Live from Music Row Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael in studio to discuss the recently recovered archives of Human Events and relevance to events of the day.
Leahy: Crom Carmichael is in studio. I have a very interesting story to tell you about one of our commentaries up at The Tennessee Star. The title of the commentary is Human Events 1968: Will U.S. Liberals Every Learn?
A very interesting story. Now, Human Events, as you know, was Ronald Reagan’s favorite magazine. It began in 1944. It continued publication until 2012 in print format. And then it was required and the print went away. Things changed.
A new group owned it and it became a digital enterprise only. And then it just went into quiescence for a period of time. Two years ago, a young entrepreneur bought it back, brought it back online.
And then a year ago, our good friend Jeff Webb purchased it entirely now. So this is Human Events. But they didn’t have all of the publications from way back when from the period of 1944 to 2012.
Carmichael: They didn’t?
Leahy: They did not have them. Nobody knew where they were. Enter our friend and our National Political Editor, Neil W. McCabe. Neil W. McCabe got his national start at Human Events when it still was publishing and had the previous ownership group.
Guess what? He connected the folks at Human Events with the founders, the new ownership, with the old ownership. And as a result, they discovered that the entire backlog from 1944 to 2012 existed in physical copy. A fellow by the name of Lee Edwards had it at The Heritage Foundation. They just shipped that all back to the folks at Human Events, just gave it to them. And as a result, Crom, we have the very first of those historical articles have been published at Human Events.
Carmichael: Oh, that’s what this is.
Leahy: That’s what that is!
Carmichel: Great story.
Leahy: And so now Crom, because we’re friends with the folks at Human Events, they have given us the rights to republish their articles. And this is from 1968 at Human Events. And the headline is: Will U.S. Liberals Ever Learn? I’ll read the first paragraph. And then this is 54 years ago. And then I want you to talk about the modern context of it.
Carmichael: Okay.
Leahy: “The Soviet seizure of Czechoslovakia last week in produced a great deal of handwringing and a spate of fury denunciations by US government leaders. But in the last analysis, the ruthless suppression of this independent-minded Communist country was another tragic policy failure of the Johnson-Humphrey administration.
For while the Soviets were sealing the Czech borders and ringing Prague with over 100 tanks, the American government’s response was reduced to giving the Soviets a balling out at the United Nations.” That was 54 years ago. Now fast-forward to today Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Carmichael: The Russian invasion, let’s put what Johnson’s response was in context. When Johnson was president, we were also in the Vietnam War, which involved the U.S. primarily because of Jack Kennedy and what he did to involve the U.S. And also when Kennedy approved the assassination of the president of South Vietnam.
Leahy: Reportedly. I think this has been reported and most historical facts, most historians would say that’s probably correct.
Carmichael: The one thing we know for sure is that the president of South Vietnam was assassinated.
Leahy: Yes.
Carmichael: Now, whether or not Jack Kennedy approved it or not, we can say it’s an open question, but an awful lot of historians think it was. But Jack Kennedy’s reaction to that was further involvement of the U.S. in Vietnam.
Leahy: So we had that going on in ’68.
Carmichael: So by ’68, the Vietnam War was a huge problem.
Leahy: It wasn’t going well.
Carmichael: It was not going well.
Leahy: For any number of reasons.
Carmichael: Yes.
Leahy: Political leadership over the military was one of the biggest problems.
Carmichael: All I’m saying is that it wasn’t going well. Now, let’s fast forward to today. You have George W. Bush who got us involved in the Iraq war, then the Afghan war. Countries and the citizens of countries can stand war only for so long.
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
