Chapter 3 - “To Remove This Precedent”

Summary

In the late 1950s, a new conservativism – in the form of William F. Buckley’s National Review and of Senator Barry Goldwater – emerged. I trace Goldwater’s response to the Fact magazine case following his 1964 defeat. I show how shocked he was by Fact, and his motivations for bringing a libel suit: a wish to protect future politicians and to counter what he saw as unethical forms of comment. Goldwater was ahead of his time and ahead of his conservative colleagues (Buckley included) in appreciating the political value of lawsuits. I also document the dynamic relationship between Goldwater and his supporters, and the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association, with whom he had a de facto working alliance. Drawing on the trial transcript and on Goldwater’s extensive archives, I narrate the legal contest in all its drama. I provide political and social context, including the impact of the Vietnam War on the debates over ethics and politics but also the role of the media in shaping public opinion on the war and on the case. I also document an effort by Ginzburg’s Avant Garde magazine to survey psychiatrists about Lyndon Johnson’s fitness for office in 1968.