"I remember his ability to think on his feet."   

While others remember his wit and humor, his grace, his seemingly effortless fluency, I remember his ability to think on his feet, sum up a situation and deliver a knockout blow just as the opponent was finishing a specious argument.

I wish someone could find this video, because I gasped when I saw it live.  Early eighties, WFB is on the Today show (I think) debating a Soviet apologist, Joe Adamov. (I understand he was a news commentator for Radio Moscow for years.  I never listened to Radio Moscow, so I can’t say.)  At any rate, to bolster his argument about how wonderful the Soviet system is,  Adamov pointed to the sacrifices Russia made during WWII when about 20 million Russians died fighting the Nazis.

I can’t remember the exact phraseology, but Buckley’s reply went something like this:  “The world appreciates the genuine bravery and the sacrifices made by the Russian people at that time.  However, I submit to you that those 20 million dead were 20 million that Joseph Stalin did not have to kill in his purges.”

03/04 03:38 PM