Norman Mailer on LBJ
A transcription of Mailer's 21 May (Vietnam Day) speech at UC Berkeley, assembled in part from his Republican Convention piece, his Herald Tribune review of LBJ's My Hope for America, and his 1962 Buckley debate; source of the "Hot Damn. Viet Nam." line.
A transcription of the speech Mailer gave on 21 May (Vietnam Day) on the Berkeley campus of the University of California. In an accompanying “Author’s Note,” Mailer states that portions of the speech were taken from “my article on the Republican Convention printed in Esquire in November 1964 [64.20] … from a review I did in the New York Herald Tribune on Lyndon Johnson’s book My Hope for America [64.21] … [and] a fragment from a debate in Chicago with William Buckley [63.15]” — that is, “In the Red Light” (64.20), the My Hope for America review (64.21), and the 1963 Buckley debate (63.15).
The final line of Why Are We in Vietnam? (67.15) — “Vietnam. Hot dam [sic]” — is used in the essay to describe L.B.J.’s excitement at finding an issue to shift the country’s attention from civil rights, except that Mailer reverses the order: “Hot Damn. Viet Nam.”
Rpt: Peace News (London) no. 1522 (27 August), 5–8, with an added introductory paragraph (in which he calls himself a “left conservative”) in We Accuse, ed. James Petras (Berkeley: Diablo Press, September); as “A Speech at Berkeley on Vietnam Day” in 66.11 and 68.11; partial in 98.7.
The front-page opening of the column is held in the working archive at full text (front page only; rights pending), rights: REQUEST-NEEDED. The continuation on pp. 10–15 is not yet transcribed.
Related pages
- 1965 | "Viet Nam Day" — Few Surprises: Theme Was "Hate America" | In the Red Light: A History of the Republican Convention in 1964
- "Viet Nam Day" — Few Surprises: Theme Was "Hate America" (65.12) | Distorted Vision of Mailer (65.18)
- The Best Man, 1964: To Pick Him, We Must Choose between Nostalgic Extremism and Overwhelming Moderation (64.21) | The Real Meaning of the Right Wing in America: Opposing Statements on the Role of the Right Wing in America Today: A Conservative's View by William F. Buckley Jr.; A Liberal's View by Norman Mailer (63.15) | Why Are We in Vietnam? (67.15) | Cannibals and Christians (66.11) | The Idol and the Octopus: Political Writings by Norman Mailer on the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations (68.11)