Barry Goldwater
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee
In office: January 3, 1985 - January 3, 1987
Preceded by: John Tower
Succeeded by: Sam Nunn

Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee
In office: January 3, 1981 - January 3, 1985
Preceded by: Birch Bayh
Succeeded by: David Durenberger

United States Senator from Arizona
In office: January 3, 1969 - January 3, 1987
Preceded by: Carl Hayden
Succeeded by: John McCain
In office: January 3, 1953 - January 3, 1965
Preceded by: Ernest McFarland
Succeeded by: Paul Fannin

Personal details
Born: Barry Morris Goldwater on January 2, 1909 in Phoenix, Arizona Territory, United States
Died: May 29, 1998 (aged 89) in Paradise Valley, Arizona, United States
Political party: Republican
Spouses: Margaret Johnson (m. 1934; d. 1985), Susan Shaffer Wechsler (m. 1992)
Children: 4 (including Barry Goldwater Jr.)
Alma mater: University of Arizona
Military service
Allegiance: United States
Service/branch: United States Army (1941 - 1947)
United States Air Force (1947 - 1967)
Years of service: 1941 - 1945 (USAAF), 1945 - 1952 (ANG), 1952 - 1967 (USAFR)
Rank: Lieutenant Colonel (USAAF), Colonel (ANG), Major General (USAFR)
Unit: U.S. Army Air Forces, Arizona Air National Guard, U.S. Air Force Reserve
Battles/wars: World War II, Korean War

Barry Morris Goldwater (January 2, 1909 - May 29, 1998) was an American politician, businessman, and author who was a five term United States Senator from Arizona (1953 - 65, 1969 - 87) and the Republican Party's nominee for President of the United States in the 1964 election. Despite losing the election by a landslide, Goldwater is the politician most often credited for sparking the resurgence of the American conservative political movement in the 1960s. He was a vocal opponent of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, believing it was an overreach of federal government. He also had a substantial impact on the libertarian movement.

Goldwater rejected the legacy of the New Deal and fought through the conservative coalition against the New Deal coalition. He mobilized a large conservative constituency to win the hard fought Republican primaries. Though raised an Episcopalian, he was the first candidate with ethnically Jewish heritage to be nominated for President by a major American party (his father was Jewish). Goldwater's conservative campaign platform ultimately failed to gain the support of the electorate and he lost the 1964 presidential election to incumbent Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson, bringing down many conservative Republican office holders as well. Jeff Fishel says, “The conservative faction of the party was on the defensive as a result of the magnitude of the election losses.”

Goldwater returned to the Senate in 1969, and specialized in defense policy, bringing to the table his experience as a senior officer in the Air Force Reserve. In 1974, as an elder statesman of the party, Goldwater successfully urged President Richard Nixon to resign when evidence of a cover up in the Watergate scandal became overwhelming and impeachment was imminent. By the 1980s, the increasing influence of the Christian right on the Republican Party so conflicted with Goldwater's views that he became a vocal opponent of the religious right on issues such as abortion, gay rights, and the role of religion in public life. After narrowly winning re-election to the Senate in 1980, he chose not to run for a sixth term in 1986, and was succeeded by fellow Republican John McCain. A significant accomplishment in his career was the passage of the Goldwater - Nichols Act of 1986, which restructured the higher levels of the Pentagon by placing the chain of command from the President to the Secretary of Defense directly to the commanders of the Unified Combatant Commands.

1964 Republican National Convention
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The 1964 National Convention of the Republican Party of the United States took place in the Cow Palace, San Francisco, California, on July 13 to July 16, 1964.

Political context
The Republican primaries in 1964 had been a battle between New York liberal Nelson Rockefeller and Arizona conservative Barry Goldwater. The divorce and remarriage of Rockefeller shortly before the California primary hurt him among the western conservatives and made Goldwater the winner of the primary. A stop Goldwater group tried to put forward the candidacy of Pennsylvania Governor William Scranton but failed. Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower reluctantly endorsed Goldwater; however, the Arizona Senator got an enthusiastic support from former President Herbert Hoover, who died later in 1964. Thus, the Goldwater nomination was secured.

The Convention
Goldwater was nominated in the Cow Palace, San Francisco, July 1964 with Conservative New York Representative William E. Miller as running mate. In his acceptance address he among other said that “we brand Communism as a principle disturber of peace in the world today”. But more famously (and corrupted by President Johnson) he said that ''I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue''. When Rockefeller tried to make a speech he was booed by the convention delegates, which was substanced by conservatives (who deplored Rockefeller) as a member of ''the eastern liberal establishment''. Rockefeller remarked to the delegates it still was a free country. Representative Gerald R. Ford tried to nominate Michigan Governor George W. Romney for the nomination but failed. Former GOP presidential candidate Richard M. Nixon introduced the Arizonan as “Mr. Conservative” and “Mr. Republican” and he continued that “he is the man who, after the greatest campaign in history will be Mr President Barry Goldwater”. Fortunately for Nixon, Goldwater lost the election in a landslide.

The Platform
The 1964 Republican Platform was dominated by Goldwater conservatives, which made the platform dominated by calls for limited government, condemnations of the Kennedy and Johnson foreign and domestic policy, calls for more open space for free enterprise, a hard line against Communist North Vietnam, calls for reform of the United Nations, a staunch support of NATO, calls for lower taxes and a hard line against international Communism.