Sources

More Than 120 New Primary Source Interviews

In Framing the Sixties, Bernard von Bothmer relies on a trove of primary sources in building his position that the sixties will continue to define us at least until the last of the baby-boom generation exits the stages of power.

He also offers future historians a wealth of new primary sources in the more than 120 interviews he conducted with cabinet members, speechwriters, advisers, strategists, historians, journalists, and activists from across the political spectrum. A selection of these notables is shown below.

View, download, or print a PDF version of the complete list of interviews conducted for Framing the Sixties.

Reagan's Troika Shown in this 1981 White House shot, left to right, are James Baker, Chief of Staff; Ed Meese, Counselor to the President; and the late Michael Deaver, Deputy Chief of Staff. In interviews with Framing the Sixties author Bernard von Bothmer they each illuminated their take on Reagan's views of the sixties which shaped his policies during the eighties.

Reagan’s stance on crime was at the center of his 1987 nomination of Judge Robert Bork to the Supreme Court. Bork shared Reagan’s views of the 1960s and has criticized the era throughout his career. Bork believed that the limits set on individualism and personal freedom by religion, a common morality, and law "began to break down with great rapidity in the 1960s."

A longtime Democratic Party activist and election strategist, Brazile worked for Democratic candidates in every presidential election between 1976 and 2000, when she served as Al Gore's campaign manager.

Carlucci was Nixon's undersecretary of health, education, and welfare, and Reagan's deputy defense secretary, national security adviser, and secretary of defense.

Bozell founded the conservative Media Research Center, the nation's largest media watchdog organization. His father ghostwrote Barry Goldwater's seminal 1960 text, Conscience of a Conservative, considered the bible of the Right.

Bond is a civil rights activist who in 1960 co-founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Later he served for over 20 years in both houses of the Georgia legislature and in 1998 became chairman of the NAACP.

Bob Woodward A 1960s Navy veteran himself, investigative journalist Bob Woodward felt the Vietnam War was a mistake at the time. In Framing the Sixties, he talks about 2004 presidential candidate John Kerry's complicated relationship with the sixties as both a war hero and an antiwar protester, and how it both helped and hurt his image among voters.

The Massachusetts governor was the 1988 Democratic presidential candidate. He lost the election to George H. W. Bush.

Professor emeritus of linguistics at M.I.T.; prominent activist and critic of U.S. foreign and domestic policy.

Thomas has covered every president since Kennedy and for fifty-seven years was White House correspondent for United Press International. She can still be seen asking questions at Obama White House press conferences.

Hayden was a key participant in the antiwar and civil rights movements of the 1960s and co-founded the student activist group SDS. In more recent years he has served in both the California state assembly and senate and remains an active teacher, organizer, and speaker for progressive causes.

A conservative antifeminist founder of the Eagle Forum, Schlafly is best known for her successful campaign against the Equal Rights Amendment. In her interviews with Framing the Sixties author Bernard von Bothmer, she decribes Reagan's efforts to redress the idea that Johnson's "Great Society" programs had created a breakdown in both the economic and social order.

Reagan's secretary of defense from 1981 to 1987, shown here meeting with Israeli government minister Ariel Sharon. Weinberger died on March 28, 2006.

A Democratic senator from Colorado from 1974 to 1986, Hart ran for the presidency in 1984 and 1988. He provides interesting insights to the author into Nixon's not-so-conservative social policies, and also talks about how Reagan viewed his short war on Grenada as an explicit reversal of the "Vietnam Syndrome."

Daniel Ellsberg Shown above at a 2006 anti-Iraq war protest, Daniel Ellsberg provided the author with firsthand insights into how presidential politics twisted the realities of the Vietnam War. At one time a Marine officer and later a top-level Pentagon civilian insider, Ellsberg gained fame/notoriety for his release of the secret "Pentagon Papers" that exposed the failure of the U.S. efforts in Vietnam.

Bauer was Reagan's undersecretary of education and domestic policy adviser from 1985 to 1989. He ran unsuccessfully for the 2000 Republican nomination for president.