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L. Brent Bozell Jr. | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Bozell in 1954 | |
| Born | Leo Brent Bozell Jr. (1926-01-15)January 15, 1926 Omaha, Nebraska, U.S. |
| Died | April 15, 1997(1997-04-15) (aged 71) Bethesda, Maryland, U.S. |
| Occupation | Author,commentator, activist |
| Education | Yale University (BA,LLB) |
| Subject | American conservatism,anti-communism,judicial activism,Catholic social teaching |
| Spouse | Patricia Buckley Bozell |
| Children | 10, includingBrent |
Leo Brent Bozell Jr. (/boʊˈzɛl/; January 15, 1926 – April 15, 1997) was an Americanconservative activist andCatholic writer, and formerUnited States Merchant Mariner. He was a conservative Catholic, and a strong supporter of theanti-abortion movement. In 1966, he co-founded the Catholic magazineTriumph, which published for a decade until its dissolution in 1976.
Bozell was born inOmaha, Nebraska, to Lois (née Robbins) andLeo B. Bozell, the co-founder ofBozell Worldwide.[1] He attendedCreighton Preparatory School in Omaha.
Bozell was the state American Legion Oratorical Contest Champion of Nebraska in 1943 and 1944, winning the national title in 1944. He served in theU.S. Merchant Marine inthe Pacific duringWorld War II.[2] Bozell resolved toconvert toCatholicism in 1946, but after his father's death that same year, he deferred his decision until 1947 so as not to upset his family.[3]
Bozell attendedYale University, where he became best friends withWilliam F. Buckley Jr., who was his teammate in the Yale debating society. In the bookBefore the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus, Buckley described Bozell as "a young, energetic red-haired Yalie from Omaha".[4] At Yale, Bozell also was president of theYale Political Union and president of Yale'sWorld Federalist Movement.
Bozell was a consistent supporter of SenatorJoseph McCarthy, teaming up with fellowNational Review associateWilliam F. Buckley Jr. in 1954 to write a ringing defense of him inMcCarthy and His Enemies. Bozell and Buckley definedMcCarthyism, the political movement associated with McCarthy, as “a movement around which men of good will and stern morality can close ranks.” Bozell joined McCarthy's staff, shortly afterRoy Cohn left, and wrote McCarthy's defense speech before theU.S. Senate committee that would censure him, as well as a series of policy speeches through at least 1956.[5]
In 1958, Bozell ran for theMaryland House of Delegates but lost.[citation needed] After this defeat he proposed the formation of a new political party at one of the editors' evening meetings inNew York; the idea was summarily rejected by the morefusionist editors Buckley andJames Burnham.[6] In 1964 he ran in the Republican primary against incumbent liberal Republican Congressman (and later U.S. Senator)Charles Mathias for Maryland's 6th Congressional District. Bozell lost to Mathias 70.2% to 25.9% with the rest of the vote going to a third candidate.[1] He later worked as a speechwriter for SenatorBarry Goldwater, for whom he ghostwrote the 1960 bookThe Conscience of a Conservative.[7] He was a founding member ofYoung Americans for Freedom.[8]
In 1960, he took his family to Spain for the first time, making him absent from thePalm Beach decision of Buckley, Goldwater,Russell Kirk, andWilliam Baroody Sr. to freeze out theJohn Birch Society from the conservative movement. Kirk inferred that Bozell would not have had any reason to be opposed to the decision,[9] but, in fact, he, along withFrank Meyer andWilliam Rusher, protested the exclusion of the Society from the conservative movement.[10]
In 1965, he moved his family toSpain purportedly because "you breathed the Catholic thing there"[11] and, along withFrederick Wilhelmsen andWilliam Marshner among others, founded the Catholic magazineTriumph in 1966 which Bozell intended to be a bulwark of Catholic orthodoxy and a sort ofNational Review for Catholics. The magazine featured contributions fromRussell Kirk (a Catholic convert),Christopher Dawson,Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn,John Lukacs,Thomas Molnar,Jeffrey Hart,Sir Arnold Lunn,Charles Journet,Rousas John Rushdoony, aCalvinist, and initially received an enthusiastic endorsement by Buckley in the pages ofNational Review.
However, the relationship between Bozell and his brother-in-law had already begun to sour; in March 1966, when Buckley wrote a column warning that Catholics should not try to seek legislation that would impose on others their belief that abortion is murder, Bozell wrote a letter to the editors ofNational Review protesting that the column "reeks of relativism...Mr. Buckley writes in this instance as though he had never heard of thenatural law." Buckley was stung by the letter and had composed a bitter reply, but decided against sending it. In 1966, Bozell publishedThe Warren Revolution, a scholarly critique of theSupreme Court of the United States under Chief JusticeEarl Warren. Despite his relocation to Spain, Bozell remained conscious of U.S. politics; he opposed theNixon administration, writing inTriumph that, in supportingNixon's candidacy in 1968, the conservative movement had "ceased to be an important political force in America." Buckley later changed his mind and agreed with Bozell on this subject.[12]
He later repudiated his support for the American experiment itself in his own bookThe Warren Revolution. Buckley summarized Bozell's new position as, "[Bozell's] thesis now is that the republic of theFounding Fathers was doomed because of their failure to adequately enthrall the city of man to the City of God." Bozell himself felt estranged from the United States in general and in particular the conservative movement in which he was once a rising star, denouncing conservatism as "an inadequate substitute for Christian politics."[13] Especially following the Supreme Court'sRoe v. Wade decision, Bozell began to see the United States as a force of evil greater in magnitude to theSoviet Union and denounced bothdemocraticcapitalism andcommunism.Triumph idealizedFrancoist Spain, criticized the events leading up to theVietnam War, including the U.S.-backed assassination ofSouth Vietnam's Catholic president,Ngo Dinh Diem, and the conduct of the conflict thereafter as irreconcilable withJust War Theory. He opposedchemical warfare andnuclear deterrence, which he had once supported, and identified his economic views with those ofdistributism.[14]
Friends of Bozell blamed his increasing devotion to Catholicism, his dissolving relationship with Buckley, who was reportedly traumatized by the loss of his closest friend, and his evolving political views on mental deterioration.Neal B. Freeman said, "Brent simply started to fade and you could see it happening, but you couldn't do anything about it."John Judis wrote inWilliam Buckley Jr.: Patron Saint of the Conservatives that, "the breakup of their relationship probably could not have occurred ten years prior or ten years hence. It was very much a product of the tumultuous sixties, which exhilarated Buckley and which lifted him to new heights of celebrity, but in which more troubled, less stable souls like Bozell capsized."
After foundingTriumph, Bozell also founded the Society of the Christian Commonwealth whose educational arm, the Christian Commonwealth Institute, headed byWarren Carroll, conducted annual classes, lectures, and seminars at theEl Escorial in Spain. The entirety of the original faculty of and many of the donors toChristendom College had attended the program in Spain and were subscribers toTriumph. Carroll later remarked in his obituary for Bozell, "In a very fundamental sense, Christendom College was aTriumph enterprise."[15]
Bozell was a staunch supporter ofPope Paul VI and strongly defended his condemnation ofbirth control in the encyclicalHumanae Vitae but disagreed with the pope's decisions regarding theliturgy.[15] He was a founding member of and served as a special ambassador for Catholics United for the Faith.[16] Since its founding,Triumph teetered on the verge of collapse and Bozell was planning on shutting the magazine down until Patricia Bozell attended a forum at theCatholic University of America featuring radicalfeministTi-Grace Atkinson in March 1971. When Atkinson said theVirgin Mary was more "used" than if she had participated in a sexual conception, Patricia attempted to slap her and her hand hit the microphone and she was escorted out. When Bozell heard what his wife had done, he stood up and bellowed, "To Hell with Catholic University!"[15] The positive reader feedback convinced him to keep the magazine alive. In 1976, after the death ofFrancisco Franco and the beginning of theSpanish transition to democracy,Triumph ceased publication.
In 1985, Bozell founded Misión Guadalupe, a program devoted to the assistance and evangelization ofHispanic immigrants.[17]
In June 1970, three years before theRoe v. Wade decision and when abortion was illegal in most of United States outside California, Washington, D.C., and New York, Brent and Patricia Bozell led the first "Operation Rescue" mission to try by direct action to negotiate with administrators atGeorge Washington University Hospital Clinic inWashington, D.C., where abortion was permitted for the mental well-being of the mother.
Bozell asked clinic administrators to stop the abortions and, if they would not do so, to appoint a Catholic nurse to administer Baptism and prepare the remains for Catholic burial after each abortion.[18] Bozell and about 230 others met at a local church for a "FuneralMass forthe Holy Innocents" celebrated by four priests. The rally afterwards included a Pro Life student group from theUniversity of Dallas,Los Hijos de la Tormenta ("The Sons of Thunder"), who were dressed inkhaki andred berets (red berets being worn by theCarlistBasques, whom Bozell admired),[19] worerosaries, and carriedpapal flags. One speaker declared: "America ... you are daggering to death your unborn of tomorrow. The very cleanliness of your sterilized murder gives off the stench of death."
After the rally, Bozell, donning a red beret himself, approached the clinic with seven others.[19] They were spotted by a security guard who locked the door to prevent their entry. One of the "Sons of Thunder" raced to one of the buildings unlocked side-doors and was able to jam it open with a crucifix.[19] By means of the jammed door, Bozell and the rest of the group entered the building and began shattering windows while shouting "Viva Cristo Rey!" (a Catholic battle cry used during theCristero War).[19] The Washington police were called and had to use billy clubs to subdue Bozell's group and arrest them.[19] Appearing in court in October, 1970 Bozell declared "America is going to have to reckon with its Christians, like it or not."[19] Bozell and the other members of his group received suspended sentences.[18] Bozell later said, "If disorder is necessary to stop this murdering of babies, I'm in favor of disorder."[20]
Buckley denounced Bozell's actions, declaring inNational Review that "the Sons of Thunder have moved precious few of the unconvinced over to their side." ThoughTriumph closed two years later, its staff and Bozell remained active, including the organization of the firstMarch for Life.
The cover ofTriumph's March 1973 issue after theRoe v. Wade decision was solid black except for a small logo, a white cross, and the words "For the children".[15]
Bozell marriedPatricia Lee Buckley, sister ofWilliam F. Buckley, and they had ten children, includingL. Brent Bozell III, a conservative activist and founder and president ofMedia Research Center, a conservative media watchdog group and publisher. Another son, Michael Bozell, is aBenedictine monk inSolesmes Abbey. The Bozell family grew to 23 grandchildren and a great-grandchild by the time he died.[21] His godson was novelistTristan Egolf.[citation needed]
Bozell suffered frombipolar disorder, and wrote publicly about his experiences with the disease, the suffering it created, and his recovery in the introduction toMustard Seeds, a collection mostly of his post-National Review writings, including many fromTriumph, published in 1986. The book included "Poland's Cross—And America's," Bozell's firstNational Review essay in almost two decades. It also included theNational Review essay, for which he may be remembered best, "Freedom or Virtue," which touched off a robust debate between himself and Meyer, mostly around whether freedom or virtue should be the paramount consideration for American conservatives.
Bozell faithfully visited inmates atLorton Correctional Complex inNorthern Virginia every week for years until his death.[21]
Bozell died ofpneumonia in a nursing home inBethesda, Maryland, on April 15, 1997, at the age of 71[22] after years of numerous and crippling health problems. His son,L. Brent Bozell III, spoke of those struggles when eulogizing him:
Dozens of times over...25 years the attacks would come, and with each bout, yet another blow, yet another public humiliation. There were arrests and forced hospitalizations, escapes and re-arrests and recommitments. There was the never-ending parade of lawyers, police, doctors, and, yes, from time to time the State Department was on the line to brief us on yet another prospective international upheaval caused by this very unpredictable man.Manic depression by itself is enough to break the spirit of any man, but Pop was no ordinary man. He suffered fromperipheral neuropathy,sleep apnea,osteoporosis,degenerative disc disease,asthma, andAlzheimer's. One by one they came, and when it seemed that no part of his body had been left untouched yet a new illness was diagnosed. We wondered how he could endure so much, accept this torture with such nobility, with never one word of complaint.[23]
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