Bruce Herschensohn RIP

The report in City Journal of the death of conservative stalwart Bruce Herschensohn at age 88 on November 30 caught me off guard. I thought Bruce Herschensohn was older, at least he was quite old when I last watched him in an online colloquy about five years ago.

I knew Bruce Herschensohn only by association with Frank Shakespeare (age 95) who worked very hard to get Herschensohn appointed head of the agency that in 1981 was overseer of the Voice of America.

At the time, I was trying to be appointed head of Cultural Affairs at USICA and I asked Shakespeare for help.  He shook his head and said, “Charlie Wick wants USICA.”

I know, Ronald Reagan gave lots of political conservatives top jobs in his Administration but appointing Charles Wick over Bruce Herschensohn destroyed the careers in government of the top public diplomacy experts in the conservative movement. In my account, published at Theimaginativeconservative.org, I likened the experience of those of us who worked for Wick to the destruction of the careers of those who now work for Donald Trump.

Bruce Herschensohn would never have allowed that to happen.