Gore Vidal & Roy Cohn: Classic interview

This is a rare TV interview between two rival voices from post-World War II America: lawyer Roy Cohn and author Gore Vidal.

Since the program alluded to this topic, it should be pointed out that these gentlemen were notably known as two of the most famous homosexuals in the United States.

They also all had very controversial relationships with the “conservative” William F. Buckley Jr. of the CIA, which helped destroy the peace-minded, anti-interventionist Old Right against FDR’s foreign/domestic policies and Harry Truman for the intelligence community.

Roy Cohn was an American attorney and prosecutor who rose to prominence for his role as chief counsel to Senator Joseph McCarthy during the 1954 Army-McCarthy hearings, when he assisted McCarthy’s investigations into suspected communists in the federal government. In the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, he became a prominent political fixer in New York City with a variety of clients ranging from counsel for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York to mouthpiece for the Mafia.

After resigning from McCarthy’s staff, Cohn had a 30-year career as a lawyer in New York City. His clients included George Steinbrenner, owner of the New York Yankees baseball club; billionaire oil shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis (who married JFK widow Jaqueline Kennedy); Mafia figures Tony Salerno, Carmine Galante, John Gotti and Mario Gigante; Studio 54 nightclub owners Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager; and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York.

He also represented and mentored New York City real estate developer and later U.S. President Donald Trump during his early business career.

Cohn was born in the Bronx in New York City and attended Columbia University. He rose to prominence as a prosecutor for the United States Department of Justice during the espionage trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, where he successfully prosecuted the Rosenbergs, leading to their conviction and execution in 1953.

In 1986, Cohn was disbarred by the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court for unethical conduct after he attempted to defraud a dying client by forcing the client to sign an amendment to his will, which gave him his fortune. He died five weeks later of AIDS-related complications, after vehemently denying that he was HIV-positive.

As for Gore Vidal, see this article below (my first published piece on LewRockwell.com as a guest columnist).

Gore Vidal, American Cicero