The Other Side of the Sixties: Young Americans for Freedom and the Rise of Conservative Politics by John A. Andrew III

 When studying the 1960s, the focus is most often on the New Left, the Counterculture and Vietnam.  One never hears about a mobilization of the conservative movement which began in the early 1960s.  In his book The Other Side of the Sixties: Young Americans for Freedom and the Rise of Conservative Politics, John A. Andrew III looks into the conservative movement that took place in the sixties beginning with the formation of the group Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) in 1960.  This group contained young conservative activists who wanted to establish a concrete ideology of conservatism to counteract not only the liberal consensus of the times but also the "moderate" Republicans of the time.  The members of YAF were radical in their zeal for conservatism and their desire to change the political climate.

  Andrew believes it is important to study the conservative movement along with the left movements because both affected events in the 1960s.  Both groups wanted to end the rule of the elites and affect a change in the political system.  Andrew says the Right in the 1990s "have repeatedly used the decade as a whipping post for liberals and liberal programs, blaming everything they do not like about contemporary American society and culture on what they charge were radical changes promulgated in the sixties." (p.1) He believes this view of history is distorted and one sided.   His book sets out to show the other side of the sixties by an analysis of the rise of YAF and conservative politics from 1960-1964.

 During this time, YAF did not reflect the majority opinion of most Americans, but its goal was to change the political climate and in so doing, it laid the foundation for the rise of conservativism in the 1980s and 1990s.  YAF's philosophy advocated working within the system to seize power in the Republican party to promote conservatism.  Its support came from a grass roots movement, like many liberal organizations of the time.  YAF was the conservative answer to SDS and SNCC, but all three had something in common.  "All three were youth movements that challenged the status quo, and all believed that the path of change lay through grass-roots organization and activism." (p.5)

 Andrew begins his book with a look at the origins of the new right.  He argues that the revival of conservatives began as an intellectual movement.  The revival was promulgated by William F. Buckly through his magazine The National Review.  The magazine gave voice to conservative ideology.  The hero of the conservatives in the early sixties was Senator Barry Goldwater.  The publishing of Goldwater's Conscience of a Conservative roused young conservatives and gave them a purpose.  The young conservatives supported the continuation of loyalty oaths and HUAC, opposed big government, "modern" Republicans (like Eisenhower), the Civil Rights Act, federal aid for education and medical care, and were strongly anti-Communist.  The young conservatives pushed for a Goldwater vice-presidential nomination in 1960 but were not yet organized well enough to succeed.  When Nixon lost the 1960 Presidential election it accelerated the rise of a new conservative movement.
 In the late fifties, a debate arose within the Republican party as to whether or not to move to the Right.  Modern Republicans were moderate, in line with the American public, and tried to achieve a consensus between liberal and conservative Republicans.  The conservatives wanted a strong vision for the Republican party that distinguished it from the Democrats, thereby giving a clear choice to the public.  They also opposed the modern Republicans.   This split caused problems at the 1960 GOP convention, where Nixon tried to appease both sides but was unsuccessful.

 When conservatives failed to get their way in 1960 they planned a strategy to influence the GOP in the future.  Part of the strategy included the formation of YAF.  YAF formed in 1960 in Sharon, Connecticut, at the home of William F. Buckley.  YAF created the Sharon Statement as its guiding document, which advocated a limited role for the federal government, laissez-faire economics, and a strong opposition to Communism.  The YAF Sharon Statement resembled the SDS's Port Huron statement in that both saw the country in crisis and attacked liberals, but YAF wanted to replace the liberal elites with conservative ones, whereas SDS wanted to eliminate all elites.  The members of YAF were young conservative activists, mostly men, with strong political and ideological objectives.

 Andrew then traces YAF's activities leading up through and shortly after the 1964 Presidential election.  During the period between 1960 and 1964, YAF challenged the status quo and actively recruited new members on college campuses.  In his book on the 1960s, Ed Morgan noted that during the Berkeley Free Speech movement, conservative groups fought with liberal groups against the ban on passing out leaflets along Bancroft Strip. (p.113).  This was done because YAF and other conservative groups used the same method of informing students as SDS and other groups.  YAF also underwent internal ideological debates and staff upheaval during this time, but members remained consistent in their attack on JFK's policies and on moderate Republicans.  They also led an attack on the National Student Association in an effort to make it listen to conservative views, but failed.

 Andrew also discusses JFK's handling of the Right during his presidency, for he argues that most historians never look at that aspect of Kennedy's presidency.  The Right such as the John Birch Society, YAF and Goldwater, received a lot of news coverage and this concerned JFK because he feared the dangers of the extreme right, like the John Birch Society.  To combat the Right, JFK had labor leaders Walter and Victor Reuther prepare a secret memo regarding the activities of the Right and how to discredit and monitor it.  The memo suggested five policies in handling the Right: 1) curb right wing activities inside the military, 2) place right wing groups on the Attorney General's subversive list, 3) choke off the flow of money to the Right, 4) institute immediate measures against the Minutemen (paramilitary guerilla organizations), and 5) expose the fallacy that domestic Communism was growing. (p 155-6) While using some of these tactics, the most important measure JFK utilized was the Ideological Organization Project, which allowed the IRS to audit right wing organizations in an attempt to prove they broke tax laws.

 Andrew concludes his examination of YAF with its efforts in the 1964 Presidential election.  By 1964 YAF and conservatives had gained control of the GOP convention enabling them to nominate Goldwater as the Republican candidate.  YAF ran into problems during the campaign because liberal news organizations kept grouping it with the extreme right organizations, such as the John Birch Society, which YAF tried to distant itself from.    Although Goldwater lost the election, conservatives saw the nomination as a victory for their cause and a way to recruit conservatives for the future.  Many of the YAF members who participated in the 1964 campaign went on to be part of the Nixon and Reagan White Houses, which showed that the conservative movement of the 1960s had laid the foundation for future conservative leaders.

 This book provided an informative look at the rise of the conservative movement and gave another side to the usual historical look at the 1960s.  The subject proved interesting, but lacked a critical analysis.  The author presents a one-sided view of YAF, giving the reader all the facts without any constructive criticism.  Andrew presents YAF's views as strictly ideologically based without any other factors, such as race and gender, influencing their positions on various issues such as civil rights and Communism.  A more critical eye would have made this book better.