Playwright. Journalist. Ambassador. Congresswoman. Which is the real Clare Boothe Luce?
The question obviously throws a lot of people. When I was speaking before a college audience on one occasion, I was introduced by the young man on the platform as "that well-known author of Little Women." A lot of them laughed, but what upset me was that a lot of them didn't laugh.
What is the greatest misconception about you?
People think I'm tough and that I've always known what I want. I wish that were true, or I would have done much better in my life. Instead of being all over the lot, I should have stuck to one thing—writing. Politics ruins creative talent.
Why?
Because it has so little to do with truth. That's not only my feeling. Socrates had the same idea a couple of thousand years ago. Politics is the art of the possible; it has far more to do with compromise than anything else. I've seen a whole generation of writers ruined by politics. Take Norman Mailer, for example. He wrote one good book, The Naked and the Dead, and then he got involved in politics. Sherwood Anderson, Marc Connelly—all ended their creative lives this way.
What is your greatest strength?
Nervous energy. It's in the genes, so I can't take credit for it. I've done everything I can to wreck it. I'm lazy, procrastinating. I never know what to do.
Are you ambitious?
I've never been very ambitious. The minute I was any good at something, I tended to quit it and go on to something else. I wasn't bored—I was just insatiably curious.
How did marrying Henry Luce alter the course of your life?
He changed me enormously simply by marrying me. Women marry their husbands' lives, not vice versa. Whenever there was a conflict of interests, his prevailed. In every marriage there are two marriages—his and hers. His is better.
What was your relation with Time Inc.?
For one thing, I took plenty of socks on the chin from people who disliked Harry Luce. I have a TIME portrait of me by Boris Chaliapin. Three times it was supposed to go on the cover but Harry decided at the last minute to yank it off. He thought it would look like he was using the magazine to build me up. So I was never on the cover of TIME or LIFE.
What do you think of the press now?
It's the strongest branch of government, but it leaves much to be desired. The press is terribly biased on the liberal Democratic side, and everybody knows it. On the other hand, the same bias existed in favor of the Republicans in the 1920s, 1930s and 1950s. So it's turn and turn about. It's exasperating, but as Harry used to say, objective journalism is totally impossible. What you've got to do is find the side of the angels and stay on it.
Why is it these days that you have so many liberal friends?
Because they have all the interesting jobs these days. Bill Buckley and I are two so-called conservatives in a sea of liberal pals.
Of all the great people you have known, whom do you admire the most?
Churchill would head the list. Eisenhower was the right man for the time, though he will be remembered as a general. Franklin Roosevelt and I had our differences, but in retrospect he was a very great President. He was as great a public liar as Richard Nixon, but thank God Roosevelt lied! All the time he was telling Americans he would never send their sons to war, he was helping the British and getting ready to enter World War II. He even told Churchill that Congress would impeach him if it ever got out. I was very critical of him at one time, but all his lies were in the interest of the U.S. I owe him an apology.
What makes a great man or woman?
Churchill once asked me the same question, and when I finished giving him my lengthy answer, he said, "You left out the most important ingredient of greatness—luck." As I told Jack Kennedy in the White House during the Cuban missile crisis, a great man is one sentence. History doesn't have time for more than one sentence. You don't even have to know the person's name. Example: "He died on the cross to save us." Or, "He set out on a passage to the Old World and found the New." Events make greatness. Events brought out a flaw in Richard Nixon that might never have come out in other circumstances.
As a long-time friend of Nixon, what do you think of him now?
I think he was very stupid. He should have chucked all those Watergate people out. What was inexcusable was standing in front of the television camera and lying, lying, lying. But I don't share the demonology of the left. I do think a double standard was applied to Nixon. After all, Lyndon Johnson went into Congress with a $10,000 salary and when he left he and his wife were millionaires. Very little was made of that.
Whom have you changed your mind about over the years?
A funny thing is happening to me. I tend to like people I used to despise. One man I disliked intensely for years—Hubert Humphrey—is a man I'm very fond of now. Hubert is a cute, dear, cozy old character to me now. We don't agree, but so what? H.L. Mencken told me once that he answered all his mail—pleasant and unpleasant—with just one line: "You may be right." That's the way I feel now. It is in the realm of possibility—just barely—that I could be the one who's wrong.
How about your old enemy Harry Truman?
He picked on me more than I picked on him. About 10 years ago I did a story for a magazine saying that Harry Truman was the greatest President of my lifetime. I got a letter saying, "Dear Mrs. Luce: I read your article three times—first because it was about myself, secondly because you wrote it and thirdly because I couldn't believe you wrote it. Sincerely, Harry Truman."
What do you think of Jimmy Carter?
I applaud him for recognizing the two great needs of our country: physical energy, such as oil, and spiritual energy. I'm altogether for his strong stand on human rights.
As a former diplomat, how do you rate U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young?
I have an uneasy feeling that all Young's comments about racism will lead to a bloodbath in South Africa and Rhodesia. Obviously President Carter is inexperienced in the conduct of foreign affairs. We're in the business of training another President.
What is your assessment of the state of women in America?
The women's liberation movement has encountered some bad times. But women go as fast as they want to. It's absurd not to acknowledge how many are quite content to be wives and mothers.
Are some feminists a bit too strident?
All a woman has to do is make a point forcefully and she is instantly called shrill or strident. By the way, Bella Abzug is a dear friend. She is energetic and rather cozy—far more attractive a woman than you might think. I think she is a gutsy dame—just great!
Do you support the Equal Rights Amendment?
My first job was working for Alice Paul's Women's National Party in 1923. I've been for ERA for 54 years!
What do you think about the gay rights movement?
I have a great many homosexual friends, and I feel very sorry for them. Homosexuals are against nature, but they are also in nature. On balance I really don't think publicizing their condition will make homosexuals any happier.
Do you have any regrets?
Yes, I should have been a better person. Kinder, more tolerant. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and I remember there was a girlhood friend of mine who had a brain tumor and called me three times to come and see her. I was always too busy, and when she died I was profoundly ashamed. I remember that after 56 years.
Within a nine-year period, your mother was killed when her car was hit by a train, your only daughter died in an auto wreck—after which you converted to Catholicism—and your brother was lost in a plane crash. Have you ever felt star-crossed?
Like Rose Kennedy, I've had my share of sorrows. But never more than I could bear.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
