From J. Edgar Hoover to Christopher Reeve
Newsmakers have been opening up to U.S. News for decades
J. Edgar Hoover
Aug. 11, 1950
The Korean War had started, and Wisconsin Sen. Joseph McCarthy was charging that the State Department was infiltrated by "205 card-carrying Communists." Alger Hiss had been convicted of perjury after denying that he turned over secret documents to Soviet agents. In 1950, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had been in office for 26 years; he would serve another 22, despite continued criticism that he abused his authority by investigating people because of their political beliefs. Later, he became so frustrated by limits on the prosecutions of suspected communists that he used wiretaps, infiltration, and false rumors to discredit them.
The ultimate loyalty of fully indoctrinated Communist Party members is Moscow. Stalin is represented as the foremost leader of international Communism, the omnipotent oracle from whom all wisdom flows. The Communist Party is today a Trojan horse of disloyalty, coiled like a serpent in the very heart of America. It may mouth sweet words of "peace," "democracy," "equality," and flourish gay slogans of "international solidarity" and "brotherhood of men," but its body and feet are from the Russian bear. Wherever the Trojan horse of Communist fifth columns has walked, the indelible footprints of Russian imperialism remain behind.
H. J. Muller
May 13, 1955
During the Cold War, the fallout from a nuclear attack was much on the minds of Americans. Bombs were being tested in the western desert, and arguments persisted over the effects of atomic testing on humans and unborn children. The issue was discussed with H. J. Muller, professor of zoology at Indiana University and winner of a Nobel Prize in genetics.
It is entirely fallacious—that you are going to ruin the world just as a result of test explosions in the manner and at the rate at which they have been carried on in the past three years. I don't say that you might not ruin a race—I wouldn't be a bit surprised—you can actually kill people off outright with what they call "patterned bombing." But I don't think you could ruin the race by an amount of radiation that would leave people able to reproduce, when given only to one generation. You can cause a great deal of harm, as you did at Hiroshima, but after all at Hiroshima there were survivors who got as much as they could stand and then reproduced, and we say that their offspring looked about normal. It doesn't mean that they were, but they were enough normal to get by.
Mohammed Reza Pahlevi
March 23, 1959
In the early 1950s, the CIA and British intelligence covertly organized a coup that toppled Iran's popular prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh, and strengthened the pro-American shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlevi. In 1959, the shah expressed appreciation for U.S. support against a menacing Soviet Union, but his comments take on a larger meaning in light of what eventually became known about the CIA's Operation Ajax. Pahlevi was ousted by domestic opponents in the 1979 Islamic Revolution. He was asked about the state of Iran'srelationship with the United States.
We have always been able to congratulate ourselves on the good spirit of these relations, which date from a long time back. So far they have always been on a free, impartial basis. Your country has always shown a great deal of humanitarianism by coming to our aid and taking our side whenever we were under pressure. Everything that has ever been done by you so far has been for the good of my country. You were not forced to do these things; it was done of your own free will. Naturally we are extremely grateful for that. You are doing this all over the world. This is your character.
Victor Gruen
June 20, 1960
In the 1960s, America was in the midst of an "urban renewal" that was reshaping the nation's cities, and not always for the better. Historic properties were being razed to make way for wider streets, government buildings, and parking lots. Highways sometimes cut through vibrant neighborhoods, killing them in the process. The Viennese architect Victor Gruen, a city planner who designed the nation's first indoor shopping mall, talked about the scourge of the automobile.
I regard this as part of what might be called a murder plot against our urban areas. The murder method is that of slowly poisoning the city by the injection of foreign particles into the bloodstream in increasing doses. These particles, in the form of automobiles and trucks, cannot be absorbed by the urban body and therefore cause serious circulatory diseases. The plotters are assisted by fifth columnists within the city who—by facilitating automobile traffic through widening of streets, one-way traffic, construction of gigantic garages—see to it that the poison is spread in the heart of the city until it attacks the tissues of the most important urban cells.
Margaret Mead
May 20, 1963
In 1963, research showed that people were marrying and starting families at ever younger ages, even before finishing college. The average age of marriage for boys had recently dropped from 27 to 23. Among those who expressed misgivings about the trend was noted anthropologist Margaret Mead, whose studies about the sex lives of South Pacific islanders helped influence the sexual revolution in America .
We are forcing everybody to get married. Not only is this the picture of the family everybody is supposed to have sometime, but it's getting to be the family that everybody is supposed to have very early.... Nobody is going to be interested in doing anything except having children. And you can't run a society if everybody's main interest in life is domestic—if nobody wants to be a senator or a governor or a president; if nobody wants to be an inventor, the lonely thinker. The average American man today is more interested in being a father than he is in his career or his job.
David Riesman
Feb. 24, 1964
In 1964, four long-haired rockers from Liverpool, England, captivated the world with a fresh, harmonic sound. American girls literally fainted at the sight of them. The Beatles went on to become one of the most popular and critically acclaimed musical groups of all time, by 1985 selling over 1 billion records worldwide. Fresh off their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, David Riesman, a Harvard University sociologist who wrote widely on social trends, discussed whether the new rock sensation was a lasting phenomenon or a passing fad.
Q: Is the furor over the singers who call themselves the Beatles a sign that American youngsters are going crazy?
A: No crazier than hitherto. One mustn't exaggerate and attribute to the vast majority the reactions of the minority.Q: Will [the fad] last very long?
A: No. No craze does.Q: How would you compare the current Beatle craze with the Elvis Presley craze of a few years back?
A: Compared to the Elvis Presley craze it is a very minor one.
Malcolm X
March 30, 1964
Malcolm X was a black Muslim minister who opposed integration and urged blacks to arm themselves against whites. At the time of this interview, he had just announced plans to form a black nationalist movement that called for complete separation of the races and creation of a black homeland. Later, after a pilgrimage to Mecca, he embraced a more humanistic worldview. He was assassinated in 1965 at age 39.
[Integration] won't work. It doesn't solve the problem. Do you know what integration really means? It means intermarriage. That's the real point behind it. You can't have it without intermarriage. And that would result in disintegration of both races. The Negro is better off by himself, so he can develop his character and his culture in accord with his own nature.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Nov. 7, 1966
In his farewell address to the nation, President Eisenhower famously warned about the growing influence of the "military-industrial complex." In retirement more than five years later, he spoke about the perils of concentrating too much power in the hands of the president.
I read where members of the so-called intelligentsia, some professors, urge a strong President. They are deluding themselves, their readers, and everyone else, with this idea of an all-powerful Chief Executive. A strong President is one who will be concerned about doing things in a constitutional way, respecting the legislative and the judiciary. Yet some writers are beginning to worship this concept of 'strongman' government. This has a very serious connotation for America. It means autocracy in the long run.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan
June 15, 1970
An adviser to three presidents, Daniel Patrick Moynihan was a respected expert on social welfare. Critics complained that the more money the government poured into public assistance, the worse the welfare load became. Moynihan, too, complained that welfare encouraged families to split up and discouraged work. The future senator was asked about the common objection: "Why should I work if I am going to just end up emptying slop jars?"
That's a complaint you hear mostly from people who don't empty slop jars. This country has a lot of people who do exactly that for a living. And they do it well. It's not pleasant work, but it's a living. And it has to be done. Somebody has to go around and empty all those bed pans. And it's perfectly honorable work. There's nothing the matter with doing it. Indeed, there is a lot that is right about doing it, as any hospital patient will tell you.
Vice President Gerald Ford
Dec. 17, 1973
The Watergate scandal, which started with five men burglarizing the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee, reached all the way to the White House when tape recordings confirmed that President Richard Nixon had participated in a coverup. Impeachment was looming when Gerald Ford talked about Nixon's future in 1973. Nixon resigned on Aug. 9, 1974.
I have talked with [Nixon] personally and I can assure you that he has no intention whatsoever of resigning.... There is no evidence in my opinion that would justify the [congressional] committee or the House passing the resolution necessary to impeach. I am positive the President is innocent of any involvement in Watergate.
Somebody should have been held responsible and fired at the very outset. If that had been done, I think there would have been nothing like the turmoil that we've seen. Either someone was negligent in not pressing for that kind of action or else it was hoped that time would take care of the problem. But it hasn't. And the net result is that it has festered.
Carl Sagan
May 19, 1975
Carl Sagan popularized astronomy for millions of Americans with his 1980 television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. He promoted the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project, in which scientists listen with radio telescopes for signals from other life forms. In this interview, he was asked whether there could be life in space that in no way resembles life on Earth.
Not only is that possible, it is inevitable. We Earth beings are exquisitely attuned to the environment of our planet, but that's because we have evolved here. Those of us not so exquisitely attuned are dead. As a result, we regard other planets that are even slightly different as somehow inhospitable. But that's only a reflection of our evolutionary past. I could well imagine beings brought up on a place like Jupiter who would look at Earth and say: My goodness, you might want to visit, but you surely wouldn't want to live there.
James Dickey
April 18, 1977
A peanut farmer from Plains, Ga., had moved into the Oval Office, and the South—or the Sun Belt, as it had just been dubbed—was starting to leave its old reputation behind. As urban riots were roiling the North, the South was enjoying a booming economy and vastly improved race relations. In the first half of the decade, the South grew in population more than the rest of the country combined. Among those who addressed the region's growing influence was the author of Deliverance, James Dickey, who had read one of his poems at President Jimmy Carter's inauguration gala.
What we need and have now is a thrust provided by Southern ascendancy and its particular brand of kindness, fellowship, tolerance, and easygoingness. For many years, the South was thought of by the rest of the country as racist and intolerant, but that has never really been true except in some isolated instances. Most Southerners are extremely tolerant.... The men are good to each other; the men are good to the women; the women are good to each other, and the women are good to the men.... When that Southern influence spreads throughout the country...you're going to see a good new kind of feeling of people for each other.
Dick Cavett
June 4, 1979
An Emmy Award-winning talk show host, Dick Cavett was known for his easygoing style, a sharp wit, and a thoughtful approach to sometimes controversial issues. At the time of this interview, television was limited to a handful of networks, but the medium was taking up more of Americans' time, which concerned educators, parents, and social critics. Many worried about sex and violence on "the tube."
Television may have made this a nation of spectators. That's the real danger. All those evenings, weeks, months, and years of people sitting there passively staring at a screen cannot help but numb the brain.
This is not an indictment of talk shows, but I suppose many people cannot make conversation, so they watch other people talk on television. Or perhaps they have no sex or violence in their lives, but they would like to—so they watch television and are vicariously thrilled or repulsed by it. It's quite possible that the mental and intellectual health of the country would be better off if people didn't stare into that glowing box for so many hours.
Norman Mailer
Dec. 10, 1979
The press was in its heyday when the writer and iconoclast Norman Mailer gave this interview. Post-Watergate, newspapers were devoting more resources to investigative journalism and embracing a more literary style of writing. Mailer was one of the founders of the genre known as the New Journalism, in which elements of fiction mixed with fact. He practiced the craft in bestselling books and in the pages of New York's Village Voice.
The press is like a doctor who gives you too many injections. It is a bad physician who won't let the patient arrive at anything by himself. I'm terribly cynical about the way the press works. I know enough about writing to be pretty certain that very often you can't find a story even after months of the hardest work. You can't be too certain about what happened. So I believe there is a fundamental irresponsibility in the very act of journalism. The idea that news can be reported on the same day it happened has something monstrous about it. There is an appetite in journalism for immediate satisfaction. When we find that appetite in an adult, we call it psychopathic; we say that anyone who can't wait for satisfaction is unbalanced. Yet when it comes to journalism, we insist that we get our news immediately. That has to destroy all sorts of careful social processes. It makes people who are engaged in these processes more secretive than ever; it institutionalizes paranoia in government behavior.
Queen Nooral-Hussein
Oct. 10, 1983
American-born Lisa Halaby married King Hussein of Jordan in 1978 and as Queen Noor played an active role in expanding the accepted activities of women in Jordan. In this interview, she noted the influence conservative Muslim traditions have in a nation like Jordan.
More women are returning to traditional dress. This trend is not so much social or religious as political. The realities of the revolution in Iran, the continuing irresolution of the West Bank, and the worsening situation of Lebanon create enormous political tensions. People are looking for security and national preservation. The trend toward conservatism is an attempt to preserve our own identity and protect the right we see being eroded away. The future depends on peace in the area. We have the potential for an Arab renaissance; the alternative is destruction. Yes, I'm optimistic. That is why we named our daughter Faith—faith that we can develop our potential.
Ronald Reagan
Nov. 18, 1985
On the eve of a key arms control summit with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in Geneva, President Reagan was asked about his characterization of the Soviet Union as an "evil empire."
Well, it really wasn't my view. That began in the first press conference I ever held as President, when I was asked whether we could believe the Soviets. I cited statements by their own leaders over the years saying there is no immorality in anything that furthers the progress of the world's socialist revolution. So we seem to be the only ones that in our philosophy are bound by morality.
Jesse Jackson
Dec. 21, 1987
During his second run for the Democratic presidential nomination, the Rev. Jesse Jackson was asked about the role race played in his campaign as the second African-American (after Shirley Chisholm) to try for the White House on a major party's ticket. He responded by saying: "No one asks any white candidate, 'Can a white win?'"
There is somehow a double standard or a lagging question. In some sense, it forces you to be better, just to be equal. We also know that the media has basically disciplined white Americans against black Americans. We are projected every day in the media as less intelligent than we are, less hard-working than we work, less patriotic than we are, less universal than we are and more violent than we are. So you kind of start with those negatives.
George H.W. Bush
Dec. 31, 1990
Just days before launching the 1991 Gulf War to liberate Kuwait after Iraq's invasion, President Bush reflected on his decision. He referred to an Amnesty International report on Iraqi human rights abuses in Kuwait, most notably the killings of hundreds of babies taken from hospital incubators by Iraqi soldiers. Later, those accounts turned out to have been part of a public relations effort by the Kuwaiti royal family. Amnesty said its subsequent investigation found "no reliable evidence" of the alleged infanticide.
On this question, I've got it boiled down very clearly to good vs. evil. And it helps if you can be that clear in your own mind. And I'll tell you another thing that's reinforced my view: That is this Amnesty International report, which is devastating, absolutely devastating. It helps one come to a recognition that the right must prevail.
On the lessons of Vietnam:
Never fight a war with a hand tied behind your back. Never send a kid into battle unless you're going to give him total support. Don't send him in under-equipped. Don't send a mission in undermanned. Don't send them in where you tell commanding officers what they can't do.
Bill Clinton
July 20, 1992
In a cover story, the then presidential candidate praised his wife, Hillary, as having "great character, great passion for doing what was right." He added that "she looks just like the person that I met over 20 years ago, except better in every way." But he also acknowledged past problems in his marriage.
Hillary and I said at the beginning of this campaign, which I thought was an example of good character and not bad character, that we'd worked hard on our marriage; we'd had difficulties, and we'd saved it.
You know, I've been treated like I had a character problem because I acknowledged that. And maybe I shouldn't have. But I think that's not evidence of bad character. I think change is tough for anybody. And I think we ought to elect somebody president who can face facts and make change and make tough decisions. Other people may have better rhetoric about it, but I think I've got a better record of it.
It could be that revealing so much makes me look weak, not tough. But if that's so, then it's not my maturity that's at issue. Then people want to be lied to, they want to be conned, they want to be manipulated. And I'm just not very good at that.
Christopher Reeve
May 11, 1998
An actor best known for his role as Superman, Christopher Reeve severed his spinal cord falling from a horse in 1995. Paralyzed from the neck down, Reeve was confined to a wheelchair and breathed only through a ventilator. He became an outspoken critic of the American health insurance system, a lobbyist for spinal cord research, and a symbol of hope and strength for paraplegics worldwide. He died in 2004 at age 52.
When I was first injured I was not able to feel the bottom of my spine. About a year later, I developed sensation all the way down, and now someone touches it, it's painful. And that's a good kind of pain, believe me. Then there are the spasms. I could drive this wheelchair too quickly over a bump and my legs and arms would flail because the brain is not able to tell the body it's not a crisis; it's just a bump. The point is that having spasms is actually a good thing because it means the nerves are still alive and making the body move.
How much function will you get back?
Eventually the whole thing. I think I won't be able to run around and play tennis. But I do think that I will walk, and walk fairly normally.
With Danielle Burton, Carol S. Hook, Jill Konieczko, Jennifer O'Shea, Stephanie Salmon, and Bobbie Kyle Sauer
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