Suite 3505: The Story of the Draft Goldwater Movement F. Clifton White with William J. Gill Introduction by Forrest McDonald

Perhaps one of the most significant events in modern American political history was the formation of the Draft Goldwater movement. Many have said that those events in the mid-1960s were the harbinger of the Reagan presidency and the catalyst for the ascendancy of the Conservative movement. And with that Conservative movement now in a period of reevaluation, what better place to look to for guidance than the beginning? Suite 3505, originally published in 1967, is the story of that beginning, as told by one of its founders, F. Clifton White.

Mr. White has been one of the most influential figures in the Conservative movement for the past 30-odd years. He had the especially difficult mission to take advantage of the growing disillusionment with both the "New Frontier" Democrats and the "Me-Too" Republicans and form a coalition to put a Conservative candidate on the Republican ticket...and in the White House. Thus with the rallying cry of "A Choice, Not An Echo," the Draft Goldwater movement began.

Suite 3505 is the insider's view of those heady years and an examination of the factors that lead to the Senator's phenomenal popularity and ultimate defeat. If follows the Goldwater movement from the "secret" meetings of a few dedicated Conservatives chasing an unpopular goal, through the remarkable proceedings at the Republican Convention where the American people were able...perhaps for the first time in a long time...to vote their consciences. And it hits all points in between: the initial struggle to keep afloat in light of heavy financial burdens and a hostile party machine, the groundswell of popular support that pushed a dark horse to the top of the polls, the Bay of Pigs fiasco, Kennedy's assassination, and the long ordeal of the primaries.

Suite 3505, at once history, analysis, memoir, and political text-book, provides valuable lessons to the thoughtful reader and student of modern conservatism.

"What so many conservatives seem to forget is that their philosophic position is historically the most positive approach to government ever devised by man. But they are against them only because they correctly see the development of an all-powerful central state as the moral enemy of what they are for...namely, maximum freedom for the individual without encroachment on the right of others." ...from Suite 3505

F. Clifton White was the director of the John M. Ashbrook Center for Public Affairs at Ashland University, Ashland, Ohio; the Chairman of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems in Washington, D.C.; and a Public Affairs Counselor. He has been active in politics since 1948, and has played important roles in every Republican presidential campaign from the founding of the Draft Goldwater movement to the Reagan Revolution. His vast political experience has given him the reputation of being "the politician's politician."

Table of Contents

Acknowledgement
Forward
  Forrest McDonald

BOOK ONE: GENESIS
  The Cow Palace
  The Past is Prologue
  Three Men in Manhattan
  The First Meeting
  The Senator Listens
  Suite 3505
  Valley Forge
  The Distant Drums
  Strange Honeymoon
  The "Secret" Meeting
  The "Plot" Unmasked

BOOK TWO: THE DRAFT
  The Non-Candidate
  The Draft Begins
  The Women
  Out Ahead
  In Orbit
  The Moderate Extremists
  Rally in Washington
  The Goldwater Summer
  "Meet Mister Kitchel"
  The Prodigal's Return

BOOK THREE: DALLAS: BEFORE AND AFTER
  High Tide
  Dallas
  Limbo
  The Arizona Mafia
  Preview in New Hampshire

BOOK FOUR: COUNTDOWN
  Countdown I
  Countdown II: The Bountiful Fortnight
  Countdown III: The Fire Escape
  Countdown IV: California
  Countdown V: The Last Lap
  The "Reluctant" Candidate

BOOK FIVE: CONVENTION
  San Francisco I
  San Francisco II
  San Francisco III

Epilogue

Appendix A: Goldwater's Speech on the Test Ban Treaty - September 19, 1963

Appendix B: Goldwater's Speech on Civil Rights - June 18, 1964

Appendix C: Roll Call Vote - 1964 Republican National Convention

Appendix D: Governor Scranton's letter to Goldwater - July 12, 1964

Appendix E: Goldwater's Acceptance Speech at National Convention

Index