by Patrick J. Buchanan – August 29, 1997

With Poland’s membership in NATO at issue, a question has arisen as to whether America owes a debt to the Polish people for Franklin D. Roosevelt’s having “betrayed” the Polish nation to Joseph Stalin at Yalta.

Undersecretary of State Stuart Eizenstat has lately raised the issue of a moral debt to Poland for the 1945 summit where FDR accepted Stalin’s assurances of free elections. Eizenstat was taken to task by columnist Lars-Erik Nelson for repeating a “50-year-old right-wing slander.” Robert Novak defended the “betrayed” thesis.

by Patrick J. Buchanan – August 25, 1997

There is a purpose to that “rat line” at Virginia Military Institute. As a mustang’s spirit must be broken to make it a war horse, so tough, willful, rebellious 17-year-old boys need to learn obedience to command to become good soldiers. A rifle platoon is, after all, neither a debating society nor a democracy.

But what was the purpose of those four VMI upperclassmen, photographed last week screaming in the face of a female cadet half their size? What would the chivalrous Robert E. Lee, beau ideal of Southern military manhood, think of 22-year-old Southern officers and gentlemen bellowing at and bullyragging 17-year-old girls?

by Patrick J. Buchanan – August 22, 1997

For the first time in years, the entering classes of California state law schools are no longer under affirmative action. University regents abolished it.

The results are astonishing. In 1996, 473 blacks and Hispanics were accepted to California state law schools; this year, the number fell to 229. At Berkeley alone, acceptance of blacks and Hispanics fell from 165 in 1996 to 64 this fall. Racial discrimination against white and Asian students in previous classes was apparently far broader than imagined.

by Patrick J. Buchanan – August 18, 1997

The anchorman’s voice had that “can you believe this?” tone to it as he hammered home the phrase “license to kill!”

Cause of his shock? Louisiana’s new “shoot the carjacker” law, which says that a victim of a carjacking can shoot and kill the thief, and it’s “case closed” as far as Louisiana is concerned. Just file a notch on the old Smith & Wesson.

by Patrick J. Buchanan – August 15, 1997

For the huge taxpayer bailout of Washington, and D.C.’s loss of “home rule,” one man is being blamed. Mayor Marion Barry, it is said, dragged the nation’s capital to the brink of bankruptcy, and Congress and Bill Clinton had no choice but to snatch the city away.

Sorry, it’s not that simple. No one man created this ruin, and no numbers-crunching “control board” is going to heal this city. For the crisis is not due to mismanagement alone. Washington, D.C., represents the failure of an ideology, and until the idiot ideas that are killing this city are exposed and expunged, it will not recover.

by Patrick J. Buchanan – August 11, 1997

How conservative is North Carolina? Well, says a friend who moved there: “Down here, Jesse Helms is our liberal senator.” Last week, North Carolina added to its 24-carat reputation.

An Alamance County jury ordered $1 million paid to a jilted wife — by the woman who allegedly stole her husband. Dorothy Hutelmyer, age 40, contended in court that in 1994, her husband was enticed into an affair by his secretary, who had begun wearing short skirts and joining him on business trips. This year, her husband divorced her, after 19 years of marriage and three children, to marry the secretary-mistress. The jury awarded Mrs.

by Patrick J. Buchanan – August 8, 1997

How did they get in? That question quickly came to mind on reading that two illegal aliens had been arrested in New York hours before they allegedly were going to blow themselves up, along with a few dozen unsuspecting commuters, at a subway station.

As for Ghazi Ibrahim Abu Maizar, we know how he got in. As Timothy Egan of The New York Times writes, he “followed a typical pattern for illegal immigrants. … He hiked into the Cascade Mountain woods from Canada last year and simply walked into the United States.” Caught, he was sent back. He then strolled across the border again, was caught again and was tossed back again. Then, he rode in by bus, was arrested and requested asylum.