Later there was an exchange in magazines, and Buckley went after Vidal, but Vidal was just savage going back into the background of Buckley's family, as I recall. It was really a brutal, over-the-top piece. And as I recollect it, that really terminated any kind of relationship. Vidal was a tremendously gifted writer. But John, in those days he was very flamboyant as a homosexual, given the books he wrote, "The Pillar," "Myra Breckinridge," and everything like that. Bobby Kennedy is supposed to have almost gotten in a fistfight with him when he asked the first lady to dance. You know, he grew up in this area right down the street from me at Marywood, where Jackie Kennedy drew up. But he was an enormously talented guy; there's no doubt about it. And in this sense, he was courageous, in my view. He was a devoted antiwar sort of America-first guy. He was very gracious to me when I was running in those campaigns. And he's an American talent. It's undeniable.

-Pat Buchanan