John Robert Greene considers the reason why ford parking nix pardoned nixon. Following the remarks, we will air archival footage of president fords address to the nation. Each week, American History tvs american artifacts visits historic places. 200 years ago on september 11, 1814, british and American Naval forces clashed for two and a half hours in cumberland they their expert near plattsburgh. The battle was the culmination of six days of conflict. Up x, we traveled to up