When news came out last Thursday that Aram Bakshian died after a long illness, the immediate response from his legions of friends was disbelief.
To them, the author, speechwriter to presidents and politicians, and seemingly unmatched raconteur could not die. With his never-empty repertoire of reminiscences, his walrus mustache, unmistakable staccato voice, and a scotch and cigar as his constant companions, he seemed to be the stylish and ever-dashing actor Adolphe Menjou come back to life.
At 78, Bakshian was a confirmed bachelor. When this was noted, friends pointed out that the love of his life was the written and spoken word.
A graduate of George Washington University, Bakshian would spend the rest of his life in the nation's capital and became the archetypal "Washington Insider" embodied in novels by Allen Drury and Fletcher Knebel.
He began by writing speeches for Rep. (and future Sen. and Secretary of Labor) Bill Brock, R-Tenn., and then went on the staff of Kansas Sen. Bob Dole during his years as Republican National Chairman (1971-72).
At 29, Bakshian joined the speechwriting staff of the Nixon White House. Like Pat Buchanan, Bakshian was more conservative than their boss in the Oval Office and was frequently dispatched to deal with Nixon's critics on the right.
"We began criticizing Nixon for the opening to China and wage and price controls, his attempt to federalize welfare, among other things," recalled Allan Ryskind, Capitol Hill editor and co-owner of the national conservative weekly Human Events. "So Aram met with us and growled about what we were doing. But we got along just fine."
Bakshian would stay on as a speech-writer under President Gerald Ford and spent the Carter years writing for the American Spectator and doing a stint at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. He also closed his eight years in Republican Administrations as an adviser to Secretary of the Treasury William Simon.
When Ronald Reagan entered the White House in 1981, he tapped Bakshian for the office of public liaison as special assistant for arts, humanities, education, academia and international affairs. But, in a quicksilver manner, Bakshian secured and held the position of director of speechwriting from 1981-83.
This was, as Paul Kengor recalled in The Spectator, "a crucial period when President Ronald Reagan and top aides like then–National Security Adviser Bill Clark were laying the groundwork to take down the Evil Empire. Bakshian thus played a part in some of the Gipper's most historic speeches, including the 1981 'zero option' speech [in which Reagan offered to cancel U.S. deployments if Moscow would withdraw all SS-20 missiles. The "Zero Option" was the basis of the 1987 INF Treaty that ended all such weapons and was key to the end of the Cold War.]"
Out of government, Bakshian would spend his time writing as editor-in-chief for the American Speaker, a contributor to the Atlantic and the National Interest, and for his old mainstay the American Spectator (at which he styled himself "Chief Saloon Correspondent" and wrote of the Washington watering holes at which he held forth with the famous and not-so-famous). Bakshian always had time to advise and mentor up-and-coming young conservatives.
One of them was Michael Cozzi, a Ph.D. candidate at Catholic University and frequent contributor to Newsmax. In his words, "As a speechwriter for presidents, Aram Bakshian was on the front lines in the cultural war and was their sharpest sword. I will always remember his sagacious wit, his stories, and, most of all, his friendship."
Dinner parties at Bakshian's Washington apartment, at which he served as chef as well as host, were legendary.
"His apartment on Connecticut Avenue was a museum in miniature, reflecting his enthusiasms," Llewellyn King, host of public television's White House Chronicles program, told Newsmax. "Twice a year, Aram cooked for his two celebrated parties, one in the summer and the other at New Year. They were not to be missed and if you went to one, you made sure you were on the list for the next, to be greeted by the smiling host in his cook's apron.
"Aram Bakshian stood tall: physically tall, and tall in intellect and friendship. He towered over the bar at the National Press Club and, later, the one at the Cosmos Club — though as often as not, his tipple was soda water and Angostura bitters — and his interests and subjects he wrote about ranged from conservative political thought to jazz and history, and especially the history of his ancestral Armenia and the South Caucasus."
King spoke for many when he said Bakshian's passing was "like the falling of a great redwood, gone, and irreplaceable."
So did John Florescu, longtime producer for the late David Frost, when he told Newsmax, "The Good Lord was merciless when, in short order, He took from us Mikhail Gorbachev, Queen Elizabeth, and the Honorable Aram."
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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