Buckley's totalitarian "conservatism".(Insider Report)

Nearing the end of his eighth decade, William F. Buckley Jr. has relinquished control over National Review, the fortnightly journal commonly called the "flagship" publication of the conservative movement. When Buckley founded the magazine nearly 50 years ago, he and his associates "thought to influence conservative thought, which we succeeded in doing," he proudly told the New York Times.

In 1952, shortly before creating National Review, Buckley--fresh off a stint in the CIA--laid out some critical tenets of his "conservatism" in an essay for Commonweal. Although he was typically referred to as a "libertarian," Buckley's philosophy could best be described as something akin to Trotskyite revolutionary socialism: Centralized, bureaucratized government at home in support of a militaristic foreign policy abroad.

The Cold War conflict with the Soviet Union, Buckley wrote in 1952, will require that the U.S. maintain "large armies and air forces, atomic energy, central intelligence, war production boards and the attendant centralization of power in Washington--even with Truman at the reins of it all." In fact, he contended, "we have got to accept Big Government for the duration--for neither an offensive nor a defensive war can be waged ... except through the instrumentality of a totalitarian bureaucracy within our shores."

In a June 30 New York Post eulogy for Buckley's career, columnist Eric Fettman praised him as ...