The New Republic

The networks tried to convey an understanding of what they were broadcasting. ABC called it a social occasion: "You get no sense of a political gathering here," cracked Harry Reasoner. Over at CBS, Walter Cronkite remarked: "The convention is in complete control of the Carter and Democratic National Committee forces and no fights are being permitted." The prevailing theme was persistent unrelieved harmony, the image of an absolutely unified gathering. READ MORE >>

If there is any period one would desire to be born in is it no the age of Revolution; when the old and the new stand side by side and admit of being compared; when the energies of all men are searched by fear and by hope; when the historic glories of the old can be compensated by the rich possibilities of the new era? Emerson: The American Scholar In this republican country somebody is always at the drowning point. Hawthorne: The House Of The Seven Gables READ MORE >>

On an early morning flight in the fall of 1972, an aide handed R, Sargent Shriver the morning paper, which had a story in it about his campaign appearance the previous night. The press account identified him not only as the Democratic vice presidential nominee but as"the brother-in-law" of Ted Kennedy, When he saw that, Shriver dropped the paper to his lap, "I used to be Jack Kennedy's brother-in-law. Now I'm Ted Kennedy's brother-in-law. READ MORE >>

Exactly 11 years ago—on September 27, 1964—the President’s Commission on the Assassination ofPresident John F. Kennedy issued its final report, concluding that Lee Harvey Oswald was the assassin, thathe acted alone rather than as part of a conspiracy, andthat there never had been any link between him and hiskiller. Jack Ruby. After nearly 10 months of intenselabor, however, the Commission, presided over by theChief Justice of the United States, Earl Warren, wasunable to come up with a motive for the Dallasassassination. READ MORE >>

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For at least eight years it seemed reasonable to me to assume that sooner or later, no matter what we did in Vietnam, things would end badly for us. This feeling was not based on any desire to see us humiliated, or any feeling that the other side represented the forces of goodness and light; it just seemed that the only way to stave off an eventual Communist victory was with an open-ended, and therefore endless, application of American firepower in support of the South Vietnamese regime. READ MORE >>

A new book and news accounts from San Clemente depict Richard Nixon as he appeared to one of his White House writers before Watergate destroyed his presidency and as he is in exile and nearly total seclusion six months after his resignation. The book is William Safire's Before the Fall (Doubleday; $12.50). READ MORE >>

Last month as the UN General Assembly was passing resolutions in New York conferring legitimacy on the Palestine Liberation Organization, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in Paris, by excluding Israel from its European regional activities, was anticipating and, as Raymond Aron and Jean-Paul Sartre said in a remarkable joint statement, "justifying in advance Israel's physical annihilation." The Arab-inspired resolutions included terminating UNESCO's small aid to Israeli cultural institutions and asked that UNESCO's director general undertake to supervise e READ MORE >>

What would this country be without all those candies and cookies and cakes and sugar-coated cereals? It would be healthier and wealthier, with more good teeth and more to spend on products more essential than sugar. We are the world's most voracious consumers of sweets, as we are of everything else. An average American consumes about 100 pounds of sugar a year (not counting 30 pounds of other liquid sweeteners), a figure that marks him as a sugar addict when compared to his ancestors. READ MORE >>

"The Ruth," Heywood Broun once wrote, "is mighty and shall prevail." George Herman Ruth, Sultan of Swat, has prevailed, a quarter-century since his death and close to 40 years since he hung up his uniform as an active baseball player, to the extent of having four book-length accounts of his life and times appear this year. For a man who read and wrote only with difficulty, that is quite a bit of posthumous attention. READ MORE >>