Conservatism, Buckley style: the mainstream media used the occasion of Buckley's passing to credit him with making conservatism modern and respectable. But what kind of "conservatism" is that?

New American, The, March 31, 2008 by John F. McManus

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William F. Buckley, Jr. passed into eternity on February 27. Thousands of media reports immediately reminded our nation that he had been America s leading conservative." The New York Times claimed his "greatest achievement was making conservatism respectable." House Republican leader John Boehner labeled him "the architect of the modern conservative movement." Everywhere one turned, the words "Buckley" and "conservative" appeared side by side with "respectable" and "modern."

But what does the word conservative mean? Old Right conservatives strongly believed in a non-interventionist foreign policy, constitutional principles, and limited government. They included author John T. Flynn, economist Murray Rothbard, Ohio Senator Robert Taft, the Chicago Tribune's Robert McCormick, John Birch Society founder Robert Welch, and many others, including Buckley's own father, now all deceased.

Buckley's brand of conservatism was not the conservatism of the Old Right. Using the magazine he founded, National Review, he forged something new; he created a "modern conservative movement" as Ohio Congressman Boehner claimed. But this "modern" conservatism--now commonly referred to as "neoconservatism"--entails support of internationalism and extra-constitutional government, and it more closely resembles liberalism than the conservatism of the Old Right.

Buckley's redefinition of conservatism made his conservatism "respectable" in the eyes of the New York Times and others on the left who wanted to ban traditional Old Right conservatism to the fringes. But not everyone was happy with Buckley's new brand of conservatism, particularly conservatives who refused to go in the neocon direction. As the Times acknowledged: "Even people on the right--from members of the John Birch Society to disciples of the author Ayn Rand to George Wallace to moderate Republicans--frequently pounced on him."

Buckley did plenty of pouncing of his own, as he attempted to redefine conservatism. In fact, the articles observing his passing often mentioned Buckley's efforts to try to purge the John Birch Society, the parent organization of this publication, from the conservative movement. As the Associated Press put it, "Buckley also took on the archconservative John Birch Society, a growing force in the 1950s and 1960s. 'Buckley's articles cost the Birchers their respectability with conservatives,' Richard Nixon once said. 'I couldn't have accomplished that. Liberals couldn't have, either.'" More accurately, of course, Buckley's articles cost the Birchers respectability with neoconservatives and liberals--but not with genuine conservatives who took the time to investigate the Birchers' positions.

The youthful Buckley gained national attention with the 1951 publication of his book God and Man at Yale. Widely hailed as a much-needed and courageous criticism of his alma mater for its socialism and denigration of Christianity, most of the praise for the book from conservative circles overlooked Buckley's conclusion that he would not object to Yale's policies so long as the alumni supported the policies. What a "modern" stance that was! If what Yale taught was really pro-socialist and anti-Christian, wouldn't an outright condemnation of Yale's subversion have been more appropriate?

In God and Man at Yale, Buckley supposedly strongly condemned Yale, even suggesting that other Yale graduates not support the institution: "No one apathetic to the value issues of the day ... can in good conscience contribute to the ascendancy of ideas he considers destructive of the best in civilization." Instead of following his own advice, however, he sent his only child, Christopher, to Yale, suggesting on a very personal level that he didn't really mean to condemn the university. Long before then, his book had made him nationally known and helped establish the conservative bona tides he needed to attract the support of conservatives and redefine the "modern" conservative movement.

While still at Yale, Buckley forged a longtime close friendship with his favorite professor, Willmoore Kendall, who later joined him at National Review. Kendall was a Trotskyite, an adherent of the socialism espoused by Russian Communist Leon Trotsky, who was a leader of the Russian Revolution but later broke with Lenin. Kendall was also a veteran of both the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and its successor, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), prior to accepting a teaching position at Yale in late 1947.

The Korean War had begun in June 1950 just as Buckley graduated from Yale. Fearing a call back into the military where he had served in the late months of World War II, he followed Kendall's advice and applied for entry into the CIA. Kendall introduced him to James Burnham, another Trotskyite/OSS/CIA veteran. Buckley went off for training in Washington and then to Mexico for a CIA assignment. Years later, in several mentions of his CIA service in Mexico, Buckley always made clear that he served in "deep cover."