Libertas 29.1 (Spring 2008)

Spring 2008

Vol. 29 • No. 1

William F. Buckley Jr. 1925-2008 www.yaf.org 800.USA.1776

May 26, 2008

RON ROBINSON FOUNDATION PRESIDENT

ey Jr. and John illiam F. Buckl W n: tio da un ng America’s Fo Dear Friends, fluences on You in or aj m e er als who w hts two individu tist regimes Libertas highlig years after Lef y rl ea r r ei th in ies . h served in ou multiple countr Engalitcheff Jr languages. Bot in e le liv tip ul to m ed d rc re e fo aste ilies. They wer faiths. Each m aordinary fam r families and tr ei ex th a.) si ed om us et fr R rg e e ta m s nativ unist) Both ca olsheviks in hi e other Comm B th e d th an ht ssly sought to t ug is al fo ci (one So heff also n, and relentle itc ga al ea ng R (E d . al es on ic serv ired R n five talents, nation’s armed They were give ses, openly adm . ri en rp te om en w d ul sf he is es bor, built succ arried accompl s in constant la sailing. Both m ill d sk an s hi ic d us ie m pl d Each ap Both love ne else, Bill ger colleagues. encourage youn More than anyo e. us e. ca e or m tiv ve va fi ed ual, but he e conser and they return principal of th ld class intellect a or d w a an F as A w Y e r of dicals. Rather, ty. H 60s campus ra urse, the founde tism’s populari 19 co va er by of , ns y as co ch w n ar . ai er Jr st kley self-directed. d su llege hi William F. Buc -standing and rcuit to build an ee sition in the co ci fr po e e a er ur w ct ed le ni ch t de hi es ly gu ,w ader temporari ational Review used the college an academic le ing YAF and N as ud lf cl and Man at se in m , hi ns e tio se didn’t University. God e new institu al g Y in , er ild at bu m in a ed —as it turned alm he was interest critique of his iendly relations fr ng o ri g te rg is fo bl to a g of in will tives are willin ation who was more o few conserva with the public te to ed y, ua ch da ad un is gr la th nt as ce To re er w well at Yale. e. Here came a Buckley’s care tal beliefs. pretend all was unique courag an d th te ge ra st lle on co their fundamen s e m hi nc va ith w ad Yale de to e— r m decades to co a mater in orde ist cause in out for several s with their alm e anti-commun tie th n ng ai ki st ea su br ed r lp e fo enty million e he to pay the pric alitcheff left tw Bill Buckley. H ng of E ue hn ag Jo lle s. co ag g ttin Movement. It e Gul n, but he is a fi e masters of th g Conservative th ow un e kn yo at e er od th ss m le m ild is co bu ff to ac help r largest single John Engalitche others sought rs, remains ou Foundation to y s lla an a’ do ic m n er so io m n ill A he m ng t w Studies and You d the Foundation’s share, eigh its darkest days for American nd Fu e tions, an th to rs dolla both organiza to ft gi initial l na io at m principles. The s n’ tio was a transfor za ni ga e or F’s interested in th thodoxy in YA gift. ey was keenly ill expected or B kl uc t.”

B en s. rd em at da the “Sharon St ues to high stan and support. and was called ld their colleag ut he ic s ct al ne du vi on di C endorsements, in in e, e m tim Both s ho hi s hi ith w u as drafted at ld be generous aracter: Did yo YAF mission w amined our ch ntained, he wou ex ai m h he ot d as B w an e? , it es if lik e right principl and your staff principles, and l leaders had th ere your office w na t tio ha za W ni s? ga nt or re ed our s. p with your pa contrast, assum their standard your relationshi as w t Engalitcheff, in ha at strayed from W ? th rt ge ns lle tio co za h ni ug ga ro undation is pa and or work to get th ng America’s Fo off individuals ou as t Y cu us s. e to ar id n ye gu e s ow iv es alway e format iti th al h on leaders were kn ug rs ro pe th us it d ro ff’s gift sustaine ciples, and gene ork ethic, prin AF; Engalitche Y w d ’s te ff ar he st itc e al iv Eng Buckley’s initiat ey’s and John May Bill Buckl . es n’s legacy. ci tio ga da le r un ei of th merica’s Fo A ng ou Y e ap nceerreellyy,, inc Si Sin we strive to sh

Ron Robinson President

CONTENTS

6 8

REMEMBERING WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY JR.

VIRTUE & LIBERTY

William F. Buckley Jr. influenced a generation of young conservatives.

Cosby Show actor shares importance of personal freedom and responsibility with you young audience.

By Peter SSchweizer, Author and Foundation Director

22

SNOW, LIDDY, MALKIN, AND MORE ADDRES DDRESS 29TH ANNUAL COLLEGE CONFER ONFERENCE

NATION ATIONAL JOURNALISM CENTER CELEBR ELEBRATES 30TH ANNIVERSARY

400 stud students travel to D.C. for Foundation’s signature conference.

C-SPAN broadcasts alumna Ann Coulter’s address live.

By Allison Aldrich, Sarah T. Hermann Intern Scholar

24

The University Univ of Wisconsin remembers our veterans and Ronald Reagan’s victory over Communism.

Commun

Guevara murderous past is revealed in a Guevara’s new Fou Foundation poster.

By Humb Humberto Fontova, Author

REACHI EACHING THE YOUTUBE GENERATION

The Foun Foundation celebrates the 10th anniversary of saving Rancho del Cielo.

30

By Frank D Donatelli, Chairman, Ranch Board of Governor Governors

FUNDIN UNDING FATHERS — SPECIAL INSERT

18

28

By Josh D Dirkse, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

THE REEAGAN RANCH — ONE DECADE LATER

15

By Lauren Smith, NJC Program Officer

CHE GUEVARA POSTER REMEMBERS HIS VIC ICTIMS

WISCON ISCONSIN STUDENTS COMMEMORATE FREEDOM WEEK

12

By Joseph C. Phillips, Author and Actor

Forthcoming book recognizes those who advanced the Conservative Movement with advance sacrificia cial gifts. Read the entire chapter about the Russ Russian prince whose gift helped save Rancho del Cielo.

By Nicole Hoplin, Director of Foundation Relations, and Ron R Robinson, President

Foundati uses new media to reach new Foundation audience .audiences

By Patrick X. Coyle, Vice President

An Int Interview with Dan Flynn

32

Author b begins career at Young America’s FFoundation.

Foundati d i

By Roger Custer, Conference Director

PRESERV RESERVING THE PRESIDENT’S HOME & LAN AND

34

R hm Ranch manager has a history of serving Ronald R Reagan.

By Mered Meredith Ramsey, Development Officer

WEST COAST LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE INSPIRES 550

20

Ashcroft Surnow, Buchholz, and others Ashcroft, headline annual West Coast gathering.

By Daniel Lipian, Bowling Green State University

CPAC Draws 7,1 C 7,100 – page 4 • Cruise the Caribbean with Robert Novak, Alan Simpson, Tom Tancredo, and Foundation Leaders! – page 19 • Attend the 30th annual National Conservative Student Conference! – page 35 •

O The Cover: William F. Buckley Jr. (1925-2008) was the founder of the modern YAF On m movement and a great friend to Young America’s Foundation. He was a pioneer in his work to fight the liberal establishment in academia. His tireless efforts paved the way for our Conservative Movement to grow and our ideas to flourish. Buckley’s Foundation lectures reached thousands of M yyoung people nationwide on campuses from Virginia Tech to St. Louis University. He is pictured here addressing students at the University of Missouri in 1993. William F. Buckley Jr. inspired a h new generation of young conservatives with his love of freedom and our great nation.

Libertas, a publication of Young America’s Foundation, highlights the programs, events, students, staff, and supporters of the Foundation. You can contact Libertas and Young America’s Foundation by writing to: Young America’s Foundation, National Headquarters, 110 Elden Street, Herndon, Virginia 20170; calling 800-USA-1776; or visiting http://www.yaf.org.

Libertas Spring 2008

Ron Robinson President of the Board Ronald Pearson Vice President of the Board Frank Donatelli Secretary and Treasurer of the Board T. Kenneth Cribb, Jr. Kate Obenshain Thomas L. Phillips Peter Schweizer James B. Taylor Kirby Wilbur

Publisher: Ron Robinson; Editor: Jessica Koebensky; Publication Design: Jonathan Briggs; Photographer (California): Jensen Sutta Photography; Photographer (Washington, D.C. area): Twin Lens Photo. This document and all herein contents, images, stories, graphics, and design, fall unto Copyright © 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 Young America’s Foundation, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Any use of Libertas’ content without the written permission of Young America’s Foundation is prohibited.

Frank Donatelli Chairman Judge William Clark Co-Chairman Edwin Meese Co-Chairman Governor George Allen Royce & Kitte Baker John Barletta Dr. Suzanne Becker Jefts G. Beede Lisa M. Buestrin Robert Cummins Becky Norton Dunlop Robert Giuffra, Jr. Timothy S. Goeglein Eric & Nicole Hoplin Marty Irving Harold Knapheide L.E. McClelland Al & Bette Moore Governor Bill Owens Doug & Pat Perry Thomas Phillips Dr. Robert Ruhe Fred & Ruth Sacher Lee Shannon Craig Shirley Russell Sibert Owen & Bernadette Casey Smith David E. “Gene” Waddell

Thomas Phillips Chairman Alex X. Mooney Executive Director Peter Barnes Kellyanne Conway Dinesh D’Souza Terry Eastland David Gracey Lawrence Kudlow Rich Lowry Matt Robinson Tom Winter

I N

B R I E F

7,100 Attend CPAC 2008

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––———————————————–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––——

By Jessica Koebensky, Editor

M

ore than 7,100 attendees traveled to Washington, D.C., to attend the 35th annual CPAC—co-sponsored by Young America’s Foundation, the American Conservative Union, Human Events, and Townhall.com. The 3-day conference featured speeches from leading conservatives and Foundation lecturers including Speaker Newt Gingrich, bestselling author Dinesh D’Souza, columnist Robert Novak, and many others.

Young America’s Foundation— through the generosity of Foundation Director and National Journalism Center Board of Governors Chairman Young Americans for Freedom and Young America’s Foundation alumni gather during a Tom Phillips—hosted our annual special alumni reunion at the 2008 CPAC. Those in attendance include (from left to right) Jade student luncheon featuring best-selling West, Chris Lay, Foundation President Ron Robinson, Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute author Michelle Malkin. Malkin President Michelle Easton, Pat Korten, and Ray LaJeunesse. addressed a packed ballroom and shared her thoughts on the upcoming presidential cycle. Following her speech she met with the hundreds of students in attendance and signed copies of her best-seller, Invasion.

Young America’s Foundation, along with Townhall.com, the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute, Citizens United, and Human Events, hosted the only speaking event at CPAC featuring best-selling author Ann Coulter. The standing-roomonly program was covered live by C-SPAN and emceed by Foundation Director Kate Obenshain. The event aired four times, reaching 92 million homes nationwide with each broadcast.

With the help of Dr. Wayne Thorburn, Young America’s Foundation and The Fund for American Studies (TFAS) hosted a special Young Americans for Freedom/Young America’s Foundation alumni reception which attracted more than 150 YAFreedom and Foundation alumni and included speeches by Foundation President Ron Robinson and TFAS Chairman Randal Teague.

The Foundation also held an activist training seminar and a private reception for top student leaders featuring Ann Coulter, best-selling author Dinesh D’Souza, and activist and author Star Parker.

(Above) Michelle Malkin In the CPAC general session, meets with a young Foundation Spokesman Jason Mattera fan following her CPAC speech. (Right) Katie moderated a panel featuring young Taran of Florida State and activists and their views on the next Anthony Cartelli, Sam generation of conservative leaders.

Bain, and Jena Lenz from Foundation Director of Military Outreach The George Washington University attend the Flagg Youngblood participated in a panel annual Thomas Phillips on conservative success stories, highlighting Student Luncheon at CPAC the Foundation’s work protecting students’ featuring best-selling rights to participate in the Reserve Officers’ author Michelle Malkin.

Training Corps on campus.

4

Young America’s Foundation • Libertas

I N

B R I E F

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––———————————————–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––——

Rep. Marilyn Musgrave Addresses Capitol Hill Interns Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (Colorado) spoke to interns on Capitol Hill in February, discussing a wide range of issues facing our country. Foundation Vice President Ron Pearson helped organize the program, and Sarah T. Hermann Intern Scholar Alyssa Cordova introduced Representative Musgrave.

Musgrave said she is sometimes perceived as liberal because she is a woman active in public policy. Quite the contrary, Musgrave is a leader for conservative principles, and she touched on numerous issues facing Congress this year.

Defense of life is essential, given the impact of years of legalized abortions, noted Musgrave. She also emphasized the importance of limited government and tax cuts to stimulate the economy and protect freedom for future generations. A lively question and answer session followed, and the representative stayed to greet all in attendance.

Colorado Representative Marilyn Musgrave speaks to an audience of Capitol Hill interns on “A Conservative Look at Congress.”

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––———————————————–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––——

The Bill and Nan Bensyl Reagan Ranch Activism Seminar Inspires Students to Advance Conservatism on Campus The Bill and Nan Bensyl Reagan Ranch Activism Seminar at the Reagan Ranch Center attracted students from UC – Berkeley, Denison University, UCLA, UC – Irvine, Southern Methodist University, Central Washington University, and The George Washington University.

This program taught students how to bring conservative ideas to their campuses. Attendees learned how to organize a successful speaking event, raise funds from school and private sources, advertise effectively, and counter the Left’s roadblocks to their events.

The group also enjoyed a tour of Ronald Reagan’s ranch where they were able to gain a greater understanding of President Reagan and his guiding principles.

Many of the participants are planning or have already hosted speakers to appear on their campuses. Andrew Davis from Southern Methodist University hosted an event with Attorney General John Ashcroft, Sarah Wilson at Denison has scheduled National Review’s Jonah Goldberg, Edwin Ohanian is hosting best-selling author Ann Coulter, and students from Central Washington University are hosting four Young America’s Foundation speakers: Joe Phillips, Scott Rutter, Michael Medved, and Nonie Darwish.

Students from across the country learn how to advance the Conservative Movement at their schools during the Bill and Nan Bensyl Reagan Ranch Activism Seminar held at the Foundation’s Reagan Ranch Center in California.

Young America’s Foundation • Libertas

5

WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY JR: INSPIRING A GENERATION AND LEADING A MOVEMENT

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––——————————————––––––––——

By Peter Schweizer, Author and Foundation Director

I

first met Bill Buckley in 1993 when he was giving a lecture for Young America’s Foundation at Washington and Lee University. There was a private dinner for him beforehand, and my wife and I were seated next to him. He greeted us warmly, and we chatted a bit about writing. Then we sat down and, to my horror, noticed that the table was very formal. Indeed, there were three napkins at each place setting. I know what to do with one napkin, but what to do with the other two? I glanced at my wife (who shrugged her shoulders) and to the dozen students seated around the table. They all seemed as confused as me. Then it dawned on me: just watch what Buckley does; he’ll know what to do.

It was that way for conservatives for half a century. Bill Buckley brought conservatism out of the corners of American society and made it the defining political philosophy of two generations. It is no exaggeration to say that without Bill Buckley there might not have been a President Ronald Reagan, a Conservative Movement, or a Young America’s Foundation.

When most people think of Buckley’s accomplishments, they look to his books and his long-developed friendships with conservative icons such as Barry Goldwater, Margaret Thatcher, and Ronald Reagan. But being in the Conservative Movement for more than twenty years now and having been a student activist in my youth, what impresses me most is not what Buckley did with the rich or famous, but what he did with students interested in the Conservative Movement.

The students at the dinner that night at Washington and Lee each had their own story about how Buckley had helped them to become interested in the Conservative Movement, and they loaded Buckley down with questions on just about every imaginable subject. And you know what happened? Buckley keenly answered every question with enthusiasm and grace. What’s more, the students knew that Buckley cared about them and that he took their questions seriously.

6

Young America’s Foundation • Libertas

“On the matter of your lecture series, these are experiences of infinite importance. As recently as last night, a 42-year old affluent influential conservative told an audience of 400 people that his orientation came from hearing such a talk (yes, by me) at Cornell when he was a sophomore. So I do hope that your important Foundation will be able to continue to support such appearances in the years ahead.”

— WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY JR.

What impresses me most is not what Buckley did with the rich or famous, but what he did with students interested in the Conservative Movement.

As the dinner broke up that night, I asked Buckley straight up, “Why are you here?” He was running National Review, hosting Firing Line, and churning out fabulous books on public policy and sailing and even works of fiction. His answer was simple. He said, “I’m here because students asked me to.” He then went on to explain how he had been a student activist himself, at Yale, and had quickly discerned those individuals who were willing to help him and those who weren’t. The former he greatly esteemed.

He then said, “Our movement always needs to look to the future in order to preserve the past.”

That night at Washington and Lee, Buckley was at his best—gracious to his opponents but direct in exposing their errors. As he left, he asked me to stay in touch. Often today, such statements are a throw-away line. But when I wrote Bill Buckley, he always wrote back, and he was also kind and encouraging in his words. Our Movement will never replace William F. Buckley Jr. We can only hope to replicate in the leaders of tomorrow his wonderful qualities.

————————————————————————— Peter Schweizer is a member of Young America’s Foundation’s board of directors, an alumnus of the Foundation’s programs, and the New York Times best-selling author of Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy. Schweizer is a frequent campus lecturer for Young America’s Foundation and a research fellow at the Hoover Institution.

Young America’s Foundation • Libertas

7

(Above) Michelle Malkin addresses students from 180 campuses attending the 29th annual National Conservative Student Conference.

(Right) Economist Dr. Walter Williams meets with conference attendees following his speech on the importance of the free market.

ast August, Young America’s Foundation hosted the 29th annual National Conservative Student Conference, and more than 400 students from five countries, 35 states, and 180 campuses gathered in our nation’s capital to hear from the most influential leaders in the Conservative Movement.

Activists from Harvard to UC – Berkeley to Oxford met for one week to discuss ideas and prepare to battle the Left when they returned to campus. Students heard from

8

Young America’s Foundation • Libertas

more than 40 speakers including Newt Gingrich, Michael Reagan, Michelle Malkin, Robert Novak, Bay Buchanan, Senator James Inhofe, Governor George Allen, Dr. Walter Williams, Dr. Robert George, and many others. A highlight of the week included a briefing at the White House where Press Secretary Tony Snow addressed the group for more than an hour, answering hard-hitting questions about immigration, conservatism, and the war in Iraq.

Interns from across Washington, D.C., joined

White House Press Secretary Tony Snow receives a standing ovation from the conference attendees during a special briefing at the White House.

Princeton professor Dr. Robert George discusses topics covered in his book, In Defense of Natural Law, Making Men Moral: Civil Liberties and Public Morality.

Student Anastagia Pierre meets House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a regular lecturer at the Foundation’s annual summer conference.

conference attendees each night to hear from stars of the Conservative Movement. Michael Reagan shared moving stories of life with his father, President Ronald Reagan. ABC’s John Stossel engaged all as he matter-offactly discussed how he converted from being a liberal to a defender of the free-market. Students were on the edge of their seats as G. Gordon Liddy concluded the week with his intriguing stories from his time in public and military service. Additional banquet speakers, including

the Weekly Standard’s Fred Barnes and Washington Times editorial page editor Tony Blankley, provided students with a fresh look at many of today’s controversial issues.

The heroes of America’s military were honored throughout the week, including Iraq veteran Lt. Col. Scott Rutter, who provided students an unfiltered view of the war on radical Islam. Jonathan Schanzer, director of policy at the Jewish Policy Center and author of al Qaeda’s Armies, spoke about the necessity of fighting Young America’s Foundation • Libertas

9

(Above) Conference participants (from left to right) Bradon Boor from York College, Mick Paskiewicz from DePaul University, and Eli Nuzzi from Flagler College listen intently during the conference sessions.

(Left) Students (from left to right) Naomi Brown, Rachel Stinnett, Aleshia Horner, and Charlotte Barber enjoy an evening banquet during the week-long summer program.

jihadists in the Middle East and not on America’s soil.

Robert Spencer, an expert on Islam and a best-selling author, spoke about the threat that terrorist sympathizers in America pose to our freedom. This threat became tangible when Young America’s Foundation received a letter from a lawyer for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) demanding that the Foundation “cancel” Spencer’s lecture. Not deterred by CAIR’s threats, Mr. Spencer’s speech proceeded as scheduled, and all in

10

Young America’s Foundation • Libertas

attendance were enlightened by his perspectives.

Conference attendees heard from true women leaders, including Bay Buchanan, Michelle Easton, and Kate Obenshain. These women shared the facts about radical feminists and spoke about what it takes to be a strong leader. The Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute also hosted a women’s lunch during the conference, discussing the virtues of motherhood, leadership, and traditional values while contemplating ways to advance the Conservative Movement.

(Right) Foundation Director Kate Obenshain (2nd from right) meets with conference attendees (from left to right) Catherine Helsley from Randolph-Macon University, Mary Szelistowski from Agnes Scott College, and Laura Morales from the University of Texas – San Antonio.

(Above) Foundation Director and Seattle-area talk radio host Kirby Wilbur (left) interviews author and conference speaker Robert Novak (right).

(Middle Right) George Mason University student Kelsey Huber meets with G. Gordon Liddy following his speech at the 29th annual National Conservative Student Conference.

(Bottom Right) Jonathan Schanzer, director of policy at the Jewish Policy Center and author of al Qaeda’s Armies, discusses the importance protecting America from the threat of radical Islam.

“Learning did not simply take place during the daily sessions,” said Jennifer Marsico of Georgetown University, “but the debates that took place among attendees after hours and between sessions offered us necessary interactive learning…I feel very positive about the health of the Conservative Movement, knowing that the alumni of this conference will be the ones leading its charge in the future.”

—————————————————————————— Allison Aldrich is a junior at Virginia Tech.

Planning is now underway for the Foundation’s 30th annual National Conservative Student Conference scheduled for August 3-9, 2008, in Washington, D.C. Visit www.yaf.org for more information.

Young America’s Foundation • Libertas

11

STUDENT PROFILE

–––––––—–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––———–––––––––––—— ––––––—––––––––––––––––––––––––––– –––––––––––––––––––––———–––––––––––— –––

WISCONSIN STUDENTS CELEBRATE FREEDOM, HONOR OUR VETERANS

––––––––—––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––———–––––––––––——

By Josh Dirkse, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

––––––––—––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––———–––––––––––——

(Above) Tyler Kristopeit meets Foundation lecturer and best-selling author Dinesh D’Souza in front of the mock Berlin Wall Tyler’s conservative group created at UW – Milwaukee to celebrate the anniversary of the Wall’s collapse. (Right) Students at Amherst High School in New York build this wall to commemorate Ronald Reagan’s victory over Communism.

F

or too long the Left has dominated discourse in the lecture halls. The subsequent indoctrination comes without acceptable debate—an antithesis to the belief that our campuses are “marketplaces of ideas.” The Left’s antiquated ideas, however, do not rest easily in the minds of the proud conservative campus activists. Conservatism’s victory depends on the battles we fight in the larger war of ideology.

As conservatives, we battle each and every day in our classes and campus

12

commons; we highlight conservatism through its defining principles. We seek out public displays of these defining characteristics as a means of educating students on the importance of conservative ideas. Young America’s Foundation’s Freedom Week provided us with a remarkable opportunity to do just that.

Encompassing two important, yet overlooked dates, Freedom Week highlights the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9 and the day honoring America’s soldiers,

Young America’s Foundation • Libertas

Veterans Day, on November 11.

Conservative student groups like ours, The Conservative Union, should use these important days as opportunities to honor the military and advertise the enormous shortcomings of Communism and oppression from leftist ideas.

Our group at UW – Milwaukee began Freedom Week by celebrating our Student Association’s unanimous passage of legislation in support of Freedom Week. The legislation was later signed by the president of the university.

We were just children when President Reagan helped bring about the Wall’s demise, but our efforts on campus helped us realize what the wall symbolized to the world.

The daunting two-day task of replicating the Berlin Wall would come next. I would have never thought that three panels of sheetrock, 18 twoby-fours, eight cans of spray paint, a

hammer, and some nails could ever be made into something so moving.

As we constructed our replica of the Berlin Wall, the words and phrases we scribed turned into an elaborate promotion of freedom and a strong statement against Communist tyranny. We were just children when President Reagan helped bring about the Wall’s demise, but our efforts on campus helped us realize what the wall symbolized to the world.

To provide intellectual commentary to Freedom Week’s activities, we

hosted Foundation lecturer and best-selling author Dinesh D’Souza.

Speaking on his book, What’s So Great About America, D’Souza inspired the crowd with stories of overlooked successes in the spread of American democracy as well as Communism’s glaring failures worldwide.

Freedom Week invigorated the passion of our entire group, particularly in support of our armed forces, ROTC, and military recruiters on campus.

Since our Freedom Week activities, we

Young America’s Foundation • Libertas

13

STUDENT PROFILE

The anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall occurs on November 9—a date that Young America’s Foundation encourages students to celebrate during Freedom Week each year. (Clockwise from top left) Students at The George Washington University construct their mock Berlin Wall during Freedom Week 2007. The wall constructed at Lake Forest College celebrates World Freedom Day and the anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s demise. Young children visit the mock Berlin Wall created by students at The George Washington University. Students at Bucknell University build and then tear down the wall on their campus.

have ushered legislation through our student senate welcoming the ROTC back to campus and supporting military recruiters on campus. We will also be planting a tree on campus with a plaque in memory of UW – Milwaukee students and graduates who have died in service to our country. In addition,

14

we’ve chartered UWM Supports You, a student organization aimed at supporting our veterans as well as troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Freedom Week was an outstanding success for conservatism on our campus, but the job is far from done. Young America’s Foundation

Young America’s Foundation • Libertas

is helping us host Bay Buchanan and David Horowitz in the coming months, and we continue to be active within our student government, adopting fiscally conservative policies aimed at reducing the cost burden on already cash-strapped students. With further support from Young America’s Foundation, we are confident that our activism will advance the Conservative Movement on our campus and beyond.

Foundation Celebrates th 10 Anniversary of the Reagan Ranch Project B Y F R A N K D O N AT E L L I , C H A I R M A N , R E A G A N R A N C H B O A R D O F G O V E R N O R S

T

en short years ago, Young America’s Foundation stepped up to the plate and saved President Ronald Reagan’s beloved ranch, Rancho del Cielo, in the hills north of Santa Barbara. The Ranch has one of the most breathtaking vistas in the country, where one can see the blue waters of the Pacific Ocean to the south to the lush green of the Santa Ynez Valley in the north.

More importantly, the Reagan Ranch is one of the most consequential landmarks for conservatives in our country.

In purchasing Rancho del Cielo, which was in danger of being sold to individuals with no regard for its historic significance, Young America’s Foundation dedicated itself to preserving the Ranch as an historical landmark. The Ranch is as important a destination as other presidential properties such as George Washington’s

Mt. Vernon, Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, and Theodore Roosevelt’s Sagamore Hill.

With the help of our supporters, the Foundation maintains all 688 acres of the Ranch and preserves the buildings as they were in the 1980s when Ronald Reagan was president.

This involves strengthening the existing structures, installing special glass on the windows, adding and upgrading state-of the-art fire fighting equipment, undertaking regular maintenance of the surrounding grounds, and much more. We can state categorically to our supporters that the Foundation is preserving a world class presidential property and facility at Rancho del Cielo.

From the beginning, Young America’s Foundation wanted to include an educational component to our Reagan Ranch project—something that honored the principles of President Reagan and upheld the Foundation’s mission of reaching young people with conservative ideas. What better place to do that than at the home of America’s number one conservative?

To that end,

The Reagan Ranch is one of the most consequential landmarks for conservatives in our country.

continued on page 17

Congratulations, Team!

Board of Governors since 1998, nch Ra gan Rea the of en irm cha ved as con the In pride and pleasure, we have ser Ranch. Since then, we have all see the e sav to ain unt mo the bed n clim amic when Young America’s Foundatio restored retreat, directed from a dyn ully utif bea a o int ds see all sm m fro ater, exhibit halls, Santa Barbara organization grow ary of conservative resources, a the libr a s, tion lec col ess cel pri h wit ra. facility downtown, complete lding in the heart of Santa Barba bui ed tor res ully utif bea a in ernorin and meeting rooms, aga o are successfully spreading our gov wh ple peo h wit nds frie of t bes the e formed and In the process, we have all becom any other organization extant so re the Is a. eric Am of th you the not. president’s virtues and values to God? We and many others think in h fait and tism rio pat rk, wo w d committed to freedom, har elli, the quiet competence of Andre nat Do nk Fra and son bin Ro n Ro p of n Barletta on We salute the thoughtful leadershi her, and the gung-ho spirit of Joh Fis n rily Ma of te tas d goo and Coffin and his team, the proficiency our tenth anniversary. we be not afraid.

God continue to bless us and may III William Clark and Edwin Meese Co-Chairmen rs Reagan Ranch Board of Governo

Judge William Clark served as United States Secretary of Interior, advisor to the President for national security affairs, deputy secretary of state, justice of the California Supreme Court, justice of the California Court of Appeal, judge of the Superior Court, and chief of staff to Governor Reagan.

Young America’s Foundation opened the renovated Reagan Ranch Center in 2006 to increase our ability to reach young people on the West Coast and nationwide.

The Center, located in downtown Santa Barbara, includes classrooms, a theater, Reagan Ranch artifacts and documents, a library of conservative resources, and more.

Edwin Meese III served as 75th Attorney General of the United States, counsellor to the President, and as chief of staff and legal affairs secretary to Governor Reagan.

President & Mrs. Reagan host Mikhail and Raisa Gorbachev at the Western White House in 1992.

highest professional manner. The Reagan Ranch Board of Governors, including Ronald Reagan’s close friends and advisors Attorney General Ed Meese and Judge Bill Clark, and the Foundation’s Board of Directors contribute resources and time to make these projects successful.

Most importantly, every supporter of Young America’s Foundation can take pride in knowing that they played a key role in creating one of the crown jewels of the Conservative Movement. With the first ten years behind us, we’re looking forward to utilizing Rancho del Cielo and the Reagan Ranch Center for decades to come—ensuring that President Reagan’s lasting accomplishments and values reach and inspire the future leaders of our country. We celebrate this special anniversary and thank you for making it possible!

the Foundation purchased and upgraded an old hotel in the heart of downtown Santa Barbara, thereby creating the Reagan Ranch Center. The Center not only houses the Foundation’s West Coast offices, but it also contains classrooms, an auditorium, and a theater where students learn about Reagan’s cherished principles of free market economics, traditional values, limited government, and a strong defense against all foreign enemies. The new facility was opened and dedicated in 2006 with the goal of hosting conservative programs for young students throughout the year.

Thousands have already attended educational programs in this 22,000 square foot facility.

We could not have accomplished all of this in such a short time without the dedicated help and support from many individuals.

Foundation President Ron Robinson was the guiding force in acquiring the Ranch and has led the many successful campaigns to purchase the Ranch and complete the Reagan Ranch Thousands of students have visited the Reagan Ranch since the Center. The Foundation staff at all levels Foundation stepped in to save the President’s beloved home ten maintains and operates the properties in the years ago.

Young America’s Foundation • Libertas

17

FUNDING FATHERS: The Secret History of the Conservative Movement

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––——

By Nicole Hoplin, Director of Foundation Relations

Engalitcheff eventually attended an American university, built a vastly successful Maryland company, and came to fondly look upon the country that afforded him these opportunities.

Upon his passing, several conservative charities learned that he had planned for them to receive a portion of a $100 million fortune; Young America’s Foundation would be the beneficiary of $8 million, a gift enabling the Foundation to take on the financial burden in 1998 and save Rancho del Cielo.

Engalitcheff isn’t a name we all recognize as we would Bill Gates’ or George Soros’. And it’s precisely because of his fervent commitment to conservative principles, John Engalitcheff’s bequest helped Young anti-communism, and America’s Foundation save the Reagan Ranch. patriotism that his life story is a mystery to those of us who have followed the Conservative ohn Engalitcheff’s gift to America Movement’s ebbs and flows through the arrived on her doorstep one 1998 years. day, more than a decade following Our media selectively promotes his passing. He couldn’t have imagined the heavy-hitting philanthropists as it what his life’s accomplishments would sees them through its own foggy lens. one day enable, nor would he feel the There are many stories of figures whose surging joy for the piece of history he behind-the-scenes financial and other saved. But, we conservatives ought to commitments made all the difference celebrate for him by honoring his life, to the Movement. Yet they remain his passion, and his gift. shrouded in secrecy, held up by attempts John Engalitcheff was a Russian to provide anonymity, hampered prince, a boy born into the rich by humility, and hindered by the Romanov monarchy just outside of media’s prior assaults on conservative Moscow. Fleeing for his life with a philanthropists. few jewels to start a new life, John

J

18

Young America’s Foundation • Libertas

Until now, there has never been a full-scale attempt to share what conservative philanthropy accomplished with a broader audience. The book, Funding Fathers: The Secret History of the Conservative Movement, coauthored by Ron Robinson and myself and available from Regnery Publishing later this year, is our way of doing just that.

Whether these men and women spearheaded the publication of a book that spurred a Movement, launched the career of one of America’s best presidents, or personally financed the dissemination of conservative ideas, their names are worthy of our adulation.

We believe it is the Movement’s responsibility to tell our benefactors’ stories in a meaningful way—and not leave their legacies to the pages of the New York Times or the Washington Post. If we fail to document our treasure-trove of successes, they will be lost forever or will be told in a way unfitting for their accomplishments.

And, those of you who are considering taking a leap of faith and investing in a project to help advance your ideas will not receive the inspiration or the benefit of learning from those who made similar sacrifices.

Our attempt to document these secret stories of those whose financial commitments made a true impact on our Movement is by no means exhaustive. We suspect we’ll never fully appreciate all of those individuals who sacrificed on behalf of their principles, but we aim to start the discussion. If you know of other stories, no matter the size of the gift, please contact Ron Robinson (rrobinson@yaf.org) or Nicole Hoplin (nhoplin@yaf.org). We would love to hear them.

Included on the following pages, as a special insert in this issue of Libertas, is the full chapter about John Engalitcheff from the forthcoming book, Funding Fathers: The Secret History of the Conservative Movement, written by Nicole Hoplin and Ron Robinson. The book, available from Regnery Publishing in 2008, includes the important stories about the selfless men and women who had a hand in developing the Conservative Movement.

An exclusive Libertas chapter excerpt from the forthcoming Young America’s Foundation book by Nicole Hoplin and Ron Robinson: –––––––––––––––––––—————————————–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––————————————————————

Funding Fathers: The Secret History of the Conservative Movement

John Engalitcheff “I will do my best to use my American training and education for the benefit of this country and for the community.”

— John Engalitcheff

He was a Russian prince by birth and an American They lived in a Moscow palace during the winter and at a inventor when he died. He is unknown to most, yet his country estate for the warm summer months. Prince Ivan story reads like the fairy tale children yearn to hear night Engalitcheff, a graduate of the Russian Imperial Academy after night at bedtime. This prince led a regal young life of Art, had served as a chamberlain in the imperial Russian being born into a monarchical dynasty complete with court, famous for its art and couture fashion. During the riches and wealth, titles and jewels. When the Bolshevik first two years of young Prince Jean’s life, more than two thousand Russians were executed as Revolution threatened his family, a result of the czar’s defense of his Prince Jean Engalitcheff relinquished Prince Ivan, Princess imperial powers. it all and risked his life to fight Rasputin, the Russian peasant Russian Communists, ended up in a Barbara, Jean, and Eugenie German prison, and eventually found left an hour later on a train with alleged abilities to heal the czar’s son’s hemophilia, came to his way to the United States. He bound for southern White save the monarch’s heir in 1908. worked tirelessly from the depths of desperation to amass a $100 million Army–controlled Russia, After snatching the ear of the czarina herself, Rasputin wielded his influence personal fortune that he eventually having swallowed a few until his murder in 1916. His death would turn over once again. This selected jewels with which signaled the ultimate rise of radicals in time, a significant portion of the Russia, and the Bolshevik revolution accomplished entrepreneur’s wealth to start a new life. would begin just months later in went purposefully to negate the 1917. Communism, the ultimate spread of Communism and preserve repression of freedom, took hold and American freedom.

The uprising of workers against Czar Nicholas overwhelmed the nation for more than seven decades.

Upon the Romanov family’s abdication of authority, Romanov culminated in January 1905 with the massacre referred to as Bloody Sunday. This democratic revolution the Russian Provisional Government kept the family safe of sorts eventually molded into a totalitarian regime in various locations. The family was later imprisoned commandeered by Vladimir Lenin. Prince Ivan and by the Soviets and then destroyed when Lenin ordered Princess Barbara Engalitcheff gave birth to Prince Jean in the gruesome execution of the czar, czarina, and their July 1907, just two years after the first Russian revolution. royal heirs. The Engalitcheff royal family—Prince Jean’s Young America’s Foundation • Libertas Book Excerpt

18-1

Funding Fathers: The Secret History of the Conservative Movement –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– John Engalitcheff ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

parents, Prince Ivan and Princess Barbara, and sister, friends heard him say once, “You don’t know what it Eugenie—fled their inherited positions and wealth. A means to be hungry,” but months of doubting his next peasant who had received word they were in grave meal gave him this keen perception.

Jean finally tracked down his parents and sister in danger knocked on the door of the family estate and saved their lives with his warning just two hours prior Belgrade, Yugoslavia. He remained at his family’s side to the arrival of Soviet Cheka who had orders to arrest and graduated from a Russian high school within the them. Prince Ivan, Princess Barbara, Jean, and Eugenie Yugoslav capital. It is unclear exactly when he graduated, left an hour later on a train bound for southern White or if he pursued further education while there. Biographer Susan Monshaw reported that he Army–controlled Russia, having attended one year of postsecondary swallowed a few selected jewels schooling at a Belgrade university with which to start a new life. At before he achieved a scholarship to the time, Jean’s two brothers, Cyril attend Johns Hopkins University in and Nicholas, served in the White 1925.

Army. In 1919, upon the White While four of the family Army’s defeat, Prince Ivan and members had found each other Princess Barbara escaped to Serbia, in Yugoslavia, Prince Jean’s two leaving the boys behind. Separated brothers wouldn’t be reunited until and fleeing for their lives, the family some years later. Brother Cyril, a didn’t reunite until each had finally graduate of the Imperial Cavalry set foot on American soil, twelve School at Saint Petersburg, served years later in Maryland. as a captain with the White Russian Prior to Prince Jean’s arrival in forces in the World War before New York and then Baltimore, he fleeing the Bolsheviks. He arrived served as a navy apprentice seaman ahead of the other family members for General Wrangel’s navy. in New York on November 2, 1923, Members of the White Army, as it from Bremen, Germany, on board was called, objected to the atheism the ship, George Washington. Jean’s promoted by the Bolsheviks and other brother, Nicholas, appears to wanted to give the people the have arrived in the United States ability to freely choose their form under the name “Anghelcovitch” of government. Wrangel’s troops, John Engalitcheff as a young man in January 1924. He married with the support of the Brits and the daughter of Czar Nicholas’s the French, fought War Commissar Leon Trotsky’s Red Army advance near Crimea (Ukraine) aide, Miss Natalie Platoff, and sculpted for a living in in 1920. Jean eventually landed in a German prison Baltimore.

The two brothers worked tirelessly to raise the because of his efforts. He had risked his life to reverse the spread of Communism early in his youth and never lost necessary funds to enable their parents, sister, and brother Jean to get to the United States. Cyril in particular suffered sight of that objective.

Upon his release from prison, Prince Jean traveled from a long illness in Baltimore, his family attributing his all over Europe in search of his family. His journey early death on August 27, 1933, to self-deprivation (he must have been difficult. Years later, after watching the was just thirty-six years old). He conserved all financial movie Dr. Zhivago at a Laurel, Maryland, drive-in, he resources and neglected his own personal nourishment in commented that the overflowing trains shown in the film order to not only get his family to the United States but were nothing compared to his personal experience. Close also to support them once they arrived. Though he paid

18-2

Young America’s Foundation • Libertas Book Excerpt

Funding Fathers: The Secret History of the Conservative Movement –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– John Engalitcheff ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

dearly with his life, Cyril succeeded. Prince Ivan received a letter in 1924 from his son who had saved enough for their transportation. Once immigration quotas permitted, Prince Ivan and Princess Barbara departed Europe for the land of freedom and opportunity.

Ivan and Barbara Engalitcheff arrived in New York City as refugees from Bremen, Germany, on June 19, 1924. They disembarked from the ship named President Harding and registered to enter the country under the names “Ivan and Varvara Engalitscheff.” Their misspelled names were likely due to the communication confusion during the entry process. Ivan used his artistic abilities to set up a studio in Baltimore where he painted portraits until his death in 1937. Barbara made a living as a seamstress.

According to a friend of the family, Georganna Long, “If you had your trousseau sewn by Mrs. E, you were top-notch.” Her skill in sewing this bridal wear earned her a high reputation in Baltimore. Barbara Engalitcheff continued to live in Baltimore with her daughter, Eugenie, who also specialized in needlework, until her passing in 1953. Eugenie married the White Russian Georges Rodzevitch (son of Czar Nicholas’s sister Olga) and arrived in Baltimore via Paris, France, in 1929. Georges worked as an architect and interior decorator, often receiving prestigious commissions in Baltimore. Perhaps appropriately, he designed the Russian Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas in Baltimore in 1955 which still stands today.

Prince Jean, upon his American entry under section 4(c) of the Immigration Act of 1924 as a “nonquota immigrant student,” arrived with nothing except a dream to make a new life for himself and his family in the country of opportunity and freedom. Upon entry, he relinquished his aristocratic title of “prince,” as did the rest of his family, and thus he was called John Engalitcheff Jr. The family finances in the early days of getting settled in America were described by the Naturalization Service of the Department of Labor as “desperate” because of the passing of the family financier, brother Cyril, in 1933.

Their poverty in Baltimore contrasted starkly with the riches and palaces they once enjoyed in Moscow.

John Engalitcheff enrolled at Johns Hopkins University and became a well-liked student at the Baltimore establishment. Limited in English language skills (he could

speak no English when he arrived) though proficient in four other languages, including Russian, French, German, and Serbian, Engalitcheff pursued an educational track requiring limited linguistic abilities: engineering. He struggled through courses in English, while mastering his mathematics and physics classes. Assignments took hours to decipher—he often reread paragraphs multiple times to understand their meanings. He later commented, “In college I took Mechanical Engineering on the firm conviction of my family that I was mechanically inclined.

On looking back, that conviction apparently came from my inability to conquer Latin and my complete dislike of it.” Friend and colleague Fred Long reported that he “spoke to the dean of the Engineering College in French, to his advisor in German, and to his chemistry teacher in Russian.” He passed all his courses the first year, except English.

John Engalitcheff’s time at Johns Hopkins meant a great deal to him. He kept a letter from the admissions office framed behind his desk through his working years which said, “Please admit [Mr.] Engalitcheff to your classes. The question of credits will be determined later.”

His gratitude became evident years later when his wife helped establish a mechanical engineering laboratory at Johns Hopkins University to honor his accomplishments there following his passing.

Just prior to his graduation on June 10, 1930, with a BE degree in mechanical engineering from Johns Hopkins, Mr. Engalitcheff’s time in America was running short.

Under the Immigration Act of 1924, once his studies were completed, he would be forced to leave the country he had come to love and respect. He applied to enter Canada but was formally rejected by its commissioner of immigration. He pleaded by letter to Harry Hull, commissioner general of the U.S. Department of Labor, to allow him to work in the United States. Another rejection letter arrived in his mailbox.

In June 1930, John Engalitcheff wrote the Honorable Harry Hull once again and said, “There is no country to which I can go as I am not a citizen of any country. I am not a subject of Soviet Russia, and actually am a political exile of that government. It is absolutely impossible for me to go there…I am not intending to break the law, but it is actually the only thing that I can do at present.”

Young America’s Foundation • Libertas Book Excerpt

18-3

Funding Fathers: The Secret History of the Conservative Movement –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– John Engalitcheff ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

John Engalitcheff respected America and rule of law but Caroline became friends with another couple. After felt he had no alternative but to stay in the United States their separation, Caroline married the husband; shortly without an appropriate visa. He went on to describe thereafter, Engalitcheff married the wife, Virginia Porter his affinity for the country that had provided him the Watson, on September 25, 1948. Her prestigious family opportunity to advance personally through his studies at background fit comfortably with the lifestyle they Johns Hopkins. “Although not a citizen of the United eventually achieved.

John and Virginia made their home in Gibson Island, States, which I greatly regret, nevertheless, I will conform with all the laws, rules, regulations, and customs of this Maryland, in a house his brother-in-law designed. country, just as if I were a citizen.” Words which rang Affectionately referred to as “Bunny,” Virginia was the true throughout his life thus closed the body of the letter love of John’s life. A graduate of an all-girls school, Smith to Mr. Hull: “I will also do my best to use my American College in Northampton, Massachusetts, Virginia had training and education for the benefit of this country two children from a prior marriage. Page Reid Watson and and for the community.” It was a commitment that he Kenneth Clayton Watson grew up in the often demanding Engalitcheff family with their mother lived and exemplified time and time and stepfather. Virginia belonged again. John Engalitcheff secured After pawning his to the Gibson Island Club and the his American visa and shortly after prestigious Baltimore Country Club, became a U.S. citizen. wife’s wedding ring for signing most of the bills through their John Engalitcheff graduated from $1,000 and scrounging up lifetime until John was accepted for Johns Hopkins at an inopportune $250 in cash, Engalitcheff membership decades later. She enjoyed time. In the midst of the Great Depression, job prospects were few; started a new company in gardening, spending time tending to the flowers and outdoor façade. John unemployment peaked at 46 percent an aging garage on West Engalitcheff tenderly cared for her on the eastern shore of Maryland, and later on, devoting much of his spare the region’s worst drought in history Redwood Street. time to improving her quality of life, wreaked havoc on local agriculture. It while Virginia Engalitcheff grew to was a time when young graduates, the respect and accept her husband’s “lost generation” as it was eventually known, had few worthwhile professional opportunities. values, following his wishes even after his passing.

Following a short stint with Chrysler Airtemp, He was lucky, however, and the Johns Hopkins graduate, sporting a mustache and small spectacles, accepted Engalitcheff moved back to Baltimore from Detroit in a position with a refrigeration company in Dayton, 1938. At that time, with the help of a few local laborers, Maryland, moving away from his family and Baltimore he built an air conditioner coil by hand and sold it for home to earn $26 a week. The company built, sold, and $2,450 to York Refrigeration of York, Pennsylvania.

Upon its successful sale, the young and talented engineer installed air-conditioning systems for small theaters.

Not long after joining the firm, the refrigeration sought to use his skills and leadership to build his own company “abruptly and unexplainably” dismissed enterprise. After pawning his wife’s wedding ring for him. He moved to Detroit, Maryland, and worked for $1,000 and scrounging up $250 in cash, Engalitcheff the Maryland Air Conditioning Corporation for a few started a new company in an aging garage on West short years to practice and perfect his engineering skills. Redwood Street.

Engalitcheff named his business Baltimore Aircoil It was at this time that John married Caroline RogowPennington, a “socially prominent divorcee” and a 1935 Company (BAC). Engalitcheff tenderly explained, graduate of the Johns Hopkins nursing program. Their “This is a good and wonderful nation and to show my marriage lasted thirteen years before being divorced in appreciation for what people in Baltimore have done for Orange County, Florida, in 1948. Reportedly, John and me I named my company the Baltimore Aircoil Co.” His

18-4

Young America’s Foundation • Libertas Book Excerpt

Funding Fathers: The Secret History of the Conservative Movement –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– John Engalitcheff ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

patriotism and indebtedness to the country he admired gave him the information he sought to determine if the couldn’t have been more apparent. BAC manufactured individual had expended personal initiative and effort. air-conditioning products and evaporative condensers He had worked hard to get where he was and wanted and experienced moderate success in these early years. It those around him to value that.

A “Groundhog Day disaster” struck his manufacturing was a growing field and his firm, young and fresh, was revolutionizing the way people lived with the advent of plant in 1956 when the Waverly facility burned to the ground in the wee hours of the morning, destroying the air-cooling mechanisms.

Eventually, Engalitcheff moved his facilities into a entire enterprise. Firemen fought the ten-alarm blaze in Waverly, Maryland, manufacturing building. Just three freezing rain through three explosions. Initial damage short years after the birth of BAC, Engalitcheff accepted a was estimated to be $500,000 at the time, though commissioning with the United States Navy and enlisted Engalitcheff reported, “not even a letterhead was left.” as a lieutenant in 1942. He shut down the business, In today’s dollars, the fire caused $3.7 million worth left his wife behind, and served the country he loved to of damage. Less than two days later, Engalitcheff had set up temporary offices in a rented preserve the freedom he enjoyed. The house. Baltimore Aircoil rebuilt in United States of America had given In the days when the countryside of Dorsey, Maryland, him opportunity when he had few along the railroad tracks and white possessions or wealth, and he was profit-sharing seemed proud to serve when his country rare, Engalitcheff believed picket fences of nearby farms. The personal sacrifice, struggle, and needed him the most. His fluency in that the company’s accomplishment that came with German took him to the Brazilian rebuilding the plant clearly affected jungle where he helped operate a success was due to the Engalitcheff. He later commented, helium plant that the Americans hard work of all the “The proudest day of my life came had seized from the Germans. In BAC employees, and when we raised the American flag at those days, helium served a variety our plant in Dorsey.” The red-bricked of purposes. It fueled dirigibles that as a result, they were facility doubled its sales to $3 million protected against enemy submarines entitled to a portion in that year following the fire. He and warships. Researchers of the maintained the employment of all Manhattan Project who built the of the revenue. those who worked in the Waverly first atomic bomb used helium as a plant. It was one of those moments key ingredient. Doctors provided that employees would never forget, helium as a form of anesthetic as well as a treatment for soldiers suffering from respiratory an example of his commitment to those whose lives disorders. While Engalitcheff’s naval assignment may depended on him and the company’s success.

Personal testimonies of Engalitcheff’s generosity not have been as dangerous as others, helium was an abound. Once, when a BAC employee tragically died young important component of America’s military success.

In 1945, Engalitcheff returned and restarted due to an aneurysm, Mr. Engalitcheff asked his controller Baltimore Aircoil hiring back many of those who had to sit down with the employee’s wife to determine her lost their jobs when he closed down the shop. From monthly out-of-pocket expenses. Engalitcheff supported the beginning, Engalitcheff surrounded himself with the widowed family over many years, sending the children employees who exemplified his most valued attribute: to private school but never giving more than necessary. motivational character. Upon meeting a potential hire He wanted them to contribute to their own futures, too, for the first time, he asked three questions: “What does being careful to not overrun his generosity by becoming your daddy do?” “Where did you go to school?” “How a welfare bank for the family.

After a fire destroyed an employee’s home and did you go to school?” The response to this final question Young America’s Foundation • Libertas Book Excerpt

18-5

Funding Fathers: The Secret History of the Conservative Movement –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– John Engalitcheff ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

belongings, Engalitcheff called a staff meeting of all company’s performance. Accordingly, Schinner reported employees on the shop floor. He implored each employee the employees believed they were “ordinary people doing to give at least $1 to him to get back on his feet. He extraordinary things.”

Engalitcheff’s concern about the world and community also requested any furniture donations be brought to the plant, and he would take care of transporting the goods around him became evident through his management of BAC. When neighbors complained about excessive to the family.

In most infant companies, there are slow times when speeds and traffic near the plant, Engalitcheff gathered the work seems hard to come by. Even in those early days, Mr. couple hundred employees to sternly suggest they respect Engalitcheff valued his employees and did all he could to the children and families who lived nearby. Following take care of them. When Joe Pope started with Engalitcheff the disappearance of an employee’s wallet, Engalitcheff earning a salary of 25¢ an hour in 1939, his employment advised workers that stealing from him or the company was intermittent at best, sometimes working for two weeks would be better than taking from a colleague.

Engalitcheff arrived each morning promptly at nine and being laid off for the next two. Recognizing Joe’s need a.m. adorned with a tan brimmed for a steady job, Mr. Engalitcheff hat and attired in a crisp, white dress told Joe he’d pay him if he’d paint “He was a person shirt with cuffs. He was a demanding his house during an “off” period. [who] didn’t know what employer with a commanding presence.

This care for the human condition Ed Schinner described him as a man radiated from Mr. Engalitcheff the word ‘impossible’ with an endearing personality but a throughout his days. During another meant.

His mind never short fuse. When faced with frustration, such slow period, rather than lay diatribes flowed out of Engalitcheff’s off his employees, Engalitcheff stopped thinking.” mouth at warp speed, Russian and commissioned them to build him English garbled together. Many who a sailboat. Sailing was a hobby the witnessed these episodes would chuckle Engalitcheffs enjoyed immensely.

John Engalitcheff was known to hop on his sailboat alone at the sound and sight of his exasperation. And yet, he was and stay at sea for hours at a time. Instead of furloughing quick to apologize and recognize his weaknesses.

Mr. Engalitcheff exemplified a style aptly described his workers, the BAC employees instead drafted and built his new steel sailboat on the shop floor. Employees trusted by Ed Schinner as “managing with your feet”. Rather Engalitcheff, and more specifically, the company, to take than sit behind his desk, he spent time getting dirty in care of them above all. Perhaps because of this, employees the shop with those who made his ideas reality. In fact, he required all of his new engineers to spend time in the rejected nine attempts to unionize the enterprise.

While his brilliant mind and leadership skills led shop working through exhaustion to earn respect from to BAC’s vast success, he still maintained paternal and appreciation for the everyday laborers. A recent bout relationships with those employees who worked for in the plant’s shop attempting to actually make the ideas him, remembering each by name and holding award he created and studied over and over in his mind with ceremonies for their accomplishments. Ed Schinner, the assembly-line workers was reflected by an occasional a young engineer who joined BAC in 1965, believed disheveled appearance.

According to colleagues who worked side by side with his fairness, understanding, and “extreme” generosity were demonstrated best by his profit-sharing company him, Engalitcheff had a brilliant mind, able to originate philosophy. In the days when profit-sharing seemed rare, new techniques and products, while he struggled with Engalitcheff believed that the company’s success was materializing the components and analytical engineering. due to the hard work of all the BAC employees, and as Norva Pope, an administrative employee in the BAC a result, they were entitled to a portion of the revenue. main office, believed, “He was a person [who] didn’t Salaries were boosted by 15 to 25 percent based on the know what the word ‘impossible’ meant. His mind never

18-6

Young America’s Foundation • Libertas Book Excerpt

Funding Fathers: The Secret History of the Conservative Movement –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– John Engalitcheff ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

stopped thinking.” Whether on a work trip to Belgium or its growth today. It was the first refrigeration company, on holiday in Jamaica, his mind never rested. While on according to the Baltimore Sun, to have an assembly annual vacations in Jamaica, Engalitcheff checked in on line process and is known today as the world’s largest the engineering team daily to receive the latest test results manufacturer of evaporative cooling devices, thermal from the lab, and he’d lounge on the beach reworking storage, and heat transfer equipment with more than two ways to improve BAC’s products. A wave once splashed thousand employees. New York Stock Exchange outfit over him and swept his new design plans out to sea, much Merck & Company, Inc. purchased Baltimore Aircoil in 1970 for $44 million in stocks, and Mr. Engalitcheff to his frustration.

Engalitcheff’s pioneering creations led to forty-seven stayed on for two more years through the transition lifetime patents, twenty-three in the field of evaporative before retiring. In 1985, AMSTED Industries purchased cooling devices. The Vatican’s diplomatic headquarters, the Baltimore Aircoil unit of Merck & Company for $92 Seattle’s Space Needle, St. Louis’s Gateway Arch, and million. In 2005, a brand-new, 95,000 square-feet global New York’s Madison Square Garden and Guggenheim headquarters opened across the country road from its previous location.

Museum all incorporated BAC Upon his retirement from BAC cooling towers into their structures’ “It is your God-gift to in 1972, Mr. Engalitcheff turned his circulation systems. Several countries vote…That’s what this energy and attention to his wife’s house BAC plants including painful arthritic hands. He agonized Australia, Belgium, China, Italy, country is about.” over how to help alleviate her Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, South discomfort. Following the surgery on Africa, and Spain. Today, what once Virginia’s hand in 1980, Dr. Raymond was revolutionary (reusing water Curtis confided in Mr. Engalitcheff that a lack of proper rather than expelling it as waste) now is standard in the equipment slowed the rehabilitation process. He believed air-cooling industry.

Engalitcheff earned the American Society of Heating a device that enabled an individual to practice performing and Air-Conditioning Engineers’ Distinguished Service actual tasks required in daily life would vastly improve Award in 1963, the F. Paul Anderson Award in 1981 recovery for arthritic patients. Mr. Engalitcheff, led by the (the society’s highest award), and was inducted into the desire to help his ailing wife, his experience at BAC, and ASHRAE Hall of Fame in 1996. Engalitcheff became with the assistance of close friend Jack Doub, invented a only the eighth man in Maryland’s history to earn the medical instrument to simulate “real world” activities. It presidential “Export E” award for his work to advance incorporated a barber-chair base to account for various free markets and trade abroad. Maryland governor Spiro heights of patients, too. The patented “Work Simulator” T. Agnew described the award: “If our national economy formed the basis of Mr. Engalitcheff’s hobby enterprise, is to be stabilized, our international security preserved, our Baltimore Therapeutic Equipment Co., and led to twentyforeign commitments honored, America’s industries must four additional patents on medical equipment. His desire expand foreign trade…Baltimore Aircoil Company has to make life better for people could not have been more done just that—and through its highly successful design clearly demonstrated.

Even still, Engalitcheff remembered the commitment and manufacture of refrigeration, air conditioning and process cooling equipment, has developed international he made when he first became a U.S. citizen; improving demand for its specialized products.” Agnew concluded, his community was part of that objective. Engalitcheff “The Company’s good citizenship, I understand, not believed that Americans didn’t always fully appreciate only reflects but is inspired by its founder and present the freedom and free enterprise economy they were so accustomed to. Even so, he sought to give back to the chairman, Mr. Engalitcheff.”

Engalitcheff’s ability to see a need and then fill it led to country that afforded him opportunity to achieve the Baltimore Aircoil’s vast success and continues to inspire American Dream. In the 1950s, Engalitcheff’s enthusiasm Young America’s Foundation • Libertas Book Excerpt

18-7

Funding Fathers: The Secret History of the Conservative Movement –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– John Engalitcheff ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

grew in support of ideas he felt could transform the He sauntered in unannounced to the offices of those world, namely capitalism, anti-Communism, and free organizations he financed, peppering the staff with question after question. He never left his decisions to expression.

One of Engalitcheff’s first projects became a film called chance. In fact, his engineering mind led him to demand Only the Strong. The title originated from a passage of a thoughtful and thorough responses from organizations Blue Ribbon Defense Panel report: “The road to peace has before his support would be provided. Once he received never been through appeasement, unilateral disarmament, a sponsorship card in the mail requesting financial or negotiation from weakness. The entire recorded history resources for Young Americans for Freedom. He sent a of mankind is to the contrary. Among the great nations, stern response back to the group’s chairman at the time ‘Only the Strong’ survive.” The anti-Communist film wondering how he could have received such a mailing creation demonstrated Engalitcheff’s commitment to when Engalitcheff had been an annual contributor to the freedom and “peace through strength” which emanated organization for years. He had confused Young America’s from his personal experiences and desire to build on Foundation, an organization he had supported for quite some time, with Young Americans for American prosperity and freedom.

Freedom. This perceived oversight did Proud and patriotic, Engalitcheff In a true twist of irony, not go unnoticed by Mr. Engalitcheff staged a showing of his film to the a man who perhaps and was indicative of the way he entire BAC workforce on the plant floor with rented television sets. more than any other was dealt with those beneficiaries of his contributions.

Engalitcheff’s involvement steadicommitted to witnessing According to John Fisher, the ly deepened over the years. He was past president of the American honored when asked by the secretary the defeat of Communism, Security Council Foundation (ASCF), of the Navy to participate in the Nacollapsed at the feet Engalitcheff started giving $10 to the val War College’s 1969 Global Stratof the American group by mail. After some time, he egy Discussions in Newport, Rhode “just appeared one day” at the ASCF Island. He distributed books to emleader who brought offices to inspect the organization ployees depicting the horrors of the Communism to its knees. for himself. Mr. Fisher showed him Soviet gulags. A certificate recognizing a slide presentation, and shortly his personal “contribution to national thereafter, Engalitcheff transferred security” hung on his office wall along $4,000 in stock. The relationship with the numerous heating and refrigerating engineering awards, society membership placards, grew from there. He gave $100,000 in 1972 to promote and a portrait of Barry Goldwater. One time, he invited a television documentary encouraging “Peace Through two of his younger employees who held similar values to Strength” and served on ASCF’s governing board.

Membership of ASCF tripled from 1978 to 1981, a a dinner honoring a man he admired: Barry Goldwater.

After a speech by Richard Nixon, Engalitcheff returned to period at the height of John Engalitcheff’s activity with work the next day offering all employees access to the fax its work. ASCF built a Coalition for Peace Through machine if they should choose to send him a supportive let- Strength comprised of 252 members of Congress who ter. During an election season, he provided literature about supported a strong United States foreign policy. In the candidates and sternly reminded employees, “It is your 1983, 249 sponsors passed a “Peace Through Strength” resolution in Congress. In 1984, the American Security God-gift to vote…That’s what this country is about.”

More dramatically, John Engalitcheff used his Council aired its “Peace Through Strength” program on wealth to support causes that upheld his values. A 174 stations in one week. It went on to show more than skeptic businessman at heart, Mr. Engalitcheff took nine hundred times on television to educate Americans on time to become fully committed to various associations. the danger of appeasement. Former Soviet KGB operative

18-8

Young America’s Foundation • Libertas Book Excerpt

Funding Fathers: The Secret History of the Conservative Movement –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– John Engalitcheff ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

President Reagan tends to John Engalitcheff after he collapses at the White House during a 1984 reception. Mr. Engalitcheff passed away days later, but his legacy lived on through his $8 million bequest to Young America’s Foundation—a gift which helped save the Reagan Ranch in 1998.

Oleg Kalugin admitted, “When President Reagan started this program...[the Soviets] were scared….They were convinced they would never be able to match the U.S. program for purely financial reasons.”

In a true twist of irony, a man who perhaps more than any other was committed to witnessing the defeat of Communism, collapsed at the feet of the American leader who brought Communism to its knees. On November 15, 1984, just days after Ronald Reagan’s reelection of historic proportions, the president invited forty figures to the White House Blue Room for a reception to honor their commitment to “Peace Through Strength.” Mr.

Engalitcheff was one of those dedicated men set to receive the Presidential Eagle pin that day. As the line progressed and the hand of Ronald Reagan approached Engalitcheff’s lapel, he collapsed. Cradled on the White House floor in the arms of the man who vowed to destroy Communism since his days as a Hollywood actor, Engalitcheff quietly apologized for the disruption.

President Reagan was heard responding, “Don’t worry.

We just want you to get better.” Days later, a massive stroke took John Engalitcheff’s life. His colleague Ed Schinner recalled the timeline of the events: “The White House boxed up his Colombo-style coat and brimmed Young America’s Foundation • Libertas Book Excerpt

18-9

Funding Fathers: The Secret History of the Conservative Movement –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– John Engalitcheff ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

hat. By the time they arrived at the offices of Baltimore Aircoil, he had passed away.”

Some said that the excitement of the day probably instigated the stroke. And they were probably right. After all, Ronald Reagan was the one man who had the courage to stand up to Communist oppressors, and Engalitcheff was overjoyed and humbled in his presence. After attending a Conservative Political Action Conference dinner shortly after Reagan’s 1981 inauguration, Engalitcheff remarked, “It meant an awful lot to me to hear President Reagan in person.” He fervently admired Ronald Reagan.

Engalitcheff’s wife, Virginia, lived six years longer, suffering from the effects of arthritis until April 19, 1990. She honored her husband’s values and ideas by keeping their will intact following his passing. Their estate, built from initial capital of $1,250, was primarily divided among nine organizations. Each preserved and formed the foundation of the Engalitcheff legacy with the bequest received, each given a minimum of $4 million and some receiving as much as $13 million. It is ironic that a man who came from a country where tradition required wealth to follow families through inheritance ignored these roots and largely bypassed family to give his wealth back to the country for which he was most grateful.

This Russian-born entrepreneur dreamed of seeing the defeat of the USSR’s Communist government by the United States. Accordingly, American Security Council Foundation (ASCF) received more than $9 million for its programs upon Mrs. Engalitcheff’s passing. In addition to establishing the first and only advanced degree for the study of national security, ASCF was also credited by Ronald Reagan as having helped establish the theme of his foreign policy approach based on its 1978 “National Strategy for Peace Through Strength.” President Reagan conveyed, “One thing is certain. If we’re to continue to advance world peace and human freedom, America must remain strong. If we have learned anything these last eight years, it’s that peace through strength works.” The fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Communist bloc rendered ASCF’s mission complete at that time, a feat that would have surely inspired Mr. Engalitcheff’s pride. His dream had come true.

18-10

Young America’s Foundation • Libertas Book Excerpt

The Fund for American Studies, after the receipt of Engalitcheff’s funds, renamed its Georgetown internship program the Engalitcheff Institute on Comparative Political and Economic Systems in 1994 as a testament to his upbringing and later exile to the United States. More than one hundred students participate in this summer program each year, gaining real-world experience through valuable internships and academic competence at Georgetown’s premier course training. Former BAC president and member of the Fund for American Studies’ Board of Regents Fred Long knows, “He’d be delighted to know that there’s an institute at the Fund for American Studies named after him.” These young people will become America’s leaders down the road—a legacy of Engalitcheff’s staunch support of freedom.

Ronald Reagan comforted Mr. Engalitcheff while incapacitated on the floor of the White House during his final hours. It is perhaps a testament of will then, that Mr. Engalitcheff’s generous bequest to Young America’s Foundation helped comfort Ronald Reagan and his family during the president’s last years. Ronald and Nancy Reagan lived at their hilltop ranch, Rancho del Cielo, or Ranch in the Sky, for more than a quarter century. It was a place that Ronald Reagan felt most at ease, a place where he was capable of doing his best thinking about how to expand the free world. Lou Cannon once said, “There is more of Reagan in this ranch than in all the speeches he ever gave.”

When Ronald Reagan could no longer care for the Ranch and his medical costs continued to rise, in order to keep him comfortable in his Bel Air home, Nancy Reagan decided to sell the Ranch. An agreement with a developer threatened to destroy the historic property, a place where Ronald Reagan signed the largest tax cut in American history and hosted important world leaders including Mikhail Gorbachev, Queen Elizabeth II, and Margaret Thatcher. Instead, Young America’s Foundation, equipped to undertake such an endeavor because of John Engalitcheff’s legacy gift, stepped forward to save the precious piece of history, and in so doing, partially alleviated the medical cost burden on the Reagans.

Young America’s Foundation had a long history with Ronald Reagan. In 1974, the Foundation financed a nationally syndicated radio program featuring California

Funding Fathers: The Secret History of the Conservative Movement –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– John Engalitcheff ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

governor Ronald Reagan. Governor Reagan’s addresses, confidence to take on such an important task.

Saving and preserving Ronald Reagan’s Western focusing on a variety of issues including taxes, crime, and foreign policy, helped strengthen the future president’s White House—Rancho del Cielo—is a crucial step in national reputation. During each year of his presidency, ensuring future generations know of and are inspired by President Reagan hosted briefings at the White House Ronald Reagan’s vision and lasting accomplishments. for Young America’s Foundation student leaders who Young America’s Foundation hosts thousands of attended the National Conservative Student Conference students, scholars, members of the media, and leaders in Washington, D.C. In 1993, President Reagan at the Reagan Ranch, including the crew of the U.S.S. addressed the conference saying, “Together we worked Ronald Reagan, Robert Novak, Pat Sajak, General P. X. to accomplish much of what has come to be known as Kelly, Marvin Olasky, Mrs. Louis L’Amour, Governor the ‘Reagan Revolution’….Young America’s Foundation George Allen, Dinesh D’Souza, and John O’Sullivan. has been a refuge for students seeking an alternative to They join a list of other well-known individuals that the politically correct environment enforced on many have visited Rancho del Cielo over the years, including Attorney General Ed Meese, Heritage campuses. I know the conference Foundation President Edwin Feulner, will send you back to your campuses “He was a prince Focus on the Family’s James Dobson, better informed, motivated, and Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, trained. Your work is vital to the in his country, and and Charlton Heston, as well as future of the nation.” he was a prince in authors Peggy Noonan, Ted Bell, and It was a logical next step in Young this country.”

Nelson DeMille.

America’s Foundation’s relationship The Reagan Ranch has been with President Reagan to come featured on every major broadcast forward during his time of need to and cable news network: ABC, CBS, protect the place he loved so much.

Ronald Reagan had been there for countless young NBC, Fox, MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News. In addition Americans over the years, those who found inspiration in to news shows such as Good Morning America, the the character of the man who took time to speak directly Today show, and the Edge with Paula Zahn, the Ranch to them. During his presidency, he spoke to student has been featured in historical specials produced by the audiences at Moscow State University, Fudan University History Channel, the Travel Channel, CNN, and even in Shanghai, University College in Ireland, Notre Dame Entertainment Tonight. In print, the Ranch has been University, and the University of South Carolina, among highlighted in such well-read publications as Time, many others. Even as he was leaving office, Ronald Newsweek, the Washington Post, the Washington Times, Reagan looked to the future of America and its young the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and Human people: “And are we doing a good enough job teaching Events. Stories featuring the Ranch have appeared in our children what America is and what she represents in publications with a combined circulation of more than the long history of the world?…We’ve got to do a better thirty million.

Conferences and seminars bring scholars, authors, job of getting across that America is freedom—freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise. And media personalities, and the country’s most accomplished freedom is special…It’s fragile; it needs [protection].” conservative thinkers in front of young audiences. The For Young America’s Foundation, whose own history full impact of this opportunity for young people to study and ethos is tied directly to President Reagan, saving and be inspired at the Ranch will never truly be known. the Ranch, “a true national treasure” according to the But Fred Long, former president of BAC, reported on the Washington Post, offered an unmatchable opportunity importance of the gift, “That could well be the thing that to protect his ideas and advance conservative principles. he values most out of his contributions—that he helped John Engalitcheff’s gift gave Young America’s Foundation buy the Reagan Ranch. Reagan was his hero.”

Young America’s Foundation • Libertas Book Excerpt

18-11

Funding Fathers: The Secret History of the Conservative Movement –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– John Engalitcheff ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Young America’s Foundation’s preservation of Rancho del Cielo plays a vital role in preserving Ronald Reagan’s lasting accomplishments and adding to his overall popularity. In the late 1990s—and now into the twenty-first century—Ronald Reagan was the most popular individual to represent conservative success as a public policy leader. President Reagan left office in 1988 with an average approval rating of 53 percent, a number that actually declined to as low as 50 percent in 1992, and held at 52 percent in 1993. All the while the Left and revisionist historians worked hard to tear down President Reagan’s lasting accomplishments, attempting to discredit his involvement in the fall of Communism and the economic prosperity the nation enjoyed in the post-Reagan years. In the years since Young America’s Foundation has been at work saving the Western White House, conducting its student programs, and strengthening its media outreach initiatives, President Reagan’s national approval ratings have climbed from the middle of the road to the top.

John Engalitcheff helped the world learn about Ronald Reagan and his accomplishments because of the gift he gave. Many who now know of Ronald Reagan’s deep commitment to freedom hadn’t even been born when he was president of the United States. A February 18, 2005, Gallup Poll found that more Americans named Ronald Reagan “the Greatest United States President” than any other candidate. The poll, conducted just before Presidents’ Day, a holiday celebrating the birthdays of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, found that Reagan was named more often than any other president in history. Twenty percent of the sampling responded with that answer. The 2005 poll, the latest in a longrunning series, marked the first time any single president has received more than 18 percent of the total vote.

Close associate Ed Schinner commented, “I couldn’t imagine the pride that [Engalitcheff] would have to think that his money, his work ethic, and the thing that he created…went to fund the purchase of the Ranch.” The Reagan Ranch today is used to inspire young people with the value both Ronald Reagan and John Engalitcheff most cherished: freedom. It is the centerpiece of Young America’s Foundation’s student outreach programs. This bold undertaking fosters the virtues of individual freedom,

18-12

Young America’s Foundation • Libertas Book Excerpt

limited government, patriotism, and traditional values in America’s future leaders. In teaching young people about Ronald Reagan’s accomplishments, the group instills the ideas that have been the core of its mission for more than thirty-five years.

Engalitcheff’s gift did more than save the Reagan Ranch. His confidence in Young America’s Foundation inevitably encouraged other individuals to invest in the future of America with subsequent and formative gifts to the Reagan Ranch project. Those individuals who recognized the project’s potential at critical moments and took lead roles in ensuring the property and student programs were utilized to their maximum potential include Virginia Knott Bender, Robert and Joan Cummins, Richard and Helen DeVos, Fred Kirby, Thomas L. Phillips, and Norma Zimdahl. Together, these generous benefactors gave legitimacy to the Reagan Ranch project, ensuring Rancho del Cielo’s longevity will endure generations past Ronald Reagan’s death, much like George Washington’s Mount Vernon or Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello.

Today, Mr. Engalitcheff’s legacy is also carried forward by the men and women who worked side by side with him at Baltimore Aircoil Company and Baltimore Therapeutic Equipment Company. His generous spirit encouraged those around him to make similar gifts to causes they believe in, and for that, Mr. Engalitcheff continues to give back to the country he so fondly admired.

America took a bountiful step the day it allowed John Engalitcheff to stay within her borders. He was, above all, a fervent American patriot who stood for freedom through his last days and beyond. John Engalitcheff built his company and then used every ounce of his success and fruits of his hard work to advance those causes which he felt were worthwhile extensions of his American dream. A Russian with $250 and a $1,000 wedding ring, he started a company that would eventually pave the way for his generous philanthropy, which altered the course of the American Conservative Movement. Not many people think to leave their fortunes to causes committed to advancing mutually held ideas and protect their country’s future, but John Engalitcheff did. Joe Pope, one of the original BAC employees, tearfully said it best, “He was a prince in his country, and he was a prince in this country.” n

Alan K. Simpson

Tom Tancredo

A mid-winter getaway aboard Regent Seven Seas Cruises with other Young America’s Foundation supporters and leaders is just what you need. You will enjoy a relaxing and warm reprieve with like-minded conservatives, and you’ll have an opportunity to share your pressing thoughts on the world today with individuals who have done so much to advance the Conservative Movement through their leadership and generosity. When you cruise with Young America’s Foundation, you have the opportunity to participate at your leisure in sessions with conservative leaders and authors, private cocktail receptions, dinners, and socializing.

Robert Novak

Ron Robinson

Michelle Easton

The Seven Seas Navigator is destined for distinction. Occupying the uppermost niche in cruising, 490 guests receive an unusual level of luxury and some of the highest space and service ratios at sea. From the all-suite, all-oceanview accommodations (most with private balconies) with their luxurious marble baths to the signature cuisine to the superbly attentive staff, the Navigator has few equals. Rates for the cruise start at $4,007 per person and include all gratuities, port fees, taxes, seminar sessions, receptions, and on-board meals and select wines, spirits, and soft drinks.

Contact Nicole Hoplin, 651-334-1537 or nhoplin@yaf.org, for more information or visit www.yafcruise.org.

h

T

Ashcroft, D’Souza, Buchholz, Surnow, and Others Ignite a Movement

he lush, coastal city milita veterans U.S. military discus of Santa Barbara, and discussed Young F California, is typically America’s Foundation’s known for its temperate support of students’ rights particip in ROTC climate, downtown beaches, to participate Spanish architecture, and programs. Best-selling Din gorgeous park system. author Dinesh D’Souza But on November 9, headlined the banquet with discussio of his new 2007, the beautiful town a discussion Wha So Great transformed into a veritable book, What’s Chr conservative haven, as about Christianity.

Saturda sessions more than 550 individuals Saturday’s from 188 colleges and began with a tribute to Ra 25 states flooded Fess Reagan Ranch Board of Parker’s DoubleTree Resort Governors Co-Chairman Will for Young America’s Judge William P. Clark, R Foundation’s West Coast President Reagan’s close Leadership Conference to friend and secretary inter learn conservative ideas of the interior.

Judge cou and meet like-minded Clark’s cousin, Patricia

By Dan Lipian, Doe individuals from all across Clark Doerner, co-author Judg discussed the fruited plain. of The Judge, Bowling Green State University By the end of the Judge Clark’s many conference, those of us accomplishments in in the audience would be armed with vital tools allowing the Reagan administration and his impact on freedom us to combat the liberal ideologies permeating America’s worldwide. She accepted the Foundation’s Torch of college campuses. The future leaders of this country learned Freedom award on behalf of Judge Clark. the principles of Ronald Reagan; gained vital knowledge Foundation President Ron Robinson then led a panel on how to become better activists on our campuses; met entitled “Why I Became a Conservative Activist,” featuring some of the most influential speakers in the Conservative Foundation Director and talk radio host Kirby Wilbur, Movement; and even received a behind-the-scenes look at Director Kate Obenshain, and College Republican National television hero Jack Bauer and the hit show 24.

Committee Chairman Charlie Smith.

The conference opened on an emotional note, as The morning concluded with two insightful speeches: Director of Military Outreach Flagg Youngblood recognized National Review reporter John Miller’s discussion of the

20

Young America’s Foundation • Libertas

(B (Below) Joel Surnow, creator and executive pr producer of the hit Fox series 24, shares insights on being a conservative in Hollywood.

(Above) Foundation Director Kate Obenshain’s son, Paul, meets Attorney General John Ashcroft at the annual Torch of Freedom dinner held at the Reagan Ranch Center in conjunction with the 2007 West Coast Leadership Conference.

Best-selling author Dinesh D’Souza opens the West Coast Leadership Conference with a discussion of his latest book, What’s So Great About Christianity.

2008 presidential field and actor and author Joseph h Philli Phillips’’ passionate commentary on family values.

The conference’s annual outdoor luncheon featured Nonie Darwish, author of Now They Call Me Infidel: Why I Renounced Jihad for America, Israel, and the War on Terror. The attendees listened intently to her horror stories about radical Islam’s treatment of women in the Middle East and the threats facing America in the post-9/11 world.

Later in the day, economist and Foundation alumnus Todd Buchholz discussed free market ideas and popular culture. Then, 24 creator and executive producer Joel Surnow provided a unique look into one of television’s most intense and successful shows and also gave insight about being a conservative in Hollywood.

Without question, the final speaker of the day spurred the highest level of anticipation; Attorney General John Ashcroft entered the room to a thunderous applause and a standing ovation. Mr. Ashcroft, the Foundation’s 2007-2008 Harold

Christopher C Roberts, Liz Neaton, and Mackenzie Ross— members of the Foundation’s activist rewards program, Club 100—visit President Reagan’s mountaintop retreat during the West Coast Leadership Conference.

Si Simmons L Lecturer, spoke k about b the h iimportance of freedom and the status of the War on Terror. He also discussed his time as attorney general and dispelled common myths used by the Left to undermine the war effort.

A few days after the conference, the Washington Post proclaimed, “At the retreat, [students] found solidarity in their ongoing battle against liberals and big government, leaving reaffirmed in their principles…”

Andrew Meeusen from Northern Arizona University echoed these sentiments. “There is no more rewarding experience than being able to be around those of like minds who are committed to bringing conservatism to the places where [leftists] are thriving.”

The West Coast Leadership Conference was a lifechanging event for countless individuals. Those of us who attended the conference are now armed with invaluable resources that we can carry with us for the rest of our lives, helping to make America a better place in the process.

Young America’s Foundation • Libertas

21

D

The Pursuit of Excellence: The True Message of Conservatism

uring my afternoon rigght even when what is right no one is looking? lo ooking? The at Young America’s called it virtue— Foundation’s West Coast Greeks called Leadership Conference, I the pursuitt of arête or heard many times that excellence in all things. th sense of students felt overwhelmed And that per by the tide of liberalism on arête is perhaps most demo their respective campuses. aptly demonstrated in our Living and working in homes and by men who I Hollywood, I understand. believe are called to work I was clear, however, that towards ex excellence as we can’t allow opposition, husbands and fathers, to guardia of the home no matter how strident, be guardians to dissuade us from and of the community.

Unfortuna preaching the true message Unfortunately, over the h of conservatism. We are years we have dismissed able to advocate with these notio notions as outdated

By Joseph C. Phillips, Author and Actor replac them with confidence not because and replaced we are better but because a cultural laissez-faire our message is better for notion that “Love is all America. I share with you some of the thoughts I passed you need.” Rising illegitimacy rates and prisons filled along to the 550 young leaders gathered at the West Coast to overflowing with boys that had love, but not fathers, Leadership Conference. gives the lie to such relativism. The conservative notion As conservatives we simply recognize the truth that of family means traditional child-centered marriage; it personal freedom and personal responsibility go hand-inmeans men honoring their women with marriage and then hand—that there is a nexus between virtue and liberty. sticking around in the home to do the difficult work of We believe that strong families and strong faith are the raising their children. guarantors of our liberties and that American idealism is the Alexis de Tocqueville said that “liberty is not attainable source of our national strength and can continue to change without morality; nor morality without faith.” The family the world for the better. is the primary source of moral education. Liberty is also My son came home from school with a placard that read, dependent upon faith. Aristides remarked that our notions “Character is what you do when no one is looking.” Indeed of justice come to us through reason and an association what is character but the acknowledgement of an objective with the divine. He doesn’t say through reason only, but right and wrong and the belief that men must strive to do through reason and the acknowledgment of one greater

22

Young America’s Foundation • Libertas

(Right) Conference attendees receive a signed copy of Patricia Clark Doerner and Paul Kengor’s biography of President Reagan’s trusted advisor and Reagan Ranch Board of Governors co-chairman, Judge William Clark.

(L Left) Author and actor Joseph Phillips (Left) ad addresses the 550 attendees on the importance of freedom and personal responsibility.

(Right) Foundation Director of Military Outreach Flagg Youngblood presents Boise State University activist Jonathan Sawmiller with the Foundation’s 2007 conservative student of the year award.

than us—one objective truth that is the same for all men regardless of race or financial status; one objective truth that is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Without question it is this belief in an objective truth that is the source of American idealism. I do not refer to the idealism of the Birkenstock crowd but to the idealism of Thomas Jefferson who penned perhaps the most significant 55 words in world history: We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, that governments are instituted among men to secure these rights deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

((A Above) Author Nonie Darwish speaks on radical (Above) Is Islam’s ruthless treatment of women and the threats fa facing our country in a post-9/11 world.

That is American idealism, and it changed the world!

This is the message I encouraged the students at the West Coast Leadership Conference to spread to their classmates and to their local communities. It is a message of hope, of love, of brotherhood, and of strength. It is a message that was first articulated by Jefferson, given a new birth by Abraham Lincoln, and subsequently weaved into poetry by Martin Luther King. It is a message that created the greatest nation on this earth. We have but to preach this message boldly, clearly, and confidently. The world will respond.

—————————————————————————— Joseph C. Phillips is the author of He Talk Like A White Boy, available wherever books are sold. He is also a member of Young America’s Foundation’s campus lecture program. Contact Patrick Coyle at 800-USA-1776 for more information on how you can bring Mr. Phillips and other speakers to your school.

Young America’s Foundation • Libertas

23

The National Journalism Center’s th 30 Anniversary Dinner Airs Live Nationwide Alumna Ann Coulter Headlines Event

BY L AUREN SMITH, NJC PROGR AM OFFICER

T

he National Journalism the audience in the pledge. Michelle Center (NJC) commemoOddis, a graduate of NJC’s fall rated 30 years of training 2006 program, introduced the main responsible journalists speaker. with a celebratory The entire program was broadanniversary dinner at the National cast live on C-SPAN—reaching Press Club in Washington, D.C. 92 million homes nationwide— The evening began with a and Coulter spoke to a receptive reception where more than 250 audience about the race for the alumni and supporters met the White House as well as national event’s keynote speaker, NJC and international affairs. graduate and best-selling author The dinner garnered coverage Ann Coulter, who signed copies in the Washington Times, with an of her book, Slander, and chatted article by Robert Stacy McCain with her many fans. which previewed the anniversary The National Press Club event, as well as follow-up ballroom was adorned in the coverage in the Washington rich history of the National Times, the Washington Examiner Journalism Center. Photos from (which featured a photo by NJC training seminars in the 1980s alumna Carrie Devorah and text to recent class photos of interns contributed by 2007 alumnus decorated the walls; notable NJC Thomas Cheplick), and a post speakers and alumni were also on the Power Line blog by Paul featured in the black and white Mirengoff, whose daughter was a snapshots. The emcee for the member of the 2007 class. evening, Maryland State Senator This event was a chance for and NJC Executive Director Alex NJC to be recognized for its highX. Mooney, received guests as they caliber internship program and to entered the ballroom. Thomas L. acknowledge the dedication and Phillips, chairman of the National ambition of the more than 1,600 Journalism Center Board of alumni that have gone through the National Journalism Center students of years gone by develop their journalism skills in the old Governors, provided welcoming internship program. Throughout NJC office in Washington, D.C. remarks.

NJC’s lifetime, interns have been Recent NJC alumni also placed at a number of prestigious participated in the evening’s program, including 1999 media organizations, and its alumni have penetrated the graduate and author Tim Carney who delivered the depths of the liberal media in order to provide audiences invocation and 1998 alumna Dipka Bhambhani who led with responsible and accurate reporting.

24

Young America’s Foundation • Libertas

More than 250 NJC alumni, friends, and supporters gather at the National Press Club for the National Journalism Center’s 30th anniversary celebration airing live on C-SPAN.

NJC graduate and best-selling author Ann Coulter headlines the anniversary dinner.

(Above) (Ab ) NJC Executive E ti Director Di t and d Maryland M l d State Senator Alex Mooney emcees the program.

(Right) National Journalism Center Board of Governors Chairman Thomas Phillips speaks with Noah Riner.

Young America’s Foundation • Libertas

25

(Left) Sergio Gor of The George Washington University asks Ann Coulter a question following her speech at the NJC dinner. (Above) NJC alumna and current Human Events news producer Michelle Oddis introduces Ann Coulter.

A Brief History of NJC Founded in 1977 by M. Stanton Evans, the National Journalism Center began training journalists as part of the Education and Research Institute. Mr. Evans wanted to put an emphasis on teaching ambitious young journalists “in-depth” reporting and combating the inaccuracy and biased practices that are prevalent in the media. In 2001, NJC became a project of Young America’s Foundation, whose leadership continued to advance NJC’s mission of training young journalists.

NJC has taught scores of students for three decades to

NJC Alumni Update In addition to Ann Coulter, a number of NJC interns past and present attended the 30th anniversary celebration, including: ——————————————————————————— DAN GRISWOLD (SUMMER 1979) A member of the first class of NJC interns, Griswold has since been published in the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and the Colorado Springs Gazette. He currently serves as the director of Cato Institute’s Center for Trade Policy Studies.

——————————————————————————— STEVEN F. HAYWARD (SPRING 1981) After gaining experience with the Northern Virginia Sun, Dr. Steven F. Hayward has become a distinguished author, recognized for his books on Ronald Reagan and Winston Churchill. He published editorials on environmentalism, law, public policy, and economics. Dr. Hayward speaks regularly to NJC interns during the 12-week sessions.

——————————————————————————— DIPKA BHAMBHANI (SUMMER 1998) Dipka Bhambhani works as a reporter for Platts, a division of McGraw-Hill Publishing. She was elected in December 2006 for a three-year term to the Board of Governors for the National Press Club.

26

Young America’s Foundation • Libertas

be responsible journalists through real-world experience and weekly training seminars and speakers. More than 1,600 alumni have participated in the prestigious NJC program and have been placed at more than 50 respected media outlets in Washington, D.C., and New York City including the Wall Street Journal, Washington Times, Washington Post, Washington Examiner, CNN, BBC, Fox News, The Hill, UPI, Human Events, American Spectator, Weekly Standard, and National Review. For more information about the National Journalism Center, please visit www.njc.yaf.org or call 202-628-1490.

——————————————————————————— TIMOTHY P. CARNEY (SUMMER 1999) Four years after interning for Human Events through NJC, Timothy Carney received a Phillips Foundation Journalism Fellowship and published The Big Ripoff: How Big Business and Big Government Steal Your Money. He is currently the senior reporter for the Evans-Novak Political Report, writes a weekly column for the Washington Examiner, and regularly speaks to NJC interns.

——————————————————————————— MICHELLE ODDIS (FALL 2006) During her tenure with NJC, Michelle Oddis interned with Evans & Novak, where she remained after the conclusion of the Fall 2006 session. Shortly thereafter, she worked as a researcher for Regnery Publishing before joining the the Human Events staff, where she currently serves as a news producer. She returned to NJC last fall to offer her insight and experiences about Washington journalism to the NJC interns.

——————————————————————————— ALYSON GABEL (SUMMER 2007) Within weeks of earning her degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia, Alyson Gabel came to Washington, D.C., to participate in the NJC program and spent the summer as an intern for Fox News where she was offered a position upon completion of her internship.

“Our estate plans were not complete until we included Young America’s Foundation.

Now our legacy reflects our values.”

— Sam & Babs Phillips, Green Valley, Arizona

Y

home of 25 years and his only private ou are more than the h residence during his presidency. collection of possessions You will be honored at the acquired in your lifetime; Reagan Ranch for making an estate you are a wealth of knowledge and gift. Future generations of Americans experience. You have much to offer will see your name engraved on your family, community, and country. w Freedom Wall at the Ranch—a But what happens if your life special tribute to those who pass on ends tomorrow? How will you be their ideas—and know you helped remembered? Will you leave a legacy shape America’s future. You can also that memorializes your life, ideas, and accomplishments? Or will you be vvisit the Reagan Ranch to see your name on Freedom Wall! forgotten?

Please ask your attorney to Only you can protect what you’ve You can pass on your ideas to America’s future leaders! include this language in your will: worked so hard to achieve. Only you control what happens to your legacy You can define I give, devise and and your estate when you are gone. But your legacy, control bequeath to Young only if you act now. how you are You have probably had friends or America’s Foundation, A remembered, and family members who have died “too tax identification make a lasting impact young” before realizing their dreams and number 23-7042029, by passing on your making a lasting impact on the world.

110 Elden Street, conservative ideas Herndon, Virginia through Young 20170 (insert percentAmerica’s Foundation. age, amount or nature Young America’s Foundation is the You will be honored at the Reagan Ranch. of gift, or remainder of estate) to be used for principal outreach You can visit the Ranch to see your name educational purposes. organization of on Freedom Wall! the Conservative Please contact Kimberly Martin Begg at Movement. Founded in 1969, Young 800-USA-1776 for more information.

America’s Foundation introduces Kimberly is a graduate of Young America’s thousands of young people to conservative Foundation’s programs and an attorney. ideas through national conferences, You can inspire young leaders at the Reagan She is not seeking to be your legal campus lectures and activism programs, Ranch, Ronald Reagan’s home of 25 years. representative, but she can help you pass internships, and on your ideas.

You and your attorney seminars at the Have you ever thought about what should feel free to call Kimberly or Ron Reagan Ranch and contribution you would offer to make Robinson, president of Young America’s the Reagan Ranch this world better than it is today?

Foundation, at any time.

Center.

Have you ever yearned to Young America’s communicate the ideas and principles you Foundation reaches hold dear to future generations of your new audiences with own family and community? Perhaps conservative ideas you already do so now, but you have not and protects the You can change considered how to continue achieving Reagan Ranch, lives & shape www.yaflegacy.org your goals when you are gone.

Ronald Reagan’s America’s future!

National Headquarters, F. M. Kirby Freedom Center, 110 Elden Street, Herndon, Virginia 20170, 800-USA-1776, www.yaf.org The Reagan Ranch Center, 217 State Street, Santa Barbara, California 93101, 888-USA-1776, www.reaganranch.org

© Copyright 2008 Young America’s Foundation

Exposing the Real Che Guevera Foundation Poster Honors Those Che Murdered

————————————————————————————————————————

By Humberto Fontova, Author & Columnist rnesto “Che” Guevara was second him from his cell in Havana’s La Cabana recalls how she begged for a meeting in command, chief executioner, prison, jerked his head back to gag him, with Fidel Castro’s chief executioner, and chief KGB liaison for a regime and started dragging him to the stake.

Ernesto “Che” Guevara, in order to try that jailed and tortured more Little “Rigo” pleaded his innocence to and save her 17-year-old son who was political prisoners as a percentage the very bloody end. But his pleas were condemned (without trial) to the firing of population than Stalin’s and garbled and difficult to understand. squad. Guevara graciously complied. executed more people as a “Come right in, senora,” percentage of population said Che as he opened the in its first three years door to his office. “Have a in power than Hitler’s seat.” Silently he listened to executed in its first six. her sobs and pleas; he then The regime Che picked up the phone right Guevara co-founded stole in front of her. “Execute the the savings and property Hernandez boy tonight,” of 6.4 million citizens Che barked as he slammed and made refugees of 20 the phone down. His goons percent of the population then dragged the hysterical from a nation formerly Mrs. Hernandez out. deluged with immigrants You’ll often find these and whose citizens people, with itchy noses and had achieved a higher red-rimmed eyes, ambling standard of living than amidst the long rows of those residing in half of white crosses at The Cuban Europe. Che Guevara’s Memorial in Miami’s Author and activist Humberto Fontova shares the true story about regime also shattered— Tamiami Park. It’s a miniChe Guevara’s murderous regime with students attending the 2007 through executions, Arlington Cemetery in honor National Conservative Student Conference. jailings, mass larceny, of Castro and Che’s murder and exile—virtually every victims. But the tombs are family on the island of Cuba. symbolic. Most of the bodies still lie in His struggles while being gagged and Many opponents of the Castro/ mass graves in Cuba. bound to the stake were also awkward.

Guevara regime qualify as the longestSome of these Cuban Memorial The boy had been a janitor in a Havana suffering political prisoners in modern visitors will be kneeling, others walking high school and was mentally retarded. history, having endured prison camps, His single mother had pleaded his case slowly, looking for a name. Many forced labor, and torture chambers with hysterical sobs. She had begged, clutch rosaries. Many of the ladies will for a period three times as long in beseeched, and finally proven to his be pressing their faces into the breast Che Guevara’s Gulag as Alexander prosecutors that it was a case of mistaken of a relative who drove them there—a Solzhenitsyn suffered in Stalin’s. The relative who wraps his arms around her identity. Her only son, a boy in such a Black Book of Communism estimates condition, couldn’t possibly have been “a spastically heaving shoulders. Try as there were 14,000 firing squad he might not to cry himself, he usually CIA agent planting bombs.” executions in Cuba by the end of the finds that the sobs wracking his mother, But his executioner had made himself 1960s. The mass-murder of defenseless very clear: “Judicial evidence is an grandmother, or aunt are contagious. men and boys was the one “genuine archaic bourgeois detail. We execute Yet, he’s often too young to remember accomplishment” in Che Guevara’s from Revolutionary conviction!” the face of his martyred uncle, father, or life. As a “guerrilla fighter,” Che failed cousin—the name they just recognized “FUEGO!” and the volley shattered abysmally, even comically. But statistics Rigo’s little bent body as he moaned and on the white cross. “Fusilado,” meaning only tell a small part of the tragedy. struggled awkwardly against his bounds, firing squad execution, is written below.

Rigoberto Hernandez was only 17 The elderly lady still holds a tissue blindfold, and gag. when Che Guevara’s soldiers dragged to her eyes and nose as they wait to Another mother, Rosa Hernandez,

E

28

Young America’s Foundation • Libertas

VICTIMSOF GUEVARA

cross the street. Her red-eyed grandson still has his arm around d her. She tells him how his freedommfighter grandfather yelled “Viva Cristo Rey!” or “Down with Communism!” the instant before the volley shattered his body. (When hen the wheels of justice finally turned d in 1967 and Che was cornered

by Bolivian Rangers, the massmurderer was revealed as unworthy thy to carry his victims’ slop buckets.

“Don’t shoot!” whimpered Guevara after dropping his fully loaded weapons. “I’m Che! I’m worth more to you alive than dead!”)

Still escorted by her grandson,, the grandmother crosses the street from Tamiami Park slowly and silently. They run into a dreadlocked youth coming out of a music store. His t-shirt sports the face of her husband’s murderer. They turn their heads in rage toward the store window.

They see the mass-murderer’s face again—this time on a huge poster with a $19.95 price tag. The poster reads, “Fight Oppression!”

That so many peoples’ heartache should be ignored is sad enough. But to celebrate the agent of their heartache on everything from cinema screens to t-shirts and snowboards to CD cases goes well beyond impropriety, especially in an age when “insensitivity” constitutes the social and career equivalent Che Guevara was an of a capital crime. international terrorist and mass murderer. During Young America’s his vicious campaigns to impose com munism on Foundation, however, has set countries throughout Lat in America, Che Guevara trained and mo out to rectify this outrageous tivated the Castro regime’s firing squads tha t executed thousands of and long-reigning injustice. men, women, and childre n.

All individuals used in this The grieving families and photo montage were mu rdered by Che and the Cuban regime, revealin g the truth of Che’s cruel, friends of Che Guevara’s murderous hypocrisy and acknowledging his cou ntless victims—known and unknown. victims are no longer alone.

The Foundation’s “Victims of Che Guevera” poster recreates the infamous picture of Che out of the images astro’s of those murdered by him and Castro’s ——————————————————————————————— h li regimes. This poster recognizes the lives Humberto Fontova is a columnist and author of several books including lost and celebrates the memory of their Exposing the Real Che Guevara and the Useful Idiots Who Idolize freedom-fighting families. To obtain a Him. He is a member of Young America’s Foundation’s campus lecture copy of this poster, please contact Young program. Contact Patrick Coyle at 800-USA-1776 to learn how you can America’s Foundation at www.yaf.org or bring Fontova and other speakers to your campus.

800-USA-1776.

THE CHE

SOURCE: Exposing the Real Che Guevara and the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Visit www.yaf.org to learn Him, by Humberto Fonto more about Young Ameri va, pages 70 and 92, 2007, ca’s Foundation. • Nation Reagan Ranch Center, Sentinel Publishing. Photo al Headquarters, F.M. Kirby 217 State Street, Santa graphs courtesy of Luis Barbara, California 93101 Freedom Center, 110 Elden Gonzalez Infante. , 888-USA-1776 • © Copyr Street, Herndon, Virgin ight 2007 Young Ameri ia 20170, 800-USA-1776 ca’s Foundation

Young America’s Foundation • Libertas

29

By Patrick X. Coyle, Vice President

ho can forget the first televised presidential debate between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy? Those listening to Nixon on the radio said that he was the clear winner. Yet those watching the debate on television said that Nixon’s performance was atrocious—a factor that swung the election in Kennedy’s favor. Today, the New Media not only impacts presidential elections even more than television impacted the 1960 presidential campaign, but it also influences every other facet of American life—from job hunting to dating to news

gathering. Most Americans are active participants in the New Media, with nearly 90 percent of us using the Internet on a regular basis. As a result, it is incumbent upon conservatives to articulate the positive message of limited government, a strong national defense, free enterprise, and traditional values using the waves of innovative technology.

Young America’s Foundation has launched multiple New Media efforts to ensure that we continue to reach increasing numbers of young people with your conservative ideas.

Y O U T U B E . C O M

Foundation Spokesman Jason Mattera teams up with Michelle Malkin’s blog, Hotair.com, to create short YouTube videos advancing a conservative message among young people.

30

YouTube is the premier website to “broadcast yourself.” Anyone can start an account, upload content, and potentially reach millions of people. When leftwing film producer Michael Moore challenged Fred Thompson to a debate on socialized medicine, Senator Thompson responded with a quick, yet powerful video that instantaneously garnered 29,000 views on YouTube.

Young America’s Foundation leads the young Conservative Movement with our videos reaching YouTube’s innumerable viewers. Just last fall, with a video camera in hand, Foundation Spokesman Jason Mattera confronted Representative Jack Murtha in the halls of Congress and asked him to apologize for labeling marines in Haditha,

Young America’s Foundation • Libertas

Iraq, as “cold-blooded” murderers. Murtha dodged the question by quickly sidestepping into an elevator. That video was viewed more than 90,000 times on YouTube alone, with millions of others being made aware of the incident through talk radio giants Rush, Hannity,

The Foundation’s YouTube channel, YAFTV, includes clips promoting upcoming Foundation programs, network television interviews with Foundation team members, informative segments from our campus lecture program, and more!

Ingraham, and Savage. Overall, more than 220,000 individuals have visited the Foundation’s YouTube channel, YAFTV, to see our Fox News interviews,

eye-catching videos promoting Foundation programs, informative recordings on bias in academia, and other vignettes revealing the destructiveness of liberal ideas.

F A C E B O O K . C O M What started as a social networking site for college students has quickly morphed into the granddaddy of all networking sites. In fact, Facebook.com is the seventh most visited website on the Internet with more than 60 million active users. Young America’s Foundation has the largest membership among conservative youth-oriented groups with more than 2,000 subscribed Facebook users. Facebook gives us the ability to keep up with student interests and immediately advertise our conferences as well as other

events to thousands of young people.

Furthermore, Facebook allows our students to invite other conservative students to join our group and sign up for our conferences. In many cases, Facebook is the medium through which young people are first made aware of Young America’s Foundation. In addition to our main Young America’s Foundation Facebook group, the Foundation also hosts groups directly related to the National Journalism Center, the Reagan Ranch, and supporting ROTC.

Via Facebook, Young America’s Foundation reaches millions of young people on the Internet’s most popular and fastest growing social networking site.

Students visiting the Foundation’s Facebook page can watch videos and view photos from recent events, network with likeminded students from around the world, and learn how to advance the Conservative Movement at their schools.

T O W N H A L L . C O M Townhall.com is one of the most popular conservative news sites on the web. Besides hosting the nation’s leading columnists, it features lectures by Young America’s Foundation’s most popular speakers, including John Ashcroft, Oliver North, Dinesh D’Souza, Ann Coulter, and Michelle Malkin. Through the Foundation’s partnership with Townhall, new lectures are added weekly, and the Conservative Movement’s superstars are now just one click away. More than

100,000 have already heard Foundation lectures via Townhall.com.

Young America’s Foundation has always been committed to ensuring that increasing numbers of young Americans understand and are inspired by the ideas of individual freedom, a strong national defense, free enterprise, and traditional values. Our principles remain timeless, and our ability to communicate remains cutting edge.

For more information about these and other New Media efforts, visit the Foundation’s website, www.yaf.org.

Young America’s Foundation • Libertas

31

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT

Author Launches Career at Young America’s Foundation –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––—— An Interview With Alumnus Dan Flynn By Roger Custer, Conference Director Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) cadets at Harvard and Yale to publicize vindictive bans on ROTC on campus. Some of this work was with current Foundation Director of Military Outreach Flagg Youngblood.

an “ism,” but a preference for the proven over the theories spun out of an intellectual’s brain.

Libertas: What type of work do you do today? What does it mean to you?

——————————————— Flynn: I am a full time author.

Crown Forum publishes my third book, A Conservative History of the American Left, in 2008. I’ve spent the last four years of my life researching and writing this book, so it means a great deal to me. I quit a well-paying Conservative Movement job in 2005 to focus on the book, so it has been a sacrifice.

These schools had no problem taking Department of Defense grants Author Dan Flynn served as a member of the Young Amerifor faculty or administraca’s Foundation team in the 1990s and credits the Foundators while impeding stution with launching his writing career. dents from participating Libertas: What was your earliest in ROTC on campus. The uproar involvement with Young America’s resulted in a law that allowed the Foundation? How did you become federal government to withhold funds Libertas: What advice would you involved? from schools that ban ROTC. Young give to current college activists, especially those at very liberal colleges?

——————————————— America’s Foundation leads an effort ——————————————— Flynn: I became involved in Young to get the government to enforce that Flynn: Focus on your campus America’s Foundation in 1993 when law today. the Foundation challenged me to do Libertas: What more on campus. UMass – Amherst book or author was in the process of naming its library in honor of radical anti-Ameri- do you recommend young can Stalinist W.E.B. Du Bois, and the conservatives Foundation offered its support while read? Why? we exposed this.

——————— Libertas: What impact has Young Flynn: FredAmerica’s Foundation had on your life? eric Bastiat’s The ——————————————— Law is an easy Flynn: Young America’s Foundation read conveying a was my first “real” job. I met my wife simple idea. Eric through Young America’s Foundation. Hoffer’s The My career as a writer really started True Believer there. The impact was profound. is excellent, as is Russell Libertas: What was your role as a Kirk’s The member of the Foundation team?

Conservative ——————————————— Mind. Kirk Flynn: At Young America’s Founda- teaches that con- Dan Flynn addresses students at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst in 1995. tion in the mid 1990s, I worked with servatism isn’t

32

Young America’s Foundation • Libertas

Libertas: If you could meet any historical figure, who would it be, and why?

——————————————— Flynn: Jesus Christ, who could inspire and advise me on how to live a better life.

Libertas: Where do you see yourself ten years from now?

——————————————— Flynn: My dream job is my current job, writing books, which doesn’t seem like a job at all but what I enjoy doing in my free time anyhow.

Author Dan Flynn meets with students at Connecticut College in 2007.

because that’s where your attention is needed and where you can be most effective. Take classes that will be valuable in making you a wellrounded person.

Libertas: What is your favorite movie? Why? ——————————————— Flynn: M. Night Shyamalan’s Unbreakable is my favorite movie.

Its use of color and music, the theme of the relationship between good and evil, and the sub-theme of how sons view their fathers as heroes appeals to me.

Dan Flynn reaches young leaders at Washington University in St. Louis. Flynn, a frequent lecturer for Young America’s Foundation, speaks on his books, Why the Left Hates America and Intellectual Morons: How Ideology Makes Smart People Fall for Stupid Ideas.

About Author Dan Flynn ––––––––––––––––———————————————————————————————––––––––––––

Author Dan Flynn began his work with the Foundation as a student in the early 1990s. From 1994-1997 he served as a program officer with the Foundation, where his work included protecting students’ military rights on campus.

Flynn has since written three books, the most recent of which is A Conservative History of the ons American Left. His other works include Why the Left Hates America (2002) and Intellectual Morons t (2004). His articles have appeared in The Boston Globe, The American Enterprise, the Washington Times, Human Events, and National Review Online, among other publications. He has been interviewed on Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, Sky News, Showtime, PBS, and Court TV, and has appeared as a guest on several hundred radio talk shows. Flynn also maintains a blog, www.flynnfiles.com, and is a popular Foundation campus lecturer. Contact Patrick Coyle at 800-USA-1776 to bring Dan Flynn to your campus!

Young America’s Foundation • Libertas

33

S TA F F P R O F I L E

also makes repairs to the different structures on the Ranch from time to time.

George prepares Rancho del

By Meredith Ramsey, Development Officer Cielo to welcome visiting students, supporters, and other guests. He enjoys interactions with all of the students and Corps in the 1960s, George supporters who visit the Ranch, but he returned to his home in Santa particularly cherished the opportunity Monica, California, and worked to meet Foundation supporters Scott in the pool business. George served and Bonnie Bartosch. The Bartoschs as Ronald Reagan’s pool boy for a donated a tractor for George to use to few years and enjoyed occasional maintain the Ranch in 2006. interactions with the actor. He George and his wife also love hosting also had the opportunity to meet the crew of the USS Ronald Reagan Ronald Reagan several times at the at Rancho del Cielo. For the past two annual gathering of the Rancheros years the chief candidates from the ship Vistadores, an have participated in work week elite social and weekends at the Ranch.

“When you love Geor likes having the equestrian group George and respect the to which both Navy at the Ranch becaus they accomplish so George and person the place cause man tasks that George the President many represents, you cann undertake alone. belonged. cannot n After George He notes, “I love watchcan’t help but t retired from ing them get things done. want to do more.” It is an a honor and pleathe business he started, GT sure to have them here at R Sales, one of the Ranch.”

Yo his friends from Young America’s t d th F d ti greatly tl appreciates George the Rancheros suggested thatt h he Foundation apply to take care of President and Stephanie Thompson’s commitment Reagan Ranch Manager George Thompson first Reagan’s property. Mr. Thompson to maintaining the Ranch and dedication met Ronald Reagan while working as his pool boy in the 1960s. Today, George and his wife, is the perfect person for the job. to seeing that President Reagan’s ideas Stephanie, live in the caretaker’s house at the George does not take his respon- and principles are passed on to future Ranch and maintain the land, buildings, and sibilities at the Ranch lightly; his generations. Mrs. Thompson summarized animals that reside on the President’s beloved goal is to “keep the Ranch the same her and George’s enthusiasm for their 688 acres. as the President would have wanted work at the Ranch: “When you love and eorge Thompson is a blessed it, so that if he showed up one day, he respect the person the place represents, man. He enjoys working and could go out riding with John [Barletta] you can’t help but want to do more.” living just as President Reagan and me.” To that end, did atop the Santa Ynez Mountains at George works each day Rancho del Cielo. to preserve and maintain In January 2005, Young America’s the Ranch.

Foundation charged George Thompson Each morning, with the important responsibility he feeds the horses of maintaining, preserving, and and longhorn cattle securing the Reagan Ranch for current that roam the Ranch. visitors and many future generations He works with the of Americans. George lives in the gardeners, cleaners, caretaker’s house at the Ranch with and other specialists to his wife, Stephanie, and serves as the ensure that the Ranch full-time Reagan Ranch manager; he buildings and grounds is an essential member of the Young are pristine. George America’s Foundation team. spends much of his George Thompson has a history of time on his tractor George Thompson meets with Foundation supporters and serving the President. After completing harrowing the roads, Reagan Ranch Presidential Scholar George Allen at Rancho his service in the United States Marine trails, and pasture. He del Cielo.

Preserving the President’s Home –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––——

G

34

Young America’s Foundation • Libertas

The Ultimate Destination for Young Conservatives The National Conservative Student Conference Igniting the Movement Since 1979!

When: August 3-9, 2008 Where: The George Washington University, Washington, D.C.

F

or three decades, Young America’s Foundation’s National Conservative Student Conference has introduced young people to your ideas through the very leaders who have shaped our Conservative Movement—from Presidents to Nobel Laureates to best-selling authors and public policy officials. You can be a part of history as we celebrate the 30th anniversary of the only event of its kind bringing today’s students together with conservatism’s biggest stars.

“Young America’s Foundation has been a refuge for students seeking an alternative to the politically correct environment enforced on many campuses. I know the conference will send you back to your campuses better informed, motivated and trained.”

PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN

Apply Today!* Space is Limited!

800-USA-1776

•

w w w. y a f . o r g

*The early-bird conference fee of $325/person covers tuition, meals, housing, and materials. After June 1, the fee is $375/person.

National Headquarters, F.M. Kirby Freedom Center, 110 Elden Street, Herndon, Virginia 20170 The Reagan Ranch Center, 217 State Street, Santa Barbara, California 93101

© Copyright 2008 Young America’s Foundation

J

ulie Taylor from Kansas State (left) and Carla Shutrop from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota (right), visit President Reagan’s beloved ranch during a weekend-long Reagan Ranch seminar on radical Islam and the threat it poses to our country and our freedoms.

Young America’s Foundation Libertas magazine www.yaf.org

Vol. 29 • No. 1 Spring 2008 National Headquarters F.M. Kirby Freedom Center 110 Elden Street Herndon, Virginia 20170 800-USA-1776 CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED

NON PROFIT ORG US POSTAGE PAID HERNDON, VA PERMIT NO 6551