When Robert Goldberg, a University of Utah history professor, decided to write a biography of conservative icon Barry Goldwater, he wrote Goldwater a letter and asked to talk to him. The venerable politician wrote back and said, "I'm sorry. I can't help you with your paper." Goldberg was surprised: "I felt like I was in seventh grade." So he sent him another letter, and Goldwater harshly replied, "I'm not gonna help you."
Goldberg gave up - temporarily. Not on the book, which he continued to research for a year and a half, but on the interview. Then he tried one more time to get Goldwater to talk to him. He told him he was doing the project anyway, and he wanted it to be the best book he could possibly produce. This time, Goldwater hit the ceiling. He wrote back, saying, "Who the h--- do you think you are!"But he finally agreed to talk.
When they got together in Goldwater's Arizona office, Goldberg's tape recorder failed him. Since the longtime senator prides himself as a "Mr. Fix-it," he grabbed it, shook it and smacked it a couple of times on the desk. "There - it's working now." As Goldberg asked him questions, every so often Goldwater stopped and said, "That's a stupid question!" And Goldberg said, "Well, let me try another one, then."
The bottom line is that not only did Goldwater cooperate with the author, giving him access to everything he needed, but he was pleased with the finished product.
Goldwater is not a reader, so when Goldberg sent him a copy, he wrote back: "I read the first chapter and learned a lot about my ancestors. I like the way the book looks. It has a good feel to it. It's easy to read. Thank you very much."
Goldberg felt vindicated. After all, his first vote was for Goldwater when, as a 15-year-old political novice who was rebelling against the liberalism of the 1960s, he went into the voting booth with his mother and pulled the lever for her. Since then, his politics have moved toward the left, but he believes he is objective enough to treat Goldwater's life with balance.
In an interview with the Deseret News he talked about the veteran politician and the biography:
Deseret News: Is Goldwater really a tragic figure?
Goldberg: There is still real tension and stress between him and his four kids. They feel that they were abandoned. They felt they had no priority in his life. They felt he ignored them much of the time, and they never got over that. . . . The other thing that is tragic is that Goldwater feels he took the punch in 1964. He took the conservative cause, and he was defeated and he was humiliated. And when the conservatives came into power in 1980, he was treated as a has-been. He didn't get over that kind of rejection. He took everything so personally. He was very insecure.
Deseret News: Did Goldwater, who ran on the slogan, "In your heart, you know he's right," always stand up for his principles?
Goldberg: Here was a man who voted against the Civil Rights Act as a matter of conscience. He voted against the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty because in his heart he knew he was right. What my research indicated was that he was much more a politician than I ever understood. He was willing to bob and weave in order to maintain his position - whether it was abortion, the Central Arizona Project, even the Civil Rights Act. There was a real calculation. He did have his finger to the wind.
Deseret News: Why did he support both Sen. Joseph McCarthy and President Richard Nixon even when it was no longer justified?
Goldberg: Goldwater has a fierce loyalty to his friends. It often overrode political considerations. He looked at Nixon and McCarthy as his friends. He had a stock answer about Watergate. He said about Nixon: "He lied to the country, he lied to his wife, he lied to me." That was personalizing the whole thing. It wasn't the rest of the issues of Watergate - it was "HE LIED TO ME!" It was personal betrayal. He once said, "Nixon was a `two-fisted liar and I'll never trust him again." But then Nixon befriended him when he was down and out in '64. He allowed him back into the circle in '68. So Goldwater never forgot Nixon as his friend.
Deseret News: What kind of president would Goldwater have made?
Goldberg: Boy, it scares the hell out of me. Goldwater had his Arizona mafia, a sort of kitchen cabinet, his pals for 30, 40, 50 years. It wasn't that they were so bright. It was "these people won't betray me." . . . I think he would have been even tougher than Johnson. He believed in bombing the North Vietnamese. He would have turned North Vietnam into a parking lot. I don't have any doubt he would have done that. It was better for them to die than for Americans to die.
Deseret News: Weren't you pretty tough (in the book) on the Democrats of the 1964 election?
Goldberg: I AM a Democrat. I want you to know that. But after I read his memos, I think Bill Moyers, who is this angelic choir boy minister on TV now, was a cynical, manipulative, nasty man. I once called him the lap dog, but someone corrected me to say "pit bull" of Lyndon Johnson. They (the Democrats) knew they were going to win. They knew they were going to win BIG. And winning BIG wasn't enough. They were out to CRUSH Goldwater. He got more than he deserved.
Deseret News: You say Goldwater planted the seeds for the future growth of conservatism - is that a fair thesis?
Goldberg: I wrote my book that way. If I had it to write over again, I would give William Buckley much more play and Bill Rusher, too. Goldwater was a salesman. What he did was suggest that conservatism was not the province of the rich and privileged. He softened the edges of conservatism. He was a populist sort of guy, an outdoors man, a handsome man, a Westerner. He gave the political dimension a popular dimension. But what Goldwater started to do, Reagan was able to do much more effectively. He was "Barry Goldwater in sheep's clothing."
Deseret News: Why weren't Reagan and Goldwater close?
Goldberg: Nancy Reagan felt betrayed when Goldwater decided to back Nixon in '68 and Ford in '76. While Reagan was affable about it, Nancy was not. I asked Goldwater about it, and he said, "I'm not going to tell you. You ask HER." Then he said, "See that cane over there? That used to belong to Loyal Davis, Nancy's father. He used to be a neighbor of mine. I need that cane to walk. If Nancy knew I had that cane, she'd be up here tomorrow to get it." There was real tension there. And when Reagan got in the driver's seat, the relationship was really chilly. I asked Reagan about it, and he was very gentle.
Deseret News: How do you feel about writing a biography?
Goldberg: This is my first biography. I felt uncomfortable doing it. How do you focus on an individual without losing sight of everything around him? I usually write about social history and grass-roots history, and this is political history. I wrote this biography because I'm so fascinated by the man. It has led me to change my perception of American history. I've studied forces and patterns and people in groups, and now I'm much more attuned to the power of the individual in society - the power of the individual to seize opportunities and move people toward him or her. I find biography one of the hardest things I've ever done.