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Firing Line 1966-1986: World Leaders (1986-01-14)

Public Broadcasting1986Creative Commons
Poster for Firing Line 1966-1986: World Leaders (1986-01-14)

About this film

Firing Line is 20 years old, and this is the first of three celebratory anthologies of clips from past shows--and what a celebration it is! Harold Macmillan alone would be worth the price of admission: "I've always thought that the peoples of the old Europe, having twice in my lifetime destroyed themselves by a kind of internecine war, like the Greeks did in the Peloponnesian War, must now get together." And then there's Eugene McCarthy, bringing a poet's eye and an offbeat sensibility: "The only thing [Nixon] did [on going into Cambodia] that sort of saved it was to call it an 'incursion.' We'd never had an incursion in the history of the country. It was our first incursion." But Mr. Nixon gives as good as he gets: "We have to recognize that politics is a great drama. And I will give credit to our Democratic friends. Generally speaking, the Democratic politicians, the so-called liberal politicians, have been more exciting and more interesting. Now part of the reason for that is that they can be less responsible." And so on, delightfully.

Directors & creators

Southern Educational Communications Association

Subjects

public broadcasting, AAPB, William F. Buckley Jr., Harold Macmillan, Eugene McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Firing Line, Cold War, international relations, European integration, Cambodian incursion, Vietnam War, United States politics, political philosophy, Conservative movement, liberalism

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