Barry Goldwater: The Biography of a Conservative

By Rob Wood and Dean Smith

AN INTIMATE, HUMAN AND REVEALING PORTRAIT OF THE MAN WHO MADE SUCH A UNIQUE IMPACT UPON THE AMERICAN SCENE.

BARRY GOLDWATER stands in the forefront of the new wave of American conservatism. His appeal is not only to those usually associated with vested interests but also to a large body of women, college students and Southerners.

Allied against him are liberals, labor and Easterners. Almost without exception, Americans are lined up solidly for or against Barry Goldwater. There are few neutrals.

Veteran reporters Wood and Smith have delved into the phenomenon of Barry Goldwater with piercing insight. Nothing is left out—from the rise of the family’s fortunes in Arizona to the growth of the Senator’s influence in Washington.

This is a book that every responsible American—whatever his political beliefs—will want to read. It is the story of one of the most important and controversial figures in government and of his particular brand of conservatism.

Illustrated and including excerpts, from his major speeches.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Papamoa Press
• Release date: Dec 2, 2018
• ISBN: 9781789127164

Rob Wood

After completing college and a two year tour of duty in the Army, award winning author Rob Wood followed in the footsteps of his forefathers and spent several decades cowboying in Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. Pursuing a calling to dude ranching, producing rodeos and ranch real estate allowed him to fulfill many of his childhood dreams. Rob honed his storytelling skills around campfires of the Rocky Mountain west. Rob's first book of short stories, "The 5 Greatest Spankings of All Time" was published in 2012 to critical acclaim. The Texas Association of Authors awarded it First Place in the Short Story Fiction category of their 2012 Literary Awards. Rob's new book "Let's Scare Mom" unfolds around those original tales and continues to pack the tastes and smells of the 1950's into his humorous and very personal stories. Aside from writing, Rob enjoys spending time with his grandchildren, cooking indoors as well as over an open fire and riding a good horse along the Continental Divide. Rob, his wife Ellen and their dogs Babe and Casey currently live outside of Dallas, Texas.

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Text originally published in 1961 under the same title.

© Papamoa Press 2018, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Publisher’s Note

Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

BARRY GOLDWATER

The Biography of a Conservative

by

ROB WOOD AND DEAN SMITH

★

How can you call him a Neanderthal man when he drives a Thunderbird with 18 gauges on its jet aircraft instrument panel—when he owns a home with an electronically-operated flagpole?

★

How can you accuse him of being a penny-pinching anti-humanist when he lives like a millionaire and showers gifts and favors on family, staff and casual acquaintances?

★

You can’t make the anti-intellectual tag stick—not with his appeal to college students and his own oft-expressed desire to finish his college education.

★

And you can’t call him a traditionalist or a foe of all that’s new and changing—his personal tastes are as modern as next week, and his political proposals are often shockingly radical.

★

There’s no escaping it! Barry Goldwater is like no other Conservative who ever lived.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS 5

Chapter I — THE CORONATION 6

Chapter II — UP FROM OBSCURITY 12

Chapter III — THE GOLDWASSERS 17

Chapter IV — THE FRONTIER 22

Chapter V — THE NURSE 27

Chapter VI — THE EARLY YEARS 32

Chapter VII — THE TEEN YEARS 37

Chapter VIII — THE MERCHANT 42

Chapter IX — THE MAN OF ENERGY 47

Chapter X — PEGGY 53

Chapter XI — THE WAR YEARS 58

Chapter XII — THE POLITICAL PLUNGE 63

Chapter XIII — THE IMPOSSIBLE VICTORY 69

Chapter XIV — FRESHMAN ON THE HILL 79

Chapter XV — THE LABOR IMAGE 85

Chapter XVI — FOREIGN POLICY AND THE COMMUNIST MENACE 91

Chapter XVII — THE BREAK 96

Chapter XVIII — AND AGAIN, VICTORY 102

Chapter XIX — GOLDWATER TODAY 108

Chapter XX — GOLDWATER AND THE FUTURE 114

EXCERPTS FROM THE MAJOR SPEECHES OF BARRY GOLDWATER 119

PROTEST AGAINST EISENHOWER BUDGET 119

FREEDOM IN AGRICULTURE 124

ADDRESS 128

FROM AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, NOVEMBER 14, 1960 131

A STATEMENT OF PROPOSED REPUBLICAN PRINCIPLES 138

FROM ADDRESS DELIVERED FEBRUARY 27, 1961 TO THE JUNIOR CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, WILLIAMSPORT, PENNSYLVANIA 144

FROM ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS DELIVERED MAY 30, 1961 TEMPE, ARIZONA 146

REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 150

Chapter I — THE CORONATION

On that sultry night of July 27, in the fading hours of the 1960 Republican Convention, a resolute man stepped forward in the madhouse that was Chicago’s Convention Hall and was crowned king of American conservatism.

His name: Barry Morris Goldwater, the ruggedly handsome senator from the desert lands of Arizona who had so recently ridden into the political arena to do battle with the barons of Big Labor and Big Government.

His appearance on the rostrum set off one of the longest and most enthusiastic demonstrations in recent convention history. Parading delegates stretched their hands toward the senator as they passed the speaker’s platform. The new leader of the conservatives whipped off his black horn rimmed glasses, waved both arms in the air, and then leaned, smiling, over the rail to touch the hands of his cheering followers.

Outside, in the vast asphalt area surrounding the hall, stood more than 200 impatient youngsters holding admission tickets. Selected to carry Goldwater banners in the demonstration they were denied admission because of an error: All their tickets bore the previous day’s date.

Hundreds of volunteer marchers, however, leaped from their seats inside to swell the throng and more than make up for the absence of the missing demonstrators. Noisily they joined the tribute for the man who now wore the mantle which had slipped from the shoulders of the dying Senator Robert A. Taft seven years before.

In the surging mob, an overzealous Arizona supporter pulled the trigger on a vehement air horn. The shrill blast echoed across the hall, once, then once again. Another delegate glared over his shoulder and shouted, You blow that horn in my ear just once more, and I’ll never vote for that western S.O.B.

On and on the demonstration continued, although ushers started herding the marchers out the exits. The delegates, despite the human traffic jam, were not to be denied. They reversed their routes and elbowed their way back to the convention floor.

The television cameras spun to a box seat and the nation watched the tears roll down the face of Peggy Goldwater, the senator’s wife. Two thousand miles away, in a modest Phoenix residential section, a young housewife choked back her own tears and whispered, God, what a man!

A lifelong Democrat in the smelly oil fields of East Texas slapped a calloused hand against his knee and said, If them Republicans had more men like that I might just vote for them once before I die.

The surging insistence that Goldwater seek the presidential nomination had increased in volume from a whispered hope to a demanding shout during the week of the convention.

Now the backers of Vice President Richard M. Nixon, although assured of victory, looked askance at one another. Was there a possibility that this could be a surge such as the one which carried Wendel Willkie to his surprise nomination in 1940? Their fears proved groundless.

Goldwater stepped to the microphone, erased his name from presidential consideration and asked the GOP to support Nixon in the rugged campaign that stretched ahead.

His square jaw thrust forward, a few strands of gray hair falling across his forehead, Goldwater said:

"I respectfully ask the chairman to withdraw my name from nomination. Please. I release my delegation from their pledge to me and, while I’m not a delegate, I would suggest that they give these votes to Richard Nixon.

"We are conservatives. This great Republican Party is our historic house. This is our home. Now some of us don’t agree with every statement in the official platform of our party, but I might remind you that this is always true in every platform of an American political party...

"We can be absolutely certain of one thing. In spite of the individual points of difference, the Republican platform deserves the support of every American over the blueprint for socialism presented by the Democrats....

"I’ve been campaigning across this country for six years for Richard Nixon. And I see no reason to change my mind tonight....

"We have lost election after election in this country in the last several years because conservative Republicans get mad and stay home. Now I implore you. Forget it! We’ve had our chance, and I think the conservatives have made a splendid showing at this convention. We’ve fought our battle. Now let’s put our shoulders to the wheels of Dick Nixon and push him across the line....

"Let’s, if we want to, take this party back—and I think we can someday. Let’s get to work.

"I’m a conservative and I’m going to devote all my time from now until November to electing Republicans....Just let us remember that we are facing Democrat candidates and a Democrat platform that signifies a new type of New Deal, far more menacing than anything we have seen in the past.

Just remember this: The Democratic Party is no longer the party of Jefferson, Jackson, and Woodrow Wilson; it is now the party of Bowles, Galbraith, and Walter Reuther.

Goldwater’s decision was not a retreat, but a carefully calculated withdrawal. He had arrived in Chicago two days before the opening of the convention with no apparent thought of winning either the presidential or vice presidential nomination. His appearance on the convention scene, however, had the same effect on many delegates as does a thunderstorm on a herd of maverick cattle.

Arizona Governor Paul Fannin recalls the endless line of delegates requesting that Goldwater appear before their groups and explain his political philosophy. We knew the South had a sympathetic ear for Barry, the governor said, but the overtures also came from many eastern, northern and western states.

An avalanche of telegrams from every section of the nation rolled down on the delegates demanding they support Goldwater. There was a flash flood of support for the Arizona senator as the vice presidential candidate as well. Arizonans scurried about downtown Chicago, meeting, talking and testing their candidate’s strength; pumping words of encouragement to the fence-riding delegates; attempting to capture some of the pledged Nixon supporters. Even to a cautious Goldwater, the possibility of a spot on the ticket became apparent.

Then on a Saturday morning, after a hectic night of conferences, Goldwater strolled into a downtown Chicago hotel. A newsman tugged at his sleeve and asked, What do you think of Nixon visiting Rockefeller?

The news jolted Goldwater. The reporter explained that Nixon had taken a hurried night trip to New York to confer with Gov. Nelson Rockefeller and returned with a platform agreement from the chief executive of that vote-rich state.

Earlier Rockefeller had refused to join other Republican governors in publicly endorsing the vice president as the GOP standard bearer and had hinted at a floor fight over the proposed platform.

Goldwater snapped: This is a Munich. Nixon’s trip to New York can be interpreted in no other way than as a bid to appease the Republican left. What seems far more significant is the spectacle of the party’s prospective candidate for the presidency paying court to the leader of the Republican left. And even more damaging than this is the spectacle of these two party leaders grandly assuming the responsibility of dictating to the platform committee and to the convention the beliefs of the Republican Party.

The move by Nixon eliminated the Arizonan from any chance at the vice presidential nomination. But the demand that Goldwater battle Nixon for the presidential nomination continued, then grew in force as Rockefeller nailed into the GOP platform many of his liberal planks.

Goldwater listened to the growing clamor. He counted. At last he said, I have been given enough promises to be elected a thousand times over, but I can only count 50 solid votes.

His lieutenants insisted that the Arizona senator had at least 300 votes in his pocket. Goldwater again assessed the votes and found that much of his strength centered in states far down the alphabetic list. This meant Nixon could corral enough votes for nomination before Goldwater could show his potential. Once the vice president was over the hump, other delegations would sprint to hitch a ride on the bandwagon. This could give the conservative cause a staggering setback in the eyes of the public, the senator decided.

Goldwater then stopped his counting, called in his aides and walked into a crowded conference room at the Executive House.

The Arizona delegation welcomed him with a deafening roar. He waved them silent and said, I am convinced that it would not be in the best interest of the party or the conservative cause to allow my name to be placed in nomination.

No! was the answer from the Arizona delegates. Goldwater then carefully explained why he could not face Nixon in a floor fight. Protests filled the air again and again. Several women in the assemblage wept. Mrs. Emory C. Johnson of Tucson arose and said, I speak for millions of American women. Our hearts are broken.

Governor Fannin, his voice choked with emotion, said, I am very proud of you, Barry. The convention has shown how very proud the nation is of you. Except for our President, I have never seen a greater tribute paid to any man.

But Goldwater, always the practical politician, had made his decision. He refused to succumb to the temptation of making a fight for the nomination against the acknowledged choice of the party.

Goldwater backers insisted, however, that his name at least be placed in nomination. This he permitted. So it was that the stage was set for the July 27 drama.

After his address, he made his way through the throngs of captivated Goldwater enthusiasts, with shouts of God bless you, Barry! You’re the only real Republican left! The country needs you, Barry! ringing in his ears.

***

Who is this man who raises a nation’s blood pressure? Is he knight in conservative armor, battling to save his nation from the dragons of socialism and moral decay? Or is he self-seeking demagogue, determined to turn back the clock of American social progress a hundred years?

Recently a magazine writer summed up the Goldwater personality by describing him as bursting with energy, radiating élan, driven by half-arrested creative impulses, youthful, versatile, temperamental, stubborn, extravagant, imperious, and given to soaring partisan overstatement.

One thing is certain: Barry Goldwater is destined to eternal controversy.

Few other men in this century have cut such a spectacular swath across the national political scene in such a short time. Few have been so worshipped or so hated.

Walter Reuther, president of the United Auto Workers union, calls him The country’s number one political fanatic, labor baiter and peddler of class hatred.

Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, during a debate, said, Senator Goldwater is handsome enough to be an actor—in fact, he might have been a star with Sixteenth Century-Fox.

In his own party, Senator Jacob Javits of New York attempted to unseat Goldwater as the GOP senatorial campaign chairman and expressed his doubts that a man festering with such conservative views would be good for the Republican cause.

Meanwhile, Goldwater has found a bumper crop of supporters on the nation’s college campuses, long a fertile farm of liberalism.

He has captivated the states-righters of the South and the rugged individualists of the growing west.

A high-ranking military commander once said in private, Barry Goldwater may be the only man who can lead this nation out of the mess in which it is trapped.

What manner of man is this who can incite such admiration and pure disgust among such a large segment of this nation?

Politically, he is against an all-powerful federal government and for individualism. He is for a militarily powerful America and against any attempt to pacify, or do business with, the Soviet Union. He is for strict interpretation of the Constitution. He wants a tight hand on the purse strings of government and an end to federal aid programs at home or abroad.

Much of his popular appeal centers around his willingness to stand firm on his beliefs, and to speak frankly—even bluntly—no matter what the cost. Compromise to Goldwater is a useless maneuver, a sign of weakness in a government or an individual.

His political enemies call him a throwback, a prehistoric man who belongs in the ages gone by. Goldwater makes no apologies for reviewing the lessons of the past. He has compared America to the Rome of the Fourth Century in which the people became fat, lazy and willing to give up their prerogatives to an all-powerful federal government. Roman citizens, he says, surrendered so many of their freedoms that the nation collapsed before the on-rush of the first rival to offer a serious challenge.

The principles which govern the affairs of men, he tells audiences everywhere, do not change. Men have never found satisfactory substitutes for hard work, sacrifice and self-reliance.

His political stands have pushed him into the nation’s spotlight and there is no man in American politics today, with the exception of President Kennedy, who is so widely discussed and so energetically written about.

In appearance and action, Goldwater belies the conservative stereotype. He is six feet tall, weighs an unchanging 185 pounds, has a mass of curly gray hair, sprinkled with black, a jutting jaw and the tan of an outdoors man. He walks with the grace of a wild animal and the confidence of a monarch. He is a rugged man’s man and yet no figure on the political scene in decades has had so much appeal for women. He has expensive tastes and is among the first to own any new electronic gadget. He has lived his doctrine of self-reliance and the strenuous life, despite the softening influences of family wealth and prominence.

He helped build the first commercial radio station in Phoenix when he was only 12; learned to fly when it was still a risky business; six times shot the treacherous rapids of the Colorado River in a wooden boat; discovered and photographed a hitherto unexplored natural bridge in the Grand Canyon; overcame five major barriers in a quest for Air Corps wings and won sports championships despite the handicap of two mutilated knees.

When his college days were ended by the death of his merchant father, he plunged into the world of business, working sales slip for sales slip with the employees of the family department store and outselling them in everything from woolen socks to silk brassieres.

He eventually rejected the pleasant life of a merchant-sportsman to climb into, the arena of bare knuckle politics.

And, as a lifelong friend once said, "He couldn’t do anything the easy way.