Curated playlist

American anti-communists

John F. KennedyJohn F. Kennedy spent hours in the water towing a burned crewman after a destroyer cut his boat in half.
Donald TrumpDonald Trump was a millionaire in inflation-adjusted terms by age eight.
Ronald ReaganRonald Reagan preached small government, then signed California's largest tax hike.
Richard NixonRichard Nixon was the only U.S. president to resign. He left office on the 9th of August, 1974, over Watergate.
Martin Luther King Jr.Martin Luther King Jr. died at the age of 39, yet his autopsy showed the heart of a 60 year old, according to his biographer Taylor Branch. Branch attributed the damage to stress. The causes were many. King was jailed repeatedly, attacked…
Gerald FordGerald Ford is the only person in American history to serve as president without ever winning a national election for president or vice president. He held the office from 1974 to 1977. Both of the jobs that carried him there came to him by…
Jack KerouacJack Kerouac typed On the Road on a 120-foot roll of taped tracing paper. He finished the final draft in 20 days.
Jimmy CarterJimmy Carter once was lowered into a crippled nuclear reactor for 90 seconds at a time. He later ran for president.
Colin PowellOn the 5th of February 2003, Colin Powell addressed the United Nations Security Council. He told the council: "there can be no doubt that Saddam Hussein has biological weapons and the capability to rapidly produce more, many more." The…
Ted CruzTed Cruz, the junior senator from Texas, once held the Senate floor for 21 hours and filled part of that time by reading Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss. He has served in the Senate since 2013. A Harvard law professor, Alan Dershowitz,…
Dwight D. EisenhowerEisenhower wrote a note taking all blame if D-Day failed. He drafted it on the eve of the June 1944 landings.
Elia KazanIn 1952, Elia Kazan gave a congressional committee the names of eight former colleagues.
Jack L. WarnerJack Warner once rushed onstage at the Oscars and took a trophy that was not his. The prize was for Casablanca.
John WayneJohn Wayne was born Marion Robert Morrison and got his new name from a dog.
Lyndon B. JohnsonLyndon B. Johnson took the presidential oath from a woman, a first for any American president.
Woodrow WilsonWoodrow Wilson ordered his own supporters to vote against his League of Nations treaty.
Marco RubioThe New York Times dubbed Marco Rubio the "Secretary of Everything," a nickname earned by holding several government posts at the same moment. Few American officials have ever carried that kind of workload. Fewer still arrived by a road as…
Irving ThalbergIrving Thalberg ran MGM's production, yet his name never appeared on screen while he lived.
L. Ron HubbardL. Ron Hubbard, the American writer who founded Scientology, once told his wife exactly what he wanted from life. In a letter, he declared: "I have high hopes of smashing my name into history so violently that it will take a legendary form…
Harry S. TrumanHarry Truman became president knowing nothing about the atomic bomb. He had been vice president for only 82 days.
John Foster DullesJohn Foster Dulles ran U.S. foreign policy while his brother Allen ran the CIA.
Herbert HooverHerbert Hoover, the 31st president of the United States, once drew a remark from a Secret Service agent that few presidents have ever earned. The agent put it this way. "I've been traveling with Presidents since Roosevelt and never before…
Dick CheneyDick Cheney, born Richard Bruce Cheney, held the full powers of the American presidency on the morning of the 29th of June 2002. From 7:09 a.m. to 9:24 a.m., he served as acting president under the 25th Amendment while George W. Bush…
Ayn RandWhen Ayn Rand died in New York City on the 6th of March 1982, her funeral included a six-foot floral arrangement shaped like a dollar sign. The tribute suited a woman who had turned self-interest into a moral code. She was born Alisa…
John von NeumannJohn von Neumann's father asked Theodore von Kármán to talk his son out of mathematics.
Milton FriedmanMilton Friedman argued the Federal Reserve let the money supply shrink by one-third between 1929 and 1933.
George S. PattonA reporter once heard George S. Patton say that winning in combat took "blood and brains." The reporter began calling him "blood and guts," and the nickname followed Patton for the rest of his life. Soldiers under his command sometimes…
Douglas MacArthurDouglas MacArthur came up with his own field marshal title. Philippine President Quezon conferred it in 1936.
Ludwig von MisesNazi troops raided Ludwig von Mises's Vienna apartment and took his papers. He was already in Geneva.
Allen Lawrence PopeAllen Lawrence Pope was carrying about 30 incriminating documents when Indonesian forces took him prisoner in May 1958. One of them was his own flight log. The papers turned a covert operation into a diplomatic crisis, and they deepened…
Frank ZappaAs a boy, Frank Zappa spread mercury across his bedroom floor with a hammer. His father brought it home from work.
Caspar WeinbergerBudget cutter Caspar Weinberger became "Cap the Ladle" once he ran the Pentagon.
Pete HegsethOn the 24th of January 2025, the United States Senate divided evenly on whether Pete Hegseth should lead the Department of Defense. Vice President JD Vance broke the tie, and the confirmation passed 51-50. Only one earlier Cabinet nominee,…
Charles LindberghCharles Lindbergh stared at a huge field of glowing lights near Paris in May 1927 and took it for a giant industrial complex. He had just flown alone across the Atlantic, and the airfield he was hunting was not on his map. All he knew was…
Roy CohnThe AIDS Memorial Quilt panel made for Roy Cohn is plain white, and it carries four words. His name is lettered in black. Bully is red, Coward is yellow, and Victim is blue. His tombstone in Union Field Cemetery in Queens, New York, offers…
Joseph SchumpeterJoseph Schumpeter did not coin "creative destruction", the phrase he made famous. He borrowed it from Werner Sombart.
Hannah ArendtHannah Arendt's name is printed on journals, schools, scholarly prizes, humanitarian prizes, think-tanks and street signs. It also appears on stamps and monuments. She was born Johanna Arendt, and she grew into one of the most influential…
George F. KennanGeorge Kennan spent decades disowning the Cold War policy he made famous. Containment, he said, was not military.
James F. ByrnesJames F. Byrnes left school at 14 and later sat on the U.S. Supreme Court. He never earned a law degree.
Daniel Patrick MoynihanDaniel Patrick Moynihan once shined shoes in Penn Station, which now has a train hall named for him.
Nicholas Murray ButlerA 1939 poem in Poetry secretly spelled out an insult to Nicholas Murray Butler. The magazine later apologized.
George de MohrenschildtGeorge de Mohrenschildt was a Russian-born petroleum geologist who, as a young man in New York, let a girl named Jacqueline Bouvier sit on his knee and call him Uncle George. She grew up to become First Lady. He grew up to become one of…