Raymond Massey For Barry Goldwater

 

The first presidential contest I can recall was that of 1964 when I was seven years old.  The tradition of Democrats attempting to paint Republicans as Fascists is an old one and Senator Barry Goldwater got the full treatment.  Almost all of the media was on the side of Lyndon Johnson, along with Hollywood.  An exception was actor Raymond Massey.  Massey was a true star of the Golden Age of Hollywood, often playing figures from history like Abraham Lincoln, John Brown and Nathan the Prophet.  A naturalized American citizen, Massey saw combat service in the Canadian Army in both World Wars.

Perhaps it was this combat service that added passion to the above television endorsement of Goldwater which still attracts attention fifty-six years later.  Massey is alarmed about the no win American policy in Vietnam.  Ironically the Johnson administration was secretly planning a mammoth build up of American troops in Vietnam after the election.  Alas this build up did not come with any semblance of a strategy to win the war.  Goldwater supporters would note wryly in the coming years that they were warned that if they voted for Goldwater that the US would be involved in a full scale war in Vietnam, and, son of a gun, that is precisely what happened!