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Buckley indeed had a fantastic personality and demeanor.  He also
could be tough, somehow without escalating a confrontation.  In the
spasm of recent coverage, I saw a video of him interviewing Gore
Vidal in 1967.  Vidal, in his vicious way, essentially called Buckley
a Nazi.  Buckley immediately, at a normal volume of speech but
menacingly said he would "punch" Vidal in "the goddammed face" right
then and there if that line of reasoning were pursued.  No
histrionics, no screaming, reminding me of the way one of the
middling-sized boys in the class might inform a larger one that said
larger one had crossed a line and needed to back down; the smaller
boy being one of those kids you didn't mess with, even though he
wasn't big and had never been tested in a real fight.  In my case,
I'm sure it would have flown over the top of my head as I continued
in the same mode to debate such a vicious attack, therebye losing the
debate.  I also have witnessed a very unseemly scene erupt during a
formal meeting when the Nazi metaphor/simile was invoked.

Fred Hebard

On Mar 1, 2008, at 3:32 AM, frankreed@HistoricalAtlas.net wrote:

>
> An excerpt from an obituary of William F. Buckley:

> Norfolk photographer and writer Christopher Little first met
> Buckley while
> on assignment for The New York Times in the early 1970s....


>  Little said Wednesday during a
> phone interview. "In my line of work, you meet a lot of famous and
> charming
> people, but Bill took that to an even higher level. You couldn't
> possibly
> have more fun with someone. He told hilarious stories and shared great
> gossip about all the famous people he knew." "
>
>  -FER
> www.HistoricalAtlas.com
>


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