Mel Bradford - NEH Nomination

NEH Nomination

In 1980, Bradford was initially tapped by President-elect Ronald Reagan for chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. According to David Gordon, "Reagan’s wish to elevate him to the prestigious post did not stem solely from Bradford’s academic credentials. The president and he were acquaintances, and he had worked hard in Reagan’s campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. Influential conservatives such as Russell Kirk and Sen. Jesse Helms also knew and admired Bradford." The selection met with intense objections from neoconservative figures, centering partly on Bradford's criticisms of President Abraham Lincoln. They circulated quotes of Bradford calling Lincoln "a dangerous man," and saying, "The image of Lincoln rose to be very dark" and "indeed almost sinister." He was even accused of comparing Lincoln to Adolf Hitler. "Bradford rejected Lincoln because he saw him as a revolutionary, intent on replacing the American Republic established by the Constitution with a centralized and leveling despotism." Another issue was Bradford's support for the 1972 presidential campaign of George C. Wallace. The neoconservative choice, William Bennett, was substituted for Bradford on November 13, 1981.

A letter supporting Bradford's nomination, sent to President Reagan during the controversy, was signed by John East, Jesse Helms, John Tower, Strom Thurmond, Orrin Hatch, Jeremiah Denton, Dan Quayle and James McClure and eight other Republican senators. Russell Kirk, Jeffrey Hart, William Buckley, Gerhart Niemeyer, M. Stanton Evans, Andrew Lytle, Harry Jaffa ("Bradford’s principal intellectual antagonist"), and "dozens of others" were also named as supporters. Norman Podhoretz, Irving Kristol, William Kristol, Michael Joyce and William Simon were among Bennett's supporters.