Understanding U.S. empire: Classic conversation with Gore Vidal

 

 

Eugene Luther Gore Vidal (October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and public intellectual known for his epigrammatic wit, erudition, and patrician manner. He twice sought office—unsuccessfully—as a Democratic Party candidate, first in 1960 to the U.S. House of Representatives (for New York), and later in 1982 to the U.S. Senate (for California).

A grandson of a U.S. Senator, Vidal was born into an upper-class political family. As a political commentator and essayist, Vidal's primary focus was the history and society of the United States, especially how a militaristic foreign policy reduced the country to a decadent empire.

As a novelist, Vidal explored the nature of corruption in public and private life.

 In the 1960s, Vidal migrated to Italy, where he befriended the film director Federico Fellini, for whom he appeared in a cameo role in the film Roma (1972).

Vidal (one of the great public characters of our time) repeatedly calls himself an 'anti-imperialist' during this fascinating interview. He names the 'Eastern establishment' as the primary source of power in the US and expresses his contempt for the 'one-party' corporate control of the US government these days.