(One of the nation's Republican conservatives speaks out o...)
One of the nation's Republican conservatives speaks out on his life and career, discussing his Catholic upbringing, his family, his influence on both the Nixon and Reagan administrations, and his decision not to run for the 1988 Republican presidential nomination
The Great Betrayal: How American Sovereignty and Social Justice Are Being Sacrificed to..
(A voice of populist conservatism argues that many America...)
A voice of populist conservatism argues that many Americans have lost their jobs because of the free-trade policies of the Global Economy, combining real-life stories and the principles of America's founding fathers to present a new economic nationalism. 75,000 first printing. Tour.
A Republic, Not an Empire: Reclaiming America's Destiny
(All but predicting the September 11 attack on the World T...)
All but predicting the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center, Buchanan examines and critiques America's recent foreign policy and argues for new policies that consider America's interests first.
The Death of the West: How Dying Populations and Immigrant Invasions Imperil Our Country and Civilization
(The Death of the West details how a civilization, culture...)
The Death of the West details how a civilization, culture, and moral order are passing away and foresees a new world order that has terrifying implications for our freedom, our faith, and the preeminence of American democracy.
Where the Right Went Wrong: How Neoconservatives Subverted the Reagan Revolution and Hijacked the Bush Presidency
(Where the Right Went Wrong chronicles how the Bush admini...)
Where the Right Went Wrong chronicles how the Bush administration and Beltway conservatives have abandoned their principles, and how a tiny cabal hijacked U. S. foreign policy, and may have ignited a "war of civilizations" with the Islamic world that will leave America's military mired down in Middle East wars for years to come.
("The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation t...)
"The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities," said Theodore Roosevelt. State of Emergency will demonstrate that this is exactly what is happening to America and may now be unstoppable.
Churchill, Hitler, and "The Unnecessary War": How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World
(Certain to create controversy and spirited argument, Chur...)
Certain to create controversy and spirited argument, Churchill, Hitler, and “The Unnecessary War” is a grand and bold insight into the historic failures of judgment that ended centuries of European rule and guaranteed a future no one who lived in that vanished world could ever have envisioned.
Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025?
(How Americans are killing the country they profess to lov...)
How Americans are killing the country they profess to love, and the fate that awaits us if we do not turn around, is what Suicide of a Superpower is all about.
The Greatest Comeback: How Richard Nixon Rose from Defeat to Create the New Majority
(The Greatest Comeback is an intimate portrayal of the 37t...)
The Greatest Comeback is an intimate portrayal of the 37th President and a fascinating fly on-the-wall account of one of the most remarkable American political stories of the 20th century.
(From Vietnam to the Southern Strategy, from the opening o...)
From Vietnam to the Southern Strategy, from the opening of China to the scandal of Watergate, Pat Buchanan—speechwriter and senior adviser to President Nixon—tells the untold story of Nixon’s embattled White House, from its historic wins to it devastating defeats.
Patrick Joseph Buchanan is an American paleoconservative political commentator, author, syndicated columnist, politician, and broadcaster. He worked as an assistant and special consultant to U.S. Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan. Buchanan also was an original host on CNN's Crossfire.
Background
Buchanan was born on November 2, 1938, in Washington, D.C. He is a son of William Baldwin Buchanan and Catherine Elizabeth (Crum) Buchanan. Buchanan had six brothers and two sisters. His father was of Irish, English, and Scottish ancestry, and his mother was of German descent.
Education
Buchanan was born into a Catholic family and attended Catholic schools, including the Jesuit-run Gonzaga College High School.
Patrick Buchanan studied at Georgetown University where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in English in 1961. He also studied at Columbia University, receiving a master's degree in journalism in 1962. He was in ROTC (The Reserve Officers' Training Corps) but did not complete the program. The District of Columbia draft board exempted Buchanan from military service because of reactive arthritis, classifying him as 4-F.
Patrick Buchanan began his career as a reporter with the conservative St. Louis Globe-Democrat. He quickly became the paper’s editorial writer. At age twenty-three, he was the youngest editorial writer on any major American newspaper of the time. Although he was promoted in 1964 to the assistant editorial editor, Buchanan left the newspaper in 1965.
In 1966 Buchanan arranged a meeting with former vice president Richard Nixon, who was impressed with the young man’s political savvy and conservative outlook and hired Buchanan as an assistant. Buchanan traveled with Richard Nixon throughout the campaigns of 1966 and 1968. When Nixon took the Oval Office in 1969, Buchanan worked as a White House assistant and speechwriter for Nixon and Vice President Spiro Agnew. His daily assignments included developing political strategy, publishing the President's Daily News Summary, and preparing briefing books for news conferences. He accompanied Nixon on his trip to China in 1972 and the summit in Moscow, Yalta, and Minsk in 1974. Buchanan coined the phrase "Silent Majority," and helped shape the strategy that drew millions of Democrats to Nixon.
After Nixon’s resignation in August 1974, Buchanan worked for several months as an advisor to President Gerald. Ford Chief of Staff Alexander Haig offered Buchanan his choice of three open ambassador posts, including Austria and South Africa; Buchanan opted for the latter due to his interest in the country and his meager personal finances, which would have made living in Vienna cost-prohibitive. President Ford initially signed off on the appointment, but then rescinded it after it was prematurely reported in the Evans-Novak Political Report and caused controversy, especially among the U.S. diplomatic corps.
Patrick Buchanan became a syndicated newspaper columnist and lecturer. He has since become a familiar commentator on a number of television talk shows as well. In 1982 he became the co-host of the popular Cable News Network (CNN) television show Crossfire, a position he held until 1995. He was also the moderator for Capital Gang, another CNN talk show, from 1988 to 1992, and was one of the original panelists on The McLaughlin Group, a series which has been broadcast on the National Broadcasting Corp. (NBC) and the Public Broadcasting System (PBS).
On several occasions. Buchanan has interrupted his career as a journalist to re-enter the political fray. In 1985 he returned to the White House as director of communications for President Ronald Reagan. He left again in 1987 to return to broadcasting, writing, and lecturing. In 1992 Buchanan declared his candidacy for the Republican Party presidential nomination, running against President George Bush, who sought reelection. He ran on a platform of immigration reduction and social conservatism, including opposition to multiculturalism, abortion, and gay rights. In the primary elections, Buchanan garnered three million total votes or 23% of the vote. Unfortunately for his efforts, that primary was the best of the campaign. With the loss of the nomination to President Bush, Buchanan returned again to being a television commentator.
But in 1996, with the Republican Party nomination an open race, Buchanan again announced his candidacy, facing off against frontrunner Senator Bob Dole. Appealing to those workers who had been downsized out of jobs during the supposedly prosperous 1990s, Buchanan called for stricter controls on illegal immigration, the enactment of stiff tariffs, and a stop to corporations closing American factories to open cheap-labor factories overseas. Free trade was a particular issue with Buchanan, who blamed increasing corporate globalization for lowering the living standards of working Americans. This time around, Buchanan and his message won the New Hampshire primary and went on to finish second to Dole with three million votes.
Buchanan reemerged in 1999 as a candidate for the Republican nomination but fared so poorly in a non-binding straw poll in Iowa that he decided to rethink his strategy. By the fall of 1999, he had stunned his followers by leaving the Republican Party and announcing his candidacy for the Reform Party’s presidential nomination. He declared his intention to become the Reform Party's candidate for the presidency. Buchanan's run for president in the 2000 election caused a split in the Reform Party. Those opposed to Buchanan tried to prevent his name from being listed on the ballot. This, in addition to health problems and declining interest in the issues he wanted to discuss, led him to finish fourth in the election. He received less than 1 percent of all the votes cast.
A longer variation of the Crossfire format was aired by MSNBC as Buchanan and Press on July 15, 2002, reuniting Buchanan and Press. Billed as "the smartest hour on television", Buchanan and Press featured the duo interviewing guests and sparring about the top news stories. In 2002 Patrick Buchanan became a co-founder of The American Conservative magazine. However, MSNBC President Eric Sorenson canceled Buchanan and Press on November 26, 2003. Buchanan stayed at MSNBC as a political analyst. In October 2011, Buchanan was indefinitely suspended from MSNBC as a contributor after the publication of his controversial book Suicide of a Superpower. MSNBC permanently parted ways with Buchanan on February 16, 2012.
Over the years, Buchanan has detailed his political views in several best-selling books, including Right from the Beginning, The Great Betrayal: How American Sovereignty and Social Justice Are Being Sacrificed to the Gods of the Global Economy, and A Republic, Notan Empire: Reclaiming America’s Destiny.
(Where the Right Went Wrong chronicles how the Bush admini...)
2004
Politics
In 1996 Patrick Buchanan announced his departure from the Republican Party to join the Reform Party. Reform Party members urged Buchanan to take an active role within the party. Buchanan declined, though he did attend their 2001 convention. In the next few years, he identified himself as a political independent, choosing not to align himself with what he viewed as the neo-conservative Republican party leadership. Prior to the 2004 election, Buchanan announced he once again identified himself as a Republican, declared that he had no interest in ever running for president again.
Patrick Buchanan political positions can generally be described as paleoconservative, and many of his views, particularly his opposition to American imperialism and the managerial state.
Connections
Buchanan married White House staffer Shelley Ann Scarney in 1971.
Father:
William Baldwin Buchanan
Mother:
Catherine Elizabeth Buchanan
Brother:
Brian Buchanan
Brother:
Henry Buchanan
Brother:
James Buchanan
Brother:
John Buchanan
Brother:
Thomas Buchanan
Brother:
William Jr. Buchanan
Sister:
Kathleen Theresa Buchanan
Sister:
Angela Marie Buchanan
Wife:
Shelley Ann Scarney
References
Encyclopedia of World Biography
Each annual supplement to the Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd Edition, contains 200 biographical entries new to the set. Each volume includes a balance of historic and contemporary figures who, like those appearing in the Encyclopedia of World Biography base set, have made a significant contribution to human culture and society. Entries offer an in-depth biographical essay approximately 2, 000 words in length, as well as a bibliographic section, which may include books, periodicals, or online websites to consult for further research. Many entries include a portrait of the individual.
1998
Buchanan: Caught in the Crossfire
George Grant explores the roots of Patrick Buchanan's populist appeal--not only detailing what he stands for, but why. This book traces the origins of his thinking, examining the background of his greatest influences, and drawing apt historical parallels. Buchanan is an insider's guidebook to this fascinating and powerful political trailblazer, his followers, and their burgeoning movement to reform American politics.