Word: lippmann
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Lippmann had not gone over to the Republicans. He was simply displaying once again his distrust of any grand scheme whose success depended on measures he considered oppressive. "The Good Society has no architectural design," he wrote in 1937. "There are no blueprints." Lippmann's refusal to interpret events according to doctrine struck some critics as vacillation. In fact, Lippmann shifted far less than did the political spectrum against which his positions were measured...
Inconvenient Army. Most columnists' predictions are forgotten in a matter of days or weeks. Walter Lippmann's were not, and even admirers cherished his occasional blunders, perhaps to reassure themselves that he was human. He undervalued F.D.R.'s abilities and failed to take Hitler very seriously until 1939. In September 1941, calling the U.S. Army a "definite inconvenience," he urged a reduction in the armed forces and a step-up of economic aid to England and Russia. Harry Truman's upset victory in 1948 forced Lippmann to begin his next column with the pained and decidedly...
...more serious weakness was Lippmann's detachment from the mire of human affairs. Comfortable in the company of statesmen and scholars, he did not always comprehend popular emotions or their impact on public policy. Lippmann derided the cold war, arguing reasonably that the Soviet Union and China would inevitably dominate their "orbits" as the U.S. did its own. This view is now grudgingly echoed in U.S. foreign policy, but Lippmann's refusal to give weight to the explosive emotions of the cold war drew much criticism when tensions were at their peak. His writing style was elegant...
...Whatever Lippmann's gaffes, they were but a small fraction of the 10 million words he committed to print. His column was ultimately syndicated in more than 200 papers; it brought him wealth, honors and worldwide fame. His lean, dignified presence was another of Washington's monuments. An invitation to the home he and his vivacious wife Helen had on Woodley Road, near the National Cathedral, was a command performance (Mrs. Lippmann died in February). Lippmann-called "the autocrat of the dinner table" by awed guests-would lead evening companions through Socratic questions on an encyclopedic range...
Presidents coveted Lippmann's approval and usually felt obliged to respond to his criticism. Both F.D.R. and Truman lashed out bitterly when Lippmann opposed them. John F. Kennedy and his advisers invited Lippmann's advice and political imprimatur. But when a Lippmann column scolded J.F.K.'s policies, the President fumed and asked intimates why he should bother reading press criticisms of his actions. "Well," he answered himself, "it's still Walter Lippmann...