Comments on: Eugene McCarthy, R.I.P. http://donklephant.com/2005/12/11/eugene-mccarthy-rip/ Big Teeth. Huge Ass. Surprisingly Reasonable. Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:41:00 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: djw http://donklephant.com/2005/12/11/eugene-mccarthy-rip/comment-page-1/#comment-4517 djw Sun, 11 Dec 2005 18:29:27 +0000 http://donklephant.com/2005/12/11/eugene-mccarthy-rip/#comment-4517 A curious bit of history that makes me respect McCarthy more: in the late 70's, when any mention of SE Asia was a pretty toxic subject for American politicians, he repeatedly and strongly called for intervention against the genocide in Cambodia. He didn't just happen to be an anti-war guy who opposed a bad war, he thought seriously about these issues, and at least in this case promoted an unpopular and lost cause because it was right. The story is told by Samantha Powers in her essential book, <i>'The Problem from Hell' America in the Age of Genocide</i>, pp. 132-136. Curiously, the other prominent American figure to call for intervention against Pol Pot was....wait for it....William F. Buckley. A curious bit of history that makes me respect McCarthy more: in the late 70’s, when any mention of SE Asia was a pretty toxic subject for American politicians, he repeatedly and strongly called for intervention against the genocide in Cambodia. He didn’t just happen to be an anti-war guy who opposed a bad war, he thought seriously about these issues, and at least in this case promoted an unpopular and lost cause because it was right.

The story is told by Samantha Powers in her essential book, ‘The Problem from Hell’ America in the Age of Genocide, pp. 132-136. Curiously, the other prominent American figure to call for intervention against Pol Pot was….wait for it….William F. Buckley.

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