Independent Lens

Gore Vidal: Revolutionary or Degenerate?

Clip: Season 18 Episode 1 | 1m 25s

This excerpt from the Independent Lens film Best of Enemies takes a closer look at Gore Vidal, iconoclastic writer and intellectual, who was picked to represent the left in debates with right-wing William F. Buckley on ABC News in 1968. While Buckley basically saw Vidal as an evil degenerate, others saw him as revolutionary. Vidal here quotes Thomas Jefferson about the "tree of liberty."

Aired: 10/03/16 | Rating: NR

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• America Split at the Seams

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• Best of Enemies - Trailer

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• "Crypto-Nazi" and Other Insults

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