William F Buckley Jr

(1925-2008) Political commentator and author

William F Buckley Jr (1925-2008) was an American political commentator and author. He was educated at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and commissioned as a second lieutenant in the US Army after graduating from the US Army Officer Candidate School in 1944. He enrolled at Yale after the Second World War, where he became a member of the Conservative Party and the Yale Politican Union, and joined the Yale Daily News as Chairman. After graduating with a degree in political science, history, and economics in 1950, he joined the CIA, where he served for two years. Buckley then briefly worked for The American Mercury as Editor in the early 1950s before founding the conservative magazine The National Review, where he served as Editor-in-Chief until 1990. His column On The Right was syndicated in more than 300 newspapers across the US, and he hosted the television interview show Firing Line between 1966 and 1999.

Buckley founded the Young Americans For Freedom movement in 1960 and later served as a United Nations delegate (1973). He joined the Board of Directors of Amnesty International in the late 1960s, but resigned in 1978 to protest against their position on capital punishment. In 1965, he ran for the position of mayor of New York City, ultimately coming third with around 13.5% of the votes. Buckley is also the author of numerous books on politics, including The Regan I Knew (2008), God and Man at Yale (1951), and McCarthy and His Enemies (1954, with L Brent Bozell Jr), and wrote eleven spy novels featuring the character Blackford Oakes. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1991.

William F Buckley Junior died at his home in Connecticut on February 27th 2008 after suffering a heart attack.