WEBVTT

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- It\'s the prettiest place in
Washington D.C. that I know of.

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I must say, I know quite a lot
of people underground here.

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Rather cozy.

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George McGovern tells me
he\'s going to be over there,

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I think, somewhere
with his family.

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Alice Roosevelt
Longworth is nearby,

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but I\'ve forgotten where she is.

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My old friend Jimmy
Trimble is back thataway.

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When I first came here, with
us was a biographer of mine

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who was famous for
getting everything wrong.

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I thought it would be a good way
to start him on the biography

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to show him my tomb,
to give him confidence.

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He begins with this
desperate passage

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about Gore Vidal who has a
pathological hatred of death.

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Anybody who has that doesn\'t
take somebody to see his tomb.

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With that one mistake, he was
off and running, as they say.

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- Gore Vidal has been a thorn
in the American establishment

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of which he is, by birth at
any rate, a charter member.

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- Gore Vidal has
seemed to have always

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had his finger on the
pulse of American politics.

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He has boasted John F.
Kennedy and Eleanor Roosevelt

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amongst his best friends.

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- Vidal, as you probably know,
has written some 22 novels

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along with plays,
movies, and essays.

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He is perhaps best
known for a series

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of historical novels
about America.

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- and his lifelong obsession
is with the enthralling

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decadence of American
political life.

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- Gore Vidal is the real most
interesting man in the world.

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- Gore seems to
have been everywhere

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at once, all the time.

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He\'s a shape shifting character.

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He comes up out of a
different hole every time.

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You never know where he\'s
going to pop his head up.

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- I am a happy warrior.

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I\'m in battle, and
I\'m enjoying it.

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The whole point
to a ruling class

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is they don\'t
conspire the rulers.

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They all think alike, unless
you get out of it, as I did.

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And I defected, and I was
rather worried about what

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was happening to what I
think of as my country.

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(MUSIC PLAYING)

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- The day of reckoning is now.

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And at such a time, faced
with the possibility

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of our own cowardice, a
writer of constant courage

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is a great, great blessing.

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People say that a
writer sees the future.

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He says, that\'s not true.

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He says, a writer
doesn\'t see the future.

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A writer sees the present.

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Ladies and gentlemen,
Mr. Gore Vidal.

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(APPLAUSE)

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- In every generation there
are a few unfortunate souls

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who are condemned,
practically at birth,

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to be that absolute
absurdity: a writer for life.

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(MUSIC PLAYING)

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- When I think about Gore, I
see this baby born in 1925,

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the roaring \'20s.

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And born into a very
privileged household.

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His father was Eugene
Luther Vidal, Director

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of Air Commerce under
Roosevelt from 1933 till 1937.

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So already, a powerful
man on his father\'s

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side, a pioneer in
the world of aviation.

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- I think it\'d be a good idea
if we found out whether or not

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a 10-year-old youngster
could handle it?

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What do you think?

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- Sure, I\'ll try it.

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- My father dreamed of being
the Henry Ford of aviation.

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So he was forever coming up with
prototypes of cheap airplanes

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that were absolutely safe.

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- All right, let\'s get going.

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- All right.

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- So safe that even I, at
the age of 10, could fly it.

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- Well, how about it?

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- It\'s easier than learning
how to ride a bicycle.

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- As a child, he
knew Amelia Earhart,

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who was having an
affair with his father.

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- They were aviation
buddies, really.

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He and my mother had
long since parted.

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- When Gore is still in his
teens, his mother remarries.

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She marries Hugh D. Auchincloss.

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Gore called him \"Hugh-dee\".

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Then, of course, Gore\'s
mother divorced him.

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He remarried Jacqueline
Bouvier\'s mother.

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So there began the relationship
between Gore and the Kennedy

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family.

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- If you could change
anything about your life,

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what would it be?

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- My mother.

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(LAUGHTER)

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- Whose mother do you want?

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- I\'ll take Whistler\'s.

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I\'ll take anybody else\'s.

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- Gore and his mother had
a horrendous relationship.

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And she was nothing
but trouble for him.

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Perhaps he was nothing
but trouble for her.

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Severe alcoholic,
emotionally unavailable.

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- She was always
up to something.

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And she hated witnesses.

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She knew that I was
a sort of witness.

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Well, as soon as the
child is old enough

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to begin to figure out
what may be going on,

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I was already writing.

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I was trying to be a
novelist even at 15 and 16.

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We had a final row in
London, and I said,

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I\'ll never see you again.

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And it was 20 years
later she was dead,

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and I had not seen her
during the interval.

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- The most important
person in Gore\'s life

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was his grandfather.

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And I think that\'s an ideal he\'s
trying to live up to at times.

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- The Gores in Donegal, 15
generations of Anglo-Irish

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preachers and politicians.

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They were a well-read family,
and allegedly very witty

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and sharp, which gives
them an enormous advantage

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in the American South,
where they did very well.

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Got elected to almost
everything in sight.

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My grandfather was an
extraordinary autodidact.

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They wanted to put him
a home for the blind.

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He had a little bit of
money, and he said, \"Well,

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I\'ll go to law school.\"

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And they said, \"How
are you going to read?\"

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And he said, \"I\'ll take my
cousin so-and-so with me.

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And he\'ll read to me.\"

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- Seeing, after all, is
a mere matter of habit.

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It doesn\'t require
physical sight

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to discern the
deplorable condition

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in which are people
are laboring today.

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- When you\'re brought up by a
blind man who was accidentally

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blinded by the age of 10 and
made his way in the world,

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self pity is very
hard to indulge

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in when you live with
somebody like that.

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- He changed his name
from Eugene to Gore Vidal

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because he wanted to be a Gore.

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And being a Gore meant you
got to go to the Senate

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with your grandfather,
and read to him.

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- They\'d allow me
to sit beside him.

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I was his page.

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And I\'d listen to
the senators talk.

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He was not an enthusiast
of the human race.

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I quite understand that.

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He used to say, \"If
there was any race

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other than the human race,
I would go join them.\"

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And, quietly, he was reading
all the atheist literature

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he could get his hands on.

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And I was given the
same literary background

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that Mark Twain was given.

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Mike Brann, \"The Iconoclast.\"

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And Ingersoll, who was one
of the great free thinkers.

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And he said, \"I alone, of
the members of this house,

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was here in 1917 when
I warned against war.

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And I furthermore made the point
that one more wartime adventure

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in Europe would destroy
the American system.

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And every word he
spoke was true.

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- The last war cost
10 million lives.

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I was one of seven senators who
opposed our entering the war.

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That cost me my
seat in the Senate.

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But I tell you mothers
now, as I told you then,

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that I will never rob
your cradles to feed

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the dogs of war.

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- \"...to feed the dogs of war.\"

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He died poor, the only
senator from Oklahoma...

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An oil state... who had no
money because he took no graft.

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So we were an uncorrupt family.

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- He set off at the
beginning of the war

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to Phillips Exeter
Academy in New Hampshire.

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And here he suddenly
comes into contact...

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I think for the first time...
With other boys his own age.

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- I was proud of
coming from Washington,

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because that\'s
where the power was.

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And everybody was
fascinated if they

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could get you to talk
about the president,

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or whatever was
interesting that day.

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- And he becomes
a kind of orator.

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He\'s a class politician,
highly intelligent.

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I mean, almost
insidiously intelligent.

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His wicked wit, which
would sustain him

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through his entire long
life, was amply on display

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at Phillips Exeter.

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- New England was
just my cup of tea.

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- There\'s no sort of great love
affair in your life which has

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prompted you, or...?

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- Well, there was
one very early.

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And one was really enough.

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I don\'t think it happens twice.

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There are some
people who I think

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are partial to the
notion, particularly kids,

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of having a twin.

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And all that I was not, he was.

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And all that he was not, I was.

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And the two of us
would have been

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pretty good had we
been rolled into one.

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Well, that was schoolboy stuff.

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In a boy\'s school,
such things happen.

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But that\'s long, long, long ago.

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He was killed at Iwo Jima.

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And his mother sent me
a bunch of the letters

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he\'d written her.

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And they are so bitter.

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I mean, here was Iwo
Jima, the greatest moment

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of American heroism.

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Well, that\'s for the
people back home.

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The people at Iwo Jima,
it was a nightmare.

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It was the most bitter
letter I\'ve ever read.

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And this was a sunny,
non-political athlete.

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He said, \"We will never be
thanked for any of this.

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No one cares about
what we\'re doing.\"

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His mother was a secretary
to a congressman.

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So he knew how
Washington worked.

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And he said, \"All
they remember is

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how much they made,
how much money they

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made during the war.\"

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Fortunes were made in
just a matter of weeks.

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He knew this at 18.

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And didn\'t make it to 19.

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You can persuade people to go
to war and fight for democracy

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and die leaving a widow
and orphan children

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behind, that this is
serving the greater good.

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Well, it isn\'t.

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It\'s surrendering to everything
evil in this society.

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But they\'ve been persuaded,
\"Oh, it\'s a noble thing

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to give your life
for your country.\"

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Fuck that.

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I spent three years in World
War II... the \"Good War\"...

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In three years in the Pacific,
mostly north but a little bit

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south, I never heard
one patriotic word said

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by an American soldier
about anything.

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I served as first mate of
an army freight supply ship

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in the Aleutian Islands.

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- He gets crippling arthritis
in his hands and his legs.

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And he\'s invalided out.

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While he\'s in the
hospital during the war

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he writes his first
novel, which is really

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one of the most important
World War II novels.

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- All my friends said,
\"You\'re bound to fail.\"

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Sent it to a publisher.

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They published it.

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So I had a career.

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Well, the first book
was called \"Williwaw,\"

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which is an Indian word that
means hurricane, sea story.

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And the book was published
in March of 1946.

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And it was very well-received.

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- He\'s only 19-years-old.

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He writes this beautiful,
tight Hemingway-esque story,

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which is then reviewed
in The New York Times

00:13:26.999 --> 00:13:28.291
by Orville Prescott.

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And he\'s acclaimed the great
young writer of his generation.

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- It was a time of relative
serenity, looking back.

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But we had just
got over the war.

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My generation had just
come back from the army.

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We were writing our
books, or going to school,

00:13:42.709 --> 00:13:43.998
or writing plays.

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It was the time of
Tennessee Williams emerging,

00:13:45.999 --> 00:13:48.166
Norman Mailer emerging.

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And it was a lovely
time in the Arts.

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And sort of the heat was off.

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- Then he meets
Tennessee Williams.

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After the war,
Gore and Tennessee

00:13:56.250 --> 00:13:58.042
traveled across Europe.

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- Tennessee Williams had a
Jeep, which he drove very badly.

00:14:05.626 --> 00:14:07.249
\"I\'m practically
blind in one eye\",

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he\'d say proudly,
as we would end up

00:14:10.459 --> 00:14:13.583
driving along the
sidewalks of Rome.

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But somehow we got here alive.

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- And thus began Gore\'s
long, decades-long attachment

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to Italy.

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- I was supposed
to go to Harvard.

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And I remember thinking,
all my friends from Exeter

00:14:26.834 --> 00:14:27.709
had gone to Harvard.

00:14:27.710 --> 00:14:29.998
And I\'d been accepted,

00:14:29.999 --> 00:14:31.998
and then I thought,
my god, I\'ve been

00:14:31.999 --> 00:14:34.625
institutionalized
all of my life.

00:14:34.626 --> 00:14:38.998
And I thought, oh dear god,
I\'m not gonna go in for that.

00:14:38.999 --> 00:14:40.917
So they said, \"How are
you going to live?\"

00:14:40.918 --> 00:14:43.166
I said, well, I\'m going to...
you know, I\'m going to write.

00:14:43.167 --> 00:14:45.249
\"Oh, ho, ho, ho, ho.\"

00:14:45.250 --> 00:14:46.250
(LAUGHTER)

00:14:46.918 --> 00:14:47.999
It was very clear.

00:14:49.999 --> 00:14:51.583
You don\'t decide to be a writer.

00:14:51.584 --> 00:14:54.041
You are one, or you\'re not one.

00:14:54.042 --> 00:14:55.998
This drives people
crazy, because everybody

00:14:55.999 --> 00:14:56.999
thinks it\'s easy.

00:14:57.000 --> 00:14:59.208
You just sit down and scribble.

00:14:59.209 --> 00:14:59.999
And that\'s it.

00:14:59.999 --> 00:15:00.999
Well, it isn\'t it.

00:15:02.959 --> 00:15:08.998
And you have to have a certain
gift, which is not art.

00:15:08.999 --> 00:15:11.166
It\'s not a democracy.

00:15:11.167 --> 00:15:13.292
In fact, art is the
enemy of democracy.

00:15:18.709 --> 00:15:21.875
When I was 22 years old, I
wrote \"The City and the Pillar.\"

00:15:21.876 --> 00:15:26.584
And that was my first, as they
say, international success.

00:15:28.250 --> 00:15:31.792
First American novel to depict
homosexual sex explicitly.

00:15:37.876 --> 00:15:40.166
Friends had assured
me that the notoriety

00:15:40.167 --> 00:15:42.998
of \"The City and the
Pillar\" would exclude me

00:15:42.999 --> 00:15:43.999
from serious attention.

00:15:45.709 --> 00:15:49.458
In the spring of 1948,
\"The City and the Pillar\"

00:15:49.459 --> 00:15:51.208
was a best seller.

00:15:51.209 --> 00:15:53.333
- It made Gore a lot of money.

00:15:53.334 --> 00:15:55.374
But he became notorious.

00:15:55.375 --> 00:15:57.333
And what happened was
The New York Times

00:15:57.334 --> 00:15:59.750
refused to review
book after book,

00:15:59.751 --> 00:16:02.208
and Gore was finding
himself blocked out.

00:16:02.209 --> 00:16:03.666
He couldn\'t make money.

00:16:03.667 --> 00:16:05.124
- Sex is politics, you know.

00:16:05.125 --> 00:16:07.998
I mean, it always has
been used for that.

00:16:07.999 --> 00:16:10.999
Largely, it\'s used as a means
of keeping people in line.

00:16:12.999 --> 00:16:16.541
The dream of every
society is total control.

00:16:16.542 --> 00:16:20.541
- We have all sorts of fun
and games approaches to sex.

00:16:20.542 --> 00:16:23.917
And homosexuality is just one
of a number of such things,

00:16:23.918 --> 00:16:26.292
all tending towards the
subversion of our values.

00:16:27.125 --> 00:16:31.166
- Why not begin by saying that
our basic values are all wrong?

00:16:31.167 --> 00:16:32.998
Breaking of the moral
fiber of the country

00:16:32.999 --> 00:16:34.791
that these commentators
speak of is

00:16:34.792 --> 00:16:36.999
one of the healthiest things
that\'s begun to happen.

00:16:38.834 --> 00:16:41.583
Dr. Kinsey\'s great
gift to the world

00:16:41.584 --> 00:16:46.082
was to tell us what people
actually did sexually,

00:16:46.083 --> 00:16:48.249
as opposed to what they
were supposed to do.

00:16:48.250 --> 00:16:49.999
It is as natural
to be homosexual

00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:51.998
as it is to be heterosexual.

00:16:51.999 --> 00:16:54.333
And the difference between a
homosexual and a heterosexual

00:16:54.334 --> 00:16:56.166
is about the difference between
somebody who has brown eyes,

00:16:56.167 --> 00:16:57.374
and somebody has blue eyes.

00:16:57.375 --> 00:16:58.209
- Who says so?

00:16:58.209 --> 00:16:58.999
- I say so.

00:16:59.000 --> 00:17:01.667
It is a completely natural act
from the beginning of time.

00:17:02.667 --> 00:17:06.208
Dr. Kinsey wrote me a fan letter
when \"The City and the Pillar\"

00:17:06.209 --> 00:17:08.959
came out, thanking me
for my work in the field.

00:17:10.918 --> 00:17:12.374
And I was very flattered.

00:17:12.375 --> 00:17:14.249
We have something that
Andre Gide referred to

00:17:14.250 --> 00:17:16.249
as \"floating sensuality\".

00:17:16.250 --> 00:17:18.999
We can be aroused by this, by
that, not necessarily by men,

00:17:19.000 --> 00:17:20.998
not necessarily by women.

00:17:20.999 --> 00:17:23.124
So let us begin with the
reality of human relations,

00:17:23.125 --> 00:17:24.998
and not start talking
about \"moral fiber\"

00:17:24.999 --> 00:17:28.998
bcause we\'re not living out
this mad 19th century dream that

00:17:28.999 --> 00:17:29.667
everybody...

00:17:29.668 --> 00:17:31.998
we must go in
Noah\'s Arc in twos.

00:17:31.999 --> 00:17:34.792
My books were blacked out
by The New York Times.

00:17:36.250 --> 00:17:39.416
The principal daily reviewer
swore that he\'d never read one

00:17:39.417 --> 00:17:42.041
much less review one...
After \"The City and the Pillar,\"

00:17:42.042 --> 00:17:43.042
of course.

00:17:44.999 --> 00:17:46.666
And he was true to his word.

00:17:46.667 --> 00:17:47.708
He didn\'t.

00:17:47.709 --> 00:17:48.999
So I had to make a living.

00:17:52.250 --> 00:17:53.998
- So the golden
age of television

00:17:53.999 --> 00:17:57.041
appears in 1954, right
when Gore needs money.

00:17:57.042 --> 00:17:58.750
So he begins writing teleplays.

00:17:58.751 --> 00:18:01.998
And he sees himself
as a warrior trying

00:18:01.999 --> 00:18:04.834
to bring us back
to our best selves.

00:18:05.959 --> 00:18:11.708
- Tonight\'s play, \"A Sense
of Justice,\" by Gore Vidal.

00:18:11.709 --> 00:18:16.249
- I think his plays demonstrate,
like \"The Best Man,\"

00:18:16.250 --> 00:18:17.250
eternal truth.

00:18:18.042 --> 00:18:20.625
- It\'s a wide open convention!

00:18:20.626 --> 00:18:21.999
Anybody can win!

00:18:24.459 --> 00:18:26.998
- \"The Best Man\" is a
look into the back room

00:18:26.999 --> 00:18:33.374
to show how difficult it is to
be a moral person when you\'re

00:18:33.375 --> 00:18:35.666
surrounded by immoral people.

00:18:35.667 --> 00:18:38.999
- That power is not a toy
that we give to good children.

00:18:39.000 --> 00:18:40.041
It\'s a weapon.

00:18:40.042 --> 00:18:42.833
And the strong man takes
it, and he uses it.

00:18:42.834 --> 00:18:44.998
And if you don\'t go down
there and beat Joe Cantwell

00:18:44.999 --> 00:18:47.791
to the floor with
this very dirty stick,

00:18:47.792 --> 00:18:50.082
then you\'ve got no business
in this big league.

00:18:50.083 --> 00:18:51.998
- He could write a great script.

00:18:51.999 --> 00:18:58.541
And I don\'t know that he was
fully appreciated by Hollywood.

00:18:58.542 --> 00:19:01.458
- Now, the next and final
guest is a man who said once,

00:19:01.459 --> 00:19:05.917
\"When they filmed the screenplay
I wrote for \'Ben-Hur, \' I found

00:19:05.918 --> 00:19:08.458
to my astonishment that
they had built everything

00:19:08.459 --> 00:19:10.833
as extravagantly
as I had requested,

00:19:10.834 --> 00:19:12.209
including Charlton Heston.\"

00:19:16.999 --> 00:19:20.416
- He got a job as a contract
writer in the mid-\'50s for MGM.

00:19:20.417 --> 00:19:21.917
During this period,
of course, he

00:19:21.918 --> 00:19:23.998
met Paul Newman and
Joanne Woodward.

00:19:23.999 --> 00:19:25.833
Became very close friends.

00:19:25.834 --> 00:19:27.666
- It was the beginning
of Newman\'s career,

00:19:27.667 --> 00:19:29.542
and the beginning of my
career as a dramatist.

00:19:30.626 --> 00:19:32.791
And Newman and I went
to Warner Brothers,

00:19:32.792 --> 00:19:34.998
and they were very
reluctant to take it.

00:19:34.999 --> 00:19:37.999
It was the first sort of
strange Western ever made.

00:19:38.000 --> 00:19:40.249
- You sat up there in the
rocks and you murdered him.

00:19:40.250 --> 00:19:42.708
- Paul was cast in it as Billy.

00:19:42.709 --> 00:19:45.999
And he was keeping company with
Joanne Woodward, who he later

00:19:46.000 --> 00:19:47.000
married.

00:19:47.001 --> 00:19:48.999
And we were great friends.

00:19:49.000 --> 00:19:51.750
- For a period, they shared
a little cottage right

00:19:51.751 --> 00:19:53.584
on the beach outside
of Los Angeles.

00:19:55.542 --> 00:19:57.416
- And we suddenly were
the place to come.

00:19:57.417 --> 00:20:00.291
On Sundays, there would be 100
strangers wandering around.

00:20:00.292 --> 00:20:01.998
And none of us could
say, \"Well, get out\",

00:20:01.999 --> 00:20:03.998
for fear it would be the
other person\'s friend.

00:20:03.999 --> 00:20:07.249
- We had one long party.

00:20:07.250 --> 00:20:09.958
And everybody invited everybody.

00:20:09.959 --> 00:20:11.833
We had the most
extraordinary people.

00:20:11.834 --> 00:20:14.876
Everybody who was anybody
came because of Gore.

00:20:15.999 --> 00:20:18.626
Because Gore knew, even
then, knew everybody.

00:20:20.042 --> 00:20:22.166
- Faulkner I used to see.

00:20:22.167 --> 00:20:25.750
He saw two adaptations I\'d
made of his short stories.

00:20:25.751 --> 00:20:29.041
He said, \"You must be very
careful about Hollywood.

00:20:29.042 --> 00:20:31.917
Some people make the mistake
of taking it seriously.

00:20:31.918 --> 00:20:32.584
Don\'t.\"

00:20:32.585 --> 00:20:35.999
I saw Scott Fitzgerald
ruin himself.

00:20:36.000 --> 00:20:37.998
He took movies seriously.

00:20:37.999 --> 00:20:40.998
And Faulkner would laugh...

00:20:40.999 --> 00:20:42.998
It\'s not serious at all.

00:20:42.999 --> 00:20:44.958
It\'s not writing.

00:20:44.959 --> 00:20:47.249
If you need the
money, go and do it.

00:20:47.250 --> 00:20:48.250
I did.

00:20:49.042 --> 00:20:51.998
I set myself a plan
that in 10 years

00:20:51.999 --> 00:20:53.750
I would have enough
money so I would never

00:20:53.751 --> 00:20:55.918
have to do anything I
didn\'t want to do again.

00:20:58.626 --> 00:21:02.124
- In the \'50s, Gore lived
in that beautiful house,

00:21:02.125 --> 00:21:05.833
Edgewater, on the Hudson River.

00:21:05.834 --> 00:21:08.876
- My television work paid
for the house, some $16,000.

00:21:11.042 --> 00:21:12.999
- That was a lovely
period in Gore\'s life.

00:21:14.959 --> 00:21:19.291
- It is wonderful to find
the person in your life

00:21:19.292 --> 00:21:22.125
who fulfills that
which you need.

00:21:23.459 --> 00:21:26.584
For Howard and Gore,
that is what happened.

00:21:28.167 --> 00:21:30.042
- What does one say of
a private relationship?

00:21:31.792 --> 00:21:34.666
- Howard and Gore met
when they were very young.

00:21:34.667 --> 00:21:36.416
They entertained grandly.

00:21:36.417 --> 00:21:39.167
And they had a lively circle
of people around them.

00:21:41.125 --> 00:21:43.708
- That was the hang out.

00:21:43.709 --> 00:21:44.709
It was wonderful.

00:21:47.792 --> 00:21:50.998
- Gore\'s happiest nights were
spent listening to Howard sing.

00:21:50.999 --> 00:21:53.542
And Howard would sing old
Sinatra tunes, jazz songs.

00:21:55.125 --> 00:21:57.999
- Howard just sort of ran the
house, and ran the business,

00:21:58.000 --> 00:22:00.998
and ran the arrangements, and
travel plans, and everything.

00:22:00.999 --> 00:22:03.249
And Howard was really
the people person.

00:22:03.250 --> 00:22:07.124
And he\'d give Gore a
good shake sometimes

00:22:07.125 --> 00:22:09.998
if Gore didn\'t want to do
this, that, or the other thing.

00:22:09.999 --> 00:22:12.292
- And they lived
together for decades.

00:22:26.792 --> 00:22:29.998
- When Kennedy ran
for President in 1960,

00:22:29.999 --> 00:22:32.166
I also ran for the
House of Representatives

00:22:32.167 --> 00:22:33.249
at the same time.

00:22:33.250 --> 00:22:35.249
And I suppose I
was more innocent

00:22:35.250 --> 00:22:36.791
about the political system.

00:22:36.792 --> 00:22:38.166
I thought it made
some difference who

00:22:38.167 --> 00:22:39.917
the president was.

00:22:39.918 --> 00:22:42.374
- Did you want to be... to reach
the highest political office

00:22:42.375 --> 00:22:44.166
in your land?

00:22:44.167 --> 00:22:44.999
- Yes and no.

00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:47.998
It was the family trade,
I come from a long line

00:22:47.999 --> 00:22:49.958
of politicians.

00:22:49.959 --> 00:22:52.124
My grandfather was
nearly the President.

00:22:52.125 --> 00:22:57.708
And it was sort of unfinished
business in the family.

00:22:57.709 --> 00:23:00.541
- Back in 1960, he
ran for Congress

00:23:00.542 --> 00:23:02.250
in upstate New York,
Duchess County.

00:23:02.999 --> 00:23:06.208
- I ran, really,
because of Jack Kennedy

00:23:06.209 --> 00:23:07.583
who was running for President.

00:23:07.584 --> 00:23:08.999
So I ran for the House.

00:23:09.000 --> 00:23:12.458
And we thought we would
make a difference.

00:23:12.459 --> 00:23:13.999
Can you imagine
how naive we were?

00:23:15.042 --> 00:23:18.082
- Eleanor Roosevelt was
living just down the road.

00:23:18.083 --> 00:23:22.292
- She campaigned for me when
I ran for the House in 1960.

00:23:25.375 --> 00:23:27.625
- You know, did better than
most Democrats have ever

00:23:27.626 --> 00:23:29.999
done in that very
Republican district.

00:23:31.792 --> 00:23:35.458
- Did Jack Kennedy encourage
you to pursue politics?

00:23:35.459 --> 00:23:38.999
- Well, he was fascinated
by my ability to get votes.

00:23:39.000 --> 00:23:42.458
He said, \"You won\'t like the
House of Representatives.

00:23:42.459 --> 00:23:44.998
It\'s a can of worms.

00:23:44.999 --> 00:23:46.334
Stay away from it.\"

00:23:47.792 --> 00:23:50.998
He was really the most
enjoyable company on earth.

00:23:50.999 --> 00:23:54.583
And terribly funny.

00:23:54.584 --> 00:23:56.458
I took Tennessee
over there one day,

00:23:56.459 --> 00:23:59.124
and Jack was putting up targets.

00:23:59.125 --> 00:24:01.666
And he got out guns.

00:24:01.667 --> 00:24:03.626
And we were going to do
some target practice.

00:24:05.709 --> 00:24:06.999
Jack begins.

00:24:07.000 --> 00:24:08.998
He goes bang, bang.

00:24:08.999 --> 00:24:13.416
He looked wonderful doing
it, but didn\'t really hit

00:24:13.417 --> 00:24:14.417
the target.

00:24:15.918 --> 00:24:18.625
And Jack said, \"Well,
Tennessee, don\'t you

00:24:18.626 --> 00:24:20.999
want to try this
target right here?\"

00:24:23.209 --> 00:24:24.998
And Tennessee, \"Yes,
well, you know,

00:24:24.999 --> 00:24:27.833
I\'m totally blind
in my left eye,

00:24:27.834 --> 00:24:31.209
but I don\'t mind
giving it a try.\"

00:24:33.584 --> 00:24:33.999
Bang!

00:24:33.999 --> 00:24:34.584
Bang!

00:24:34.584 --> 00:24:35.292
Bang!

00:24:35.292 --> 00:24:36.292
He hit every target.

00:24:42.250 --> 00:24:46.791
- And yet the same
revolutionary beliefs

00:24:46.792 --> 00:24:50.583
for which our forebears
fought are still

00:24:50.584 --> 00:24:51.918
at issue around the globe.

00:24:53.918 --> 00:24:54.626
- He got elected.

00:24:54.627 --> 00:24:55.708
I didn\'t get elected.

00:24:55.709 --> 00:24:59.833
Watching the disaster
of his administration...

00:24:59.834 --> 00:25:01.082
and I was very fond of him.

00:25:01.083 --> 00:25:03.833
I still am fond of
the memory of the man.

00:25:03.834 --> 00:25:08.082
But, in 1,000 days he
invades Cuba unsuccessfully,

00:25:08.083 --> 00:25:12.875
and then ends by heating
up the war in Vietnam.

00:25:12.876 --> 00:25:14.917
And we must put this on
President Kennedy\'s head.

00:25:14.918 --> 00:25:17.333
He got us into it
in October, \'63,

00:25:17.334 --> 00:25:21.249
when he changed the 600
advisers we had there to 20,000

00:25:21.250 --> 00:25:22.791
committed troops.

00:25:22.792 --> 00:25:24.583
And it is now part
of the Kennedy legend

00:25:24.584 --> 00:25:26.998
that had he lived, this war
would not have taken place,

00:25:26.999 --> 00:25:28.041
or would not have pursued.

00:25:28.042 --> 00:25:30.374
It would not have escalated.

00:25:30.375 --> 00:25:32.666
I can promise you, as much
as you can guess anything,

00:25:32.667 --> 00:25:34.166
I mean of a speculative
nature, that he

00:25:34.167 --> 00:25:35.999
would have been as
deeply in it as Johnson.

00:25:36.999 --> 00:25:39.124
With Kennedy in
the summer of \'63

00:25:39.125 --> 00:25:40.998
had lost students in America.

00:25:40.999 --> 00:25:43.041
He had lost the liberals.

00:25:43.042 --> 00:25:46.124
He was under tremendous
pressure on all directions.

00:25:46.125 --> 00:25:48.791
He had done practically nothing
as President of the United

00:25:48.792 --> 00:25:51.875
States except
maintain his image.

00:25:51.876 --> 00:25:54.998
He made some marvelous speeches
of an analytical nature.

00:25:54.999 --> 00:25:56.998
There was no subject that
at one time or another

00:25:56.999 --> 00:25:59.458
he did not say the
wisest thing about.

00:25:59.459 --> 00:26:01.375
And no action ever
followed any speech.

00:26:03.542 --> 00:26:06.041
The thing about
myths and legends:

00:26:06.042 --> 00:26:08.041
should we allow
reality to intrude?

00:26:08.042 --> 00:26:10.791
The Kennedy legend is a
very good one for the world.

00:26:10.792 --> 00:26:12.791
And it\'s a very good one
for the United States.

00:26:12.792 --> 00:26:14.374
And as a critic, I
am sort of split.

00:26:14.375 --> 00:26:16.791
Because on the one hand,
I know it\'s not true.

00:26:16.792 --> 00:26:18.208
And on the other
hand, I think, well,

00:26:18.209 --> 00:26:20.167
if it\'s not true it
ought to be true.

00:26:21.209 --> 00:26:22.999
I liked him tremendously.

00:26:23.000 --> 00:26:26.791
And I hang his
picture in my library.

00:26:26.792 --> 00:26:29.917
Not as an icon, not as
a memory of Camelot,

00:26:29.918 --> 00:26:33.249
not as a memory of glorious
knights at the White House,

00:26:33.250 --> 00:26:36.917
or in Bel Air, but
never again to be

00:26:36.918 --> 00:26:38.998
taken in by anybody\'s charm.

00:26:38.999 --> 00:26:41.208
That he was one of the most
charming men I\'ve ever known,

00:26:41.209 --> 00:26:43.875
one of the most intelligent,
and one of the most disastrous

00:26:43.876 --> 00:26:45.292
Presidents I think
we\'ve ever had.

00:26:55.918 --> 00:26:57.998
- Civil rights leader
Martin Luther King leads

00:26:57.999 --> 00:27:00.917
the procession to the United
Nations, where he urges U.N.

00:27:00.918 --> 00:27:04.000
pressure to force the U.S. to
stop bombing North Vietnam.

00:27:05.918 --> 00:27:08.208
- Watching this
conflict, one saw

00:27:08.209 --> 00:27:11.998
that there was a cultural
war has now joined the race

00:27:11.999 --> 00:27:15.666
war in the United States,
and a generation war.

00:27:15.667 --> 00:27:19.458
That there was such malevolence
of these elderly politicians

00:27:19.459 --> 00:27:22.374
toward the young,
toward the idealist,

00:27:22.375 --> 00:27:24.917
toward anybody who wanted
to change anything.

00:27:24.918 --> 00:27:27.998
And that was when I realized
that the country is still

00:27:27.999 --> 00:27:30.750
less civil than what it thought.

00:27:30.751 --> 00:27:36.249
I would say that the current
commitment to political action

00:27:36.250 --> 00:27:38.875
throughout the United States
is the most hopeful thing

00:27:38.876 --> 00:27:40.791
that I\'ve seen in my lifetime.

00:27:40.792 --> 00:27:46.833
And it was begun partly by
the race situation in America,

00:27:46.834 --> 00:27:49.998
and has now come to a head
with the Vietnamese war,

00:27:49.999 --> 00:27:52.998
and the slow recognition that
the United States has become

00:27:52.999 --> 00:27:56.583
an empire of the
most predatory kind.

00:27:56.584 --> 00:28:01.166
This has energized,
radicalized, many

00:28:01.167 --> 00:28:02.998
of the young in
the United States.

00:28:02.999 --> 00:28:07.541
And I see those as
good roles to play.

00:28:07.542 --> 00:28:09.998
- Gore probably came
to largest prominence,

00:28:09.999 --> 00:28:12.416
his biggest audience was really
when he debated William F.

00:28:12.417 --> 00:28:16.750
Buckley during the 1968
presidential conventions

00:28:16.751 --> 00:28:18.374
in Miami and Chicago.

00:28:18.375 --> 00:28:20.082
- I don\'t think it\'ss
right to present Mr.

00:28:20.083 --> 00:28:24.374
Gore Vidal as a political
commentator of any consequence

00:28:24.375 --> 00:28:28.124
since he is nothing more
than a literary producer

00:28:28.125 --> 00:28:33.708
of a perverted,
Hollywood-minded prose.

00:28:33.709 --> 00:28:38.249
- Well as usual Mr. Buckley,
with his enormous and thrilling

00:28:38.250 --> 00:28:43.374
charm, manages to get away from
the issue toward the comedy.

00:28:43.375 --> 00:28:45.917
He\'s always to the right,
I think, and almost always

00:28:45.918 --> 00:28:47.166
in the wrong.

00:28:47.167 --> 00:28:50.249
And you certainly must, Bill,
maintain your reputation

00:28:50.250 --> 00:28:53.583
as being the Marie
Antoinette of the Right wing

00:28:53.584 --> 00:28:56.082
and continually imposing
your own rather bloodthirsty

00:28:56.083 --> 00:28:59.166
neuroses on the
political campaign.

00:28:59.167 --> 00:29:01.833
- And they liked nothing better
than taking off the gloves

00:29:01.834 --> 00:29:03.998
and smacking each
other on stage.

00:29:03.999 --> 00:29:05.998
So it was huge television.

00:29:05.999 --> 00:29:09.583
- We would like to call on
our guest controversialists.

00:29:09.584 --> 00:29:12.999
That\'s a term the BBC in
London invented, and it\'s good.

00:29:13.000 --> 00:29:15.541
- We have a $75 billion
military budget.

00:29:15.542 --> 00:29:18.998
We have $2 billion for poverty.

00:29:18.999 --> 00:29:21.998
And Mr. Nixon tells us it is
a \"cruel delusion\", unquote,

00:29:21.999 --> 00:29:25.374
he says, to tell the Negroes
that they can expect anything

00:29:25.375 --> 00:29:26.998
at all out of the
budget this year.

00:29:26.999 --> 00:29:30.708
- The principal reason for
the discontent of our time

00:29:30.709 --> 00:29:33.041
is because you have
been encouraged

00:29:33.042 --> 00:29:36.041
by a demagogy of
the Left to believe

00:29:36.042 --> 00:29:38.998
that the federal government is
going to take care of your life

00:29:38.999 --> 00:29:39.334
for you.

00:29:39.335 --> 00:29:42.249
- Well, what can I say?

00:29:42.250 --> 00:29:45.998
You\'ve given that ghastly
position, once again,

00:29:45.999 --> 00:29:48.998
of the well-to-do and
those who inherit money,

00:29:48.999 --> 00:29:50.666
and believe that
others who do not...

00:29:50.667 --> 00:29:53.416
- This is such balderdash...

00:29:53.417 --> 00:29:55.374
- But in actual
fact, you\'re going

00:29:55.375 --> 00:29:57.082
to have a revolution
if you don\'t

00:29:57.083 --> 00:29:58.791
give the people the
things they want.

00:29:58.792 --> 00:30:00.708
Now, I\'m putting it to
your own self-interest.

00:30:00.709 --> 00:30:03.416
They\'re going to come and
take it away from you.

00:30:03.417 --> 00:30:06.958
- Buckley was an admirable
opponent for Gore.

00:30:06.959 --> 00:30:09.833
They were both quick-witted,
both aristocratic.

00:30:09.834 --> 00:30:12.124
- Buckley was a guy who made
a claim to great knowledge,

00:30:12.125 --> 00:30:15.416
and style, and sophistication.

00:30:15.417 --> 00:30:17.458
Gore was a great foil for him.

00:30:17.459 --> 00:30:19.082
I think it drove
Buckley a bit nuts.

00:30:19.083 --> 00:30:21.666
And I think it drove
Gore a bit nuts.

00:30:21.667 --> 00:30:24.998
- Does it appeal to you
that in the United States,

00:30:24.999 --> 00:30:29.458
5% of the population have 20% of
the income, and the bottom 20%

00:30:29.459 --> 00:30:30.998
have 5% of the income?

00:30:30.999 --> 00:30:31.999
- I think this is...

00:30:32.000 --> 00:30:35.917
- This seems to me... I know
that you revel in that kind

00:30:35.918 --> 00:30:36.584
of inequality...

00:30:36.585 --> 00:30:37.998
- No, I think it\'s
sort of because...

00:30:37.999 --> 00:30:39.708
- because business
is based upon it.

00:30:39.709 --> 00:30:42.625
- You see, I believe that
freedom breeds inequality.

00:30:42.626 --> 00:30:42.999
And that...

00:30:43.000 --> 00:30:44.291
- Say that again.

00:30:44.292 --> 00:30:45.998
- Freedom breeds inequality.

00:30:45.999 --> 00:30:48.333
Now I\'ll say it a third time.

00:30:48.334 --> 00:30:49.541
- No, twice was enough.

00:30:49.542 --> 00:30:50.875
I think you\'ve made your point.

00:30:50.876 --> 00:30:53.708
- Unless you have
freedom to be unequal,

00:30:53.709 --> 00:30:55.334
there is no such
thing as freedom.

00:30:55.999 --> 00:30:58.998
- Again, Gore was in the
right place at the right time.

00:30:58.999 --> 00:31:02.208
I mean, suddenly history was
coming to a perilous moment.

00:31:02.209 --> 00:31:03.917
People were screaming
in the streets.

00:31:03.918 --> 00:31:05.998
There was fighting in
the streets of Chicago.

00:31:05.999 --> 00:31:08.999
- These scenes were filmed about
an hour and a half earlier.

00:31:09.000 --> 00:31:11.998
And even they can\'t
quite illustrate just

00:31:11.999 --> 00:31:13.583
exactly what happened
out there tonight.

00:31:13.584 --> 00:31:15.208
For tonight, in front
of the Hilton Hotel,

00:31:15.209 --> 00:31:17.999
thousands of Americans
both young and old

00:31:18.000 --> 00:31:21.998
witnessed an explosion of raw,
brutal, sadistic police force

00:31:21.999 --> 00:31:24.666
which marks one of the darkest
hours of any police department

00:31:24.667 --> 00:31:26.958
anywhere in this country.

00:31:26.959 --> 00:31:28.791
- After those last
pictures, I would like now

00:31:28.792 --> 00:31:30.583
to turn to our two
guest commentators

00:31:30.584 --> 00:31:33.124
and to ask them
what observations

00:31:33.125 --> 00:31:35.998
they\'ve made about the events
tonight on the streets.

00:31:35.999 --> 00:31:38.458
- I think we might just as well
stop these wars of freedom.

00:31:38.459 --> 00:31:40.999
What are we doing fighting in
Vietnam if you cannot freely

00:31:41.000 --> 00:31:43.209
express yourself in
the streets of Chicago?

00:31:45.751 --> 00:31:49.708
Well, there was a
revolution in Chicago.

00:31:49.709 --> 00:31:50.751
The police were rioting.

00:31:52.083 --> 00:31:56.166
They were beating up delegates
to the Democratic Convention,

00:31:56.167 --> 00:31:58.918
and behaving like the pigs
that they were known as.

00:32:00.918 --> 00:32:06.998
And I was against the
pigs, and said so.

00:32:06.999 --> 00:32:09.249
People in the
United States happen

00:32:09.250 --> 00:32:11.291
to believe that the
United States\' policy is

00:32:11.292 --> 00:32:13.666
wrong in Vietnam,
and the Viet Cong

00:32:13.667 --> 00:32:15.333
are correct in
wanting to organize

00:32:15.334 --> 00:32:17.917
their country in their
own way politically.

00:32:17.918 --> 00:32:20.625
This happens to be pretty much
the opinion of Western Europe

00:32:20.626 --> 00:32:22.124
and many other
parts of the world.

00:32:22.125 --> 00:32:24.998
If it is a novelty in
Chicago, that is too bad.

00:32:24.999 --> 00:32:27.541
But I assume that the point
of the American democracy

00:32:27.542 --> 00:32:30.666
is you can express any
point of view you want.

00:32:30.667 --> 00:32:31.250
Shut up a minute.

00:32:31.250 --> 00:32:31.999
- No, I won\'t.

00:32:32.000 --> 00:32:33.791
Some people were
pro-Nazi, and the answer

00:32:33.792 --> 00:32:37.374
is that they were well-treated
by people who ostracized them.

00:32:37.375 --> 00:32:40.583
And I\'m for ostracizing
people who egg on other people

00:32:40.584 --> 00:32:43.082
to shoot American Marines
and American soldiers.

00:32:43.083 --> 00:32:44.208
I know you don\'t care...

00:32:44.209 --> 00:32:47.708
- As far as I\'m concerned, the
only sort of pro or crypto-Nazi

00:32:47.709 --> 00:32:48.998
I can think of is yourself.

00:32:48.999 --> 00:32:49.876
Failing that...

00:32:49.876 --> 00:32:50.792
- Let\'s not call names.

00:32:50.793 --> 00:32:52.393
- I would only say
that you can\'t have...

00:32:53.709 --> 00:32:54.998
- Stop calling me
a crypto-Nazi...

00:32:54.999 --> 00:32:56.166
- Let\'s stop calling names.

00:32:56.167 --> 00:32:57.998
- or I\'ll sock you
in your goddamn face.

00:32:57.999 --> 00:32:59.082
And you\'ll stay plastered.

00:32:59.083 --> 00:33:00.291
- Gentleman, let\'s...

00:33:00.292 --> 00:33:02.291
- Let the author of
\"Myra Breckinridge\"

00:33:02.292 --> 00:33:04.333
go back to his
pornography and stop

00:33:04.334 --> 00:33:06.374
making any illusions
of Nazism to somebody

00:33:06.375 --> 00:33:07.998
who was infantry
in the last war.

00:33:07.999 --> 00:33:10.166
- You were not in the infantry,
as a matter of fact...

00:33:10.167 --> 00:33:11.708
(INTERPOSING VOICES)

00:33:11.709 --> 00:33:12.083
You were not.

00:33:12.084 --> 00:33:13.875
You\'re distorting your
own military record.

00:33:13.876 --> 00:33:14.334
- Mr. Vidal...

00:33:14.334 --> 00:33:15.000
- Wasn\'t it a ...?

00:33:15.001 --> 00:33:18.791
- Wasn\'t it a provocative act
to pull down an American flag

00:33:18.792 --> 00:33:20.166
and put up a Viet
Cong flag, even

00:33:20.167 --> 00:33:22.416
if you disagree with what
the United States is doing?

00:33:22.417 --> 00:33:23.791
- It is not a provocative act.

00:33:23.792 --> 00:33:25.249
You have every right
in this country

00:33:25.250 --> 00:33:28.208
to take any position you want to
take because we are guaranteed

00:33:28.209 --> 00:33:28.999
freedom of speech.

00:33:29.000 --> 00:33:31.998
We\'ve just listened to a
rather grotesque example of it.

00:33:31.999 --> 00:33:33.666
- Now let\'s not talk
at the same time.

00:33:33.667 --> 00:33:34.917
Mr. Buckley.

00:33:34.918 --> 00:33:37.998
- The historic debates between
Gore and William Buckley

00:33:37.999 --> 00:33:40.041
at the Democratic
Convention in Chicago,

00:33:40.042 --> 00:33:41.958
ending very nearly in blows.

00:33:41.959 --> 00:33:43.998
It was one of the great
imperishable examples

00:33:43.999 --> 00:33:45.998
of two public
intellectuals finally

00:33:45.999 --> 00:33:47.125
getting serious airtime.

00:33:48.626 --> 00:33:50.998
- What happened immediately
after that broadcast?

00:33:50.999 --> 00:33:53.998
Because I knew Paul Newman
was there stealing beer out

00:33:53.999 --> 00:33:56.666
of your trailer or
something like that.

00:33:56.667 --> 00:33:59.998
- Well, Paul denounced him in
front of his son Christopher,

00:33:59.999 --> 00:34:02.750
saying, \'What you\'ve done
is unspeakable tonight.

00:34:02.751 --> 00:34:04.750
You\'ve talked about
somebody\'s private life

00:34:04.751 --> 00:34:06.249
about which you know nothing.

00:34:06.250 --> 00:34:10.750
Do you think that is debate...
that is political debate?\"

00:34:10.751 --> 00:34:14.459
Newman, when he got into a
fury, was pretty exciting.

00:34:16.125 --> 00:34:18.998
And Buckley sort of
backed away from him.

00:34:18.999 --> 00:34:20.709
And Paul just went after him.

00:34:22.626 --> 00:34:27.249
Then Paul realized he\'s got two
of Buckley\'s beers in his hand,

00:34:27.250 --> 00:34:29.250
and hasn\'t quite
finished one of them.

00:34:30.834 --> 00:34:34.750
So he pauses in the shadows of
the cameras, finishes the beer,

00:34:34.751 --> 00:34:36.333
and we stalk off.

00:34:36.334 --> 00:34:38.542
- That made his career,
though, didn\'t it, Buckley?

00:34:39.999 --> 00:34:40.999
- Of course.

00:34:41.999 --> 00:34:43.999
But these nobody\'s,
what do you do?

00:34:44.000 --> 00:34:47.666
You associate yourself with
people who really are famous.

00:34:47.667 --> 00:34:48.999
(MUSIC PLAYING)

00:35:07.999 --> 00:35:11.750
- In 1968, Gore comes out
with \"Myra Breckenridge,\"

00:35:11.751 --> 00:35:16.917
which lands him on the cover of
Time, Newsweek, Look, and Life.

00:35:16.918 --> 00:35:18.998
You\'ve got a writer
exploring things

00:35:18.999 --> 00:35:21.374
that you just don\'t see in
any other American writer

00:35:21.375 --> 00:35:22.875
of the period.

00:35:22.876 --> 00:35:25.458
- When I start an entirely
invented book like \"Myra\",

00:35:25.459 --> 00:35:27.998
I seldom start with anything
more than a sentence

00:35:27.999 --> 00:35:29.918
that has taken possession of me.

00:35:30.999 --> 00:35:32.958
In this case I am
Myra Breckenridge,

00:35:32.959 --> 00:35:34.417
whom no man will ever possess.

00:35:35.626 --> 00:35:37.998
Who was she?

00:35:37.999 --> 00:35:40.625
I could only find out
if I kept on writing.

00:35:40.626 --> 00:35:42.998
It was not until I was
halfway through the story

00:35:42.999 --> 00:35:45.667
that I realized she had been a
male who had changed her sex.

00:35:46.584 --> 00:35:47.584
- What is normal?

00:35:49.292 --> 00:35:51.998
- Well, it\'s what everyone does.

00:35:51.999 --> 00:35:54.999
I mean, it\'s what the
majority of society does most.

00:35:57.999 --> 00:36:00.750
- \"Myra Breckenridge\", which
was in many ways considered

00:36:00.751 --> 00:36:04.166
the worst film ever made, for
which I often get credit though

00:36:04.167 --> 00:36:05.998
I had nothing to do with it...

00:36:05.999 --> 00:36:08.333
- and happy in being the
most extraordinary women

00:36:08.334 --> 00:36:10.375
in the world. (LAUGHTER)

00:36:11.334 --> 00:36:12.666
- That\'s the ball game.

00:36:12.667 --> 00:36:14.998
- Gore has taken
risk after risk.

00:36:14.999 --> 00:36:16.666
And he\'s paid a
big price for it.

00:36:16.667 --> 00:36:19.333
He\'s been persona non
grata in the academic world

00:36:19.334 --> 00:36:21.124
for a very long time.

00:36:21.125 --> 00:36:23.998
I don\'t think they know
what to make of Gore Vidal.

00:36:23.999 --> 00:36:26.374
Gore has never fit
into their narratives

00:36:26.375 --> 00:36:29.082
about what\'s going on
in American fiction.

00:36:29.083 --> 00:36:32.250
Vidal is put over there in the
realm of popular novelists.

00:36:33.334 --> 00:36:36.208
But if you take a novel
like \"Duluth\" or \"Myra

00:36:36.209 --> 00:36:39.999
Breckenridge,\" these are
very much postmodern novels.

00:36:45.125 --> 00:36:46.998
- He\'s witty, He\'s sarcastic.

00:36:46.999 --> 00:36:47.876
He\'s opinionated.

00:36:47.877 --> 00:36:49.124
Would you welcome,
Mr. Gore Vidal.

00:36:49.125 --> 00:36:50.125
(APPLAUSE)

00:36:52.709 --> 00:36:54.998
- Gore became a
television personality.

00:36:54.999 --> 00:36:56.998
He\'s a celebrity intellectual.

00:36:56.999 --> 00:36:58.875
He can do intellectual
entertainment

00:36:58.876 --> 00:37:00.875
of a very high order.

00:37:00.876 --> 00:37:02.708
- Growing up, I was
aware that there

00:37:02.709 --> 00:37:06.541
was some kind of altercation
between him and Norman Mailer.

00:37:06.542 --> 00:37:08.998
And, you know, all
that pop culture stuff.

00:37:08.999 --> 00:37:12.166
- We did a notorious
television show one night.

00:37:12.167 --> 00:37:14.998
And it seemed that we...

00:37:14.999 --> 00:37:18.998
one way of saying it, maybe
ganged up on poor Norman,

00:37:18.999 --> 00:37:22.833
who we know is an estimable
writer and a man of worth.

00:37:22.834 --> 00:37:25.791
But had stopped, as he put it
as he admitted on the show...

00:37:25.792 --> 00:37:27.751
At a watering place on
his way to the studio.

00:37:28.999 --> 00:37:32.708
Do you have but happy
memories of that night?

00:37:32.709 --> 00:37:35.625
- Yeah.

00:37:35.626 --> 00:37:36.708
Surprise, though.

00:37:36.709 --> 00:37:38.249
- Where you seem to
me have figured out

00:37:38.250 --> 00:37:42.124
as the next reincarnation for me
is going to be Charles Manson.

00:37:42.125 --> 00:37:43.291
- Well, you let yourself...

00:37:43.292 --> 00:37:44.958
- Why don\'t you
read what you wrote?

00:37:44.959 --> 00:37:46.124
- You let yourself in for it.

00:37:46.125 --> 00:37:47.374
- Are you ready to apologize?

00:37:47.375 --> 00:37:51.998
- I would apologize if
it hurt your feelings.

00:37:51.999 --> 00:37:52.876
Of course, I would.

00:37:52.877 --> 00:37:55.291
- No, it hurts my sense
of intellectual pollution.

00:37:55.292 --> 00:37:56.333
- Well, I must say...

00:37:56.334 --> 00:37:57.292
- I mean, uh...

00:37:57.293 --> 00:37:58.998
- as an expert, you
should know about that.

00:37:58.999 --> 00:37:59.792
- I would like to...

00:37:59.792 --> 00:38:00.792
(LAUGHTER)

00:38:01.999 --> 00:38:04.750
- My row with Mailer was over
women\'s liberation, over a book

00:38:04.751 --> 00:38:06.750
that he\'d written called,
\"The Prisoner of Sex.\"

00:38:06.751 --> 00:38:09.249
And I took women\'s liberation,
as it was then called...

00:38:09.250 --> 00:38:11.124
Feminism... against
what Mailer said.

00:38:11.125 --> 00:38:13.708
And he was very upset by
what I had said about him,

00:38:13.709 --> 00:38:15.041
and I was very upset
about what he\'d

00:38:15.042 --> 00:38:17.708
said about women\'s liberation.

00:38:17.709 --> 00:38:19.249
So there\'s nothing
personal there.

00:38:19.250 --> 00:38:21.875
- I guarantee you, I wouldn\'t
hit any of the people here.

00:38:21.876 --> 00:38:22.959
Because they are smaller.

00:38:24.709 --> 00:38:25.709
- In what ways?

00:38:27.999 --> 00:38:30.124
- I never thought he was crazy.

00:38:30.125 --> 00:38:32.917
But I always thought
that he had a crazy act

00:38:32.918 --> 00:38:37.416
that he thought was going to
just crush everybody else.

00:38:37.417 --> 00:38:38.375
He\'s the mad man.

00:38:38.376 --> 00:38:42.208
He\'s going to come,
and god knows.

00:38:42.209 --> 00:38:43.584
He\'s fury incarnate.

00:38:44.999 --> 00:38:46.833
- Why don\'t you look
at your question sheet

00:38:46.834 --> 00:38:47.999
and ask a question?

00:38:50.292 --> 00:38:51.958
Hey, can I talk to
the audience...?

00:38:51.959 --> 00:38:53.124
- Why don\'t you
fold it five ways

00:38:53.125 --> 00:38:54.875
and put it where the
moon don\'t shine?

00:38:54.876 --> 00:38:55.876
(LAUGHTER)

00:38:58.999 --> 00:39:02.333
- Mailer and I had
always been friends.

00:39:02.334 --> 00:39:04.666
It was my impression
that he was jealous of me

00:39:04.667 --> 00:39:07.291
because I was more
popular with the public.

00:39:07.292 --> 00:39:08.458
And that bothered him.

00:39:08.459 --> 00:39:10.998
I would ask him occasionally,
why don\'t you cool it?

00:39:10.999 --> 00:39:12.249
You\'re never going to be me.

00:39:12.250 --> 00:39:14.416
And god knows, I\'m
never going to be you.

00:39:14.417 --> 00:39:17.209
So what are you
carrying on about?

00:39:18.042 --> 00:39:19.042
(MUSIC PLAYING)

00:39:23.834 --> 00:39:25.541
- When he was living
in the United States,

00:39:25.542 --> 00:39:26.998
it was too hectic for him.

00:39:26.999 --> 00:39:28.041
He was too close.

00:39:28.042 --> 00:39:29.625
He couldn\'t see
what was going on.

00:39:29.626 --> 00:39:30.999
The noise was too loud.

00:39:38.834 --> 00:39:40.458
- I have always liked
the idea of being

00:39:40.459 --> 00:39:45.082
able to be the person who
watches, who is outside.

00:39:45.083 --> 00:39:46.998
And yet that\'s why
I live in Italy,

00:39:46.999 --> 00:39:48.998
and yet I write about America.

00:39:48.999 --> 00:39:51.208
I suppose if I lived in
America, I\'d write about Italy.

00:39:51.209 --> 00:39:53.291
But as it is, I
see my own country

00:39:53.292 --> 00:39:56.333
with a sense of distance
between me and it.

00:39:56.334 --> 00:40:01.249
And I think distance is
rather important if you\'re

00:40:01.250 --> 00:40:04.541
going to write, and
you\'re going to meditate

00:40:04.542 --> 00:40:07.417
upon the state of the world.

00:40:09.751 --> 00:40:13.291
- Gore was a very European-ized
American, of course.

00:40:13.292 --> 00:40:15.791
I remember he once said,
\"I have a house in Italy

00:40:15.792 --> 00:40:17.041
and a house in
Beverly Hills, so it

00:40:17.042 --> 00:40:19.999
could be said that I don\'t live
in the United States at all.\"

00:40:20.876 --> 00:40:23.998
- I used to say that Gore was
like a Roman emperor in exile

00:40:23.999 --> 00:40:24.999
when he lived in Ravello.

00:40:26.626 --> 00:40:30.374
- Aristocrats and artists,
film stars and models,

00:40:30.375 --> 00:40:32.958
politicians and
writers, and they

00:40:32.959 --> 00:40:35.998
like to hear his gossip
about his contemporaries,

00:40:35.999 --> 00:40:38.833
for instance Truman
Capote or Norman Mailer.

00:40:38.834 --> 00:40:40.998
- Truman Capote has
spent most of his life

00:40:40.999 --> 00:40:43.583
trying to get into a
world, with some success,

00:40:43.584 --> 00:40:46.333
that I\'ve spent most of my
life trying, with some success,

00:40:46.334 --> 00:40:47.998
to get out of.

00:40:47.999 --> 00:40:48.999
(LAUGHTER)

00:40:51.999 --> 00:40:54.458
- This man has
shared Vidal\'s life

00:40:54.459 --> 00:40:56.708
for 24 years: Howard Austen.

00:40:56.709 --> 00:41:00.958
Friend, cook, social secretary.

00:41:00.959 --> 00:41:04.791
- Howard was a
vivacious, energetic guy.

00:41:04.792 --> 00:41:06.999
And Gore is fundamentally
a shy person.

00:41:12.999 --> 00:41:15.041
- They couldn\'t have
been nicer to us.

00:41:15.042 --> 00:41:20.082
From the very beginning, I mean,
two strange, eccentric, crazy

00:41:20.083 --> 00:41:26.750
Americans driving into
town in a silver Jaguar

00:41:26.751 --> 00:41:33.374
with a little Australian Terrier
yapping, wearing cowboy hats.

00:41:33.375 --> 00:41:36.666
I mean, they thought we were...
well they kind of loved it,

00:41:36.667 --> 00:41:37.998
you see.

00:41:37.999 --> 00:41:41.167
- It was pleasantly remote
from the rest of the world.

00:41:42.834 --> 00:41:47.791
We both liked the
landscape, and the fact

00:41:47.792 --> 00:41:50.958
that the Italians are very
good at leaving you alone.

00:41:50.959 --> 00:41:53.998
- It was a very peaceful,
organized, very intellectual

00:41:53.999 --> 00:41:54.999
life.

00:41:55.000 --> 00:41:59.291
- They were an old married
couple in the best sense.

00:41:59.292 --> 00:42:01.917
I mean, I certainly
saw a few arguments.

00:42:01.918 --> 00:42:03.998
They could get in a tangle.

00:42:03.999 --> 00:42:06.166
But not one that seemed
to last very long.

00:42:06.167 --> 00:42:09.166
- I think he really
loved Gore in a way

00:42:09.167 --> 00:42:13.041
that no one else could, really.

00:42:13.042 --> 00:42:15.708
- What was wonderful
was how vulnerable Gore

00:42:15.709 --> 00:42:17.249
was around Howard.

00:42:17.250 --> 00:42:20.998
- Well you\'re asking, was
it a sexual relationship?

00:42:20.999 --> 00:42:22.249
And of course, it wasn\'t.

00:42:22.250 --> 00:42:24.374
I don\'t go in for
that sort of thing.

00:42:24.375 --> 00:42:27.374
Friendship is one thing,
and sex is another.

00:42:27.375 --> 00:42:28.998
Sex is all over the place.

00:42:28.999 --> 00:42:30.999
Friendship is not very common.

00:42:32.999 --> 00:42:36.998
Sex, it destroys relationships.

00:42:36.999 --> 00:42:39.000
Either one or the
other loses interest.

00:42:40.999 --> 00:42:44.417
And either one or the
other wants something else.

00:42:46.125 --> 00:42:50.291
We had not taken
a vow of celibacy.

00:42:50.292 --> 00:42:52.999
We were not involved with
each other, that\'s all.

00:42:53.999 --> 00:42:56.998
Certainly, I\'m devoted to
promiscuity, and always

00:42:56.999 --> 00:42:57.334
have been.

00:42:57.335 --> 00:42:59.998
I believe the more you do,
the better it is for you.

00:42:59.999 --> 00:43:01.998
I\'m a great health nut.

00:43:01.999 --> 00:43:04.998
And sex is, I think, absolutely
marvelous for the whole system.

00:43:04.999 --> 00:43:06.166
Tones you up.

00:43:06.167 --> 00:43:07.998
Well, I don\'t like
the word \"love\".

00:43:07.999 --> 00:43:09.458
It\'s like patriotism.

00:43:09.459 --> 00:43:10.334
It\'s like the flag.

00:43:10.335 --> 00:43:12.208
It\'s the last refuge
of scoundrels.

00:43:12.209 --> 00:43:14.998
When people start talking about
what wonderful, warm, deep

00:43:14.999 --> 00:43:17.917
emotions they have, and they
are loving people, I watch out.

00:43:17.918 --> 00:43:19.358
Somebody\'s going
to steal something.

00:43:20.334 --> 00:43:21.999
(MUSIC PLAYING)

00:43:30.334 --> 00:43:32.917
- He had the world at his feet.

00:43:32.918 --> 00:43:35.917
Everybody came to
see Gore, whether you

00:43:35.918 --> 00:43:38.791
were a great ballet
dancer, or a politician,

00:43:38.792 --> 00:43:42.208
or the wife of a politician,
or a young writer, aspiring

00:43:42.209 --> 00:43:43.125
writer.

00:43:43.126 --> 00:43:45.458
James Taylor would come
and practice singing

00:43:45.459 --> 00:43:46.999
on his balcony.

00:43:47.000 --> 00:43:50.999
- Gore and Howard kind of had
a policy at the villa that...

00:43:51.000 --> 00:43:52.249
no children.

00:43:52.250 --> 00:43:53.998
They made an exception for us.

00:43:53.999 --> 00:43:56.416
So we were a little
nervous about going there,

00:43:56.417 --> 00:44:00.917
because we didn\'t want to
upset the apple cart there.

00:44:00.918 --> 00:44:03.583
But they made us feel
so welcome there.

00:44:03.584 --> 00:44:06.998
And Gore says, \"We\'re going to
have guests for dinner tomorrow

00:44:06.999 --> 00:44:07.459
night.\"

00:44:07.460 --> 00:44:08.998
I said, oh cool, who?

00:44:08.999 --> 00:44:11.708
And he said, \"Well, Bruce
Springsteen and Sting

00:44:11.709 --> 00:44:13.875
and their wives
are coming over.\"

00:44:13.876 --> 00:44:14.998
It\'s like, what?

00:44:14.999 --> 00:44:16.999
What?!

00:44:17.000 --> 00:44:22.291
- Gore had this Olympian view
across the Mediterranean.

00:44:22.292 --> 00:44:25.249
You know, when you\'re a god
you get to live in Olympus.

00:44:25.250 --> 00:44:27.291
So, yeah, I did want that house.

00:44:27.292 --> 00:44:29.917
I desired that
house a great deal.

00:44:29.918 --> 00:44:31.918
- It looks about the way
it did when we arrived.

00:44:33.542 --> 00:44:34.542
Nothing was here.

00:44:36.209 --> 00:44:40.124
It was just a table
and a chair, which

00:44:40.125 --> 00:44:41.666
is all writers really need.

00:44:41.667 --> 00:44:43.999
So that\'s all I had.

00:44:45.918 --> 00:44:50.291
- I think the Atlantic Ocean,
3,000, 4,000 miles distance,

00:44:50.292 --> 00:44:52.750
was probably a filter for him.

00:44:52.751 --> 00:44:54.999
Gore was able to hold
up the mirror of art

00:44:55.000 --> 00:44:59.208
from the very great distance
of Italy, and examine America.

00:44:59.209 --> 00:45:05.750
- The first book that I wrote
on this old table was \"Burr.\"

00:45:05.751 --> 00:45:09.542
And then everything after that
has been written right here.

00:45:12.999 --> 00:45:16.000
The novel is the way you
reflect the society around you.

00:45:17.375 --> 00:45:18.998
And it\'s the way,
point by point,

00:45:18.999 --> 00:45:21.625
you come up with ideas about it.

00:45:21.626 --> 00:45:23.625
I don\'t write about
victims so much

00:45:23.626 --> 00:45:25.750
as I write about the
people who have power,

00:45:25.751 --> 00:45:28.999
who exert the power, and who put
the power against other people.

00:45:29.999 --> 00:45:33.958
With the trilogy, the American
trilogy of \"Burr,\" \"1876,\"

00:45:33.959 --> 00:45:37.583
\"Washington D.C.,\"
I\'m reflecting

00:45:37.584 --> 00:45:38.791
on the United States.

00:45:38.792 --> 00:45:39.999
What is this country?

00:45:41.292 --> 00:45:43.583
Is it anything
new under the sun?

00:45:43.584 --> 00:45:45.833
Is it just another empire?

00:45:45.834 --> 00:45:48.208
What on Earth is it about?

00:45:48.209 --> 00:45:50.999
- I think I\'m probably not the
only person who would say that

00:45:51.000 --> 00:45:54.998
their knowledge of the American
republic and its evolution...

00:45:54.999 --> 00:45:57.082
As he would say, from
republic to empire...

00:45:57.083 --> 00:46:02.998
Comes quite considerably from
reading the shelf of novels.

00:46:02.999 --> 00:46:06.958
- What I do is take all
the facts that I can get

00:46:06.959 --> 00:46:08.041
and then proceed to dramatize.

00:46:08.042 --> 00:46:10.998
And I go into
people\'s minds, which

00:46:10.999 --> 00:46:15.958
is what a novelist must do,
a historian must never do,

00:46:15.959 --> 00:46:18.708
and a biographer
ought not to do.

00:46:18.709 --> 00:46:21.917
- I think \"Burr\" might
be Gore\'s greatest novel.

00:46:21.918 --> 00:46:26.291
It\'s a brilliant portrait
of 18th century America.

00:46:26.292 --> 00:46:28.875
- The Founding Fathers were
not interested in democracy.

00:46:28.876 --> 00:46:32.082
In fact, in a country
of 3 and 1/4 million,

00:46:32.083 --> 00:46:34.249
which is what we were at
the time at the separation

00:46:34.250 --> 00:46:36.998
from England, only
700,000 people

00:46:36.999 --> 00:46:39.875
could vote: white
males of property.

00:46:39.876 --> 00:46:43.208
So it has never been
terribly democratic.

00:46:43.209 --> 00:46:46.041
George Washington was a famous
general who never won a battle.

00:46:46.042 --> 00:46:48.208
He was our first
millionaire, and he

00:46:48.209 --> 00:46:51.541
believed in property and the
dignity of those who held it.

00:46:51.542 --> 00:46:52.998
And they put together
a constitution

00:46:52.999 --> 00:46:55.333
which would protect
property for all time.

00:46:55.334 --> 00:46:57.458
No nonsense about democracy.

00:46:57.459 --> 00:46:59.458
I looked at my
grandfather at breakfast

00:46:59.459 --> 00:47:02.291
and I realized what a
long time he had lived.

00:47:02.292 --> 00:47:03.959
He was born in 1870.

00:47:05.792 --> 00:47:07.999
One of his best friends
was Robert Lincoln,

00:47:08.000 --> 00:47:10.999
son of Abraham Lincoln.

00:47:11.000 --> 00:47:12.666
And I thought, I\'ve
got it all here.

00:47:12.667 --> 00:47:15.958
What on Earth am I
looking for subjects?

00:47:15.959 --> 00:47:17.958
He said, \"If I can
preserve the Union

00:47:17.959 --> 00:47:20.958
by freeing all the
slaves, I will.

00:47:20.959 --> 00:47:23.416
If I can preserve the Union by
freeing some and not others,

00:47:23.417 --> 00:47:24.250
I will.

00:47:24.251 --> 00:47:30.958
If I can preserve the Union
by freeing no slave, I will.\"

00:47:30.959 --> 00:47:33.750
It\'s one of those figures that
everybody knows who he is.

00:47:33.751 --> 00:47:35.666
So they think they
know who he is.

00:47:35.667 --> 00:47:36.167
And they don\'t.

00:47:36.168 --> 00:47:37.998
They just know a name.

00:47:37.999 --> 00:47:40.416
They just know an idea.

00:47:40.417 --> 00:47:42.999
What he was finally,
in my view, was

00:47:43.000 --> 00:47:45.791
he created the United
States as we know it.

00:47:45.792 --> 00:47:49.374
He created the
nation-state as we know it.

00:47:49.375 --> 00:47:52.791
- All of the great myths
of American history

00:47:52.792 --> 00:47:55.082
pass through Gore
Vidal\'s fiction.

00:47:55.083 --> 00:47:58.998
Each of them is reinterpreted,
often turned on its head.

00:47:58.999 --> 00:48:00.999
And Gore shows us this
counter-narrative.

00:48:03.999 --> 00:48:07.998
- Gore is someone who is always
at war to save the Republic

00:48:07.999 --> 00:48:08.999
and defeat the empire.

00:48:10.542 --> 00:48:15.625
- His whole career as
essayist, playwright, novelist

00:48:15.626 --> 00:48:18.998
comes down to one thing:
the terrible discrepancy

00:48:18.999 --> 00:48:21.374
between the
possibilities put forward

00:48:21.375 --> 00:48:26.083
by the Founding Fathers and the
actual results of what we got.

00:48:28.999 --> 00:48:32.708
- There was something a bit
heavy-footed about the way Gore

00:48:32.709 --> 00:48:33.167
did this.

00:48:33.168 --> 00:48:37.374
He was a master of the language
who was very alive to nuance.

00:48:37.375 --> 00:48:41.041
The problem is whether
you\'re open or not

00:48:41.042 --> 00:48:44.958
to a certain version of the
conspiracy theory of history,

00:48:44.959 --> 00:48:48.998
or a conspiracy theory of
history, one in particular.

00:48:48.999 --> 00:48:53.082
Well, in his writing
and in his comments,

00:48:53.083 --> 00:48:56.999
Gore suggests to me the
answer to that is \"Yes\".

00:48:58.042 --> 00:49:01.998
Writing on Pearl Harbor
is the original clue.

00:49:01.999 --> 00:49:04.041
- Here is the actual
bombing of the mighty USS

00:49:04.042 --> 00:49:07.166
Arizona by Jap planes.

00:49:07.167 --> 00:49:09.291
- Gore suggests
Franklin Roosevelt

00:49:09.292 --> 00:49:11.998
was in some way complicit
in the Japanese attack.

00:49:11.999 --> 00:49:13.958
Now that\'s been
expressed by Gore

00:49:13.959 --> 00:49:17.082
in a number of essays,
a number of interviews,

00:49:17.083 --> 00:49:18.209
and in one whole novel.

00:49:19.167 --> 00:49:21.417
- We alone were
successful as a nation.

00:49:22.999 --> 00:49:26.708
Europe was smashed to bits.

00:49:26.709 --> 00:49:29.374
Japan was an occupied
province of the United States

00:49:29.375 --> 00:49:31.082
of America.

00:49:31.083 --> 00:49:32.459
And we let them know that.

00:49:33.876 --> 00:49:36.708
- Mr. Truman
delivers his message

00:49:36.709 --> 00:49:39.166
on the state of the Union.

00:49:39.167 --> 00:49:41.833
- This is an age when
unforeseen attack could

00:49:41.834 --> 00:49:44.458
come with unprecedented speed.

00:49:44.459 --> 00:49:48.082
We must be strong enough to
defeat, and thus forestall,

00:49:48.083 --> 00:49:49.458
any such attack.

00:49:49.459 --> 00:49:51.333
- Harry Truman puts in
military conscription

00:49:51.334 --> 00:49:53.124
of every young man in
the country, something

00:49:53.125 --> 00:49:55.917
that is practically
unconstitutional and unheard

00:49:55.918 --> 00:49:58.249
of in peacetime, when we\'re
the masters of the world.

00:49:58.250 --> 00:50:01.917
I mean, this is the greatest
con trick ever done.

00:50:01.918 --> 00:50:03.999
So Truman militarized
the entire society.

00:50:05.375 --> 00:50:05.999
Everything.

00:50:06.000 --> 00:50:07.291
Everybody.

00:50:07.292 --> 00:50:10.416
We became a national
security state.

00:50:10.417 --> 00:50:11.667
And that changed everything.

00:50:13.000 --> 00:50:15.917
From then on, we were
forever on the march

00:50:15.918 --> 00:50:19.875
to stop godless and
atheistic Communism

00:50:19.876 --> 00:50:21.792
from dominating the Earth.

00:50:23.209 --> 00:50:24.958
So it was pursuit
of empire, really.

00:50:24.959 --> 00:50:28.458
And that\'s the division in
the country, between those

00:50:28.459 --> 00:50:31.583
who believe in it and think
it\'s a wonderful thing,

00:50:31.584 --> 00:50:34.791
and those who regard
it as a menace.

00:50:34.792 --> 00:50:38.458
- Does someone as sophisticated
as you are submit himself

00:50:38.459 --> 00:50:40.666
to the conspiracy
theory of history?

00:50:40.667 --> 00:50:41.584
- No, no.

00:50:41.585 --> 00:50:43.998
I say they don\'t have to
conspire because they all

00:50:43.999 --> 00:50:44.999
think alike.

00:50:45.000 --> 00:50:46.998
I mean, the president
of General Motors

00:50:46.999 --> 00:50:48.958
and the president of
the Chase Manhattan Bank

00:50:48.959 --> 00:50:51.124
really are not going to
disagree on much of anything.

00:50:51.125 --> 00:50:52.998
I mean, they react... nor will
the editor of The New York

00:50:52.999 --> 00:50:53.999
Times disagree with them.

00:50:54.000 --> 00:50:55.833
They all tend to
think quite alike.

00:50:55.834 --> 00:50:57.834
Otherwise, they would
not be in those jobs.

00:51:04.292 --> 00:51:05.998
They hired the
lawyer from Whittier.

00:51:05.999 --> 00:51:06.999
Seemed to be bright.

00:51:07.000 --> 00:51:08.999
And then he turned
out to be a disaster.

00:51:09.000 --> 00:51:11.374
So then he gives them Ford.

00:51:11.375 --> 00:51:13.416
Runs into a lot of things.

00:51:13.417 --> 00:51:16.249
Then they say, \"We\'ve got to
have somebody clean, and pure,

00:51:16.250 --> 00:51:19.999
and preferably even
twice born will do.\"

00:51:20.000 --> 00:51:23.208
And then he shoots himself
in the foot every day

00:51:23.209 --> 00:51:23.999
for four years.

00:51:24.000 --> 00:51:26.458
Now you can see real... there\'s
desperation at the Chase

00:51:26.459 --> 00:51:27.292
Manhattan Bank.

00:51:27.293 --> 00:51:28.625
I mean, this is their country.

00:51:28.626 --> 00:51:30.917
And they can\'t find
anybody for this job.

00:51:30.918 --> 00:51:31.918
(CHEERING)

00:51:35.999 --> 00:51:38.750
So they said, \"Let\'s just
get the best cue card

00:51:38.751 --> 00:51:40.374
reader we can find.\"

00:51:40.375 --> 00:51:41.999
And they did.

00:51:44.626 --> 00:51:48.041
- He was unusually sort of deft
and acutely critical of Reagan,

00:51:48.042 --> 00:51:50.999
and I was writing a lot of
criticism of Reagan myself.

00:51:51.000 --> 00:51:53.666
So we had a lot of fun
at Reagan\'s expense.

00:51:53.667 --> 00:51:57.998
- The good news is
the election is over.

00:51:57.999 --> 00:52:00.998
The bad news, prepare yourself.

00:52:00.999 --> 00:52:05.124
Ronald Reagan\'s library
just burned down.

00:52:05.125 --> 00:52:08.998
Both books were destroyed.

00:52:08.999 --> 00:52:12.708
But the real horror: he had not
finished coloring the second.

00:52:12.709 --> 00:52:13.667
(LAUGHTER)

00:52:13.668 --> 00:52:15.998
- Ladies and gentlemen,
the President

00:52:15.999 --> 00:52:19.541
of the United States
and Dr. Jerry Falwell.

00:52:19.542 --> 00:52:20.542
(APPLAUSE)

00:52:24.999 --> 00:52:28.374
- I\'m sick and tired
of hearing about all

00:52:28.375 --> 00:52:32.583
of the radicals, and the
perverts, and the liberals,

00:52:32.584 --> 00:52:34.998
and the leftists,
and the Communists

00:52:34.999 --> 00:52:35.999
coming out of the closet!

00:52:36.000 --> 00:52:38.998
It\'s time for God\'s people
to come out of the closet!

00:52:38.999 --> 00:52:41.249
Out of the churches...!

00:52:41.250 --> 00:52:45.917
- 39% percent of
the American people

00:52:45.918 --> 00:52:51.999
believe in the death of Earth
by nuclear fire, and in Rapture.

00:52:52.000 --> 00:52:58.208
Among the 39% is Ronald Reagan.

00:52:58.209 --> 00:53:00.082
- I can only add to
that, my friends,

00:53:00.083 --> 00:53:01.998
that I continue to
look to the Scriptures

00:53:01.999 --> 00:53:05.208
today for fulfillment
and for guidance.

00:53:05.209 --> 00:53:08.998
Indeed, it is an
incontrovertible fact

00:53:08.999 --> 00:53:11.750
that all the complex
and horrendous questions

00:53:11.751 --> 00:53:15.208
confronting us at
home and worldwide

00:53:15.209 --> 00:53:18.625
have their answer
in that single book.

00:53:18.626 --> 00:53:21.124
- My allies for
30, 40 years have

00:53:21.125 --> 00:53:24.917
been the Jewish intellectuals of
New York who were also liberal.

00:53:24.918 --> 00:53:26.998
And the old partisan
review for which

00:53:26.999 --> 00:53:30.998
I wrote, The New York Review
of Books, which I do write for.

00:53:30.999 --> 00:53:33.541
With the invention of
Israel, a great many of them

00:53:33.542 --> 00:53:37.208
have defected from the Left
and have gone to the far Right.

00:53:37.209 --> 00:53:41.416
And they\'ve made what I think
I\'ve called an unholy alliance

00:53:41.417 --> 00:53:45.791
with the anti-Semitic Jesus
Christers, the television

00:53:45.792 --> 00:53:46.958
evangelicals.

00:53:46.959 --> 00:53:48.124
- Let\'s talk about
your new book.

00:53:48.125 --> 00:53:50.583
- Well, the new book,
\"Live from Golgotha,\"

00:53:50.584 --> 00:53:53.998
has been denounced by
a bishop in Ireland,

00:53:53.999 --> 00:53:57.998
by an M.P in England,
and by the Vatican.

00:53:57.999 --> 00:53:59.166
It\'s a comedy.

00:53:59.167 --> 00:54:00.998
It\'s actually...
It\'s NBC is having

00:54:00.999 --> 00:54:01.999
problems with the ratings.

00:54:02.000 --> 00:54:06.750
And I think if they can get
a live crew... union crew...

00:54:06.751 --> 00:54:08.625
Back to Golgotha to
do the crucifixion,

00:54:08.626 --> 00:54:10.458
this will save their ratings.

00:54:10.459 --> 00:54:14.541
They do this only to find that
Shirley MacLaine has already

00:54:14.542 --> 00:54:16.249
channeled in.

00:54:16.250 --> 00:54:19.625
- Here\'s Gore exploring
religion in America

00:54:19.626 --> 00:54:22.999
in the most astonishingly
original ways.

00:54:23.000 --> 00:54:26.998
- Islam, Judaism, Christianity
are the three great evils

00:54:26.999 --> 00:54:29.249
that have befallen the world.

00:54:29.250 --> 00:54:33.333
In the classical world
Greece and Rome...

00:54:33.334 --> 00:54:35.998
For intelligent people
you had philosophy,

00:54:35.999 --> 00:54:39.291
which is about as I
highbrow as you can get.

00:54:39.292 --> 00:54:41.249
The superstitious,
you had local gods

00:54:41.250 --> 00:54:46.999
to whom they prayed and
did prayers, and took

00:54:47.000 --> 00:54:49.458
fairly seriously.

00:54:49.459 --> 00:54:51.876
But they weren\'t maniacs
as they are today.

00:54:55.999 --> 00:54:58.999
- I was invited to come
and do a profile of him

00:54:59.000 --> 00:55:01.541
for Vanity Fair in
Ravello, and I\'d

00:55:01.542 --> 00:55:04.708
been very lucky in
having in common

00:55:04.709 --> 00:55:06.998
some magazines and some editors.

00:55:06.999 --> 00:55:08.791
I always thought I was
sort of one step away

00:55:08.792 --> 00:55:10.291
from the great man.

00:55:10.292 --> 00:55:12.998
I dared to review a couple
of his collections of essays

00:55:12.999 --> 00:55:14.998
and memoirs, in fact.

00:55:14.999 --> 00:55:17.833
And once he kindly sent
me a message saying

00:55:17.834 --> 00:55:19.998
he thought I\'d come
uncomfortably close

00:55:19.999 --> 00:55:21.708
in one of my judgments.

00:55:21.709 --> 00:55:23.998
I can remember very
well the day when

00:55:23.999 --> 00:55:26.998
he called me in California.

00:55:26.999 --> 00:55:29.333
When I picked up the phone,
instead of saying \"Hitchey-poo\"

00:55:29.334 --> 00:55:31.291
or the other sort
of affectionates,

00:55:31.292 --> 00:55:32.666
he said \"Delfino.\"

00:55:32.667 --> 00:55:34.041
It\'s the Italian
world for \"dauphin\",

00:55:34.042 --> 00:55:37.998
in other words for \"prince\" or
\"king in waiting\", as it were.

00:55:37.999 --> 00:55:40.458
- I found him a very bright kid.

00:55:40.459 --> 00:55:42.666
I first knew him
when he was about 20

00:55:42.667 --> 00:55:43.998
in England, New Statesman.

00:55:43.999 --> 00:55:46.082
We both wrote for it.

00:55:46.083 --> 00:55:47.625
- He said, \"Well, I\'ve decided.

00:55:47.626 --> 00:55:49.208
I\'ve been thinking about it,
Peterson has asked, you know,

00:55:49.209 --> 00:55:50.750
do I want to
nominate a successor?

00:55:50.751 --> 00:55:53.082
Is there anyone I\'d regard
now as my equivalent?\"

00:55:53.083 --> 00:55:55.999
And he said, \"I thought
it should be you.\"

00:55:56.000 --> 00:55:58.249
When I was in my
teens and early 20s,

00:55:58.250 --> 00:56:00.958
reading what he\'d had to
say about the false mystique

00:56:00.959 --> 00:56:03.998
of the Kennedy family, about
the military industrial complex,

00:56:03.999 --> 00:56:06.291
about his take on
modern fiction...

00:56:06.292 --> 00:56:08.998
Like a lot of people of my
generation I felt I knew him,

00:56:08.999 --> 00:56:12.998
in a strange way, because he\'s
one of those essayists who has

00:56:12.999 --> 00:56:16.541
the ability to make you
feel personally addressed.

00:56:16.542 --> 00:56:19.166
- the last form where
one mind can talk directly

00:56:19.167 --> 00:56:22.998
to another mind without being
mediated either by television,

00:56:22.999 --> 00:56:26.249
or by somebody else
in the print media.

00:56:26.250 --> 00:56:29.708
And I think there\'s still
excitement there for me.

00:56:29.709 --> 00:56:31.666
- I like to think of
Gore in the same company

00:56:31.667 --> 00:56:34.791
with Mark Twain and Henry
James, in a strange way.

00:56:34.792 --> 00:56:36.998
He sort of sits
between those two.

00:56:36.999 --> 00:56:38.541
On the one hand,
he\'s the rough neck.

00:56:38.542 --> 00:56:41.666
He\'s Mark Twain, the
wit, the satirist,

00:56:41.667 --> 00:56:44.208
willing to stir things
up, willing to cause

00:56:44.209 --> 00:56:46.041
a hell of a lot of trouble.

00:56:46.042 --> 00:56:48.833
But there\'s also the Henry
James side, the shy man,

00:56:48.834 --> 00:56:51.917
the intellectual who\'s willing
to think about the class

00:56:51.918 --> 00:56:55.791
system in America and to
study it in complicated ways.

00:56:55.792 --> 00:56:57.999
And if he sees a wound,
he doesn\'t heal it.

00:56:58.000 --> 00:56:59.791
He jabs it.

00:56:59.792 --> 00:57:03.625
- Anyone who wants to understand
American during the last 50

00:57:03.626 --> 00:57:05.791
years has to read Gore Vidal.

00:57:05.792 --> 00:57:09.249
I mean, he really had a great
shit detector, this guy.

00:57:09.250 --> 00:57:09.999
He really did.

00:57:09.999 --> 00:57:10.375
I don\'t know.

00:57:10.376 --> 00:57:12.583
Maybe it was hanging
around the Senate as a kid,

00:57:12.584 --> 00:57:13.998
or whatever it was.

00:57:13.999 --> 00:57:14.999
But, you know...

00:57:15.000 --> 00:57:17.917
and it came out in his
speaking, and his writing.

00:57:17.918 --> 00:57:22.625
He just was ruthless
in exposing phonies.

00:57:22.626 --> 00:57:24.833
- The lies which
our poor people have

00:57:24.834 --> 00:57:29.208
been exposed to in my lifetime
are just beyond anything

00:57:29.209 --> 00:57:31.999
that you think reasonable
people could accept.

00:57:33.542 --> 00:57:34.998
But they did.

00:57:34.999 --> 00:57:39.708
And that is when I think
I became instinctively

00:57:39.709 --> 00:57:40.709
a correctionist.

00:57:40.710 --> 00:57:42.042
(MUSIC PLAYING)

00:57:51.709 --> 00:57:53.875
I ran the first time only
out of greed and vanity.

00:57:53.876 --> 00:57:55.998
These are the two things
which drive my character.

00:57:55.999 --> 00:57:59.333
I am unlike other
people, as you know.

00:57:59.334 --> 00:58:03.959
The second time however, this
spring, I ran out of terror.

00:58:05.292 --> 00:58:08.042
The United States is
moving toward war.

00:58:09.334 --> 00:58:12.041
I think this administration
is nuclear-minded.

00:58:12.042 --> 00:58:15.333
They believe that
a nuclear war can

00:58:15.334 --> 00:58:18.124
be won, particularly by
a large continental power

00:58:18.125 --> 00:58:19.291
like the United States.

00:58:19.292 --> 00:58:20.998
I think they\'re insane.

00:58:20.999 --> 00:58:24.998
- I constantly get the
question, \"Is he serious?\"

00:58:24.999 --> 00:58:26.625
- How come you\'re
the only politician

00:58:26.626 --> 00:58:29.041
I ever heard of come to
an unemployment office?

00:58:29.042 --> 00:58:29.999
Never saw that before.

00:58:29.999 --> 00:58:30.999
- Stick around.

00:58:31.250 --> 00:58:33.333
Corporations must pay tax.

00:58:33.334 --> 00:58:34.999
They\'re not speaking
for you and they

00:58:35.000 --> 00:58:36.998
aren\'t speaking for me,
the representatives.

00:58:36.999 --> 00:58:39.124
They are speaking for
Arco, for Mobile Oil,

00:58:39.125 --> 00:58:41.791
for Northrup, for Boeing,
for all the people

00:58:41.792 --> 00:58:43.374
that sent them to Washington.

00:58:43.375 --> 00:58:44.998
They have been put
there by the rich.

00:58:44.999 --> 00:58:46.998
And this is a country of
the rich, for the rich,

00:58:46.999 --> 00:58:48.124
and by the rich.

00:58:48.125 --> 00:58:50.416
That you have a society that
is constantly at war with

00:58:50.417 --> 00:58:52.541
everybody on Earth, doesn\'t give
a goddamn about the people who

00:58:52.542 --> 00:58:54.833
live in the society,
doesn\'t give a goddamn about

00:58:54.834 --> 00:58:55.834
education...

00:58:56.375 --> 00:59:00.416
and that there is no real
difference between Republican

00:59:00.417 --> 00:59:02.998
and Democratic
candidates anywhere.

00:59:02.999 --> 00:59:05.958
What we have achieved
in the United States

00:59:05.959 --> 00:59:09.124
is socialism for the rich and
free enterprise for the poor.

00:59:09.125 --> 00:59:11.124
- Isn\'t that a little reversed?

00:59:11.125 --> 00:59:11.792
- No.

00:59:11.793 --> 00:59:14.875
The rich are actually living
off of the federal government...

00:59:14.876 --> 00:59:15.209
- Of course.

00:59:15.210 --> 00:59:17.998
- in the forms of contracts,
and tax breaks, and so on.

00:59:17.999 --> 00:59:19.082
- Did you like that experience?

00:59:19.083 --> 00:59:20.333
The hand shaking, and the...?

00:59:20.334 --> 00:59:23.291
- Oh, yes, I loved that.

00:59:23.292 --> 00:59:23.959
I get...

00:59:23.960 --> 00:59:26.166
I like crowds.

00:59:26.167 --> 00:59:29.625
I have depths of insincerity
as yet unplumbed.

00:59:29.626 --> 00:59:30.626
(LAUGHTER)

00:59:30.999 --> 00:59:34.124
There\'s nothing like a crowd to
to really inspire that in you.

00:59:34.125 --> 00:59:35.542
I\'m a demagogue, I suppose.

00:59:37.125 --> 00:59:40.998
- I was running Jerry
Brown\'s Senate race in 1982

00:59:40.999 --> 00:59:41.918
for the primary.

00:59:41.919 --> 00:59:43.833
I wanted to be in
Gore\'s campaign.

00:59:43.834 --> 00:59:45.541
Because what he was
saying is what I knew,

00:59:45.542 --> 00:59:48.124
and what I believed, and
what I\'d experienced.

00:59:48.125 --> 00:59:50.875
And I had to run
Jerry\'s, which was

00:59:50.876 --> 00:59:52.958
more cautious than
Jerry had ever been.

00:59:52.959 --> 00:59:57.583
He was slowly turning into
the politician that he hated.

00:59:57.584 --> 00:59:59.998
- Mr. Brown is a corpse
lying in my path.

00:59:59.999 --> 01:00:02.666
He\'s a political corpse.

01:00:02.667 --> 01:00:03.999
He will be buried by November.

01:00:04.000 --> 01:00:06.998
He will be defeated by any
of the three Republicans.

01:00:06.999 --> 01:00:09.998
And there he lies in my way
between now and June 8th.

01:00:09.999 --> 01:00:13.166
- Gore would kind of take
down Jerry as the politician,

01:00:13.167 --> 01:00:15.998
you know, that had
bought into all of it.

01:00:15.999 --> 01:00:18.998
Even though Jerry was,
by most mainstream media,

01:00:18.999 --> 01:00:20.875
seen as the outsider.

01:00:20.876 --> 01:00:22.998
It was very funny
watching the two of them

01:00:22.999 --> 01:00:24.082
struggle through that.

01:00:24.083 --> 01:00:24.918
- I don\'t know.

01:00:24.919 --> 01:00:27.583
If I were Jerry Brown, I
would take four years off.

01:00:27.584 --> 01:00:28.584
(LAUGHTER)

01:00:30.959 --> 01:00:33.583
You\'ve got to have
a character formed

01:00:33.584 --> 01:00:35.875
before you go into politics.

01:00:35.876 --> 01:00:39.082
So I would propose four
years of just quiet reading

01:00:39.083 --> 01:00:45.833
and thinking, and then return
in sort of Nixonian splendor

01:00:45.834 --> 01:00:48.999
and seize the prize.

01:00:49.000 --> 01:00:50.000
(APPLAUSE)

01:00:57.999 --> 01:01:01.875
- It was a rowdy, fun campaign.

01:01:01.876 --> 01:01:03.833
Jerry Brown won.

01:01:03.834 --> 01:01:05.125
(MUSIC PLAYING)

01:01:19.250 --> 01:01:20.999
- They work it out at
the end how much you

01:01:21.000 --> 01:01:22.998
spent for each
vote that you got,

01:01:22.999 --> 01:01:26.374
just to giggle about
how stupid you were.

01:01:26.375 --> 01:01:30.041
I was out there on my own, I
did not have anyone\'s advice.

01:01:30.042 --> 01:01:32.416
And I ended up with
a half million votes

01:01:32.417 --> 01:01:35.918
without ever having spent
more than $3,000 or $4,000.

01:01:37.626 --> 01:01:39.750
- The race wasn\'t
really for Gore to win.

01:01:39.751 --> 01:01:42.998
It was for him to be out
there with a point of view,

01:01:42.999 --> 01:01:44.998
and get as much
attention as he could.

01:01:44.999 --> 01:01:47.998
- I mean, it would have
been awful had he won.

01:01:47.999 --> 01:01:49.917
I don\'t think he has
a temperament that

01:01:49.918 --> 01:01:51.666
would have suited
him to the kind

01:01:51.667 --> 01:01:53.667
of tedious work of a legislator.

01:01:54.459 --> 01:01:59.458
- It\'s a pretty slogging
career, politics.

01:01:59.459 --> 01:02:02.583
I mean, you really
have to love people.

01:02:02.584 --> 01:02:03.626
He likes people, but...

01:02:04.250 --> 01:02:06.291
I don\'t know ho
wfrustrated he was.

01:02:06.292 --> 01:02:10.208
Because I think deep, deep
down, writing is his cause.

01:02:10.209 --> 01:02:11.209
I mean, that\'s it.

01:02:17.999 --> 01:02:20.998
- In 1986, Vidal was
invited to Moscow

01:02:20.999 --> 01:02:24.541
by President Gorbachev for
the Glasnost Conference.

01:02:24.542 --> 01:02:26.917
- He was the most
impressive political figure

01:02:26.918 --> 01:02:28.041
I\'ve ever seen an action.

01:02:28.042 --> 01:02:29.042
- Ever seen in action?

01:02:29.042 --> 01:02:29.999
- Ever seen in action.

01:02:29.999 --> 01:02:30.999
- Why do you say that?

01:02:31.000 --> 01:02:35.998
- What I liked about Gorbachev
was the simplicity of it.

01:02:35.999 --> 01:02:38.291
He said \"Chernobyl
frightened us.\"

01:02:38.292 --> 01:02:41.291
Can you imagine an American
president saying, \"Well,

01:02:41.292 --> 01:02:43.334
Three Mile Island really
gave me a scare\"?

01:02:44.876 --> 01:02:47.041
Gorbachev said, \"You know,
if something like that could

01:02:47.042 --> 01:02:47.709
happen...\"

01:02:47.710 --> 01:02:49.541
That was a minor accident,
and a minor plant.

01:02:49.542 --> 01:02:51.750
\"Now, suppose one
of the missiles

01:02:51.751 --> 01:02:53.166
went off just by accident.\"

01:02:53.167 --> 01:02:55.998
He said, \"The fallout would
be 10,000 times that.\"

01:02:55.999 --> 01:02:57.666
He said, \"I want to
see these things gone

01:02:57.667 --> 01:02:58.917
by the end of the century.

01:02:58.918 --> 01:03:00.291
They\'re too dangerous
to have around.

01:03:00.292 --> 01:03:01.709
They\'re not tactically useful.\"

01:03:02.792 --> 01:03:04.958
And we all applauded.

01:03:04.959 --> 01:03:07.416
And Gorbachev, he was reading
from a speech in a blue binder.

01:03:07.417 --> 01:03:08.375
He put down the binder.

01:03:08.376 --> 01:03:12.166
He said, \"You know, I expected
warmer applause on that.\"

01:03:12.167 --> 01:03:14.541
We all made a lot more
noise. \"Well, that\'s better.\"

01:03:14.542 --> 01:03:15.625
He went on.

01:03:15.626 --> 01:03:18.625
He didn\'t sound like a
politician for one minute.

01:03:18.626 --> 01:03:21.124
Which means he\'s either the
best politician in the world

01:03:21.125 --> 01:03:23.208
or maybe he means it.

01:03:23.209 --> 01:03:28.125
(MUSIC PLAYING)

01:03:46.292 --> 01:03:49.998
For much of my lifetime,
the American media

01:03:49.999 --> 01:03:55.249
has been tightly controlled
by a handful of corporations

01:03:55.250 --> 01:04:00.958
whose main task since 1945
was to terrify Americans

01:04:00.959 --> 01:04:03.541
into believing that the
Russians were coming,

01:04:03.542 --> 01:04:07.249
and so we needed evermore
missiles, and nuclear warheads,

01:04:07.250 --> 01:04:08.250
and submarines.

01:04:09.626 --> 01:04:15.998
They\'ve had decades to create
a false reality for a citizenry

01:04:15.999 --> 01:04:20.998
largely uneducated by public
schools that teach conformity

01:04:20.999 --> 01:04:26.166
with an occasional advanced
degree in consumerism.

01:04:26.167 --> 01:04:28.124
What then is a true
political party?

01:04:28.125 --> 01:04:32.998
Well, one that is based firmly
in the interest of a class,

01:04:32.999 --> 01:04:35.083
be it workers, or fox hunters.

01:04:36.667 --> 01:04:38.583
Officially, we have
two parties which

01:04:38.584 --> 01:04:43.666
are, in fact, wings of a
common party of property

01:04:43.667 --> 01:04:44.751
with two Right wings.

01:04:46.042 --> 01:04:48.791
It was as if a prosperous,
victorious nation...

01:04:48.792 --> 01:04:52.583
Which we were... had been
bitten by a werewolf,

01:04:52.584 --> 01:04:57.998
the werewolf of empire, and so
became rabid and then gone mad

01:04:57.999 --> 01:05:02.333
before our eyes, to the
horror of our friends,

01:05:02.334 --> 01:05:05.791
and of considerable
anxiety even to foes.

01:05:05.792 --> 01:05:06.792
(APPLAUSE)

01:05:07.792 --> 01:05:12.709
(MUSIC PLAYING)

01:05:20.626 --> 01:05:24.998
Howard and I, we would
come here for Christmas and

01:05:24.999 --> 01:05:26.375
and stay at the Gritti.

01:05:29.999 --> 01:05:33.751
New Year\'s Eve was always
here in Harry\'s Bar.

01:05:35.667 --> 01:05:37.416
I forget when I first
came here, but it

01:05:37.417 --> 01:05:40.166
must have been 50 years ago.

01:05:40.167 --> 01:05:42.583
This is neutral ground.

01:05:42.584 --> 01:05:45.083
Think of all the people who
hate each other who come here.

01:05:47.334 --> 01:05:50.999
I sat here once with
Truman Capote over there.

01:05:53.667 --> 01:05:54.999
I was getting ready to kill him.

01:05:56.792 --> 01:06:00.875
And I was here with a camera
crew for the first time

01:06:00.876 --> 01:06:03.750
20, 30 years ago.

01:06:03.751 --> 01:06:10.791
And my god, I\'ve done it
again... another camera crew.

01:06:10.792 --> 01:06:11.792
(CHUCKLING)

01:06:12.709 --> 01:06:13.709
(MUSIC PLAYING)

01:06:18.999 --> 01:06:22.833
Thank you for inviting me to
the most interesting meeting

01:06:22.834 --> 01:06:23.584
I\'ve ever had.

01:06:23.585 --> 01:06:26.791
You were the architect of
what looked like a new world

01:06:26.792 --> 01:06:31.041
for your country, and gave
an opportunity to our country

01:06:31.042 --> 01:06:37.583
to fit into this new
universe, as indeed it

01:06:37.584 --> 01:06:39.998
began to do with
Reagan, and then

01:06:39.999 --> 01:06:42.541
ceased to do with
his successors.

01:06:42.542 --> 01:06:43.542
(SPEAKING RUSSIAN)

01:06:59.334 --> 01:07:04.998
- The sense of irreality is too
powerful in the United States.

01:07:04.999 --> 01:07:05.999
(SPEAKING RUSSIAN)

01:07:35.959 --> 01:07:38.998
- I\'m pessimistic
for the time-being.

01:07:38.999 --> 01:07:40.750
Because I...

01:07:40.751 --> 01:07:43.999
you know, whenever I want to
know what the United States is

01:07:44.000 --> 01:07:48.458
up to, I look into
my own black heart.

01:07:48.459 --> 01:07:49.999
(MUSIC PLAYING)

01:08:01.125 --> 01:08:04.333
We now assume that anything
that happens in the world

01:08:04.334 --> 01:08:05.625
affects American interests.

01:08:05.626 --> 01:08:07.249
Well, practically nothing does.

01:08:07.250 --> 01:08:08.998
When Bush speaks of
a New World Order,

01:08:08.999 --> 01:08:10.542
he speaks of the
American Empire.

01:08:12.167 --> 01:08:15.833
- I thought he was more
relevant, had more to say,

01:08:15.834 --> 01:08:17.998
was tougher in the
last years of his life

01:08:17.999 --> 01:08:18.999
than at any other time.

01:08:19.834 --> 01:08:22.833
- Well, you must remember
that since 1945 we

01:08:22.834 --> 01:08:26.998
have fought about 30 wars;
covert, overt, hot, cold,

01:08:26.999 --> 01:08:31.998
everywhere from Guatemala to
Grenada, to our great victories

01:08:31.999 --> 01:08:34.998
in Panama, not to
mention Vietnam and Korea

01:08:34.999 --> 01:08:36.417
where we noticeably lost.

01:08:37.876 --> 01:08:42.998
I think what we have done is
united the Muslim world totally

01:08:42.999 --> 01:08:46.625
against the United
States in particular,

01:08:46.626 --> 01:08:49.917
and the white race... if we
can call ourselves that...

01:08:49.918 --> 01:08:51.458
In general.

01:08:51.459 --> 01:08:53.791
By the year 2000, the
white race will only

01:08:53.792 --> 01:08:56.082
be 18% of the
world\'s population.

01:08:56.083 --> 01:08:58.833
We\'ve made a lot of
trouble for ourselves,

01:08:58.834 --> 01:09:00.583
and this is only the beginning.

01:09:00.584 --> 01:09:02.666
We will wish that we
had not done this.

01:09:02.667 --> 01:09:03.667
(SIRENS)

01:09:04.083 --> 01:09:04.876
- This just in.

01:09:04.877 --> 01:09:07.958
You are looking at, obviously,
a very disturbing live shot

01:09:07.959 --> 01:09:08.292
there.

01:09:08.293 --> 01:09:11.374
That is the World Trade Center,
and we have unconfirmed reports

01:09:11.375 --> 01:09:13.998
this morning that
a plane has crashed

01:09:13.999 --> 01:09:17.458
into one of the towers of
the World Trade Center.

01:09:17.459 --> 01:09:20.998
- Mr. Vidal, you are an agent
provocateur on this topic.

01:09:20.999 --> 01:09:24.875
Make your case, if you will, as
to why the United States must

01:09:24.876 --> 01:09:26.833
take some of the blame
for the horrendous state

01:09:26.834 --> 01:09:28.708
we\'re in now with
regard to terrorism.

01:09:28.709 --> 01:09:32.208
- You\'ve mentioned already
over 200 military strikes...

01:09:32.209 --> 01:09:34.958
And I didn\'t include the
CIA, with the Bay of Pigs,

01:09:34.959 --> 01:09:37.750
and so on... against
other countries,

01:09:37.751 --> 01:09:39.208
generally without provocation.

01:09:39.209 --> 01:09:41.750
When you start doing things
like that arbitrarily

01:09:41.751 --> 01:09:45.625
around the world, people
get very grumpy at you.

01:09:45.626 --> 01:09:48.416
And sooner or later, I
thought, well, somebody...

01:09:48.417 --> 01:09:51.998
As it turned out it was a
Saudi Arabian... struck at us.

01:09:51.999 --> 01:09:55.750
So I think that we had
that coming to the extent

01:09:55.751 --> 01:09:57.875
that we had been provocative.

01:09:57.876 --> 01:10:01.998
- Gore has been a
remarkable, incisive critic

01:10:01.999 --> 01:10:04.791
of our invasions of
Iraq and Afghanistan.

01:10:04.792 --> 01:10:08.041
I mean, he\'s done
yeoman\'s duty here

01:10:08.042 --> 01:10:09.917
in writing these pamphlets.

01:10:09.918 --> 01:10:10.918
(EXPLOSIONS)

01:10:13.417 --> 01:10:17.875
- For reasons that I leave
to the higher psychiatry,

01:10:17.876 --> 01:10:21.374
Junior wanted a war in Iraq.

01:10:21.375 --> 01:10:22.458
- Was it oil?

01:10:22.459 --> 01:10:24.958
- Yes, of course it was.

01:10:24.959 --> 01:10:28.708
And certainly his
boss Cheney did.

01:10:28.709 --> 01:10:33.583
But at the same time, Junior
is really pretty vague.

01:10:33.584 --> 01:10:36.458
I mean, he just wanted to go
bang, bang, bang, bang, bang,

01:10:36.459 --> 01:10:38.917
bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.

01:10:38.918 --> 01:10:39.998
\"We got to stand tall.

01:10:39.999 --> 01:10:40.334
You know?

01:10:40.335 --> 01:10:43.249
We can\'t cut and run.

01:10:43.250 --> 01:10:44.541
Yeah?

01:10:44.542 --> 01:10:45.583
You know what I mean.\'

01:10:45.584 --> 01:10:46.584
(LAUGHTER)

01:10:47.792 --> 01:10:49.333
We\'ve had bad
presidents in the past.

01:10:49.334 --> 01:10:52.249
But we\'ve never
had a goddamn fool.

01:10:52.250 --> 01:10:53.250
(APPLAUSE)

01:10:54.999 --> 01:10:58.333
- He was deeply offended by
what happened after 9/11.

01:10:58.334 --> 01:10:59.958
Thought these people
are simpletons.

01:10:59.959 --> 01:11:04.875
They had no respect for
anything, knowledge, fact,

01:11:04.876 --> 01:11:05.998
history.

01:11:05.999 --> 01:11:09.917
And that the neocons were
really an evil bunch.

01:11:09.918 --> 01:11:16.917
- They used this catastrophe
as a coup d\'etat.

01:11:16.918 --> 01:11:19.998
This is a well
thought-out coup d\'etat.

01:11:19.999 --> 01:11:21.958
They already had
contingency plans

01:11:21.959 --> 01:11:27.998
ready in case of terrorism,
violence, whatever,

01:11:27.999 --> 01:11:30.999
which they had inherited from
Clinton, who had put together

01:11:31.000 --> 01:11:35.958
some terrible legislation
after Timothy McVeigh blew up

01:11:35.959 --> 01:11:38.208
the building in Oklahoma City.

01:11:38.209 --> 01:11:43.124
It was readymade for
them to call an emergency

01:11:43.125 --> 01:11:45.124
and pretend it was wartime.

01:11:45.125 --> 01:11:48.833
You know, \"the war on
terrorism\" is a metaphor.

01:11:48.834 --> 01:11:52.416
And \"terrorism\" is
an abstract noun.

01:11:52.417 --> 01:11:55.374
It\'s like a war on dandruff.

01:11:55.375 --> 01:11:57.583
There\'s no such thing.

01:11:57.584 --> 01:11:58.958
It isn\'t war.

01:11:58.959 --> 01:12:00.998
It\'s just a slogan.

01:12:00.999 --> 01:12:04.791
But using the slogan, they got
through the USA Patriot Act

01:12:04.792 --> 01:12:07.750
which removes many
of our liberties.

01:12:07.751 --> 01:12:11.999
Nobody made a sound when
we lost habeas corpus...

01:12:12.000 --> 01:12:14.998
Due process of law.

01:12:14.999 --> 01:12:17.998
And suddenly Bush
managed to get rid of it.

01:12:17.999 --> 01:12:22.082
Where was a voice on
television, aside from mine,

01:12:22.083 --> 01:12:23.791
that spoke out against this?

01:12:23.792 --> 01:12:25.666
Where all those noble jurists?

01:12:25.667 --> 01:12:26.958
Those great lawyers?

01:12:26.959 --> 01:12:28.041
Those lovers of liberty?

01:12:28.042 --> 01:12:30.041
Where the hell were they?

01:12:30.042 --> 01:12:31.917
They were nowhere.

01:12:31.918 --> 01:12:34.666
Now we have a
totalitarian government.

01:12:34.667 --> 01:12:36.416
And the totalitarian
government wants

01:12:36.417 --> 01:12:39.998
to watch everybody, total
surveillance of everyone.

01:12:39.999 --> 01:12:41.998
They listen to the
telephone conversations,

01:12:41.999 --> 01:12:46.208
they look at your credit cards
they look where you travel.

01:12:46.209 --> 01:12:48.708
We are totally policed.

01:12:48.709 --> 01:12:52.374
This is contrary to everything
in our Constitution.

01:12:52.375 --> 01:12:54.998
And I complain about the
United States not being Athens.

01:12:54.999 --> 01:12:58.917
I\'ve certainly say we are
a very good Roman Republic.

01:12:58.918 --> 01:13:02.416
And the lies are based upon
the most advanced techniques

01:13:02.417 --> 01:13:07.124
of advertising, which is the
only art form my country has

01:13:07.125 --> 01:13:11.625
ever created... the
television commercial.

01:13:11.626 --> 01:13:16.416
And we sell soap and
presidents in the same fashion.

01:13:16.417 --> 01:13:19.998
Once a country is
habituated to liars,

01:13:19.999 --> 01:13:24.708
it takes generations to
bring the truth back.

01:13:24.709 --> 01:13:27.082
I\'ve never seen a period in
which more people are just

01:13:27.083 --> 01:13:28.249
disconnected.

01:13:28.250 --> 01:13:31.041
Remember the lady in
Florida, with the mascara?

01:13:31.042 --> 01:13:32.082
- Katherine Harris.

01:13:32.083 --> 01:13:33.083
(LAUGHTER)

01:13:33.959 --> 01:13:36.998
- She was also co-chair of
the Bush-Cheney Republican

01:13:36.999 --> 01:13:37.584
campaign...

01:13:37.585 --> 01:13:38.958
- Oh yes.

01:13:38.959 --> 01:13:41.291
- while running the
electoral machinery of the state

01:13:41.292 --> 01:13:42.416
of Florida.

01:13:42.417 --> 01:13:45.124
And then they did
it again in \'04.

01:13:45.125 --> 01:13:48.791
This last election...
Who was the villain,

01:13:48.792 --> 01:13:50.750
according to
Congressman Conyers?

01:13:50.751 --> 01:13:55.917
He\'s the Secretary of State
of Ohio, J. Kenneth Blackwell.

01:13:55.918 --> 01:14:01.625
He was simultaneously co-chair
of the Bush-Cheney campaign.

01:14:01.626 --> 01:14:03.917
- That seems to
smell of bullshit.

01:14:03.918 --> 01:14:04.918
(LAUGHTER)

01:14:05.250 --> 01:14:07.124
- Well I must say
it\'s overpowering,

01:14:07.125 --> 01:14:08.998
whatever the scent.

01:14:08.999 --> 01:14:12.208
Conyers writes this book, one
of the most distinguished men

01:14:12.209 --> 01:14:16.917
in Congress, with a great deal
of effort and help and so on...

01:14:16.918 --> 01:14:19.833
Just vote-by-vote,
district-by-district across

01:14:19.834 --> 01:14:21.541
the state of Ohio.

01:14:21.542 --> 01:14:24.791
The New York Times would
not review the book,

01:14:24.792 --> 01:14:26.291
would not mention the book.

01:14:26.292 --> 01:14:28.041
I know, I wrote
the preface to it.

01:14:28.042 --> 01:14:29.082
Washington Post, ditto.

01:14:29.083 --> 01:14:31.541
They wouldn\'t do anything.

01:14:31.542 --> 01:14:36.998
Now, if the two self-loving
newspapers of choice

01:14:36.999 --> 01:14:40.082
in the United States are
going to ignore the fact that

01:14:40.083 --> 01:14:44.917
a presidential... the second
one in a row... has been stolen,

01:14:44.918 --> 01:14:47.041
we don\'t have a republic.

01:14:47.042 --> 01:14:48.458
There\'s nothing left.

01:14:48.459 --> 01:14:49.459
(APPLAUSE)

01:14:56.999 --> 01:14:58.417
(MUSIC PLAYING)

01:15:08.999 --> 01:15:12.875
- One 81-year-old
ought to greet another.

01:15:12.876 --> 01:15:15.167
- I think with a
hearty hand clasp...

01:15:19.709 --> 01:15:21.998
- Are you living
in New York now?

01:15:21.999 --> 01:15:22.999
- I live in LA.

01:15:22.999 --> 01:15:23.626
- In LA?

01:15:23.626 --> 01:15:23.999
- Yeah.

01:15:24.000 --> 01:15:26.583
- Nice weather.

01:15:26.584 --> 01:15:27.998
- My husband, Chris Matthews.

01:15:27.999 --> 01:15:28.417
- Hi, Gore.

01:15:28.418 --> 01:15:30.291
I went to see \"The Best
Man\" twice the last time

01:15:30.292 --> 01:15:31.292
it was in New York.

01:15:32.250 --> 01:15:33.875
- Oh, really, in 2000?

01:15:33.876 --> 01:15:34.292
- It holds up.

01:15:34.293 --> 01:15:35.833
It holds up.

01:15:35.834 --> 01:15:40.666
- Well, isn\'t it scary that
nothing changed in 40 years?

01:15:40.667 --> 01:15:41.000
- I know.

01:15:41.001 --> 01:15:42.041
It hasn\'t.

01:15:42.042 --> 01:15:43.998
- I thought I had to
bring it up to date.

01:15:43.999 --> 01:15:44.999
And they said, \"No.

01:15:44.999 --> 01:15:45.999
It\'s working!\"

01:15:46.000 --> 01:15:49.124
- Gore, have you ever had
such fun in your life?

01:15:49.125 --> 01:15:50.125
- Oh, yeah.

01:15:54.042 --> 01:15:55.999
- Did you see
Christopher Hitchens?

01:15:56.000 --> 01:15:57.000
- No.

01:15:57.000 --> 01:15:58.000
- He\'s here.

01:16:00.999 --> 01:16:04.958
- Christopher Hitchens thought
he could be the new Vidal,

01:16:04.959 --> 01:16:08.998
and declared himself to
be my dauphin, my heir.

01:16:08.999 --> 01:16:10.416
And I said, forget it.

01:16:10.417 --> 01:16:11.998
I said, I\'m still in business.

01:16:11.999 --> 01:16:14.119
And I shall be in business
as long as you\'re alive...

01:16:15.375 --> 01:16:17.999
I said with a beady look.

01:16:18.000 --> 01:16:19.998
- Your Reverence.

01:16:19.999 --> 01:16:21.541
- How is The Pooh?

01:16:21.542 --> 01:16:23.583
- May I anoint the brow?

01:16:23.584 --> 01:16:27.541
- Gore felt that Christopher
was a young Gore.

01:16:27.542 --> 01:16:28.998
And then he felt
that Christopher

01:16:28.999 --> 01:16:29.999
was trying too hard.

01:16:30.000 --> 01:16:31.998
And then he felt betrayed.

01:16:31.999 --> 01:16:34.082
- He\'s had a sea change.

01:16:34.083 --> 01:16:36.584
So he is no longer my heir.

01:16:37.417 --> 01:16:39.333
- For Gore, this
was a real betrayal.

01:16:39.334 --> 01:16:41.583
You\'re joining
the neocons, who I

01:16:41.584 --> 01:16:43.999
think are the enemy
of the Republic.

01:16:44.000 --> 01:16:46.082
- I had a big political
disagreement with anyone

01:16:46.083 --> 01:16:47.583
who thought Saddam
Hussein should

01:16:47.584 --> 01:16:49.416
stay as the private
owner of Iraq.

01:16:49.417 --> 01:16:52.541
And I thought it was outrageous
for him to say that he thought

01:16:52.542 --> 01:16:55.875
that the Bush administration
was complicit in...

01:16:55.876 --> 01:16:59.041
Had guilty knowledge in advance
of, was an accomplice in...

01:16:59.042 --> 01:17:01.708
The destruction of The
World Trade Center.

01:17:01.709 --> 01:17:02.998
- I never said that.

01:17:02.999 --> 01:17:04.416
Because I don\'t believe that.

01:17:04.417 --> 01:17:08.291
Those who seem to think that
the Bush administration had

01:17:08.292 --> 01:17:14.208
something to do with 9/11, I
can prove that they didn\'t.

01:17:14.209 --> 01:17:16.998
They are totally incompetent.

01:17:16.999 --> 01:17:22.166
9/11 was a brilliantly executed
strike at the United States.

01:17:22.167 --> 01:17:23.666
I can\'t imagine anybody...

01:17:23.667 --> 01:17:27.917
I can\'t even imagine... can you
imagine Cheney mumbling around

01:17:27.918 --> 01:17:29.751
orchestrating
something like that?

01:17:31.876 --> 01:17:33.333
- While I\'ve got you...

01:17:33.334 --> 01:17:35.291
- No, no, no more tonight.

01:17:35.292 --> 01:17:36.292
- No more tonight?

01:17:36.293 --> 01:17:37.917
- If you leave it with
me, I\'ll send it on.

01:17:37.918 --> 01:17:38.250
I promise.

01:17:38.250 --> 01:17:39.167
- All right, handsome.

01:17:39.167 --> 01:17:39.918
I will.

01:17:39.918 --> 01:17:40.918
- OK.

01:17:43.209 --> 01:17:48.833
- In fact, it\'s the
last time I saw him.

01:17:48.834 --> 01:17:50.167
(MUSIC PLAYING)

01:18:06.167 --> 01:18:07.208
- Who\'s older, You or me?

01:18:07.209 --> 01:18:08.667
When were you born?

01:18:10.167 --> 01:18:12.374
- October 3rd, \'25.

01:18:12.375 --> 01:18:15.917
- I was June 1, \'25.

01:18:15.918 --> 01:18:16.999
So, I\'m older.

01:18:18.542 --> 01:18:19.998
- Yeah, June comes
before October.

01:18:19.999 --> 01:18:21.208
- Smarter, older.

01:18:21.209 --> 01:18:21.959
- I know.

01:18:21.959 --> 01:18:22.292
I know it.

01:18:22.293 --> 01:18:23.416
- The whole thing.

01:18:23.417 --> 01:18:25.666
- It\'s a burden.

01:18:25.667 --> 01:18:28.958
One must carry it merrily.

01:18:28.959 --> 01:18:30.708
- If you had known I
was older, would you

01:18:30.709 --> 01:18:31.876
have come to me for advice?

01:18:33.209 --> 01:18:36.625
- Uh, no, probably not.

01:18:36.626 --> 01:18:41.249
There\'s always the worry about
senility and premature...

01:18:41.250 --> 01:18:42.999
you know, dementia.

01:18:51.626 --> 01:18:53.708
When I first came
here, Howard and I

01:18:53.709 --> 01:18:59.250
picked a plot and some marble.

01:19:01.792 --> 01:19:05.541
Near the end, he asked
me, \"How old am I?\"

01:19:05.542 --> 01:19:08.458
I told him he was 74.

01:19:08.459 --> 01:19:08.999
He frowned.

01:19:09.000 --> 01:19:11.750
He said, \"That\'s when
people die, isn\'t it?\"

01:19:11.751 --> 01:19:12.917
I said that I hadn\'t.

01:19:12.918 --> 01:19:14.666
And so far, he hadn\'t.

01:19:14.667 --> 01:19:16.959
Then he said, \"Didn\'t
it go by awfully fast?\"

01:19:18.334 --> 01:19:20.208
Of course it had.

01:19:20.209 --> 01:19:23.666
We had been too happy, and the
gods cannot bear the happiness

01:19:23.667 --> 01:19:24.667
of mortals.

01:19:28.626 --> 01:19:29.959
And then he died, so...

01:19:33.626 --> 01:19:34.626
that was that.

01:19:44.834 --> 01:19:47.999
- When Howard died,
Gore was dark.

01:19:50.876 --> 01:19:56.583
I think the last eight years was
so painful from that loss, that

01:19:56.584 --> 01:19:58.999
emptiness without
Howard, that best friend.

01:20:03.334 --> 01:20:06.998
- I\'ve entered what I call
the \"Cedars-Sinai\" years.

01:20:06.999 --> 01:20:08.958
This is when you have
to go to the hospital

01:20:08.959 --> 01:20:11.082
for from time to time.

01:20:11.083 --> 01:20:14.998
And I have a bad leg, and
because of the bad leg

01:20:14.999 --> 01:20:19.124
I no longer can walk
the great distances that

01:20:19.125 --> 01:20:22.998
living here in Ravello requires.

01:20:22.999 --> 01:20:24.791
So I shall do less walking.

01:20:24.792 --> 01:20:30.998
And less view, I must say.

01:20:30.999 --> 01:20:33.584
I shall miss the look of
this place, certainly.

01:20:37.999 --> 01:20:40.750
- The death of
Howard Austin meant

01:20:40.751 --> 01:20:44.999
that Gore could no longer
live alone at La Rondinaia.

01:20:49.999 --> 01:20:53.750
- So packing up is...

01:20:53.751 --> 01:20:56.833
I think about as dreadful
an experience as anyone

01:20:56.834 --> 01:20:57.876
can ever go through.

01:20:59.167 --> 01:21:01.124
I know many people
who\'ve had terminal heart

01:21:01.125 --> 01:21:03.249
attacks during it.

01:21:03.250 --> 01:21:05.041
Should I have one
right here on camera

01:21:05.042 --> 01:21:07.875
it will be very exciting.

01:21:07.876 --> 01:21:11.750
And it\'s dark.

01:21:11.751 --> 01:21:12.751
(SPEAKING ITALIAN)

01:22:13.792 --> 01:22:14.998
- which is the deciding...

01:22:14.999 --> 01:22:15.834
- This is the money.

01:22:15.835 --> 01:22:17.458
In Florida, this is the money.

01:22:17.459 --> 01:22:19.998
This is where, in a close
race, it is decided right here.

01:22:19.999 --> 01:22:21.998
And again, 20% statewide.

01:22:21.999 --> 01:22:22.999
But watch all this blue,

01:22:23.000 --> 01:22:24.625
and I\'m going to go
back four years ago.

01:22:24.626 --> 01:22:26.458
Remember, you see blue
over here in St. Pete.

01:22:26.459 --> 01:22:28.708
You see Orlando, and then
the Central Florida area.

01:22:28.709 --> 01:22:29.998
Excuse me for stepping across.

01:22:29.999 --> 01:22:32.208
But we\'re going to go back in
time now to four years ago.

01:22:32.209 --> 01:22:33.666
Remember all that blue...?

01:22:33.667 --> 01:22:34.998
- Ah, the polls
are about to close

01:22:34.999 --> 01:22:36.209
in the District of Columbia.

01:22:39.292 --> 01:22:43.374
This is my prediction: The
Republican Party, as of

01:22:43.375 --> 01:22:48.334
this day, is as terminated
as the Whigs were in 1846.

01:22:48.999 --> 01:22:49.999
(CHEERING)

01:22:57.250 --> 01:23:03.833
- If there is anyone out there
who still doubts that America

01:23:03.834 --> 01:23:08.583
is a place where all
things are possible,

01:23:08.584 --> 01:23:11.998
who still wonders if the
dream of our founders

01:23:11.999 --> 01:23:15.750
is alive in our time,
who still questions

01:23:15.751 --> 01:23:21.458
the power of our democracy,
tonight is your answer.

01:23:21.459 --> 01:23:22.459
(CHEERING)

01:23:26.417 --> 01:23:28.998
- I would like to think of
him as completely virtuous.

01:23:28.999 --> 01:23:31.583
I suspect he\'s not.

01:23:31.584 --> 01:23:32.833
Why do I suspect that?

01:23:32.834 --> 01:23:35.833
Because I know how
politics works.

01:23:35.834 --> 01:23:38.998
If you need $10 million
more than what you already

01:23:38.999 --> 01:23:40.998
have raised to become
the next president,

01:23:40.999 --> 01:23:43.249
you\'re going to get $10 million.

01:23:43.250 --> 01:23:45.250
And heaven knows what
you\'re going to give away.

01:23:46.792 --> 01:23:50.416
Nothing as gross as Dr.
Cheney\'s Halliburton.

01:23:50.417 --> 01:23:54.791
But they\'d get something out of
it, so they\'ve made up to him.

01:23:54.792 --> 01:23:56.958
Well that just didn\'t
happen, because people

01:23:56.959 --> 01:23:58.750
like the cut of his jib.

01:23:58.751 --> 01:24:00.292
It was not his
jib that got them.

01:24:04.999 --> 01:24:08.541
Americans are farcical when
faced with force majeure

01:24:08.542 --> 01:24:11.334
and money, two things
that they worship.

01:24:13.999 --> 01:24:19.249
You can\'t expect a democracy
from a society like this.

01:24:19.250 --> 01:24:20.834
(MUSIC PLAYING)

01:24:27.999 --> 01:24:31.416
It is the United
States of Amnesia.

01:24:31.417 --> 01:24:33.459
We miraculously
forget everything.

01:24:35.375 --> 01:24:37.998
So the lessons that we should
be learning we probably

01:24:37.999 --> 01:24:39.999
will have forgotten
in no time at all.

01:24:47.250 --> 01:24:50.459
Pericles said something
quite wise to the Athenians.

01:24:52.459 --> 01:25:00.459
\"An empire once acquired, is
very dangerous to let go.\"

01:25:01.959 --> 01:25:03.625
There\'s a lot of
repair work that we\'re

01:25:03.626 --> 01:25:06.998
going to need if we
get the Republic back.

01:25:06.999 --> 01:25:07.999
That\'s the big question.

01:25:15.999 --> 01:25:18.999
Somebody asked Confucius once
one of his students...

01:25:19.000 --> 01:25:20.998
They said, \"What
happens Master Kong\"...

01:25:20.999 --> 01:25:23.042
Which is his real
name... \"when we die?\"

01:25:25.459 --> 01:25:27.041
He said, \"Why do you
ask about something

01:25:27.042 --> 01:25:30.124
we know nothing about
when you won\'t even

01:25:30.125 --> 01:25:33.458
ask about life, which we
do have to deal with?\"

01:25:33.459 --> 01:25:35.875
He was not going to
answer that question.

01:25:35.876 --> 01:25:37.667
Because there was none.

01:25:41.209 --> 01:25:43.292
- What do you think
your legacy will be?

01:25:48.999 --> 01:25:51.042
- I couldn\'t care less.

01:25:59.626 --> 01:26:02.124
All along, I think the most
useful and creative people

01:26:02.125 --> 01:26:03.998
in the United States
from the very beginning

01:26:03.999 --> 01:26:06.541
is the men who have said \"No.\"

01:26:06.542 --> 01:26:08.958
And many men have begun
to say \"No\" again.

01:26:08.959 --> 01:26:12.708
And when the chorus gets loud
enough, the people march.

01:26:12.709 --> 01:26:14.709
(MUSIC PLAYING)

01:26:58.626 --> 01:27:01.959
The four most beautiful words
in the English language:

01:27:02.999 --> 01:27:06.125
\"I told you so.\"

01:27:08.584 --> 01:27:10.708
I hope you\'re tight on that.

01:27:10.709 --> 01:27:13.000
(MUSIC PLAYING)