Barry Goldwater

Goldwater was outspoken about the Eisenhower administration, calling some of the policies of the Eisenhower administration too liberal for a Republican president. "...Democrats delighted in pointing out that the junior senator was so headstrong that he had gone out his way to criticize the president of his own party."[38] There was a Democratic majority in Congress for most of Eisenhower's career and Goldwater felt that President Dwight Eisenhower was compromising too much with Democrats in order to get legislation passed. Early on in his career as a senator for Arizona, he criticized the $71.8 billion budget that President Eisenhower sent to Congress, stating "Now, however, I am not so sure. A $71.8 billion budget not only shocks me, but it weakens my faith."[39] Goldwater opposed Eisenhower's pick of Earl Warren for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. "The day that Eisenhower appointed Governor Earl Warren of California as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Goldwater did not hesitate to express his misgivings."[40]

In his first year in the Senate, Goldwater was responsible for the desegregation of the Senate cafeteria after he insisted that his black legislative assistant, Katherine Maxwell, be served along with every other Senate employee.[36]

Goldwater and the Eisenhower administration supported the integration of schools in the south, but Goldwater felt the states should choose how they wanted to integrate and should not be forced by the federal government. "Goldwater criticized the use of federal troops. He accused the Eisenhower administration of violating the Constitution by assuming powers reserved by the states. While he agreed that under the law, every state should have integrated its schools, each state should integrate in its own way."[41] There were high-ranking government officials following Goldwater's critical stance on the Eisenhower administration, even an Army General. "Fulbright's startling revelation that military personnel were being indoctrinated with the idea that the policies of the Commander in Chief were treasonous dovetailed with the return to the news of the strange case of General Edwin Walker."[42]

Goldwater voted in favor of both Civil Rights Act of 1957 and the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution but did not vote on the Civil Rights Act of 1960.[43][44][45] While he did vote in favor of it while in committee, Goldwater's record on Civil Rights would come to be defined by his decision to ultimately vote against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 when it came to the floor.[46] Congressional Republicans overwhelmingly supported the bill, with Goldwater being joined by only 5 other Republican senators in voting against it.[47][48] It is likely Goldwater severely underestimated the reception this single vote would have on his reputation and legacy, though he never expressed regret over it.[35]

Republican primaries results by state

No primary held   John W. Byrnes   Barry Goldwater   Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.

James A. Rhodes   Nelson Rockefeller   William W. Scranton

In South Dakota and Florida, Goldwater finished second to "unpledged delegates", but he finished before all other candidates

Goldwater was grief-stricken[51] by the assassination of Kennedy and was greatly disappointed that his opponent in 1964 would not be Kennedy but instead his vice president, former Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas.[52] Goldwater disliked Johnson, later saying he "used every dirty trick in the bag." Goldwater struggled to emotionally recover for a campaign against Lyndon Johnson. The fallout from Kennedy's assassination, coupled with Goldwater's vote against the 1964 Civil Rights Act, greatly reduced his viability as a national candidate as well as his popularity within the Republican party.

At the time of Goldwater's presidential candidacy, the Republican Party was split between its conservative wing (based in the West and South) and moderate/liberal wing, sometimes called Rockefeller Republicans (based in the Northeast). Goldwater alarmed even some of his fellow partisans with his brand of staunch fiscal conservatism and militant anti-communism. He was viewed by many traditional Republicans as being too far on the right wing of the political spectrum to appeal to the mainstream majority necessary to win a national election. As a result, moderate Republicans recruited a series of opponents, including New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania Governor William Scranton, to challenge him. Goldwater received a solid backing from most of the few Southern Republicans then in politics. A young Birmingham lawyer, John Grenier, secured commitments from 271 of 279 Southern convention delegates to back Goldwater. Grenier would serve as executive director of the national GOP during the Goldwater campaign, the number 2 position to party chairman Dean Burch of Arizona. Goldwater fought and won a multi-candidate race for the Republican Party's presidential nomination. Goldwater's main rival was New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, whom he defeated by a narrow margin in California's winner take all primary, a win that secured the Goldwater's victory for the nomination.

Eisenhower gave his support to Goldwater when he told reporters, "I personally believe that Goldwater is not an extremist as some people have made him, but in any event we're all Republicans."[53] His nomination was staunchly opposed by the so-called Liberal Republicans, who thought Goldwater's demand for active measures to defeat the Soviet Union, would foment a nuclear war. In addition to Rockefeller, Prominent Republican office holders across the north-east refused to endorse Goldwater's candidacy, including both Republican Senators from New York Kenneth B. Keating and Jacob Javits, Governor Scranton of Pennsylvania and Congressman John V. Lyndsay (NY-17).[54] Lifelong Republican Jackie Robinson famously walked out of the convention in disgust over the party nominating a candidate who had voted against the Civil Rights Act.[55]

In the face of such opposition, Goldwater delivered a well-received acceptance speech. The author Lee Edwards says "[Goldwater] devoted more care [to it] than to any other speech in his political career. And with good reason: he would deliver it to the largest and most attentive audience of his life."[56] Journalist John Adams says, "his acceptance speech was bold, reflecting his conservative views, but not irrational. Rather than shrinking from those critics who accuse him of extremism, Goldwater challenged them head-on" in his acceptance speech at the 1964 Republican Convention.[57] In his own words:

I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.[58]

His paraphrase of Cicero was included at the suggestion of Harry V. Jaffa, though the speech was primarily written by Karl Hess. Because of President Johnson's popularity, Goldwater refrained from attacking the president directly. He did not mention Johnson by name at all in his convention speech.

President Lyndon B. Johnson with Senator Goldwater, January 16, 1964

Ronald Reagan speaks for presidential candidate Goldwater in Los Angeles, 1964

Former U.S. Senator Prescott Bush, a moderate Republican from Connecticut, was a friend of Goldwater and supported him in the general election campaign. Bush's son, George H. W. Bush (then running for the Senate from Texas against Democrat Ralph Yarborough), was also a strong Goldwater supporter in both the nomination and general election campaigns.

Future Chief Justice of the United States and fellow Arizonan William H. Rehnquist also first came to the attention of national Republicans through his work as a legal adviser to Goldwater's presidential campaign. Rehnquist had begun his law practice in 1953 in the firm of Denison Kitchel of Phoenix, Goldwater's national campaign manager and friend of nearly three decades.[59]

Goldwater was painted as a dangerous figure by the Johnson campaign, which countered Goldwater's slogan "In your heart, you know he's right" with the lines "In your guts, you know he's nuts," and "In your heart, you know he might" (that is, he might actually use nuclear weapons as opposed to using only deterrence). Johnson himself did not mention Goldwater in his own acceptance speech at the 1964 Democratic National Convention.

Goldwater's provocative advocacy of active interventionism to prevent the spread of communism and defend American values and allies led to effective counterattacks from Lyndon B. Johnson and his supporters, who claimed that Goldwater's militancy would have dire consequences, possibly even nuclear war. In a May 1964 speech, Goldwater suggested that nuclear weapons should be treated more like conventional weapons and used in Vietnam, specifically that they should have been used at Dien Bien Phu in 1954 to defoliate trees.[60] Regarding Vietnam, Goldwater charged that Johnson's policy was devoid of "goal, course, or purpose," leaving "only sudden death in the jungles and the slow strangulation of freedom".[61] Goldwater's rhetoric on nuclear war was viewed by many as quite uncompromising, a view buttressed by off-hand comments such as, "Let's lob one into the men's room at the Kremlin."[62] He also advocated that field commanders in Vietnam and Europe should be given the authority to use tactical nuclear weapons (which he called "small conventional nuclear weapons") without presidential confirmation.[63]

1964 presidential campaign bumper sticker representing the Goldwater surname as Au = gold and H₂O = water

Goldwater countered the Johnson attacks by criticizing the administration for its perceived ethical lapses, and stating in a commercial that "we, as a nation, are not far from the kind of moral decay that has brought on the fall of other nations and people.... I say it is time to put conscience back in government. And by good example, put it back in all walks of American life." Goldwater campaign commercials included statements of support by actor Raymond Massey[64] and moderate Republican senator Margaret Chase Smith.[65]

Before the 1964 election, Fact magazine, published by Ralph Ginzburg, ran a special issue titled "The Unconscious of a Conservative: A Special Issue on the Mind of Barry Goldwater". The two main articles contended that Goldwater was mentally unfit to be president. The magazine supported this claim with the results of a poll of board-certified psychiatrists. Fact had mailed questionnaires to 12,356 psychiatrists, receiving responses from 2,417, of whom 1,189 said Goldwater was mentally incapable of holding the office of president. Most of the other respondents declined to diagnose Goldwater because they had not clinically interviewed him, but claimed that, although not psychologically unfit to preside, Goldwater would be negligent and egregious in the role.[66][67]

After the election, Goldwater sued the publisher, the editor and the magazine for libel in Goldwater v. Ginzburg. "Although the jury awarded Goldwater only $1.00 in compensatory damages against all three defendants, it went on to award him punitive damages of $25,000 against Ginzburg and $50,000 against Fact magazine, Inc."[68] According to Warren Boroson, then-managing editor of Fact and later a financial columnist, the main biography of Goldwater in the magazine was written by David Bar-Illan, the Israeli pianist.[69]

A Democratic campaign advertisement known as Daisy showed a young girl counting daisy petals, from one to ten. Immediately following this scene, a voiceover counted down from ten to one. The child's face was shown as a still photograph followed by images of nuclear explosions and mushroom clouds. The campaign advertisement ended with a plea to vote for Johnson, implying that Goldwater (though not mentioned by name) would provoke a nuclear war if elected. The advertisement, which featured only a few spoken words and relied on imagery for its emotional impact, was one of the most provocative in American political campaign history, and many analysts credit it as being the birth of the modern style of "negative political ads" on television. The ad aired only once and was immediately pulled, but it was then shown many times by local television stations covering the controversy.[70]

Goldwater did not have ties to the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), but he was publicly endorsed by members of the organization.[71][72] Lyndon B. Johnson exploited this association during the elections,[73][74][75] but Goldwater barred the KKK from supporting him and denounced them.[76]

Past comments came back to haunt Goldwater throughout the campaign. He had once called the Eisenhower administration "a dime-store New Deal" and the former president never fully forgave him. However, Eisenhower did film a television commercial with Goldwater.[77] Eisenhower qualified his voting for Goldwater in November by remarking that he had voted not specifically for Goldwater, but for the Republican Party.[78] In December 1961, Goldwater had told a news conference that "sometimes I think this country would be better off if we could just saw off the Eastern Seaboard and let it float out to sea." That comment boomeranged on him during the campaign in the form of a Johnson television commercial,[79] as did remarks about making Social Security voluntary,[80] and statements in Tennessee about selling the Tennessee Valley Authority, a large local New Deal employer.[81]

The Goldwater campaign spotlighted Ronald Reagan, who appeared in a campaign ad.[82] In turn, Reagan gave a stirring, nationally televised speech, "A Time for Choosing", in support of Goldwater.[83] The speech prompted Reagan to seek the California Governorship in 1966 and jump-started his political career. Conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly, later well known for her fight against the Equal Rights Amendment, first became known for writing a pro-Goldwater book, A Choice, Not an Echo, attacking the moderate Republican establishment.

Presidential election results by state

Goldwater lost to President Lyndon Johnson by a landslide, pulling down the Republican Party which lost many seats in both houses of Congress.

Goldwater only won his home state of Arizona and five states in the Deep South. The Southern states, traditionally Democratic up to that time, voted Republican primarily as a statement of opposition to the Civil Rights Act, which had been signed into law by Johnson earlier that year. Outside of the South the law was extremely popular. Despite Johnson support for the Civil Rights Act, the bill received split support from Congressional Democrats due to southernern opposition. In contrast, Congressional Republicans overwhelmingly supported the bill, with Goldwater being joined by only 5 other Republican senators in voting against it.[47][48] Outside of the South, the Civil Rights Act was extremely popular and Goldwater's opposition to it hurt him significantly with voters across the country, including from his own party.

In the end, Goldwater received 38% of the popular vote, and carried just six states: Arizona (with 51% of the popular vote) and the core states of the Deep South: Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina. In carrying Georgia by a margin of 54–45%, Goldwater became the first Republican nominee to win the state. However, the overall result was the worst showing in terms of popular vote and electoral college vote for any post-World War II Republican. Indeed, he wouldn't have even carried his own state if not for a 20,000-vote margin in Maricopa County.

Johnson won an overwhelming 486 electoral votes, to Goldwater's 52. Goldwater, with his customary bluntness, remarked, "We would have lost even if Abraham Lincoln had come back and campaigned with us." He maintained later in life that he would have won the election if the country had not been in a state of extended grief following the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and that it was simply not ready for a third president in just 14 months.

Goldwater's poor showing pulled down many supporters. Of the 57 Republican Congressmen who endorsed Goldwater before the convention, 20 were defeated for reelection, along with many promising young Republicans. In contrast, Republican Congressman John Lindsay (NY-17), who refused to endorse Goldwater was handily re-elected in a district where Democrats held a 10% overall advantage.[84] On the other hand, the defeat of so many older politicians created openings for young conservatives to move up the ladder. While the loss of moderate Republicans was temporary—they were back by 1966—Goldwater also permanently pulled many conservative Southerners and white ethnics out of the New Deal Coalition.[85]

According to Steve Kornacki of Salon, "Goldwater broke through and won five [Southern] states—the best showing in the region for a GOP candidate since Reconstruction. In Mississippi—where Franklin D. Roosevelt had won nearly 100 percent of the vote 28 years earlier—Goldwater claimed a staggering 87 percent."[86] It has frequently been argued that Goldwater's strong performance in Southern states previously regarded as Democratic strongholds foreshadowed a larger shift in electoral trends in the coming decades that would make the South a Republican bastion (an end to the "Solid South")—first in presidential politics and eventually at the congressional and state levels, as well.[87] Also, Goldwater's uncompromising promotion of freedom was the start of a continuing shift in American politics from liberalism to a conservative economic philosophy.[88]

With his fourth Senate term due to end in January 1981, Goldwater seriously considered retiring from the Senate in 1980 before deciding to run for one final term. It was a surprisingly tough battle for re-election. Goldwater was viewed by some as out of touch and vulnerable for several reasons, chiefly because he had planned to retire in 1981, he had not visited many areas of Arizona outside of Phoenix and Tucson. Additionally, his Democrat challenger, Bill Schulz, proved to be a formidable opponent. A former Republican and a wealthy real estate developer, Schultz's campaign slogan was "Energy for the Eighties." Arizona's changing population also hurt Goldwater. The state's population had soared and a huge portion of the electorate had not lived in the state when Goldwater was previously elected; meaning unlike most incumbents, many voters were less familiar with Goldwater's actual beliefs. Goldwater would go on to spend most of the campaign on the defensive. Although he went on to win the general election by a very narrow margin, receiving 49.5% of the vote to Schulz's 48.4%,[95] early returns on election night indicated that Schulz would win. The counting of votes continued through the night and into the next morning. At around daybreak, Goldwater learned that he had been reelected thanks to absentee ballots, which were among the last to be counted.[96]

Goldwater's surprisingly close victory in 1980 came despite Reagan's 61% landslide over Jimmy Carter in Arizona. Despite Goldwater's struggles, in 1980 Republicans were able to pick up 12 senate seats, regaining control of the chamber for the first time since 1955, when Goldwater was in his first term. Goldwater was now in the most powerful position he had ever been in the Senate. In October 1983, Goldwater voted against the legislation establishing Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a federal holiday.[97]

After the new senate convened in January 1981, Goldwater became chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. In this role he had a notable clash with the Reagan administration in April 1984 when he discovered that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had been mining the waters of Nicaragua since February, something that he had first denied when the matter was raised.[98] In a note to the CIA director William Casey, Goldwater denounced what he called an "act of war", saying that "this is no way to run a railroad" as he stated crossly that only Congress had the power to declare war and accused the CIA of illegally mining Nicaraguan waters without the permission of Congress.[98] Goldwater concluded: "The President has asked us to back his foreign policy. Bill, how can we back his foreign policy when we don't know what the hell he is doing? Lebanon, yes, we all knew that he sent troops over there. But mine the harbors in Nicaragua? This is an act violating international law. It is an act of war. For the life of me, I don't see how we are going to explain it."[98] Goldwater felt compelled to issue an apology on the floor of the Senate because the Senate Intelligence Committee had failed in its duties to oversee the CIA as he stated: "I am forced to apologize for the members of my committee because I did not know the facts on this case. And I apologize to all the members of the Senate for the same reason".[99] Goldwater subsequently voted for a Congressional resolution condemning the mining.[98]

In his 1980 Senate reelection campaign, Goldwater won support from religious conservatives but in his final term voted consistently to uphold legalized abortion and in 1981 gave a speech on how he was angry about the bullying of American politicians by religious organizations, and would "fight them every step of the way".[100][101][102] Goldwater also disagreed with the Reagan administration on certain aspects of foreign policy (for example, he opposed the decision to mine Nicaraguan harbors). Notwithstanding his prior differences with Dwight D. Eisenhower, Goldwater in a 1986 interview rated him the best of the seven presidents with whom he had worked.

He introduced the 1984 Cable Franchise Policy and Communications Act, which allowed local governments to require the transmission of public, educational, and government access (PEG) channels, barred cable operators from exercising editorial control over content of programs carried on PEG channels, and absolved them from liability for their content.

On May 12, 1986, Goldwater was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Ronald Reagan.

President Ronald Reagan and Senator Goldwater award retired General Jimmy Doolittle, USAFR, with a fourth star, April 10, 1985

Goldwater visited the small town of Bowen, Illinois, in 1989 to see where his mother was raised.

In response to Moral Majority founder Jerry Falwell's opposition to the nomination of Sandra Day O'Connor to the Supreme Court, of which Falwell had said, "Every good Christian should be concerned", Goldwater retorted: "Every good Christian ought to kick Falwell right in the ass."[103][104] According to John Dean, Goldwater actually suggested that good Christians ought to kick Falwell in the "nuts", but the news media "changed the anatomical reference".[105] Goldwater also had harsh words for his one-time political protégé, President Reagan, particularly after the Iran–Contra Affair became public in 1986. Journalist Robert MacNeil, a friend of Goldwater's from the 1964 presidential campaign, recalled interviewing him in his office shortly afterward. "He was sitting in his office with his hands on his cane... and he said to me, 'Well, aren't you going to ask me about the Iran arms sales?' It had just been announced that the Reagan administration had sold arms to Iran. And I said, 'Well, if I asked you, what would you say?' He said, 'I'd say it's the god-damned stupidest foreign policy blunder this country's ever made!'",[106] although aside from the Iran–Contra scandal, Goldwater thought nonetheless that Reagan was a good president.[107]

Goldwater said later that the close result in 1980 convinced him not to run again.[108] He retired in 1987, serving as chair of the Senate Intelligence and Armed Services Committees in his final term. Despite his reputation as a firebrand in the 1960s, by the end of his career he was considered a stabilizing influence in the Senate, one of the most respected members of either major party. Although Goldwater remained staunchly anti-communist and "hawkish" on military issues, he was a key supporter of the fight for ratification of the Panama Canal Treaty in the 1970s, which would give control of the canal zone to the Republic of Panama. His most important legislative achievement may have been the Goldwater–Nichols Act, which reorganized the U.S. military's senior-command structure.

Although Goldwater was not as important in the American conservative movement as Ronald Reagan after 1965, he shaped and redefined the movement from the late 1950s to 1964. Arizona Senator John McCain, who had succeeded Goldwater in the Senate in 1987, summed up Goldwater's legacy, "He transformed the Republican Party from an Eastern elitist organization to the breeding ground for the election of Ronald Reagan."[114] Columnist George Will remarked after the 1980 presidential election that it took 16 years to count the votes from 1964 and Goldwater won.[115]

The Republican Party recovered from the 1964 election debacle, acquiring 47 seats in the House of Representatives in the 1966 mid-term election. Further Republican successes ensued, including Goldwater's return to the Senate in 1969. In January of that year, Goldwater wrote an article in the National Review "affirming that he [was] not against liberals, that liberals are needed as a counterweight to conservatism, and that he had in mind a fine liberal like Max Lerner".[116]

Goldwater was a strong supporter of environmental protection. He explained his position in 1969:

I feel very definitely that the [Nixon] administration is absolutely correct in cracking down on companies and corporations and municipalities that continue to pollute the nation's air and water. While I am a great believer in the free competitive enterprise system and all that it entails, I am an even stronger believer in the right of our people to live in a clean and pollution-free environment. To this end, it is my belief that when pollution is found, it should be halted at the source, even if this requires stringent government action against important segments of our national economy.[117]

Goldwater was an avid amateur radio operator from the early 1920s onwards, with the call signs 6BPI, K3UIG and K7UGA.[133][134] The last is now used by an Arizona club honoring him as a commemorative call. During the Vietnam War he was a Military Affiliate Radio System (MARS) operator.[135]

Goldwater was a prominent spokesman for amateur radio and its enthusiasts. Beginning in 1969 up to his death he appeared in numerous educational and promotional films (and later videos) about the hobby that were produced for the American Radio Relay League (the United States national society representing the interests of radio amateurs) by such producers as Dave Bell (W6AQ), ARRL Southwest Director John R. Griggs (W6KW), Alan Kaul (W6RCL), Forrest Oden (N6ENV), and the late Roy Neal (K6DUE). His first appearance was in Dave Bell's The World of Amateur Radio where Goldwater discussed the history of the hobby and demonstrated a live contact with Antarctica. His last on-screen appearance dealing with "ham radio" was in 1994, explaining a then-upcoming, Earth-orbiting ham radio relay satellite.

Electronics was a hobby for Goldwater beyond amateur radio. He enjoyed assembling Heathkits,[136] completing more than 100 and often visiting their maker in Benton Harbor, Michigan, to buy more, before the company exited the kit business in 1992.[137]

Most of the kachina dolls at the Heard Museum were donated by Goldwater

In 1916 Goldwater visited the Hopi Reservation with Phoenix architect John Rinker Kibby, and obtained his first kachina doll. Eventually his doll collection included 437 items and was presented in 1969 to the Heard Museum in Phoenix.[138]

Goldwater was an amateur photographer and in his estate left some 15,000 of his images to three Arizona institutions. He was very keen on candid photography. He got started in photography after receiving a camera as a gift from his wife on their first Christmas together. He was known to use a 4×5 Graflex, Rolleiflex, 16 mm Bell and Howell motion picture camera, and 35 mm Nikkormat FT. He was a member of the Royal Photographic Society from 1941 becoming a Life Member in 1948.[139]

For decades, he contributed photographs of his home state to Arizona Highways and was best known for his Western landscapes and pictures of native Americans in the United States. Three books with his photographs are People and Places, from 1967; Barry Goldwater and the Southwest, from 1976; and Delightful Journey, first published in 1940 and reprinted in 1970. Ansel Adams wrote a foreword to the 1976 book.[140]

Goldwater's photography interests occasionally crossed over with his political career. John F. Kennedy, as president, was known to invite former congressional colleagues to the White House for a drink. On one occasion, Goldwater brought his camera and photographed President Kennedy. When Kennedy received the photo, he returned it to Goldwater, with the inscription, "For Barry Goldwater—Whom I urge to follow the career for which he has shown such talent—photography!—from his friend—John Kennedy." This quip became a classic of American political humor after it was made famous by humorist Bennett Cerf. The photo itself was prized by Goldwater for the rest of his life, and recently sold for $17,925 in a Heritage auction.[141]

Son Michael Prescott Goldwater formed the Goldwater Family Foundation with the goal of making his father's photography available via the internet. (Barry Goldwater Photographs) was launched in September 2006 to coincide with the HBO documentary Mr. Conservative, produced by granddaughter CC Goldwater.

On March 28, 1975, Goldwater wrote to Shlomo Arnon: "The subject of UFOs has interested me for some long time. About ten or twelve years ago I made an effort to find out what was in the building at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base where the information has been stored that has been collected by the Air Force, and I was understandably denied this request. It is still classified above Top Secret."[142] Goldwater further wrote that there were rumors the evidence would be released, and that he was "just as anxious to see this material as you are, and I hope we will not have to wait much longer".[142]

The April 25, 1988 issue of The New Yorker carried an interview where Goldwater said he repeatedly asked his friend, General Curtis LeMay, if there was any truth to the rumors that UFO evidence was stored in a secret room at Wright-Patterson, and if he (Goldwater) might have access to the room. According to Goldwater, an angry LeMay gave him "holy hell" and said, "Not only can't you get into it but don't you ever mention it to me again."[143]

In a 1988 interview on Larry King's radio show, Goldwater was asked if he thought the U.S. Government was withholding UFO evidence; he replied "Yes, I do." He added:

I certainly believe in aliens in space. They may not look like us, but I have very strong feelings that they have advanced beyond our mental capabilities... I think some highly secret government UFO investigations are going on that we don't know about—and probably never will unless the Air Force discloses them.[144]

The Goldwater Crypt#64

Goldwater's public appearances ended in late 1996 after he suffered a massive stroke. Family members disclosed he was in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. He died on May 29, 1998, at the age of 89 at his long-time home in Paradise Valley, Arizona, of complications from the stroke.[145] His funeral was co-officiated by both a reverend and a rabbi.[146][147] His ashes were buried at the Episcopal Christ Church of the Ascension in Paradise Valley, Arizona.[148] A memorial statue set in a small park has been erected to honor the memory of Goldwater in that town, near his former home and current resting place.

Barry M. Goldwater Terminal 4 entrance at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport

Barry Goldwater statue in National Statuary Hall in Washington, D.C.

The Barry Goldwater Memorial Park

Among the buildings and monuments named after Barry Goldwater are: the Barry M. Goldwater Terminal at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, Goldwater Memorial Park[149] in Paradise Valley, Arizona, the Barry Goldwater Air Force Academy Visitor Center at the United States Air Force Academy, and Barry Goldwater High School in northern Phoenix. In 2010, former Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods, himself a Goldwater scholar and supporter, founded the Goldwater Women's Tennis Classic Tournament to be held annually at the Phoenix Country Club in Phoenix.[150] On February 11, 2015, a statue of Goldwater by Deborah Copenhaver Fellows was unveiled by U.S. House and Senate leaders at a dedication ceremony in National Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C.[151] Barry Goldwater Peak is the highest peak in the White Tank Mountains.[152]

The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program was established by Congress in 1986.[153] Its goal is to provide a continuing source of highly qualified scientists, mathematicians, and engineers by awarding scholarships to college students who intend to pursue careers in these fields.

The Scholarship is widely considered the most prestigious award in the U.S. conferred upon undergraduates studying the sciences. It is awarded to about 300 students (college sophomores and juniors) nationwide in the amount of $7,500 per academic year (for their senior year, or junior and senior years).[154] It honors Goldwater's keen interest in science and technology.

Goldwater's granddaughter, CC Goldwater, has co-produced with longtime friend and independent film producer Tani L. Cohen a documentary on Goldwater's life, Mr. Conservative: Goldwater on Goldwater, first shown on HBO on September 18, 2006.[155]

In his song "I Shall Be Free No. 10", Bob Dylan refers to Goldwater: "I'm liberal to a degree, I want everybody to be free. But if you think I'll let Barry Goldwater move in next door and marry my daughter, you must think I'm crazy."[156] In the 1965 film The Bedford Incident, the actor Richard Widmark playing the film's antagonist, Captain Eric Finlander of the fictional destroyer USS Bedford, modelled his character's mannerisms and rhetorical style after Goldwater.[157]

• Gallup, George H, ed. (1972), The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion, 1935–1971, 3
• Goldwater, Barry M. with Jack Casserly. Goldwater (Doubleday, 1988), autobiography.
• Hess, Karl (1967), In A Cause That Will Triumph: The Goldwater Campaign and the Future of Conservatism (memoir), OCLC 639505 by Goldwater's speechwriter
• Shadegg, Stephen. What Happened to Goldwater? The Inside Story of the 1964 Republican Campaign (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1965).
• White, F. Clifton. Suite 3505: The Story of the Draft Goldwater Movement (Arlington House, 1967).

• Brennan, Mary C (1995), Turning Right in the Sixties: The Conservative Capture of the GOP, U of North Carolina Press, ISBN 978-0807858646
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• Mann, Robert. Daisy Petals and Mushroom Clouds: LBJ, Barry Goldwater and the Ad That Changed American Politics (Louisiana State UP, 2011).
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• Middendorf, J. William. A Glorious Disaster: Barry Goldwater’s Presidential Campaign and the Origins of the Conservative Movement (Basic Books, 2006).
• Perlstein, Rick (2001), Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus, New York: Hill & Wang, ISBN 978-0-8090-2859-7
• Shepard, Christopher. "A True Jeffersonian: The Western Conservative Principles of Barry Goldwater and His Vote Against the Civil Rights Act of 1964." Journal of the West. 49, no. 1, (2010): 34–40
• Shermer, Elizabeth Tandy (ed.) (2013). Barry Goldwater and the Remaking of the American Political Landscape. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 2013. ISBN 978-0816521098
• Smith, Dean. The Goldwaters of Arizona (1986), includes brief coverage of the parents. ISBN 978-0873583954
• Taylor, Andrew. "Barry Goldwater: insurgent conservatism as constitutive rhetoric." Journal of Political Ideologies 21, no. 3 (2016): 242–60. online
• Taylor, Andrew. "The Oratory of Barry Goldwater." in Republican Orators from Eisenhower to Trump (Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2018). 41–66.
• Tønnessen, Alf Tomas. "Goldwater, Bush, Ryan and the Failed Attempts by Conservative Republicans to Reform Federal Entitlement Programs." American Studies in Scandinavia 47.2 (2015): 47–62 online.
• Thorburn, Wayne. "Barry's Boys and Goldwater Girls: Barry Goldwater and the Mobilization of Young Conservatives in the Early 1960s." Journal of Arizona History 61.1 (2020): 89–107. excerpt
• Whitfield, Stephen (1996). The Culture of the Cold War. Baltimore: JHU Press. ISBN 0801851955.
• White, Theodore (1965), The Making of the President: 1964, ISBN 978-0061900617 online